Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
The police were at her house for another half hour, taking a statement, investigating the scene, reviewing the video footage from the cameras Seth had installed. Callie felt like she existed in a dream state as she walked around the house, looking at the destruction, and listening to the police’s questions.
Nikki was safe in Lexington, ensconced in a Hampton Inn with Lisa and the girls. Seth informed her that Alex’s FBI contact had an eye on them and wouldn’t stop surveilling until told otherwise.
That made her breathe a little easier.
After the police were gone, Callie thought that Seth’s friends would go, too. They did not. They started to help clean the disaster that was her house.
Tears stung her eyes as she swept up stuffing from the couch and chairs and tried to imagine what in the hell Mikhail had thought she had. What he’d told people she had. Because he must have, right? Why else would they think she did?
Ten minutes after the police were gone, a car drove up. Doors shut and female voices drifted to her ears on the night air. Daphne came inside with Luna, whose tail thumped when she saw Callie. Daphne let her leash go and Luna trotted over to wriggle at Callie’s feet.
“Oh my goodness, who’s a good doggie?” Callie asked, squatting to scratch the proffered belly and thinking what a contradiction this sweet dog was. A gentle soul wrapped in a deceptively intimidating package. Callie hadn’t wanted a dog, or so she’d thought, but the minute she’d seen Luna in her suite at the kennel, she’d felt a connection. Thankfully she’d agreed to a trial period, but there was little doubt she planned to adopt Luna. There’d always been little doubt, which Betty had known. Crafty woman, getting her to take Luna with her for a trial.
Dr. Emma Sutton walked in behind Daphne. Blaze Connolly stopped what he was doing and went over to kiss her like she was the most precious thing he’d ever seen in his life. When the kiss ended, he looped an arm around her waist and seemed reluctant to let go. She whispered something in his ear and he kissed her temple and released her.
“She was such a good girl,” Daphne said. “Anytime you need a dog sitter, you can call me.”
“Thank you so much. I’m just glad she wasn’t here.”
Daphne looked around. “Me too. And I’m sorry this happened. Emma and I are here to help.”
Emma walked over and stood beside Daphne. “Yes, we are. Rory wanted to come, but it’s Friday night at the Dawg. She’s a little busy.”
Chance grumbled something under his breath.
Emma heard because she snorted. “She’s not going to stop, and you should be glad. Rory is healthy and full of sass, like always. If you made her stop moving, she’d topple over like a top that’s lost momentum. Also, she said to tell you if you don’t stop hanging over her like a mother hen, she’s going to glue all your shoes to the floor so you can’t follow her out the door and then she’s going to put your underwear in the chicken coop so they can crap or lay eggs, whichever they prefer. Which, to be clear, I said eww, Rory, to that one. She remained determined.”
“Dude, don’t piss off your woman,” Blaze said. If smug had a face, his was it at the moment. “Give her what she wants and don’t argue.”
Emma elbowed Blaze as he came to stand beside her. “Like you never argue with me.”
“Barely. Take this morning, for instance, when you said you had to get up and get ready for work. And I very reasonably said you can never have too many org?—”
Emma’s hand popped over Blaze’s mouth as her cheeks turned crimson. Callie could tell that Blaze was laughing behind that hand.
“Hush up, big boy. No examples required.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said when she removed her hand. But he was still grinning. Then he winked.
Emma turned and pasted a smile on her face as she looked at everyone watching the two of them. “Carry on. Nothing to see here. As you were. Etcetera.”
“As you were, huh?” Kane said. “Blaze teaching you the military lingo?”
Emma beamed. “A little bit. Did I use it right?”
“You absolutely did. Good job.”
Emma and Daphne conferred with Seth and then went to Nikki’s bedroom to start working there. Callie’s heart squeezed. Her sister’s photos had been ripped down, her bed given the same treatment as Callie’s. Her room wasn’t quite as destroyed, probably because it was at the back of the house and the two men would have been conscious of the time and how close the police were getting.
But it still needed cleaning, and Callie was going to have some explaining to do when Nikki got home.
Daphne emerged from the hallway to get a roll of paper towels and nearly bumped into Kane, who put his hands on her shoulders to steady her.
Daphne looked up, her eyes wide. Kane looked down at her. They seemed locked in a staring contest, but then Daphne stepped backward and broke the contact.
Interesting.
Of everyone there, those two were the most awkward around each other. Since Daphne had walked in, she’d only made eye contact with him once when she’d said hello and again now. He stared at her when he thought nobody was looking at him, then jerked his gaze away if anyone so much as glanced at him.
It was almost like they’d had a fling and everything was strained now. Or one of them wanted a fling—or they both did—but neither could figure out how to go about it. Callie made a mental note to ask Seth later. Not that it was any of her business, but it was something to talk about that wasn’t about her or Mikhail or this mythological thing she had that somebody would want to steal.
By eleven-thirty, the house was tidy again. All the stuffing and feathers were picked up and stuffed in trash bags or back inside the cushions, if it was manageable, and the stuffing was clean. Broken glass had been removed and the floors vacuumed. Photos were retrieved and put back into frames without glass. The broken dishes in the kitchen were swept up and tossed, and the floors were swept and mopped.
The bedrooms were habitable. Sheets were returned to mattresses, papers gathered and neatened or thrown out. Callie’s pretty bedroom wasn’t as pretty as it had been. It felt dirty. Spoiled, despite the work she and the other ladies had done to return it to the way it was.
Her dried flowers were destroyed, the silk ones ripped off the stems. The lace she’d draped over her lampshade was shredded. Her mother’s silk slipper chair, the one piece of furniture she’d managed to keep, had been sliced open, the delicate pink silk gaping to show springs and cotton.
Her journals were a mess, but she’d gathered all the pages and put them into a box. She’d salvage what she could when she had the time. That was the important thing.
If she lost a bunch of book reviews or journal entries, so what? But it hurt anyway. Working in her journal had always given her a place of calm, a few minutes to collect her thoughts and create something pretty. She could still do that, and she could salvage what the intruders had ripped apart. She’d lost her parents and her life had turned upside down. This was minor in comparison, though it felt like they’d ripped into her soul when they’d violated her things.
After Callie thanked everyone profusely and they all said their goodbyes, Seth went outside to see them off. Callie slumped on the couch that was no longer as firm as before, Luna hopping up beside her as she listened to car doors slam and engines roar to life. Then they were gone, and Seth strode back inside with his backpack, which she knew held his laptop, a bigger bag that looked like a gym bag, and a long case slung across his back. It took her a moment to realize it was a rifle case.
Her heart thumped. “What’s in there?”
He set it on the floor. “AR-15. Perfectly legal. Though we’ve got a 50-cal at the range. Unfortunately, I’d blow out a wall as well as a bad guy if I used it inside the house. And probably a cow or two a couple of miles away if they were unlucky enough to be in the path. But believe me, I want to. Not the cows, the bad guys.”
She didn’t know if he was joking or not and she was too tired to ask questions about a gun. “You were smart to take your computer with you.”
Hers was gone. If the thieves could get inside, which they probably couldn’t, they wouldn’t find anything on it except a bunch of media and harmless programming work. Video games, books, movies, YouTube videos about scrapbooking and journaling. She always closed her internet browser and cleared the information. She doubted they’d get inside. She wasn’t entirely stupid on that score. She encrypted everything, not because she was a hacker, but because she was enough of a programmer to understand what hackers could do.
Seth had seemed worried when she’d said it was missing, but she’d assured him she did nothing on it but watch things that interested her and surf social media. Any programming she did was for personal reasons to keep her skills up. There was nothing secret on her computer.
Some of the worry had eased from his expression when she said that.
“I don’t tend to leave it in one place,” Seth said. “Old habit. If I’m headed out for a few hours, I take it.”
“You aren’t worried somebody would steal your truck and it’d be gone?”
“Nope. I’ve got a kill switch. Or have you forgotten?”
“That’s right, you did threaten me if I drove away in your truck.”
“Not a threat, honey. A promise.”
“Makes me wonder if there was an epidemic of people driving away in your truck. Maybe because you exasperated them with your grumpy attitude and no-small-talk policy?”
He arched an eyebrow. “Who’s the funny girl tonight, huh?”
Callie rubbed Luna’s ears as the dog lay her head on Callie’s lap. “It’s that or cry, Mr. King.”
His expression softened. “I know, baby. It’s a bitch what they did, and I’m pissed I never considered it. Could have left one of the guys here and the rest of us could have gone to Bridge Street. We were so focused on who was going to show up at the meeting that we didn’t think about what else they might do.”
“There was no reason for it. That’s what I don’t understand. I don’t take files to work, and I don’t bring files home. And even if I did take something with me, like my computer, I can’t take it into the secure area. It would stay in the employee locker room. I suppose I could sneak a memory stick in, but a download would be logged. Even if I erased the record, it’s not really gone. All activity is in the log, which gets checked by the supervisor, usually Dr. Robbins. Sometimes security does random checks. It’s not as simple as walking in and stealing information then walking out again.”
“They don’t know that,” he said. “And even if they did, they wouldn’t believe it.”
Her throat ached. It was part anger and frustrated tears, part of the smoke inhalation that still crept up on her and made her cough sometimes. “I wish I’d never taken this job.”
“I understand. But you did, and we’re gonna deal with the situation you’re in now.”
Callie looked down at Luna and shivered. Why had she been so stubborn about staying tonight? All that bravado and sass about not leaving her home, and now she really wanted to be anywhere but there.
She could tell him. He’d take her away and they could stay in the Wheeler Inn in town, or they could drive to Madison and get rooms at one of the hotels near the airport.
But admitting it felt like admitting defeat. She’d said she was staying, and now she had to. But not in her room. Not tonight.
“You look tired,” Seth said, coming over to hover above her like a guardian angel. A dark, handsome guardian angel with a serious scowl.
“I am tired. I don’t want to stay in my room tonight. I’ll sleep on the couch.”
“Can’t let you do that, Callie.”
“Why not?”
He swept an arm toward the front door, then the windows, and back to the kitchen and back door. “I want more walls between you and the doors. So either I sleep on the floor to protect you, which isn’t my favorite choice though I will, or you go to your bedroom and I’ll be across the hall with my door open, ready to move if necessary.”
She stared up at him. “You really do think of everything, don’t you?”
“Not everything, or those fuckers wouldn’t have gotten in. But I think tactically, and my tactics tell me you’ve got to be in a more defensible position.”
A tendril of panic uncurled in her belly. “I don’t want to stay in my room. It feels wrong in there. I can’t do it.”
He dropped to his knees in front of her, caressed her cheek softly. “Okay, sweetheart. You don’t have to sleep in your room if you don’t want to. Do you think you can stay in mine?”
Heat flooded her belly. “I…”
“I don’t mean I’ll be in bed with you. I’ll take the couch. I’m still between you and intruders that way.”
Now why did disappointment flare in her brain? This was not the time to be thinking about sharing a bed with Seth. She was in serious trouble. She didn’t have time for her mind to stray to topics like attraction and whether or not he felt it too. He clearly didn’t. He’d kissed her earlier to distract her, no other reason.
Same with the things he’d said about imagining his tongue in other places.
“I don’t want to take your bed.”
“Technically it’s your bed, don’t you think? I’ll be fine. You and Luna take the bed. I’ll be out here, protecting you both.”
“Okay, I’ll try.”
He held out a hand and she took it. He pulled her to her feet, but he didn’t let go right away. She felt safe with his hand on hers. She didn’t want that feeling to end, but it would as soon as he let go.
She prayed he wouldn’t let go.
But he did. “Go to bed, Callie. I won’t let anyone hurt you. You’re safe with me.”
She wanted to ask him to go with her, to lay down beside her and not let go, but that was far more than he’d signed on to do. She told herself to move, to walk away, but her body wouldn’t obey.
“Go,” Seth said softly, as if he knew.
She did.