Yet, something had woken me.
I got up on my elbows and turned in the bed, spying the soft round curve of Dory’s body on the bed beside me.
The soft clack of something hitting against wood had me all but bolting up in bed.
The quick movement caused Dory to wake up.
Before she could speak, I placed my hand over her mouth and said, “Someone’s in the house. Get your gun and go to the bathroom.”
She didn’t hesitate.
She grabbed her gun out of the bedside drawer then moved on silent feet exactly where I’d directed.
Grabbing my own gun from underneath the pillow where I slept, I grabbed the flashlight with my other and situated it on top of my gun hand, finger over the button to flip it on.
I’d just stepped out into the hallway when I heard a commotion, then running feet.
Seconds later, I heard the door crash open and hit the wall, followed by a curse.
I flipped the light on just in time to see the door swing back closed with the momentum of whomever had just left it.
Heart pounding, I walked through the house slowly, hoping that there weren’t any other men inside.
Only after I was sure it was clear did I go outside and look around.
Nothing.
Not even a neighbor was up.
Whomever had been here wasn’t any longer.
And I was the dumbass that hadn’t set the alarm to make sure that nobody could do what they’d just done.
I was a moron.
“Baby!” I called as I closed and locked the door, followed by arming it. “You can come out.”
I flipped on all the lights and started to have a look around just as Dory came out of the bedroom, looking worried.
“Come here,” I urged, gesturing toward her with the hand that was holding the flashlight.
She came running, burying her face into my neck and curling herself into my body.
Her belly pressed against my lower abs, and I felt the refreshing kick to my stomach that let me know that both of my charges were all right.
Despite my stupidity.
“What happened?” she asked worriedly.
“Someone was in the house,” I said quietly. “I let them in the house.”
“You didn’t,” she disagreed. “I heard you lock the door. And I remembered that I could do it from the app. So, I was the one who armed it.”
That terrified me.
“You sure?” I asked. “We have a good system. I’m not quite sure that it would’ve been easy to get inside if it’d been armed.”
“I’m mostly sure,” she admitted. “When I opened my app, I set it.”
She showed me exactly what she’d done, and I winced. “You have to slide it down and wait for it to turn red for armed before it’s fully armed.”
She sighed. “Shit. I’d seen you do it so many times from the app that I just assumed that was how you did it. I’m sorry. It’s my fault.”
I snorted. “It’s no more your fault than mine. But we did have cameras running. We can see who it was if they weren’t smart enough to cover it up.”
That’d been one thing that I always had running. The cameras that were on the front and the back of the house pointed at the doors.
Thirteen minutes later, I watched some man masturbate, then jizz all over the car door. The entire time, his face was obscured by a low hat, shielding almost all of his face but his jaw, which was clean shaven.
Five minutes after that, I come out with the trash, then washed it off with the hose.
“Gross.” Dory grimaced. “What the hell?”
“Same thoughts,” I grumbled as I looked around the house to make sure, again, that nothing had been taken or moved. “This guy I think knows you. You’ve probably seen him before for him to know where we live. For him to know where you lived before, too.”
“You think it’s the same guy?” she asked warily.
I looked down at her and said, “I think that you don’t make enemies. And it’s rare that you would have one, let alone two. So yes, I think that it’s the same guy.”
She breathed out roughly. “Then if that’s the case, I have no clue who it might be. I don’t talk to anyone but patients and my coworkers and you. The last guy that I saw was a nineteen-year-old. He was mad at me because I wouldn’t give him a work release. But he was Asian. This guy is whiter than a vampire.”
That was true.
He was quite pale.
His jaw seemed to glow in the moonlight as he’d violated our car.
“Must not get out much,” I admitted. “Otherwise, he’d have some color to him.”
I clenched my teeth and dropped my head, rubbing my forehead along the messy hairs escaping her bun.
“I have to get up in an hour,” I grumbled. “And there’s no way that I’m leaving you here alone today after that. That lazy fuck of a sheriff will be hearing from me, but I seriously doubt he does anything.”
She sighed. “How about you drop me off at work early. I have some patient notes I need to chart anyway. Dutch will be there within an hour because she sees patients early on Thursdays. And there’s no reason for you to go back to bed at this point. We’ll just have an early night.”
I grumbled my agreement under my breath, and we both split off to get dressed for the day.
After I was ready, I headed back to the kitchen and made myself a quick lunch, then started on breakfast.
I stalled out when I started to lay the bacon in the frying pan.
“Dory?” I called out. “If I make this, will you throw up?”
She started to laugh from behind me.
I turned to see her sitting at the bar, staring at me with her head in her upraised hands, elbows resting against the counter.
How long she’d been there, I didn’t know.
“I won’t throw up,” she informed me. “I’ve been doing really good since you started making it your life’s mission to fill me with sweets.”
My lips quirked. “Just wanting to fatten you up nicely so that our baby will grow big and strong.”
She smiled. “Bacon is fine right now. If that changes, I’ll head to work early.”
I rolled my eyes. “We need to figure this out with that creep. I sent out a message to Wake. Hopefully he messages me when he wakes up. I think I need to get with a few of his buddies and get them to work on our security system. If my brothers were here, I’d have them trade off following you around. I hate that you can’t go anywhere.”
She shrugged. “I think you’re confusing me with a normal woman. I’m introverted. Going out and doing things wasn’t ever something that I wanted to do. I only went half the time before because you wanted to go. I can’t say I ever really enjoyed hanging out. Being home here is more fun than anything for me.”
It hadn’t been her intention to make me feel like shit, but she did anyway.
“I’m sorry.” I winced, dropping the rest of the bacon into the frying pan. “I should’ve seen that you didn’t enjoy it.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and then leaned into the counter. “I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say.”
I walked over to the sink and washed my hands, then leaned my wet hands into the counter as I said, “Then what did you mean?”