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I tried to move back, but Emory wouldn’t loosen her grip. “Is he gone?”
I knew she wasn’t talking about Reed, because I doubted she even knew he was there. “Fuck, yeah. He probably left when he heard the police sirens. You’re safe, I promise. I won’t let anything happen to you. Baby, let me look at you.” She loosened her grip enough for me to pull back and cup her face in my hands. “Are you hurt?”
Here eyes were wide and bright, her pupils dilated and the fear had not gone away entirely. She shook her head, licked her lips. “No. I’m fine.”
I wasn’t so sure about that.
“I was asleep and I heard a crash downstairs. He…swore and bumped into something. I climbed out the window and then he turned the hall light on. God, he was after me. Gray, he turned the hall light on!”
She was trembling in my hold, her eyes even wider. The panic had not subsided, but she wasn’t freaking out. I pulled her into a kiss, soft yet seeking, as if I could take her fear, her pain away. I broke it off with a gasp, then tucked her back into my chest to soothe her, but it was more for me, to know she was in my arms and there wasn’t a thing that could happen to her with her there.
I tried to calm my breathing, to slow my racing heart, but what the fuck? The guy had turned the lights on? That was bad. Really fucking bad.
She climbed out the window? How the hell did she climb out the window? I looked down the long row of houses but couldn’t say in the dark which one was hers. All I knew was that her bedroom was on the second floor and unless she was Spiderman, I had no fucking idea how she got down without breaking her legs…or her neck.
Reed approached with a police officer. I kissed her head once more. “Baby, the police is here to talk with you. Are you ready for that?”
If my dad was behind all this, the police didn’t need to know about the possibility. I’d deal with him in my own way, in a way that ensured he wouldn’t get away with it. He was powerful enough to slip through the legal system without even a slap on the wrist. I'd seen it happen before, time and again. If he was guilty, I wouldn’t stop with just a slap and it fucking wouldn’t be on his wrist.
She nodded against my chest, then turned so that she faced the officer, but I kept one hand on her. Now that I knew she was safe, I wasn’t letting her go.
CHAPTER TEN
EMORY
Gray stood beside me the entire time I gave my story to the police, his hand warm and heavy on my shoulder. His grip tightened every time I said something especially bad, like when I told about the guy yelling for me from my bedroom window as I ran off or about climbing down the emergency ladder. With the police officer’s permission, he’d had Reed escorted into the house and grab a sweatshirt and flip-flops for me to wear so I wasn’t just braless and in a snug tank top and sleep shorts. When he'd grilled me enough, we’d gone into the house together to see if anything was missing, but other than things knocked off the counter and a chair moved, most likely the crashing sounds I'd heard, nothing had been taken. The back door had been jimmied and the glass from the broken lightbulb was still on the stoop, although crunched into tiny pieces by his feet.
Fortunately, Gray coaxed the officer into having me give a complete statement at a different time. He could tell I was barely holding it together and I was relieved for his presence, for his taking control of the situation.
When the police left and the neighbors went back into their houses, most likely checking the security of their deadbolts and security systems, the fear returned. “Gray, I…I can’t stay here.”
He turned me to face him, bent at the waist so he was my height. “You’re coming home with me.”
Relief made me weak, knowing I wouldn’t have to stay in the house right now. I pointed over my shoulder. “But the back door, the police s
aid it was broken.”
“It’s being taken care of.”
How? “But—”
He put a finger over my lips, looked at me in a way that had me swallowing my words. “It’s being taken care of,” he repeated. “Go get some clothes together and we’ll get out of here.”
I glanced up the steps afraid the guy might still be up there, even though the police had been in the house for the past hour. “Come with me?”
He nodded and followed me upstairs and into my room. I watched him as he took in the bed, the pictures on the wall, my clothes tossed over a chair. None of it interested him as much as the open window, the white curtains moving with the slight breeze. I let him look around as I quickly pulled a few things from my closet. Out of the corner of my eye I watched as he checked out the emergency ladder, pulled it back inside until it was a pile on the floor once again.
Zipping up my small bag, I said, “Ready.” He pulled his head back inside and turned to me.
“Boy Scouts?” He was looking down at the pile of rope that had most likely saved my life.
“Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge.”
“God bless the Boy Scouts,” Gray said under his breath as he held out his hand. I took it easily, reassured by his warm touch, and he led me back downstairs and outside, locking the door with my keys he picked up off the small table.
“Isn’t Simon your neighbor?” he asked as we went down the steps.
I pointed to Simon’s door, the house dark. “That one. He’s in Richmond for work.”
