by Kami Larke
“Not tonight, love. You wore me out this morning,” he joked with her.
“All right,” Abby replied, lowering her eyes as a prick of doubt shot through her.
“Hey, I’m very interested and flattered you are too,” he pressed her hand against his crotch as proof. “But seriously, I know it’s been a while for you and while you might not want to admit it, I know you are sore. Tomorrow is soon enough for me. I don’t want to break you,” his eyes twinkled as he teased her.
Abby blushed as she giggled in relief. “All right. Tomorrow then. You better hydrate and bring snacks. I don’t plan to let you go so easily again.”
“Mmm, I like the sound of that.” Rob gave her one last kiss before he stood. Pausing at the door, he blew her a kiss as he left for the night.
Abby snuggled down in her covers as sleep came over her.
Chapter 14 ~ rob
The past two weeks had been stressful. He was putting in extra hours to keep up with the gym and paperwork, and helping Abby out while she was on restrictions. He had gone easy on her for the first week, letting her skip the gym entirely, but as he observed her getting around better and using the brace and crutches less, he insisted she start back at the gym, having her concentrate mostly on arms and abdominal exercises and some gentle leg exercises.
Abby, for her part, was not completely against working out. She commented over and over about the changes she was seeing in her body to him. To his own delight, she usually did so by stripping and showing off each change while naked.
Shaking his head, he tried to concentrate on the cardio workout he was in the middle of. Even if she couldn’t work out, it didn’t get him off the hook. The upcoming week in Vegas was going to be interesting to say the least. Helen had been giving him hell since she found out he was going. She professed to be dying because he snaked the opportunity from under her. Rob had laughed at her; she had never been in the running as a bodyguard.
He was due back at Abby’s in an hour. Her injury had brought their relationship to a new level, one he was seriously enjoying. He had even stayed the night a few times in the past couple weeks, at first to help her manage, but now it was just accepted he wanted to be there, holding her as she slept and watching as she woke up. Last night had been seriously intense between the lovemaking and the planning for the next few weeks when she was going to convention. Helen had ragged him about his late hours when he had finally managed to drag himself into work that morning, worn out but strangely invigorated by Abby.
The timer on the bike dinged and Rob sat up straight, grabbing his towel to wipe the sweat from his face. The cooldown time had started and he pedaled slower, his thoughts going to what the evening held. As soon as the timer dinged again, he shut the bike off, wiped it down and headed to the locker room for a much-needed shower. He didn’t want to offend Abby by showing up reeking.
As he pulled into her parking garage thirty minutes later, he noticed the patrol car sitting in the reserved bay. Frowning, he hurried from the car to Abby’s apartment. A uniformed officer stopped him as he stepped off the elevator.
“Sir, do you live here?”
“No, my girlfriend does.”
“Her name?” The officer looked down at a clipboard.
“Abby Taylor,” Rob responded absently, his eyes searching the hall, trying to see whose apartment they were concerned with.
“When was the last time you saw her?” The officer asked. Rob’s attention snapped back to the man.
“This morning when I left her apartment. Why? What’s going on? Is she hurt?” Anxiety filled his voice as he fired questions at the officer. He started to push past him, only to feel the man’s hand on his chest.
“Sir, if you please, I need your name.”
“Rob Edwards. What is going on?”
The officer didn’t answer, only looked at the paper again before nodding. “All right, you are on the list. Come with me.” He turned quickly, barely managing to stay ahead of Rob as he led the way to Abby’s apartment. Rob’s mouth fell open as they approached the open door.
“What the hell—,” he looked around as he slowly stepped inside.
Glancing at the officer, he realized he was being closely observed. “What happened? Where is Abby? Is she okay?” he repeated.
“She’s in the office with the lead detective, Anthony Jackson.”
Rob nodded and carefully picked his way through the debris of what had been a beautifully decorated apartment. As soon as he entered the office, Abby launched herself at him, sobbing uncontrollably.
His arms went around her as he stroked her, trying to calm her. “Shh, baby, please, it’s okay. I’m here.” He repeated the words over and over. Finally, she calmed and the sobs lessened.
“What happened?”
Abby hiccupped and wiped at her face with her hands. “I, I’d gone to Crissy’s to check the swag that was coming in and to take care of some details before we left for Vegas. The power had gone out just before I left. I locked everything, I’m sure of it, but when I got back the door was open, Peanut was missing and the, oh God.” Her voice broke.
“Peanut is missing?”
Abby shook her head. “No, she came home. She’s been hurt though. I don’t really know how bad.” Abby gestured to the dog who was laying curled up in her bed, growling at anyone who came close.
“Maybe we should let her calm down some. She’s scared more than anything I think. Was she bleeding when she came home?”
“Not that I saw,” Abby sniffled.
Rob looked over at the officer in charge. “What happened?”
“We don’t know much at this point beyond the obvious. Someone broke in and ransacked the place. Miss Taylor, we really need you to go through the apartment and make sure nothing was taken.” Anthony kept the details simple, almost sterile.
Abby nodded. “I don’t really have anything of value. All my jewelry is in the safe, which isn’t open, and my laptop.”
“Anything else?” The man was making notes as she spoke. Rob wondered briefly if his hands got sweaty wearing the latex gloves to work in all the time.
“Not that I can think of,” she told him. She rested her head against Rob’s chest.
“Come on, let’s do a walk-through.” Rob urged her, nudging her off his chest. They walked into the living room and Abby gasped, shutting her eyes. Rob frowned. He understood her distress.
“Did you have any deliveries today?” He asked, pointing at the shipping boxes that were ripped and slung around the room. One had crashed into a lamp, knocking it over and breaking it.
“Just stuff for the convention. Oh geesh, I’m going to have to express order stuff to replace that.”
Abby looked around as Rob shifted, taking in the damage that had been done. Whoever had broken in, had ripped open the boxes of books she had received from the printers the day before. Pages were ripped from the tomes, scattered like confetti around the whole apartment. She hoped some of the books were salvageable.
Stepping away from Rob, she bent and picked up one of her books. The cover hung sadly, barely attached. She carefully closed it and set it down on the coffee table. Cushions were strewn from the couch and chair. As she picked them up and replaced them, she noticed more damage.
“My God, who could hate me this much?” Her shoulders sagged in defeat.
“I think we have to consider the person sending you those letters,” Rob told her, as he picked something up from the debris under the cushions and handed it to the lead officer.
“Sir, if you could, we are still processing the scene. You can look, but please do not touch anything.” Anthony reprimanded him.
“Oh, sorry. Didn’t mean anything by it,” Rob apologized, returning to Abby’s side as the officer opened the letter.
“You mentioned there are other letters?” Anthony asked, raising his head.
“Yeah, she gave them to the police when she received them,” Rob told him. “Why?”
Anthony frow
ned. “I’ll need to look at them,” was all he would tell them. The officer that had let Rob into the apartment stepped into the room.
“Sir, we spoke with security. The security cameras were disabled for about thirty minutes this morning. Canvas hasn’t turned up anything unusual. It’s likely whomever broke in, disabled the cameras, did this and then left. Security says they found the camera’s offline around nine this morning and reset them, but didn’t make a report because of the weather. They thought it was just knocked offline because of the storm.”
“Thanks, Carter.” Anthony grimaced at the news. Rob understood his feelings. It would have been much easier to catch the intruder if they had the security footage. Without it, Abby was still in danger. Even more now, since the man was making his way into her apartment and destroying her things.
“Let’s continue the walk-through, shall we?” Anthony suggested. Rob nodded and put his arm around Abby, leading her through the small galley kitchen and to the bedroom.
Abby gasped and Rob stood still in shock. Feathers were everywhere.
“Carter, we are going to need pictures of this,” Anthony called over his shoulder to the officer taking pictures of the vandalism. Abby huddled in the corner with Rob as they waited. She was almost afraid to step into the bathroom. The vandal had been pretty thorough about destroying everything he could. She was worried the glass shower enclosure had not fared well. They finally got the nod to proceed. She decided to delay the bathroom and stepped into her walk-in closet instead. Strangely, nothing seemed out of place in the room. In fact, clothing she knew had not been put away that morning when she left for Crissy’s was now neatly hung and put away. She pointed it out to Anthony and Carter, who was busy taking pictures.
Taking a deep breath, she moved to the bathroom.
“Oh my.” She stood stock still, the three men crowding behind her to see what had shocked her.
“Is this some kind of sick trick? I feel like I’m in a really bad B-rated movie,” Abby said after a moment. Scrawled across the mirror in red lipstick was a message.
SEE HIM AGAIN AND YOU WILL REGRET IT
“Holy shit,” Rob said breathlessly behind her before wrapping his arm around her waist and bodily removing her from the room. “What the fuck was that?” He shook his head as he took her back to the office.
Peanut, still shaking, crept from her bed into Abby’s lap as soon as she sat down in her chair. Carefully, she inspected the dog, noting just a slight laceration to her paw, but nothing else.
“Is she okay?” Rob asked after a moment. Abby nodded. He sighed, hating the hurt defeated look on her face.
“I’m going to pack you a bag. You aren’t staying here tonight.”
“That’s a good idea,” Anthony said from behind him. “We will need a few more hours to process the scene, but I’ll have Carter do the closet first so you can get her clothes.” Gesturing, he signaled for Rob to step away from Abby before continuing in a low voice.
“Has she received any kind of threatening mail other than the letter you showed me earlier?”
Rob shook his head. “No, I don’t even know who this person is. I just know this is the same kind of letter she received the last two times.”
Anthony nodded. “All right. I understand she’s planning to go out of town soon?”
“Yeah, we were supposed to pack up tonight and ship stuff to the hotel tomorrow. The books and stuff that are destroyed now.” Rob looked around as he ran his hand through his hair, frustrated for Abby. “I don’t know what she’s going to do now.”
“When are you supposed to leave for the convention?” Anthony asked, making notes.
“Saturday. The convention officially starts on Monday, but she wanted to get in beforehand and make sure all her stuff arrived. I have no idea what to do now.”
Anthony nodded. “All right. I do think it’s a good idea for her not to be here right now. It’s obviously not safe, and she’s upset. Take her to a hotel or your place, whichever. Leave from there for the convention. I know it’s three days, but it’s for the best. She can come back during the day and go through everything, clean and so forth.”
Rob nodded again. “I think I’ll hire someone to come in and take care of this.”
“What about the dog?”
“She’s good, paw is scratched, but it’s not major enough to require a trip to the vet.”
“No, I meant what is the plan while she is out of town?”
“Oh, that. Her friend Jade is going to take her for the week we’ll be in Vegas.”
“Jade Townsend?”
“Yeah, that’s her. You know her?”
Anthony laughed. “Everyone on the force knows Jade. She’s one of the best detectives there is. If she hadn’t taken herself off the case because she’s so close to the vic, she likely would have caught the bastard by now.”
Rob’s eyes widened, and he nodded. He hadn’t realized Jade was so good. “Too bad she can’t be on the case. I wish we could catch whoever this is. I hate seeing her like this.”
“Yeah, well, for now we will do what we can to catch him. Hopefully he slipped up this time and gave us something to go on.” Nodding again, Anthony stepped away from Rob, calling orders to the officers in the apartment.
Rob returned to Abby’s side, crouching down before her. “Hey, as soon as they give me the all clear, I’m going to go pack your stuff. Do you know what you want to take to the convention?”
Abby nodded.
“Feel up to helping me pack for you?” Rob gave her a little smile, hoping to get her out of the shell shock she was in.
Abby shrugged. “I don’t know that I can even go. I don’t have the books anymore.”
Rob rubbed his hands against her thighs. “Listen. The cop said we can come back tomorrow and sort through stuff. We can see how many books are salvageable and maybe the printer can express some books straight to the hotel for you.”
Abby’s gaze focused on him. “That’s a really good idea.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I just feel so violated. Why would someone do this?”
“I don’t know, babe. But we will find out and catch whoever is responsible.” Abby gave him a watery smile.
“Hey, all clear in the master bedroom and closet.” Carter stepped into the room to tell them.
“That’s our cue,” Rob said, pulling her to her feet as he stood. Peanut growled slightly from where Abby still held her in the crook of her arm. “Enough of that, little one.”
Rob led her into the bedroom and sat her on the bed. Whistling, he pulled her suitcase out of the closet and began a pseudo-fashion show, trying to cheer her up. By the time he was done, she was packed with enough clothes to last her two weeks and had a stitch in her side from laughing so much.
“I still need my toiletries,” she said, sliding off the bed and headed toward the bathroom. Rob darted in front of her.
“Rob, I need to go in there,” she said, trying to step around him.
“We will buy you new toiletries,” he said firmly. Abby looked at him, her expression puzzled. “Trust me, you don’t want to go in there.”
Abby drew back slightly. “Um, okay. Well, I suppose we are done then.”
“Have you got Peanut packed?” Rob asked as he zipped her case shut and set it on the floor.
“Jade keeps stuff at her house for her. No need to pack her at all,” Abby replied. Rob nodded. Instructing her to wait, he went to the office and packed her laptop and the other things he had seen her taking to the living room with her over the past two weeks.
“Do you need anything other than the usual stuff?” He asked her as he returned with the packed case. “I’ll get anything you need from in there.” Abby inspected the bag, then shook her head.
“No, you got everything.”
Nodding, Rob gestured for her to precede him from the apartment. The officers were still busy processing the scene in the living room as they left. Rob stopped and spoke with Anthony briefly.
Abby waited for him by the elevator.
After a brief exchange, Rob jogged over to join her as the car dinged and the doors slid open.
“I asked him to have the building super lock up after they finish. You have your keys, right?” He asked as they stepped into the car and pushed the button.
“Yeah, never leave home without it.” Abby said faintly. “Do you mind driving me? I don’t feel up to it at this point.”
“Not at all. Come on, my car’s over here.” Rob helped her to the car and fastened her seat belt for her since she still hadn’t put Peanut down. He quickly made his way around to the driver’s seat. “I do need directions to Jade’s place,” he prompted her.
“Oh, right. She lives over off Hamilton.” Nodding he put the car in drive. Barely fifteen minutes later, they pulled into the drive of Jade’s duplex. She owned the whole house and rented out one side. Her side had a fenced in yard that encompassed the triangular-shaped side yard. Peanut had seemed more alert the last few minutes of the drive.
“We’re here, Peanut. You wanna see aunt Jade?” Abby asked as the dog started whining and beating her feet on the dash. As soon as Abby opened her door, the dog jumped out, running up the steps and barking until Jade opened the door for her. Abby shook her head as she got out of the car.
“Silly dog,” she said. Jade stepped down to the yard and hugged her.
“I heard what happened. How are you?”
“I…” Abby shook her head. “I honestly don’t know. I wish I knew why this person has fixated on me. I write about it all the time, the obsessed fan, the ex-lover that can’t let go. I can’t seem to figure out who is doing this and why.”
Jade put her arm around her and led her into the house. “So, other than that, why are you here? Not that I mind you coming over, but I thought you were bringing Peanut over Friday? It’s Wednesday.”
“With what happened, Rob wanted to get me out of my place, he didn’t think it was safe.”
“Smart thinking. So, you staying here till Saturday?” Jade’s face lit up. “Could be fun, I have to work, but we can have a total girls’ night Friday.”