Chapter 23
“I got a joke,” Livie said. “Tyler told me it.”
Cooper set his fork down and gave his attention to his daughter. “Hit me with it.”
She frowned. “I don’t want to hit you.”
He chuckled. “That just means tell it to me.” He needed to learn to think how what he said would be interpreted by a child.
“Oh. Okay. What has hands but doesn’t clap?”
A clock. “I give up. What?”
“A clock.” She giggled. “Get it?”
“That’s a good one, Princess.”
“I know. Can we play baseball after dinner?”
He glanced at Kendall with raised brows. She nodded, and he said, “Sure, but you have to eat your peas.”
She glared at the peas as if they had personally offended her. “Do I have to?”
“If you want to play baseball you do.”
With a loud, drawn-out sigh, she ate her peas, and when she was done, Kendall sent them out while she cleaned up the kitchen.
He took Livie to the yard behind his apartment building.
They’d been playing for twenty minutes when Kendall came outside.
He took one look at her and knew something was wrong.
He handed the ball he was about to pitch to Livie. “Hold this a minute. I need to talk to Mommy.” He jogged to Kendall. “What happened?”
“My alarm service just called. My alarm is going off. They’re calling the police.”
“Call Rossi. Tell him you want him to go to your house, then call you as soon as he knows if there’s a problem.”
“Daddy, come back.”
“Just a minute, Princess.” He put his hand on Kendall’s shoulder. “I’ll pitch a few more balls to her and then we’ll come in. Go make that call.”
“Okay. It’s probably a false alarm.”
He wasn’t so sure about that. She’d sent the email this morning, and now her alarm had been triggered.
He didn’t believe in coincidences. He played with Livie for five more minutes, then brought an unhappy girl inside.
Kendall was sitting on the sofa, staring at her phone as if she could will it to ring. “Were you able to get a hold of him?”
She set the phone on the coffee table. “Yes. He’s heading over now.”
“Good.” He put his hand on Livie’s head. “Time for the princess to have a bath.”
Kendall stood. “I’ll do it.”
“You need to listen for him to call back. I’ll get her in the tub if that’s okay with you.” He wanted to get Livie bathed and in bed so he could concentrate on Kendall. He didn’t like it when she was upset.
“It’s okay with me. Livie, Daddy’s going to help you take a bath, okay?” She sat back down and picked up her phone.
“I don’t want a bath. I want to play with Ruby.”
“You must not be a princess, then.”
She put her little hands on her hips and scowled at him. “I am a princess, Daddy.”
“I don’t know. Princesses like taking baths because then they smell good. If you want to be stinky, you can’t be a princess.”
She took a moment to think about that before saying, “I want a bath so I smell good.”
“That’s my girl.” Another lesson he learned about kids.
They fought you on taking a bath, but once they were in the tub it was fun and games and they didn’t want to get out.
He finally got her bathed, in her pajamas and in bed.
Of course, she had to have story time. As soon as her eyes closed and he knew she was asleep, he went to Kendall.
“Nothing yet?” he said.
She shook her head. “That’s not a good sign, is it?”
Probably not. “Let’s wait to hear from Rossi before thinking the worst.” He wanted to find the man stalking her and who’d kidnapped Livie, have him arrested, and then she’d be free of the fear hanging over her. After that happened, he only hoped she’d still want him in her life.
“It’s hard not to think the worst when—” Her phone chimed, Rossi’s name coming up on the screen. She picked it up, then put it on speaker before answering. “This is Kendall. Cooper is with me, and you’re on speaker.”
“Detective Rossi here. Where are you?”
“Myrtle Beach. Is everything okay at my house?”
“No, there was a break-in, Kendall. Some things of yours were destroyed. I need you to come here to see if anything was taken.”
“Damn. When is this going to stop?”
Cooper put his hand on her leg reassuring her he was here for her. “How did he get in?” She had a doorbell camera, but he doubted they’d be so lucky to have the person’s face on camera.
“Through a window in her daughter’s bedroom. He probably thought the window wouldn’t be alarmed, but fortunately, it was.”
Kendall gasped. “What if we’d been there?”
“You weren’t,” Cooper said, and squeezed her leg before asking Rossi his next question. “How long did it take the police to get there?”
“Seven minutes.”
“Time to search through her things and do the damage.” She’d never feel safe there again. Maybe that would help convince her to stay in Myrtle Beach with him.
“I really do need you to come back, Kendall,” Rossi said. “When can you be here?”
“We’ll be there tomorrow, early afternoon,” he said. It was about a six-hour drive, one he hoped he could spare Livie.
“Call me when you get close, and I’ll meet you here.”
“Will do.” After Kendall disconnected the call, he pulled his own phone from his pocket. “I need to call Gray, tell him what’s going on. Would you have a problem with Livie staying with him and Harlow while we’re gone? I don’t think this is a trip she needs to be on.”
“If they’re okay with that, yes.” She buried her face in her hands. “He was in my house, Cooper. In Livie’s room.”
Her words were muffled because of her hands over her mouth, but he heard the despair in them. As for him, he was enraged. Her home, her safe place, had been violated.
She dropped her hands to her lap. “I don’t know if I can ever live there again.”
“Let’s not think about that tonight, okay? I need to call Gray. Why don’t you pack what you’ll need to take and what Livie will need for a few days?”
Before she could walk away, he caught her hand and pulled her to him.
“I know you’re upset and scared, and you have every right to be.
But hear me on this, Kendall. You’re not alone.
I’m right here and I’ll be by your side until this is over.
” And if he had his way, still by her side after it was over. “I’ll keep you safe.”
She rested her head on his chest. “I know.”
“Good.” He pressed his lips to the top of her head. “Now go pack while I call Gray. We’ll get an early start in the morning.”
When they arrived at Kendall’s house, Rossi was parked in the driveway, waiting for them.
Crime tape crisscrossed her front door. Cooper glanced over at her.
Her gaze was on that door, and her eyes reminded him of those soldiers who’d seen too much and were checking out.
The thousand-yard stare, they called it.
“Kens.” He waited for her to look at him. When she just kept staring at her door, he said her name again, louder this time, with command in his voice.
Her head jerked, and she threw him an irritated glance. “What?”
“Just this.” He leaned across the console and kissed her. “He’s not in there. He’s not in control. He’s not worth your fear. He doesn’t deserve it. Don’t give it to him.”
She rapidly blinked as if coming out of a trance, then she nodded, her hand reaching for his and, when finding it, holding on as if her life depended on her connection to him. “I won’t give it to him,” she whispered.
“That’s my girl.”
Resolve hardened her eyes. “Let’s do this.”
He exited the car, and by the time he reached her side, she was out and marching toward the detective. Cooper stayed a few steps behind her. This was her show, and she needed to feel in control. But he’d be right here next to her, ready to support her in whatever way she needed.
She stopped in front of Rossi. “Is it really bad?” Her gaze went to her house. “In there?”
“I’m afraid it is, but there’s something I want to warn you about before you go in.”
Cooper stepped close enough to Kendall that she’d feel his presence at her back. I’ve got your six, baby, he thought. He didn’t like the wariness in Rossi’s eyes.
“What is it?” Kendall said.
“There’s a single rose on your bed along with a note. It says, ‘You can’t hide from me forever, Kendall.’ We’ll take it for evidence, but I thought you should see it before we did.”
When she shuddered, he took her hand and squeezed. “He’s playing games, Kens, trying to mess with your head. I know it’s not easy, but don’t let him.”
“You’re right. It’s not easy.”
“Ready to go in?” Rossi asked.
She eyed her house again, and Cooper thought she was debating the answer to that question, that she’d just as soon get in his truck and leave. He put his hand on her back, wishing he could send her courage through his fingertips.
“Yes.” She straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. “I am.”
He was proud of her.
Rossi led the way, and when he reached the door, he tore the crime scene tape off. “We didn’t have a key, so we left the door unlocked. If you have a spare you can give me, we can lock up when we leave.”
“I have one inside.”
Rossi went in first, then stood back to let them enter.
“Oh, God,” she said.
The place was destroyed. Furniture was overturned, books and pictures in frames were all over the floor.
This was done by someone in a rage. He must have thought she’d be here and was furious when she wasn’t.
He’d come here last night intending to…do what?
Take her away? Do something to her in her own house?
And what about Livie? Was he going to take her, too?
“He was gone when patrol got here?” he asked.
Rossi nodded. “There wasn’t anyone in the house.”
“And you said it took seven minutes for them to arrive?”
“Yes.”
The man had been busy in that seven minutes. “Is it a silent alarm?”
Kendall shook her head. “No. It’s loud. If it ever went off, especially if I was asleep, I wanted to know.”
“So, he stayed and did all this even with it blaring.” Ballsy. He glanced at Rossi. “He stayed until he saw patrol pull into the driveway, then he left the way he came. Did any of the neighbors see anyone suspicious? An unknown car parked where it shouldn’t be?”
“No. We canvassed the neighborhood. No one saw anything. We asked everyone we interviewed to check their Ring cameras, see if it caught a person running through their yard. So far, no one’s reported back that they have something for us.”
“That’s unfortunate.” He’d take a walk around her backyard before they left. He didn’t have to ask if she wanted to stay here tonight. There was no way she’d be able to sleep here. They’d have to find a nearby hotel.
Kendall let go of his hand and headed down the hallway. Already warned about what waited for her on her bed, he followed her. She stopped just inside her bedroom and stared at her bed. Standing behind her, he put his hands on her shoulders, and she leaned back against him.
“It looks obscene,” she whispered.
He agreed. It was something a lover would do, and from the right man, it would please a woman.
But this… Her sheets and comforter were white, the red rose the only color on the bed.
The bed wasn’t messed up, which was also disturbing as he couldn’t say that about the rest of the room.
Drawers were pulled out, and her clothes, including her underwear, were all over the floor.
She turned and walked out of the room. He met Rossi’s eyes, and the anger in them matched what he knew was in his. The man who’d done this was a sick bastard, and they needed to find him fast.
Her next stop was Livie’s room, and strangely, not a thing was out of place that he could see. Had the police arrived before he could get to this room, or had he not felt the need to destroy Livie’s room?
“I can’t stay here,” she said, her voice trembling.
“No, you can’t. We’ll check into a hotel. Do you need anything before we go?”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to touch anything he has.”
“Okay.”
“My studio.” She went to a closed door and opened it.
He peeked in. It was a guest room, also undisturbed.
She crossed the room and opened another door.
He looked inside. He hadn’t seen her studio when he’d been here, and he was impressed with what she’d done with a small closet.
Soundproof foam covered the walls, and on a small desk was a computer, microphone and a few other pieces of equipment. He smiled at seeing the baby monitor.
“He didn’t mess with any of my equipment,” she said. “That’s one small favor.”
Probably because he ran out of time to find it. “Let’s get that spare key for Rossi and get out of here.”
“Gladly.”