by Dena Christy
His arms and body were strong, and when he held her it made the world seem like it was going to be okay. And even though she knew that the outcome of the confrontation with Nathan had turned out differently, in the dark of her room the fear was still there.
She closed her eyes but knew that sleep was going to be elusive. A part of her was afraid to go to sleep. And laying in the bed, in the dark, would only make the fear inside her grow.
She shifted and sat up. She put her feet into her slippers, pulled her robe on over her sleep shirt and got out of bed. Maybe a cup of herbal tea would help soothe her enough to enable her to go back to sleep.
She put on the light in the hall and went down the stairs to the first floor of her house. The third step from the bottom creaked reliably, and the normality of it made her feel a little better. She went down the hall to the kitchen and put the light on. As she moved around the room, she could hear the faint sound of a dog yapping. It had to be Mrs. Fowler’s Yorkshire terrier. He was a vocal little thing, but normally not that noisy at night.
With a shrug of her shoulders, Mercy got her kettle off the stove and filled it with water. When she shut off the tap she looked out her kitchen window and saw that Mrs. Fowler had her lights on, and one of her curtains moved. If the nosey old bird thought she was going to see something exciting coming from Mercy’s kitchen, she was doomed to disappointment.
She put the kettle on the stove and turned on the burner underneath it. She got her favorite mug out of the cupboard and put a tea bag in it. The yapping got louder, and Mercy rolled her eyes. That woman needed to do something about that dog.
There was a muffled thumping noise coming from the side of her house, followed by a slight crashing sound.
She jumped and froze where she was. She strained to hear over the hammering of her heart, but the world around her remained silent save for that yapping dog. No further noises came. She was certain the noise hadn’t been a figment of her imagination brought on by her nightmare, but something that had happened outside.
She went to the side door in her kitchen and moved the curtain aside to see if she could figure out what it was. Her metal garbage can and green bin were on that side of the house. She flicked on the outside light to penetrate the inky darkness to see if the crash she heard was one of those things. Her garbage can had been knocked over, but fortunately, today had been garbage day so there was nothing to spill out on to the ground.
With a shrug of her shoulders, she flicked off the light and she turned away from the window. It was probably a raccoon looking for something to eat. It would also explain why Mrs. Fowler’s dog refused to shut up. He was sure to want to rip the raccoon apart.
“I’m afraid that your quarry is long gone, buddy.” And hopefully, soon he would get the hint and stop barking.
Her kettle whistled and she jumped. With a little laugh, she put her hand to her chest for a second. Between the dream and the raccoon, she was jumpier than she thought. She went to the stove and turned off the burner.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Mercy gave a tiny scream as the banging came from her front door. She put her hand on her chest over her pounding heart.
Any more sudden noises and she was going to pee her pants in the middle of her kitchen. She pulled her robe tighter around her body as she cautiously approached her front door. It was the middle of the night and she had no idea who could be knocking on her door at this hour.
With a flick of her finger, she turned on the light that would shine on her front porch. She moved the curtain that covered the narrow window next to the door and drew back in surprise. What was Luke Everette doing here? He was in uniform so it must be some official business.
She undid the door chain and released the deadbolt and opened the door. The bitter cold from outside drifted over her bare legs and she shivered.
“Luke, it’s the middle of the night. What can I do for you?”
“Are you okay?” He moved his head as he tried to see past her into the inside of the house.
“I’m fine. Why don’t you come in and tell me what this is about?” The cold from outside was seeping up her sleep shirt, and goosebumps popped up on her arms and legs. Something had brought him here, and she’d rather talk to him in the warmth inside her house instead of in front of her open door.
Luke stepped inside the house and his sharp gaze swept the interior.
“We got a call from your neighbor reporting a disturbance coming from your house. I’m here to check it out.” The way he said it told her that he didn’t believe that much was going on. Her human neighbor, Mrs. Fowler, was a nosey busy body, and she had the sheriff’s office on speed dial. Mercy was pretty certain that Luke had been on more than his fair share of wild goose chases because of her. “Have you heard any strange noises?
“Other than Mrs. Fowler’s yapping dog and the raccoon knocking over my garbage can, the only thing I’ve heard is you knocking on my front door.” Mercy moved away from him and pour hot water over the tea bag in her mug.
“Your neighbor says she saw a shadowy figure coming out of your basement window. Do you mind if I check it out?”
Mercy paused in the middle of taking her tea bag out of the mug. Her body grew still as she looked at Luke. “Do you think that’s possible? That someone was in my basement?”
“Your neighbor is a bit of a crank, and this wouldn’t be the first time she’s called us about a prowler who turned out to be nothing. I’ll check out your basement just to be sure, and then you can go back to your night.”
She went over to the basement door that was just off the kitchen and opened it for him. She flicked on the light and stood aside as he went down the stairs. There wasn’t any sound coming from down there, and she followed him down.
“Does anything seem out of place?”
Most of her basement was unfinished, and she used it to store odds and ends she didn’t need all the time. Nothing seemed out of place to her, but unless the place was visibly ransacked, she wouldn’t be able to tell at a glance since she wasn’t in the habit of studying the contents of her basement.
“Not that I can tell.”
“Where is the window that leads to the side of the house closest to your neighbor? She says she saw the man coming out from the basement window on the side nearest to her house.”
Mercy frowned for a second. Had the noise she’d heard earlier not been the raccoon she’d assumed it was? She hadn’t seen the animal, and there was a muffled thump she’d heard a second before the garbage can.
“It’s in the laundry room.” The laundry room was the only room that was finished. This had been her mother’s house, and her mother had always insisted that if she was going to be spending a good part of her time doing laundry, she would not do it in what felt like a cellar.
Mercy went over to the door of the laundry room and opened it. To her surprise, the light was on. A frown crinkled her forehead. She was usually consistent about turning off lights and was sure she would have turned the light off the last time she left this room. She stayed where she was, outside the door and stood aside as Luke went in.
Nothing seemed out of place, except for the old framed cross-stitched picture that her mother had hung in here. It was slightly eschewed but then that thing never usually hung straight. Mercy straightened it at least every couple of times she was in here.
She shivered and huddled inside her robe. Cold air seeped out of the room and crept over to her. This room was colder than it should be, and a glance at the window told her why.
“That window normally slightly open like that?” Luke’s voice was sharp as he noticed it too.
“No, it’s normally shut tight and the latch is engaged.”
Oh God, someone had been in the basement.
A cold wave that had nothing to do with the slightly open window washed over her. Someone had been in her house. She hugged her arms around her middle as she tried not to think of what could have happened if whoever they were had no
t been spooked.
Luke pulled a pair of latex gloves on and went to the window. He pushed the window at the corners, and when he let it fall it made a thumping noise, which was a lot like the noise she’d heard before she’d heard the crashing of her garbage can.
“The latch is broken.” Luke’s face was serious as he turned to her. “Someone’s been in here. I can smell him. Is anything out of place in here?”
“No, nothing. Why would someone break into my laundry room?”
Luke pivoted and walked out of the laundry room. He took her by the arm and steered her away from the doorway and toward the stairs. “I don’t think their intent was to steal your laundry soap. I think that they broke in here to do something else and they only made it as far as the laundry room because something spooked them.”
Luke guided her toward the stairs and they went back up to her kitchen. Mercy shivered. She couldn’t seem to get warm. A strange man had been in her house, in her basement while she’d been sleeping upstairs. While she’d been making tea only steps away from the basement door.
“Do you remember anything out of the ordinary before you heard what you thought was a raccoon?”
“No. I had a bad dream, got out of bed and came down here to make tea. I heard Mrs. Fowler's dog barking and shortly after that I heard a thumping noise and then the garbage can being knocked over.”
“Okay, I’m going to call this in. Is there anywhere else you can go, for tonight at least?”
Mercy clutched her robe around her neck. “Why, do you think he’ll come back?”
Luke sighed and looked at her with an expression that told her that this might not be just a run of the mill break-in.
“I think it would be safer for you if you weren't here, at least until we catch him.”
“Luke, what is going on? What do you know?”
“I don’t know any more than you do. Whoever this guy is, he’s bold if he’s breaking in while you’re at home. I’d feel a lot better if you were somewhere else. Is there anyone you can call?”
“Yes, I have someone I can call.” It was the middle of the night and she was scared, and the first person she thought of was Alex. She didn’t want to look too closely into why that was, all she knew was that she needed him.
4
Alex’s sound sleep was interrupted by the buzzing of his cell phone. He sent his groping hand over to the bedside table, hitting the lamp before finding that offending piece of machinery.
What the hell time was it? It couldn’t be time to get up yet, could it? It felt like he’d only fallen asleep a few minutes ago.
Since he used his phone as an alarm clock, in his confused, more asleep than awake state he couldn’t figure out why it was going off when it was still dark outside. And why he’d set it to go off at all since tomorrow was Sunday and the bar was closed.
He blinked his blurry eyes and squinted at it as he held it close to his face.
Mercy was calling him.
He was shoved out of sleep with the ruthlessness of a well placed kick. There was no reason for Mercy to call him in the middle of the night unless something was wrong. His heartbeat thumped hard as he quickly answered the phone.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Can you come over?” There was fear in her voice, and while under any other circumstance he would love to get a call from her in the middle of the night asking him to come over to her place, he didn’t want it to be because something was wrong. Had something happened to her? To the baby?
“Are you hurt? Are you in danger?” He gripped the phone as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. He stood still for a second as he adjusted to being vertical after being in such a sound sleep. The air in his bedroom was cool against his naked skin, and he went to his dresser to get out some clothes.
“I’m not hurt. Luke is here with me, but I need you to come. I’ll explain when you get here.”
Worry clawed at his gut, but he didn’t want to waste time talking. He needed to get to her. Hearing her voice on the phone wasn’t reassuring enough. He needed to see her, touch her and assure himself that she and his baby were fine.
“I’m on my way.”
He ended the call and dressed as quickly as he could. If Luke was at her house, then something must have happened. Something bad. There was no reason for the police to be at her house in the middle of the night unless something very wrong was going on.
He strode out of his bedroom, down the hall and toward the front of the house. He didn’t bother with any lights since he knew his house like the back of his hand and could navigate it in the dark. Time was of the essence, he needed to be in front of her, needed to know what was wrong.
Once in the vestibule he put on his boots and his coat, took the keys to his truck off the hook by the door and slammed out of his house. He didn’t bother locking the door. All he could think of was Mercy, and getting to her.
He ran to his truck, got inside and he was on the road toward Eden Creek in a matter of moments. As much as he tried to ignore it as he sped over the road, his head wanted to supply him with all kinds of scenarios about what could have happened. None of them were good.
He shoved them away with a growl. He’d heard her voice, she’d been able to speak. She was scared, yes, but fear he could help her with.
He gripped the steering wheel and took a corner a little too fast. Fortunately, he was able to recover and didn’t end up in the ditch, but he forced himself to slow down. She wasn’t that far away, she was with Luke, who would protect her until he got there. But he needed to get to her and he couldn’t do that if he was in the ditch.
Finally, he got to the little street in Eden Creek’s one and only suburb and scanned it for her house. He slowed when he got to it and pulled in behind Luke’s cruiser. He took a deep breath to brace himself for what he would find while he was in there, and he shut off the truck.
He walked up her driveway as quickly as he could and knocked on the front door. He wanted to barge in, to demand what was going on but figured the better thing to do would be to calm down. The last thing he needed was to slam in there and spook Luke. He had no idea if the deputy was trigger-happy and now was not the time to find out.
A pale-looking Mercy pulled the door open and stepped back so he could walk in. He could see fear lurking in her topaz eyes, and he wanted to do everything he could to take it away. The last time he’d seen fear like that in her eyes, she’d been standing in the middle of the woods in the aftermath of Nathan’s hunting of her and Honor.
It killed him to see it back in her eyes, and all his protective instincts rushed to the forefront of his mind.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” His voice was a loud bark in the front hall and he scanned her from head to foot. She was dressed as if she’d been in bed, and was wearing a robe and slippers on top of what she’d slept in. He could see no wounds or injuries, so a small part of him relaxed a little. She wasn’t hurt. But she was scared and he needed to know why.
“There’s been a break in. Someone got into my laundry room, but he got spooked and took off. My neighbor called the police.” She trembled a little and he moved toward her, pulling her into his arms. He didn’t know if being the father of her baby gave him the right to hold her, but he was taking it. The fear for her that pounded through him all the way over here would not be relieved until he felt her safe and whole against him. And the fact that she rested her head against his chest and didn’t protest told him that she didn’t mind. “Luke suggested that I stay somewhere else tonight. I hope it’s okay that I called you. I could have called Honor and Rafe, but…”
“It’s okay that you called me, and of course you can stay at my place.” He pulled back and looked at her. “He didn’t hurt you, did he? You can tell me if anything like that happened.”
She shook her head.
“I was in the kitchen making tea when he went out the basement window and knocked over my garbage can. I thought it was a raccoon
.” There was stark fear in her voice, and he pulled her close to him again. She’d been up making tea while an intruder was in her basement. He closed his eyes for a second as he sent up a prayer of thanks that the intruder hadn’t made it as far as the kitchen.
Luke came into the hall where they were standing and he gave Alex a pointed look before he glanced at Mercy. Did Luke have something to tell him that he didn’t want Mercy to know?
Alex pulled back and looked down at her. “Why don’t you go upstairs, pack a few things and get dressed. I’ll stay down here with Luke.”
Mercy nodded and turned and went up the stairs. As soon as he was sure that she was out of earshot he turned to look at Luke.
“What’s going on?”
Luke glanced in the direction of the stairs, and he frowned. “I didn’t tell Mercy this, because I think she’s scared enough as it is. I didn’t want to add to it, at least not while she’s still in this house. But when I was checking out the laundry room, I caught a scent, one that I’ve smelled only once before. Now I can’t swear to it in court, but I’m sure that it belonged to her ex, Nathan.”
Nathan? What the fuck would that shit stain be doing in her house? Mercy had told him that Nathan had been in her house before, could that have been what Luke had smelled?
“Could it have been from back when she was seeing him? He was in this house once.”
“It was too fresh for that. It was strong and only a few minutes old. I don’t know what the hell he was doing in the house, or what spooked him but I think it’s safe to assume that he wasn’t here to rob her. It will be better all around if she’s not in the house in case he comes back.”
Alex nodded as a slow, simmering anger took hold of him. Hadn’t that bastard done enough to Mercy already? What torment did he have in mind for her that made him break into her house?