Chapter One #2
“Yes, I’m fine,” she snapped, then turned to stare down the now empty street. “But that bastard stole my camera.” She took off in a half-hearted dash in the direction the thief had been running.
“No.” A hand landed on her shoulder, and she came to an abrupt standstill.
“You wait here; I’ll see if I can find him.
” His deep voice held such an air of authority that Summer found her feet coming to an automatic halt, and then she watched him jog smoothly away down the street, her mouth opening and closing like a goldfish, unable to come up with a retort.
Who did he think he was, ordering her to stay as if she were a trained show dog?
She was of half a mind to follow him. But the gap between her and the stranger was widening quickly as his tall form flitted between the intermittent pools of light cast by the street lamps, and she knew that even on her swift feet, she wouldn’t be able to catch him now.
She’d have to come to terms with the fact that the thief and her camera were long gone.
Retracing her steps, she retreated to the well-lit area in front of her building to stand and wait, on the slight chance the stranger might return with her precious possession.
If he wasn’t some kind of accomplice, that was.
The sudden thought jolted her, and she backed up against the glass door, welcoming its solid feel against her spine, head swiveling at every real and imagined noise.
That man could’ve been standing guard on the street, waiting for his thieving friend to appear, and now he’d gone off to join him, both of them laughing at her gullibility.
Maybe that’s why he hadn’t stopped the burglar, and instead stepped in to slow her down.
Blast, she was a pea-brain. Now, as she digested the ramifications of what she’d just done, her hands began to shake.
What the hell had she been thinking? She’d chased a felon out into the street.
Would’ve kept chasing him if that big lug hadn’t got in her way.
It would’ve been her alone, running down the deserted roadway after an intruder, perhaps with another criminal hard on her tail.
What a stupid, stupid thing to do. She’d acted on instinct, white-hot anger driving her on.
But now… In the light of her adrenaline withdrawal, she could see how foolish she’d been.
Not even her Nikon was worth putting herself in that kind of danger.
Summer startled and almost let out a scream as the tall stranger materialized out of the darkness by her side.
Blast, where had he come from? She’d been so caught up in her own self-recriminations, she’d forgotten to keep watch.
Either that, or he was good at moving quietly.
She shrank away from him, toward the safety of the doorway, her fingers already reaching for the access panel.
“Sorry, I could find no sign of the man who stole your camera.” He had a strong accent that she couldn’t place, with a stilted way of speaking.
Summer lowered her hand from the keypad, tilting her head to look up into his face, and was arrested by the strange color of his eyes.
They were so light blue; they were almost silver.
A tad disconcerting. Together with the prominent touches of gray at his temples and forehead in his otherwise dark hair, it made a compelling combination.
Her friend Bianca might’ve called him a silver fox, but then he surely wasn’t old enough to fit that category.
He looked to be Summer’s age, perhaps a few years her senior.
His mouth tilted down as a concerned frown hovered on his brow.
He didn’t strike her as a criminal, but that meant nothing; she was often a poor judge of character.
He was smartly dressed in dark blue jeans, black trainers, and a simple black T-shirt that stretched over impressive biceps.
Now that she took the time to study him, the rest of him was impressive as well.
Tall, with lean hips and broad shoulders.
“Are you okay?” he asked again as he leaned in to search her face for signs of shock or hurt.
But she tilted away, and replied curtly, “Of course I am. I’m just pissed that guy got away with my camera. And he trashed my apartment,” she added with a sour grimace.
The man’s features hardened. “You need to call the police.”
“I left my phone upstairs,” she responded, not letting on that she didn’t really want the law involved. In her experience, they weren’t to be trusted and were next to useless when it came to tracking down the perpetrators of a crime.
He pulled a cell from his back pocket. “What is the number you American’s use? 911, is that it?”
“Wait, no…” she grunted in surprise but was too late; he was already making the call.
“My name is M?rten, by the way,” he said as he handed the phone over and she took it from him reluctantly.
“I’m a police officer from Sweden,” he added just as a tinny voice asked what her emergency was.
So that’s why he’d been so keen to chase down the thief, and then report the theft.
It would be second nature to a cop; he was just following procedure.
She eyed him suspiciously as she spoke into the cell, wondering what he was doing so far from home, and his reasons for standing out the front of her building at that time of night.
After Summer had related the robbery and ransacking of her apartment, and been told a unit would be there soon, she handed him back his phone, strangely tongue-tied.
A stab of shame coursed through her when she remembered she’d thought he might be connected to the lowlife who’d robbed her, when he’d genuinely been trying to help.
But now that she knew he was in law enforcement, she still couldn’t bring herself to regard him with anything more than a flawed distrust.
“Umm, thank you,” she said, then stared up at him, unsure what to do next. Annoyingly, her hands continued to shake, and she tucked them into the pockets of her leather jacket, hoping he hadn’t seen.
“I think I should wait with you until the police arrive,” M?rten said as he replaced his cell in his back pocket.
Damn, maybe she hadn’t been as good at hiding how rattled she was as she’d hoped. Summer bit her lip, then shook her head and opened her mouth to speak, but he interrupted before she could decline his offer.
“Break-ins like this can be quite shocking. I know; I deal with the victims of crime all the time. You should have someone with you when you return to your apartment. Trust me.”
She hesitated. Oh, she knew exactly how it felt to be the victim of a violent crime.
And this was nothing compared to what she’d experienced back when she was seventeen.
But she wasn’t about to tell him her life story.
However, now that she thought about it, the idea of facing her wrecked apartment by herself was a little daunting.
Perhaps having someone with her, even if it was a stranger—a foreigner and a cop moreover—might be better than the alternative.
An officer of the law would be used to dealing with these kinds of situations.
And although she didn’t trust most cops, he did seem to be sincerely concerned.
“It’s the least I can do, seeing as how I stopped you from catching your thief,” he said with a lopsided half-grin.
Summer considered him for a few seconds before deciding.
“Thank you, that would be nice. My name is Summer, by the way,” she added, before ducking her head and pushing open the doors, leading him upstairs, her need for moral support overcoming her need to keep this handsome stranger at arm’s length.
She just hoped she was making the right choice.