AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Still been watching this place like I wanted you to?" he asked.
Hinton paused in surprise. "Uh... no. Sorry. I thought you just wanted me to watch it that one night." He frowned suspiciously at Raith and then eyed Willow's place. "Everything okay?"
"No," Raith snapped. "She came home to find some stranger in her house."
"God," Hinton gasped.
"Now go in there and finish checking the rooms and take her report, will you?"
"Don't you want to..." The kid sent him another confused look and finally shrugged. "Well, okay. I'll go talk to the lawyer lady... if you're too shy." He sent a leering grin toward Raith and started to strut toward the front door.
"She's scared," Raith hissed after the kid. "So, cool it with the macho act, will you? She doesn't want some dork trying to come onto her. She just wants to report an intruder."
"I can handle it," Hinton said testily and lifted his hand, telling his lieutenant to back off.
"You better," Raith warned. "I'm going to go find out where Theo Franklin is."
"I can tell you that," Hinton paused and turned back. "He's in county lock."
Raith frowned. "You sure?"
"I arrested him myself last night. He doesn't have first appearance until tomorrow and I know he didn't bond out."
Wiping a hand over his face, Raith said, "Thanks a lot, Hinton."
"Yeah, see you."
Raith turned to his cruiser. As he started the engine, he glanced up at the house and couldn't stop the curl of jealousy he felt as Willow held the front door open for Hinton and let him inside. She paused and glanced back at his car before coldly turning away and firmly shutting the door. He blew out a breath and wondered if he was doing the right thing. Probably not, but shit, it was too late now.
Twenty
A week passed. Raith heard nothing from Willow. He hadn't called her either, but he'd driven by her house to make sure everything looked okay from the outside.
As far as he knew, she was still pregnant with his baby and no more intruders had broken into her house. He'd been checking her back door, just to make sure it was locked every night. It was—which told him she was spooked—and also told him she hadn't been lying about an unknown person visiting her.
He decided to investigate her clients. It hadn't been easy. She'd probably spit on him if went directly to her and asked for her full client list, past and present. So he did as good a job as he could manage, relying on gossip to discover a few names. Nothing too unusual jumped out and alerted him to trouble.
Planted at his desk on a Tuesday afternoon, he looked up the last name on his list in the police database. He couldn't help but wonder if maybe an ex-lover was stalking her. That would explain why the creep would leave a cop figurine in her house as a way to let her know he was fully aware she had moved on and was sleeping with another man now. But after doing a deep background check on Cole DiAngelo, he couldn't find anything to suggest the man took up stalking in his spare time.
Still scowling at the names on his list, Raith barely listened to his scanner until dispatch rang his desk, informing him a 911 call had come from a grocery store on Main Street. Some woman had gone into labor, and they were asking for an ambulance. Sighing, Raith took the call since he was only a few blocks away. Lucky him, he beat the ambulance and was the first emergency responder on the scene.
Praying he didn't have to deliver some kid in the frozen food section, he followed the sound of the commotion and found about two dozen people crowded around a blonde plopped on the floor, right in the middle of the aisle.
"Excuse me," he said, forging a path to her side. Seeing his uniform, the crowd parted, and he finally made eye contact with the woman in labor.
Willow's cousin, Camille Taggart, sat in a puddle of some kind of thick liquid substance and panted out her labors pains while tears streamed down her cheeks.
When she recognized him, she squeezed her eyes closed and groaned. "Oh no. Not you."
He squatted next to her. "Hello, Mrs. Taggart. Having a little problem today?"
Camille opened her lashes to glare at him through narrowed eyes. "I'd like to smack you right now for what you did to Willow."
Raith gave her an obliging nod as if he completely agreed. "Well, until then, what say we get you settled somewhere else until the ambulance shows. Okay? I can't imagine you're too comfortable on this cold, wet floor."
Camille took his hand when he offered it to help her to her feet.
As he assisted her up, she muttered, "This doesn't mean I like you."
