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Before I could ask, though, Alaric’s head tilted to the side, almost looking… apologetic?
“I can explain,” he said as he carefully set down my bags on the couch, but reached inside to find Frida’s little Golden Retriever stuffy, and handed it to her.
She took it carefully, then retreated back to my side.
“Okay,” I said.
“Do you want to sit?” he asked, waving toward the couch.
“Uh oh,” I said, wincing. “That’s… that doesn’t sound good.”
Alaric sucked in a deep breath, and I pretended not to notice the way it made his tee stretch across his chest.
I mean, why the hell was I even noticing things like that at a time like this? When something had clearly gone wrong.
“Those men you saw? They weren’t there to fuck with Kylo’s place again. The police tape was all still intact. They… they broke into your place, baby,” he said, voice soft as he delivered the blow.
“What?” I asked, pressing a hand to my stomach where I swear it felt like I’d been hit, like someone had knocked the wind out of me.
“When I was walking out of the elevator, I noticed your door was open slightly. When I went in… they’d tossed the place.”
“Tossed?” I repeated.
It was just a split second, though, until my mind flashed with memories of what these men had done to Kylo’s apartment. All the damage.
But… but they’d been looking for something there, right? It made no sense otherwise.
“I don’t know an easy way to break this to you, baby, so I’m gonna just lay it out there.”
“Okay,” I agreed, belly flip-flopping.
“It’s bad. Couch cushions cut, dishes smashed, pictures on the ground, books pulled apart, nail polish… everywhere. Andyour filming equipment is… ruined. Of your electronics, I only managed to salvage your laptop. And only because I think they missed it. I grabbed what I could,” he said, waving back toward the bags. “You can’t go back there tonight.”
I was hardly listening.
Mentally, I was standing in my apartment, looking around at everything I loved, seeing it torn apart, realizing someone else had destroyed what I’d so carefully curated, the things I loved so deeply.
It wasn’t the money that went into it. I had money. I could replace most of it, save for some special edition books.
It wasn’t even the fact that it was ruined.
I lived in an area where I was very aware there was a risk for a hurricane coming close every few years.
I could live with losing the things I loved to an accident or a natural event.
But to have men break in, put their hands all over my things, and then tear it all apart?
That… that hurt more than I could have expected.
“Hey,” Alaric said, reaching for my forearms, holding them in his strong hands. “I know,” he went on, voice softer. “I know all that stuff means a lot to you. And you can file a police report. Maybe even contact your insurance, if you have it, to replace it.”
“It’s not the money,” I admitted, voice small. “I can replace it. It’s just…”
“The invasion,” he filled in. Getting it. Without me having to try to explain. Something I was terrible at.
“Yeah,” I agreed, trying to suck in a breath, but it caught on a small sobbing sound.
“You can make it your sanctuary again,” he said, pulling me against his chest, even though the tears didn’t really manifest past a glassiness in my eyes that I worked to blink away. “Oryou can create a new one somewhere else, if it doesn’t feel right anymore.”
