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Brody stood next to her car. He didn’t attempt to open her door. Just waited. Her heart rate slowed. He’d done nothing to make her feel hunted. He hadn’t even pressured her like she expected.
Bracing herself, she slowly opened her door and slid from her vehicle, grabbing her purse and holding it close to her body like a shield.
“Let me make sure everything is as it should be,” Brody said, closing the distance between them. “Then, once I know you’re safe, I’ll leave. I’m staying in a hotel. You can reach me there. You have my cell phone number.”
He gave the name of a popular family-owned hotel in the area.
“I know where that is,” she told him.
Jenna shoved her door with her hip. It slammed, the sound unnaturally loud in the cold night air. She grabbed her key fob and clicked twice. Her headlights flashed. Satisfied the car was locked up tight, she returned her attention to Brody. She just wanted to get this over with.
She strode up to the house, taking care not to slide on the driveway. Brody’s footsteps echoed behind her. Then she punched in the keypad code and entered through the door. She could feel his presence at her back. Something about it comforted her. She turned on the light in her living room and looked around her familiar space, frowning.
Brody swept past her after shutting her door and locking the deadbolt. She heard him checking every room. He looked under the lamp shades, checked under the TV and under all the drawers and tables.
“What are you looking for?”
“Bugs.”
Jenna clamped her mouth shut to keep her jaw from falling open. It was like something from one of the police dramas she liked to watch.
She might not be able to sit through them anymore after this.
“I don’t have the equipment to actually check for that.” Brody explained, seemingly unaware of how freaked out she was. Or maybe he knew but understood she valued the truth more than the sense of false calm that could be shattered in a moment. “I can bring something later if you want.”
She shook her head and held up her hand.
“What’s wrong?” Brody stepped two paces closer.
“I’m not sure. Something feels off.” She gazed around the room, inspecting each inch carefully. Suddenly she froze. And there it was.
“Jenna?”
“Someone’s been in my house.” She pointed at her journal. “That’s not where I left my journal.”
Brody tilted his head, his brow furrowing. His entire expression reeked of skepticism. “Are you sure? Maybe you were in a hurry.”
She huffed. “Absolutely, I’m sure.”
Jenna pointed to the pen lying on the floor, half under the end table. “There are two things I know. Every morning when I do my devotions, I leave that pen tucked inside my journal exactly where I left off.”
He nodded. “And the second thing?”
“The second thing is I place my journal under my Bible. Not on it.” She crossed her arms, hugging her body to ward off a chill.
He glanced quickly at the offending notebook, which was placed squarely on top of her Bible. “And you’d never place it on top of the Bible. Not even if you were in a hurry.”
This wasn’t a question. Something inside her relaxed. He understood.
“Absolutely not. If there’s one thing my parents drilled into me, it was respect for God’s word. You do not put anything on top of the Bible. Not ever.” She had made that mistake once when she was ten and had gotten a fierce lecture on respect.
“Well, if someone was in your house, they tried to make sure you wouldn’t catch on.”
“They failed.” There was some satisfaction in that.
He nodded slowly. “They did. Which makes me wonder if they were here to find information.”
He didn’t say it, but she heard it in his sentence. Information that led to her almost being murdered outside of her job. Although what information that was, she couldn’t say. Nausea twisted her stomach. “I can’t stay here.”
