Chapter 28

[Clay]

“I lost him,” I repeat to Stone through the phone as I pace my living room. Stone told me to remain on the line until he gets to the house. I don’t know what he thinks he’ll find in the dark night. There was no breaking and entering in either the house or our vehicles. The man wasn’t leaning on the glass, so I doubt there are fingerprints to be taken.

He was just a man.

And while I’m pissed he might have seen Mavis naked, been watching us like a sick fuck, I’m more upset that he was trying to glare through the tinted windows in the direction of Dutton’s room.

What a fucking coward . That’s what I screamed into the night. Whoever he was, if he has an issue, he should face it, face me. Because he isn’t getting anywhere near my family.

“You shouldn’t have chased him,” Stone chastises.

I bite my tongue, ready to bark at him that if it had been his family he would have done the same thing. He would sprint and hunt and burn down the world to keep them protected. That’s Stone.

“What the fuck was he doing out there?” I ask for the third time, as if Stone would have an answer. The better question is, “Who the fuck is he?”

His build was hard to describe. Tall. Broad. He could be anyone or no one we know. With a hood pulled over his head, I had no sense of his hair style or his facial features. Was he young or old? Clean-shaven or bearded? In the darkness of night, the lighting outside was almost null, making the man’s appearance nearly impossible to decipher.

I’m left curious why the motion sensing lights I have over the driveway didn’t detect his movements. But I’m most angry that I don’t have cameras on my land or the camera doorbell I bought two years ago set up and functioning because I haven’t taken the time to install it.

With the crunch of tires over gravel, and the glare of headlights, Stone’s official sheriff’s vehicle pulls up to the house and parks. His entrance doesn’t trigger my motion sensor lights either, and I’ll need to check the bulbs in the daylight.

I click off my phone without a goodbye and greet Stone at the front door.

“Hey.” He holds his sheriff’s cap in his hand. The brown leather jacket he wears is open, like he tossed it on and forgot to zip it. Stepping inside the house, he glances around the living room.

“Where is Mavis?”

When I returned inside the house, after chasing the man, my bare feet throbbed from the sharp, cold rocks in the drive. Mavis wanted to check them for cuts, especially when she saw me limping, but I was too focused on finding my phone and calling Stone.

“She’s in Dutton’s room.”

“Are they okay?” Stone asks for the second time. Thankfully, Dutton doesn’t appear to have been disturbed. Mavis is visibly shaken, though, as am I.

“You good?” Stone assesses me. I finally snapped up my jeans and threw on a sweatshirt. Mavis has on the flannel I’d worn earlier and while I want to know how sexy she might look in my shirt, I’m equally sick that someone might have seen her without any clothing on. Her nakedness is for my eyes only.

I didn’t hesitate on the phone to tell Stone we were in a compromising position. Both undressed. The delay cost me. Tugging on my jeans gave the culprit time to move. He went right down the middle of the drive which curves in a way that protects the house from immediate view of the road. It also means it shielded his escape. Based on the intruder’s heavy thuds crunching down the stony drive, he wore boots, while I’d been barefoot, and he easily outpaced me.

“Try to recall again if you heard a car? A truck? Maybe a motorcycle?”

All are questions he’s already asked me, and I’m a terrible witness. The only sound I heard was the pounding of my heart in my ears.

I shake my head, letting him know I’ve got nothing to share.

We review once more the general size I’d estimate and the shape. Tall and broad doesn’t really describe much. Dark attire head to toe does even less to help Stone.

“I’m going to have a look around, but you can go to bed. Lock up once I leave.”

His warning is unnecessary. I’ll be triple checking all the locks on windows and doors. Sleep isn’t going to happen for me.

After checking all the latches and watching Stone’s vehicle exit the drive, I return to my room and change into sweats and a t-shirt. I enter Dutton’s room next, the bed covered with the new polka dot comforter he picked out. Violet the bear tucked under his arm. Mavis wrapped around him.

Her head lifts as I stand beside the bed opposite her. Her mouth opens to speak but I place a single finger against my lips silencing her. Then I climb onto the bed similar to the night of the thunderstorm when I sandwiched Dutton between us.

Mavis reaches over Dutton to clutch the side of my shirt and I reach out to her, resting my hand on her hip. Dutton is cocooned between us again, the term a better analogy than the filling of an Oreo cookie. Because, although Dutton is definitely part of the yummy goodness holding Mavis and me together, he’s not the only thing keeping us connected. Loving each other, Mavis and I will do anything we can to protect him.

Because I have no doubt the person outside the window wasn’t looking for only Mavis.

He wants to take my family from me.