Chapter 9
Harper
“Hey, Fee? Can you come over?”
“What’s up?”
“I think someone’s been in my house.”
“What!!! Why are you asking me to come over? Get the hell out of there and call the sheriff!”
“I mean, maybe I’m imagining things.”
“Better safe than sorry.”
I hear muttering in the background and Monroe’s deep voice comes on the phone. “Where are you?”
“I’m up in my bedroom.”
“And what makes you think that someone’s been in your house?”
“A few things. I closed my bedroom door this morning and it’s open now. And one of my drawers is open and I know it wasn’t this morning.”
“How do you know that?”
“It’s not the kind of thing I wear to work.”
“What does that even mean?” he huffs.
My cheeks flush, my lips open and then tighten. There’s no way I want to tell him that’s the drawer I keep my sexy lingerie in.
I hear Fee in the background. “Oh….” he says and I flush crimson red.
“Can you get downstairs and out the door?”
“Ummm. I don’t know.”
“How about going in the bathroom and locking the door? I’ll be there in fifteen minutes tops.”
“Okay,” I huff.
And then I hang up, jogging over to the bathroom door and closing it behind me, turning the lock.
Then I back up until I’m as far away from it as I can get, studying it like it’s a bomb about to go off.
It’s so damn quiet.
Until it isn’t. Just a whisper of sound. A faint shadow under the door and the old-fashioned crystal knob jingles.
I suck in a slow, shallow breath, my eyes widening. I don’t move even though my fight or flight reflexes are pinging like crazy and I want to move more than I’ve ever wanted to do anything in my life.
I bite my lip when a faint creak from a floorboard heads out of the room and breathe deep, fighting the swimming feeling in my head.
It feels like ages but it’s probably only a few minutes when a door flies open downstairs and someone runs up the stairs, hollering, “It’s me, Harper! You can come out now!”
I barely make it out the door before Fee wraps her arms around my shaking shoulders.
“You can’t stay here, angel. That guy broke the lock on your back door. That’s how he got in.”
“I’ll get a locksmith out here. That person is not driving me out of my own home.”
Fee glares at me. “You’re crazy!”
“This is my home. I’m not letting some random burglar scare me out of it.”
“That’s no random burglar. He was back in that drawer when you were locked tight in that bathroom.”
My eyes narrow and I nausea curls up my belly like a butterfly landing in it and shaking itself off. “He took my underwear.”
“He did.”
That’s when I realize that I’ve been talking to Darius and he’s here. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, I was talking to Monroe about how we’re going to get that wall down tomorrow and you called. There was no way I was going back to the hotel when you were in trouble! I’m not an asshole.”
I cringe. “Yeah, sorry. I’m just a little creeped out.”
“You’ve got more than enough right to be. I tell you what. How about you call a locksmith and get them out here to fix that door and I stay the night. I know you’ve got the room,” he wheedles.
I should tell him no. Should tell him that I’ve got no interest in having him here in my home. I still don’t know what I’m gonna do with all of those inconvenient feelings swirling around in my gut when he’s around.
But I hear myself sigh. “Fine. Go get your things. You might as well move in here and keep me company. It’s not like you’re gonna be around forever.”
Fee opens her mouth and then snaps it closed when Monroe shakes his dark head. She grits her teeth and then stalks away. “Fine,” she mutters. “Nobody listen to me.”
And then Monroe follows her and I’m all alone with Darius in my bedroom, my panty drawer standing open and half empty. I flush and my eyes dart away from him when he stares at the drawer.
He clears his throat. “I’ll let you make that call. I’ll go to my hotel and be right back. Do not let your cousin and Monroe leave until I come back.”
And with those parting words, he strides out like a sulky panther and trots down the stairs and out the door.
Fee glares up at me. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“I do too.”