Chapter 6
I had kind of done what Colton had demanded. I’d gone
into the grocery store and waited near their pharmacy, and when I spotted
Reece, his younger brother, prowling through the sliding doors, I knew
something really bad had happened.
Reece, a deputy with the county sheriff’s office, had been
in his uniform. I saw Reece around town a lot and knew he was seriously dating
one of the bartenders over at Mona’s, a girl we’d gone to school with, but for
him to be the one to show up sent a chill over me.
“Something has happened at your house,” he’d said, and that
was all he would tell me.
He was supposed to wait with me until Colton could get from
the city, but I wasn’t having that. How could he just say something had
happened at my house and then just expect me to stand around and wait? That was
my home. After much arguing and more than a handful of concerned looks
shot in our direction, Reece agreed—or relented—to escort me home.
Stars had started to dot the sky as we walked outside, all
the while Reece muttering, “Colton’s going to kick my ass.”
One look at Reece told me that would be easier said than
done. Yeah, Colton had an inch or two on him when it came to height, but Reece
could hold his own.
In his county cruiser, he’d led me the short distance to my
house. My hands had ached the entire drive and the moment I pulled into my
parking space, I’d wanted to cry.
I hadn’t.
Not when I’d climbed out of the car and saw the two officers
standing by my open front door. I hadn’t cried when I saw the shattered front
window. And right now, as I stepped around Reece and went inside, I couldn’t
let the weight of everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours
get to me.
The TV, which sat near the window, was knocked over,
shattered on the floor. Lying next to it was a huge cement block. I had no idea
how someone could throw that thing through a window.
“Nothing else appears damaged,” Reece said when I looked
over at him. His hands rested against his duty belt. “But we’re going to need
you to look around to make sure nothing has been stolen.”
Drawing in a shaky breath, I nodded as I tried to process
what I was seeing. There was no way this wasn’t related to what happened last
night or the smarmy guy outside of the grocery store, but I still had a hard
time believing it. Not because I was ignoring the evidence right in front of my
face.
“Both the neighbors on either side of your townhouse weren’t
home,” Reece explained. “No one else heard anything. When your neighbor on the
right came home and saw it, she immediately called the police.”
I needed to thank Betty, the elderly woman he must’ve been
referencing. Coming home to this, on top of everything else, would’ve been
horrifying.
“Are you okay, Abby?” Reece asked, stepping closer. “I know
it can be hard to deal with the fact someone has done something like this to
your house.”
“I imagine you see this a lot, huh?” I worked my fingers
together, hoping to ease the blood flow back in them as another officer scooped
up the heavy cement brick with gloved hands. Something occurred to me right
then. “How did Colton know about this?” This was so not his jurisdiction.
Reece watched the other officer carry the block out of the
house. “He mentioned what happened last night when I saw him this afternoon—he
mentioned you.” A half grin appeared, nearly identical to Colton’s. “Which is
odd because he normally doesn’t talk about witnesses or the fact that he shared
crepes with one this morning.”
My hands stilled and my eyes widened.
“I was the second officer to respond,” Reece continued, the
smile slipping away. “Once the neighbor next door said your name, I called
Colton.”
Was that allowed? I didn’t know. Suddenly bone weary, I
walked over to the chair and sat down, exhaling heavily. Over the years, since
Kevin’s death, I had learned how to deal with things. Last night, I had let
myself have that little breakdown. It was understandable. I’d been a witness to
a murder. If you were going to flip out about something, that was high up on
the list of things to freak out over. But I needed to get it together now. I
wasn’t a shrinking violet, nor was I someone prone to hysterics.
The responding officer came in and I answered all his
questions. When had I left the house? Where had I been? When I told them about
stopping at the grocery store and the subsequent creeper dude in the creeper
van, Reece snapped to attention.
“Why didn’t you say something at the store?” he demanded,
his eyes sharpening as he reached for his phone in his pocket.
“Um, I was kind of distracted by the dire message of not
going home,” I said. “But I’m telling you now.”
Reece opened his mouth but seemed to rethink what he was
saying. “I’ll be right back.” Stepping outside, I saw him lift his phone.
I wasn’t sure how much time passed before I got up and
accomplished what Reece had suggested. I checked everywhere, concentrating on
my office and my bedroom. Nothing of any value was missing, which is what I
told Reece when he appeared in my room.
I knew what the brick through the window was.
A message.
As I stood in front of my untouched jewelry box, I
shuddered. Message was received, but that didn’t mean I was going to listen.
I’d already told the one officer and Reece, and I would tell Colton.
“Abby?” a deep voice boomed from downstairs. “Reece?”
I turned at the sound of Colton’s voice and Reece’s
answering, “We’re up here.”
A handful of seconds later, Colton appeared in the doorway.
He had changed since this morning, wearing a different police-issued polo. His
blue eyes were fastened on me as he stepped into the bedroom.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“She’s okay,” Reece answered, and then rolled his eyes when
Colton shot him a look.
“I’m fine,” I insisted, smoothing my hands along my skirt.
“I’m just shook up.”
Colton crossed the room and within a heartbeat, he was
standing right in front of me. One hand curled around the back of my neck in a
familiar, comforting gesture. The other landed on my shoulder. Our eyes locked,
and my lips parted.
“The man at the store, he didn’t harm you or anything?” he
demanded, his gaze intently searching mine.
“No,” I whispered, swallowing hard. “He just told me that
I…I needed to keep my mouth shut. That I better not identify anyone from last
night. And then he said that I’d understand quickly how serious the message
is.”
A muscle flexed along Colton’s jaw as his gaze swept over my
face. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“I was going to. I was picking up my phone to call you, but
you called me first. I was so caught off guard by what was happening here that
I focused on that,” I explained.
His hand tightened along the nape of my neck. It wasn’t a
constrictive or threatening move. It was one that was oddly tender. Intimate.
Way beyond what he had to do, as a member of law enforcement, to comfort me.
The moment, whatever was going on between us, stretched out.
There was something there, a jolt. Like touching a live wire. He sucked in an
audible breath. His fingers spread along my shoulder, and the sudden urge to
obliterate the tiny distance between us, to press my body against his, rode me
hard. Without thinking, I stepped forward.
Reece cleared his throat.
Flushing, I looked away from the unnerving intensity in
Colton’s gaze. A shiver chased after his hand as it slipped off the back of my
neck and dropped to his side.
“I need you to tell me exactly what happened at the store,”
Colton said after a moment, his voice rougher than normal.
I did exactly that.
It was odd to have both Colton and Reece in my bedroom.
Their presence made it feel much smaller than it was. Any other time I would’ve
been amused by having two extraordinarily attractive brothers who were also
cops standing in front of me, but I was too thrown by everything.
The murder last night.
Colton showing up this morning with crepes.
Creepy van dude.
Vandalized property.
And now the way Colton behaved when he showed up and
that…that spark? My skin was still tingling.
All within twenty-four hours. It was insane. My life was
normally boring.
By the time I answered all of Colton’s questions, it was
just us in the house. Reece had left not too long after the other officer to
answer another call, and it was close to ten.
Colton had gone downstairs to make a few calls and I was
slow to follow him. A warm breeze stirred the curtains in front of the broken
window and my gaze drifted to the floor. The glass was gone. The TV was also
righted, its broken face a sad sight.
Stepping off the stairs, I looked into the kitchen just in
time to see Colton dumping the glass in the trash can. He was still on the
phone.
“That’s what I thought,” I heard him say as he placed the
dustpan on the counter. “You know how he operates. We all know how he works.”
There was a pause as he turned around. His eyes met mine. “Yeah,” he spoke into
the phone. “I’ll be in touch.”
Suddenly self-conscious, I glanced at the window and then
back at him as I stood near the stairwell. “Thank you for cleaning up. You
didn’t have to do that.”
He placed his phone on the counter and started toward me.
Goose bumps raced across my flesh. “Do you have something to cover the window
with tonight? Tomorrow I can head down to the hardware store and get some
boards to cover it until someone can get out here and replace it.”
Did I fall and hit my head? “You don’t have to do that.
Thank you, but—”
“I know I don’t have to do it. I want to do it.” With his
long-legged pace, it took him no time to end up standing in front of me. “I’m
off tomorrow, and I have time now unless I get a call.”
I tilted my head back to meet his stare as I weighed whether
I should accept his help. It seemed stupid not to, but it was a lot for him to
do for…for me. “I don’t want you to go out of your way, Colton.”
One side of his lips kicked up. “I don’t mind going out of
my way for you.” He put his hand on the stairway railing above me. “Not at
all.”
The crazed, possibly carnivorous, butterfly flutter from
this morning was back, wiggling around in my stomach.
“Let me help you with this,” he urged softly.
I drew in a shallow breath. “Okay.”
The smile grew as he lifted his hand from the railing and
caught a piece of my hair, brushing it back from my cheek. “Now that wasn’t so
hard, was it?”
It was and I didn’t even understand why.
“Do you have a tarp that I could use to cover the window?”
he asked.
“There is one in the shed out back. It was there when I
moved in and I don’t know if it’s any good or not.”
“I’ll check it out.” He started to turn and then stopped.
Placing the tips of his fingers under my chin, he tilted my head back. There
was a good chance my heart stopped. “Can I ask you something?”
At that moment, he could probably do anything he wanted.
“Sure.”
The dimple appeared on his left cheek and then he bit down
on his lower lip. Something about that tugged at the very core of me. I wanted
to be his teeth. Or his lip. Hell, I’d be down for any part of that.
“Do you believe in second chances?” he asked.
That was not the question I was expecting him to ask, but my
answer was immediate and it was the truth, something I felt deeply. “Yes.”
“Good.” His finger slipped up my chin and his thumb smoothed
along the skin under my lip. “So do I.”