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“Speaking of the burglary.” Aiden clears his throat. “Is there anything missing?”
“How would I know? I saw the mess and called you guys.”
Suzie snorts. “As if she’d know if anything’s missing anyway. Organized is not in her vocabulary.”
“At least I’m not an obsessive-compulsive cleaner,” I retort. And I am not kidding. The woman is a complete and utter clean freak. I had to ban her from cleaning my office because the overwhelming smell of cleaning fluids made me sick to my stomach. Lemony fresh scent, my ass.
Before we get a chance to get into a smackdown fight, something we’ve been known to do in the past, Aiden steps in between us. “Maybe Suzie can have a look inside to see if anything’s missing while I ask you some questions?” he asks but his tone of voice clearly says he expects his orders to be followed. I roll my eyes before motioning to Suzie to go ahead inside.
“Who wants donuts?” she shouts as she walks into the offices.
“What do you want to know?” I ask once I’ve watched Suzie successfully maneuver through the office without causing any chaos. Although, considering the state of the office, I’m not sure how she’d manage to cause more chaos.
“Who would do this?”
I shrug. “No idea.”
He raises an eyebrow and stares me down. Am I supposed to be intimidated? “Dude, you’ve seen me in action. Or have you forgotten about that too? It was only yesterday.” I don’t give him a chance to defend himself before I continue. “Look. I investigate cheaters.” I point to the front door. “Thus, the name of the business. There’s no reason for a cheating spouse to ransack my office.”
“No? You don’t think the guy you were photographing yesterday wouldn’t want to make sure those photographs never reach his wife?”
“Dude, the guy yesterday had no clue I was there. They never do. They’re preoccupied when I take my pics. There’s a reason it’s called ‘getting busy’.”
He chuckles. “Yeah, but you can’t be sure every single guy you’ve ever photographed didn’t notice you.”
I wrinkle my nose. “Don’t you think they would have come after me right away, then? And not waited to ransack my office? How would they even know who I am? It’s not like I wear a t-shirt advertising my business.” This is not a random remark on my part. Suzie has seriously pushed me to get matching t-shirts for us to wear to work. Not happening.
“Regardless, whatever happened here was not random.” His arm sweeps out to indicate the chaos in the office.
Well, shit. He’s right. My shoulders slump. Damn. Did some idiot cheater ransack my office because he was pissed he got caught? Men are idiots.
“I need new locks.”
“Yeah.” He nods. “You sure do.”
There goes my bottom line. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not destitute, but the reason I’m not destitute is because I keep my costs to a bare minimum. Getting new locks installed is going to cost me.
“I can help you install the locks. In fact, I can meet you tonight at the hardware store and help you pick out what you need. Then, we can come back here, and I’ll get them installed. Shouldn’t take more than an hour.”
My mouth drops open. Is he serious? He wants to help me? I lift my hand to check his temperature before I realize we don’t know each other well enough for me to touch him. He grabs my hand before it drops to my side. His thumb rubs circles into my skin and I feel warmth move from that one small spot and travel all over my body. Damn. The man can pull reactions from my body without making an effort.
“I want to help, Hailey. To make up for …” he trails off with a shrug.
Oh no, he didn’t. I rip my hand away from his touch. “You are not going to help me because you’re sorry for being a supreme asshole in high school. I’ll have Pops or one of my uncles help.” In fact, Wally is probably the person to ask. He still works in security after all. Or at least, I think he does. The man is a mystery.
Aiden raises his hands and takes a step back. “I was only trying to be nice.”
The patrol officers join us and for the next thirty minutes I answer questions and fill out forms. As we’re finishing up, Suzie joins us.
“It doesn’t look like anything was taken,” she announces before shoving a donut into her mouth. Well, she tries to shove a donut in her mouth. She actually misses her mouth and nearly takes her eye out. There’s chocolate glaze all over her forehead and in her hair. How is it possible to miss your mouth? Thirty-one-years of practice wasn’t enough for her?
After I finish giggling at Suzie’s latest antics, I address Aiden. “Since nothing is missing, can we skip reporting this whole incident? It looks like this was a waste of your time. Sorry.”
Aiden grabs my hand and pulls me away from the group. My hand tingles at the contact. Stupid hand. Stupid crush. Ugh. Everything’s stupid.
“You should report this. You don’t know what’s going on. This could be personal. Someone could be after you. Stalking you, for all you know.”
I yank my hand away. “You’re crazy. No one’s after me. This was probably a mistake.”
He opens his mouth to argue, but his phone rings. “Shit. I need to go.” I start walking away. Confident I’ve won my argument. “Think about what I said. I need you safe.”
Need me safe? Yeah, right. I wave and walk off to tell the patrol officers I’m not filing a complaint.
