Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Tonight, I have a steak on the grill, with veggies and potatoes. I like to cook. I just rarely get the chance.
Not to mention, it’s not ideal to cook just for one.
Maybe next time, I’ll invite Sarah to join me.
There’s a knock on the door that faces the driveway, and I wipe my hands on my towel as I walk over to answer it.
When I pull the door open, it’s as though I conjured Sarah out of my thoughts.
“Hey. I’m making dinner. Wanna share a steak?”
“Someone broke into my house, and I can’t find Petunia.”
Everything in me braces as I take Sarah’s shoulders in my hands. “What?”
Luna hurries up behind her, talking on her cell phone. “That’s right, the guest house behind Tanner’s house. Yes. No, we haven’t touched anything, but we can’t find the cat. Okay. Okay, great.”
Luna hangs up and joins us. “I just got off the phone with June’s brother, Cullen. He’s coming right over to check it out.”
“It’s so handy having a cop in the family,” Sarah murmurs and swallows hard. “It wasn’t you, right, Tanner? You didn’t happen to stop in for anything and accidentally leave the door ajar?”
“No, that crosses a lot of lines, Sarah. Come in for a second so I can turn off all of the fires I currently have going.”
“We’ll wait out here,” Sarah replies. “It’s okay.”
“I’ll be right back.” I hurry away, leaving the door open, and turn off the stove, then run outside and pull the steak off the flame and extinguish the burners on the grill.
I don’t need my house to burn down because I’m too busy figuring out what the hell is happening with Sarah.
When I hurry back outside, Cullen is just pulling up in his cruiser.
“Hi, ladies. Tanner,” he says with a wave as he and his partner, Hawk, walk our way. “What happened?”
“I just came home,” Sarah says and takes a deep breath to calm herself. “Luna was dropping me off. I walked up to the door and saw that it was ajar, and then I ran back to Luna’s car, panicked. While she called you, I poked my head in, just to see if I could see my cat, because she’s a rescue and gets scared.”
Her voice catches, and I slip my hand into hers, giving it a little squeeze.
“Did you touch the door handle?” Hawk asks.
“No, I just pushed the door part. I called for her, but she didn’t come. I didn’t want to go inside, in case someone was still in there.”
“Okay, you all stay here, and we’ll check it out,” Cullen says, then turns to his partner, and they speak too low for us to hear as they approach my guest house.
“Maybe the wind pushed it open,” Luna says as the three of us watch the police circle the outside of the building. “Maybe you didn’t latch it when you left, and it just drifted open.”
“I always latch it,” Sarah insists. “I don’t know what I’d do if Petunia got loose, and I couldn’t find her. I’m too careful for that.”
“It could be a million things,” I assure them both. “We’ll wait to see what they say.”
Sarah’s too nervous to stand still, so she paces around my deck. Luna rapidly taps the screen of her phone, I’m assuming, texting Wolfe.
“Wolfe and Zeke are on their way,” she says. “I also texted Apollo, but he’s on a job site where there isn’t any cell service.”
“You don’t have to alert everyone,” Sarah says softly. “Chances are, it’s nothing at all.”
But when Cullen and Hawk come out the front door of the house, I can see by the look on their faces that they’re not super concerned.
Still, I’m suddenly filled with white-hot rage, and mentally make a list of everything I have to do in the next twenty-four hours, just to make sure that I keep Sarah safe.
“Found the cat,” Cullen says cheerfully. “She’s under the bed, hiding.”
“Oh, thank God,” Sarah says on a sigh. “That’s the most important thing.”
“There’s no one in there,” Hawk continues. “And we can’t tell if anything is out of place until you come in with us.”
“Let’s go.” Sarah immediately sets off for her place, marching with purpose.
Luna and I hang back. “It’s already kind of cramped in there,” she says. “They don’t need us getting in the way.”
“I’m installing security first thing in the morning, and until then, they’ll stay with me.”
Luna cocks an eyebrow. “You might want to ask her if that’s what she wants to do.”
I wipe my hand over my mouth in frustration. “She’ll damn well do it, Luna.”
Before she can argue with me, the three of them come out of the house, Sarah holding the cat firmly in her arms.
“Well?” I ask. “Is anything gone?”
“I don’t think so,” Sarah replies. “There’s nothing out of place. They didn’t toss my stuff around or anything.”