Chapter Seven #3
“Because I want to decorate the car before they get back from their honeymoon.” With a laugh, she dashed away.
Amanda was halfway down the hall on the second floor when the creak of a board overhead had her stopping.
Tuned to the moans and groans of the old house, she frowned.
Footsteps, she realized. Definitely footsteps.
Wondering if one of the wedding guests had decided to take an impromptu tour, she started back toward the stairway.
On the third-floor landing, she spotted Fred, curled up and sleeping.
“Fine watchdog,” she muttered, bending down to shake him.
He only rolled over with a groggy snore.
“Fred?” Alarmed, she shook him again, but instead of bouncing up, ready to play, he lay still.
When she picked him up, his head lolled onto her hand.
Even as she gathered him up, someone shoved her from behind and sent her headfirst into the wall.
Stunned and sprawled on the dog, she struggled up to her knees.
Someone was running down the stairs. With the wrath of the Calhouns filling her, she jumped up, Fred tucked under her arm like a furry football, and gave chase.
She turned sharply on the second-floor landing, ears straining.
On an oath she headed down to the main floor, heels clattering on wood.
Sloan caught her as she stumbled on the last step.
“Whoa. What’s the hurry?” Grinning, he scanned her tumbled hair and the spray of baby’s breath now hanging to her shoulder. “What did you do, Calhoun, trip over the dog?”
“Did you see him?” she demanded, and broke out of Sloan’s hold to rush to the door.
“See who?”
“There was somebody upstairs.” Her heart was pumping fast and hard. She hadn’t noticed it before. Or the fact that her legs were shaky. “Someone was sneaking around on the third floor. I don’t know what they did to Fred.”
“Hold on.” Gently now, he guided her back to the stairs and eased her down. “Let’s have a look.” He took the dog, then pulling up an eyelid, swore. When he looked back at Amanda, there was a flat grimness in his eyes she’d never seen before. “Somebody drugged him.”
“Drugged him?” Amanda gathered Fred back to her breast. “Who would drug a poor little dog?”
“Someone who didn’t want him to bark, I imagine. Tell me what happened.”
“I heard someone on the third floor and went up to see. I found Fred, just lying there.” She nuzzled the puppy. “When I started to pick him up, someone pushed me into the wall.”
“Are you hurt?” His hands were instantly on her face.
“No.” She let out a disgusted breath. “If it hadn’t stunned me for a minute, I would have caught him.”
Eyes narrowed, Sloan sat back on his heels. “Didn’t it occur to you to call for help?”
“No.” The baby’s breath was tickling her shoulder, so she pulled it away.
“Idiot.”
“Look, O’Riley, nobody’s going to poke around in my house, and hurt my dog and get away with it. If he hadn’t had a start on me, I’d have caught him.”
“And then what?” he demanded. “God Almighty, Amanda, don’t you realize he would have given you more than a push?”
Actually she hadn’t thought of it. But that didn’t change the bottom line.
“I can take care of myself. It’s bad enough when people come to the door, or sneak around the grounds, but when they start breaking into the house, they’re going to answer for it.
” She gave a nod of satisfaction as she rose.
“I scared him good, anyway. The way he was running, he’s halfway to the village by now.
I don’t think he’ll be coming back. What about Fred? ”
“I’ll take care of him.” He took the sleeping puppy from her. “He just needs to sleep it off. And you need to call the police.”
“After the wedding.” She shook her head before he could object.
“I’m not spoiling this for C.C. and Trent just because some jerk decided to do some treasure hunting.
What I will do is check the third floor and see if anything’s missing.
Then I’m going to go back out and make sure everything runs smoothly until it’s time to throw rice at the bride and groom. After that, I’ll call the police.”
“Got it all figured out, nice and tidy, as usual.” The hot edge of his temper seeped into his voice. “Things don’t always work that way.”
“I’ll make it work.”
“Sure you will. Can’t have something like attempted robbery and a little assault mess up all your short-term plans. Just like you can’t have someone like me messing up your long-term ones.”
“I don’t see what you’re so upset about.”
“You wouldn’t,” he said tightly. “You hear somebody in the house where they shouldn’t be, get hit in the head, but you don’t even think about calling for me. You don’t think about asking somebody for help, not even when that somebody’s in love with you.”
The tightness in her chest returned, making her voice clipped. “I was just doing what I had to do.”
“Yeah,” he agreed with a slow nod. “You go ahead and do what you have to do now. I’ll get out of your way.”