The Forgotten One (The Heirs #2)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Max had waited until the two of them were in the rental car headed back to the hotel before he told Sarah what had happened.

“Someone broke into my house. We need to get back to California.”

His delivery of the information was factual and cold.

A pattern she was starting to expect from him when it came to anything challenging.

Sarah had pressed him for details.

Max didn’t have any.

At the hotel, they showered, packed, and had a car take them to the airport.

Max called Chase, but Sarah didn’t hear their conversation. Max simply told her that Chase would meet them at the airport.

His mind was turning.

Sarah could see the wheels a mile away.

And he was quiet.

Too quiet.

The reporter in her wanted to ask a dozen questions.

The woman who’d just made love to the man the night before wanted him to open up and express what was going on in his head.

Sarah didn’t ask the questions and didn’t press for anything emotional.

She stayed silent, which she had to admit was one of the hardest things she’d ever done.

Four hours after they left Miss Abigale’s home, they were landing in Lancaster.

Chase met them.

“Do we know anything?” Chase asked Max once they were on the road to Max’s home.

“Just that someone broke in, messed the place up, and took a couple things.”

“The police?”

“They haven’t been called. Didn’t want the media to beat us to the house.”

The reporters would swarm this story.

Sarah stayed silent.

“I guess there’s some good in having them around,” Chase said. His eyes caught Sarah’s in the rearview mirror. “You’re good twenty-four seven, the others ... not so much.”

Max looked over his shoulder and offered her a smile.

Sarah had only seen the outside of Max’s house because of the media coverage.

The home didn’t match the man. Maybe because she’d only seen Max in mansions, private planes, hotels, and Miss Abigale’s, but this place simply didn’t fit.

Chase pulled into the driveway and cut the lights.

Max jumped out of the front seat and offered a hand for Sarah to climb out of the truck.

She took that opportunity to slip her hand into his.

He looked her in the eye and squeezed.

Good, she thought. He wasn’t pulling away.

Sarah let his hand go long enough for him to unlock the door and then captured his arm again before he opened the door wide.

It was Sarah who gasped.

“Holy shit,” Chase whispered behind her.

Max walked in without a word and started to pull away.

Sarah held on tighter.

He turned, lifted her hand to his lips, kissed it, and then detached from her grip.

The living room held all the things it should, but none of it was in a normal place. Cushions from the sofa were upturned; the coffee table had its legs up in the air. Any container that held anything was tossed aside and the contents thrown about the room.

Sarah tiptoed in, careful not to step on any of Max’s belongings.

“It seems like they were looking for something,” Sarah said.

“All the money I just inherited.”

Chase closed the door behind them. “Did you have any here?”

Max shook his head. “They couldn’t have gotten much. Even my TV was old.”

Sarah looked around. “What TV?”

Max pointed to an empty TV cabinet.

Air escaped her lungs with a simple “Oh.”

He walked around his kitchen slowly. The drawers were opened, overturned. He suddenly stopped moving and cussed under his breath. Then walked across the room with purpose before swinging another door open. “Son of a bitch!”

She came to his side.

The door he opened was to his garage.

His empty garage.

“They stole my fucking truck.”

“I’m calling the police,” Chase said on a sigh.

Sarah and Max explored the small home while they waited for the authorities to come.

Not only did the thieves make off with Max’s brand-new truck, but they did it without even needing to hotwire the thing.

A second set of keys had been shoved in a kitchen junk drawer and were now missing.

The living room TV was gone, along with Max’s computer and the clothes that he hadn’t yet taken the tags off.

The police took a report. From the last time the home was seen intact to the phone call from Tucker, the police concluded that the truck was already in Mexico or painted, wrapped, or otherwise disguised by now.

They gave Max little to no hope of anything being recovered.

Because his computer would be filled with sensitive information, they suggested staying on high alert for identity theft; notifying his banks; and changing all passwords, codes ... et cetera.

They wanted Tucker’s statement.

Max told the police he would rather keep the kid out of it. It sounded like he had it hard enough at home and didn’t want to compound the problem with Max’s issues.

The police advised against it, said most of the time, the victims know their perpetrators, and Tucker would be on the list of possible thieves since he knew Max was gone.

“Not this kid,” Max had told them. “I know the type. Tucker isn’t it.”

In the end, the police left, saying they’d call if anything came up.

As the police drove away, Sarah stared after them and said, “Anyone wanna lay bets on if they find anything?”

“It was probably a waste of time to involve them,” Max said as they funneled inside.

“Criminals are dumb. They come back, hit the same place twice. Miss the hidden cameras the homeowner put in after the first hit. If they come back, the police report helps.”

Max looked at her. “Little Miss Lois Lane knows the profile of criminals.”

Sarah smiled. “Occupational hazard.”

Chase blew out a breath. “Is there anything I can do here?”

Max shook his head. “Instead of putting all this back together, I’ll grab some boxes tomorrow and start packing.”

“You’re moving?” Sarah asked.

“I can’t stay here. The news put me on the map and pegged me as someone with money. That’s too much of a temptation in neighborhoods like this.”

“Where will you go?”

He shrugged. “No idea.”

“Stay at the estate,” Chase told him. “At least until you have something else figured out. Or forever. Alex and I aren’t going to live there.”

“Maybe.”

Chase patted Max on the back. “If there’s nothing else I can do, I’m going to head home.”

Max nodded. “Thanks for coming.”

Sarah realized that aside from moral support, there wasn’t much of a need for Chase to have made the drive.

She was about to offer Chase a hug goodbye when Max pulled her aside while Chase stepped out the front door.

“I asked Chase to take you home,” Max told her.

“What? Why?”

“For exactly what you said earlier. If they come back, I don’t want you in the crosshairs.”

Her shoulders slumped. “I’m capable of—”

“I know you are.” Max reached out and ran a thumb over her still-bruised face. “I’m not. If someone tries something like this again, they’re going to be very unhappy.”

Sarah accepted the chivalry and would have continued to argue but saw the resolve in Max’s composure.

“What about your mother?” she asked.

“We’ll get back to her later. We can do some groundwork with what we learned. I’ll make some phone calls, retrieve the social service files, and attempt to find the case files from when she disappeared.”

“Let me help with that. You’ll have your hands full here. I’m going to milk my time off and need something to do,” Sarah said.

Max dropped his hand to his side. “Okay. I appreciate it.”

He pulled her close.

Sarah wrapped her arms around his waist. “I’d say thank you for the good time,” she started. “But I have calluses on my hands and bruises on my knees to match my face from kneeling in the dirt for the last two days.”

Max laughed. A sound she hadn’t heard since he received the phone call from Tucker. “I promise the next time I take you away for a couple of days not to make you do yard work.”

“I volunteered.”

“You did.”

She wasn’t ready to say goodbye. “Max, can I ask something of you?”

He narrowed his eyes. “You can always ask.”

“Don’t shut me out. I mean, if we’re more than a weekend.” Sarah suddenly felt like a teenage girl trying to put a label on their relationship. “Are we more than a weekend?”

She squeezed her eyes shut. “Never mind. Forget I said that.”

Max put a finger under her chin so that she looked at him. “I will try, and yes ... we are. If you’re offering more.”

Sarah tilted her head, lifted her lips to his. “I’m offering.”

Max took the hint and kissed her softly once ... twice. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”