King went to the corner of the yard, and I kept an eye on her as I left, which was likely how I missed the car parked at the end of the road until it was too late.
***
“I’m going to fucking murder everyone that was in on this,” I muttered as I dragged my feet toward the large truck that would be taking us back to the station.
“You can’t,” Bourne said. “I’m first in line.”
“That would be my job,” Dax grumbled, his hands over his face. “I had about thirty minutes of sleep before we were called out.”
Dax had a baby.
I had an Amelia.
It was likely we’d both had the same amount of sleep last night, though I knew mine was a whole lot more exciting than his.
My phone rang, and I placed it to my ear as I plopped my ass down on the metal bench.
“Yeah?” I answered without bothering to look at who it was.
The familiar voice set my back straight.
“I can’t reach Amelia,” Silas said the moment that I answered.
I frowned. “She was pretty tired. When I left she complained of her head hurting. She said she was going back to bed and not waking up until it was time to go to lunch with me and my family.”
Silas chuckled.
“I delivered two restraining orders last night. One to Rogan Germain, and the other to Hilton Barnes. Neither one was very happy,” he muttered. “Are you heading home?”
I looked at my watch. “I am. I have to fill out some paperwork, but I can go check on her and then go back and do it.”
Silas said something under his breath. “She’s probably sleeping. Don’t worry about it. I’ll run over there on my way to Sam’s later.”
I pressed my hand against my eyes and rubbed hard. “Actually, we can roll by there before we even head home. It’s like five minutes from where we are. I’m sure the guys won’t mind.”
Silas drew out a relieved breath. “Sorry to scare you.”
No.
I wanted him to scare me.
When it came to Amelia, I would never be too cautious.
Chapter 20
There’s pissed off. And then there’s I’m about to kill you with a doorknob. I’ll let you decide which one Adam is feeling right now.
-Amelia to Rogan
Amelia
The doorbell ringing had me prying open my eyes despite the desire to never do so again.
I blinked a few times and peered at the clock.
Seven in the morning.
What. The. Hell?
I got up out of bed and shuffled my way to the door.
King, excited to be let out, met me there and wagged her little butt with excitement.
I peered through the peephole and saw Avery’s smiling face.
She was holding a canvas-wrapped something.
Frowning, I opened the door and cursed when the alarm started saying ‘disarm system now.’
“Shit,” I cried. “Shit, shit, shit.”
Leaving the door open, I hauled ass to the alarm panel and inputted my code, shaking my head when it finally stopped threatening to go off.
“Sorry,” I said when I met Avery in the living room. “I’m not all with it today.”
Avery grinned. “I got this, and I had to bring it over to you the second I saw that it’d arrived. Open it!”
My head was pounding as I took the wrapped whatever it was from her and placed it on the counter.
With slightly shaky fingers, I ripped open the packaging and gasped the moment I saw what was hidden behind the paper.
“Oh,” I whispered, tears filling my eyes. “This is beautiful, Avery!”
She grinned. “I had a tough time trying to decide which one to give you. I have a camera card full of great pictures. But this one just spoke to me.”
‘This one’ was the photo of me on the counter where Adam was feeding me the icing off of his fingers.
It was exquisite and erotic, and I loved the hell out of it.
“It’s beautiful,” I breathed as I walked to the wall and held it up. “I need nails.”
Avery snickered. “I would offer to help you, but Derek took the nails away from me when I continued to hang up random photos of us all on the walls. He said he didn’t like looking at so many pictures of himself.”
I grinned and carefully placed it down on the ground where it leaned against the wall. Then I walked over to my friend and hugged her tight.
“Thank you so much, Avery.” I pulled back and looked at her. “I don’t think I would’ve ever found Adam if you hadn’t steered us in the right direction.”
She winked. “The chemistry that day was off the charts. I had to keep thinking of reasons to get y’all to stay. And to leave y’all alone for a while.”
I threw my head back and laughed. “That obvious, were we?”
She fanned herself with her hand.
“More than.” She shook her head. “Sadly, I have to go back home. The baby will wake in about twenty minutes.”
I gave her one last hug and then followed her to the door.
King, who didn’t bother getting up off her perch on the couch, blinked at me as I passed.
The moment Avery was out the door, I closed it softly behind her and turned to look at the dog and said, “We should go on a walk or something.”
The dog closed her eyes and refused to look at me.
I rolled my eyes and took that as a sign that I should go back to bed.
I looked at the front window one last time, thinking that it was kind of dark, and it’d be just my luck if I took King for a walk and it started to rain.
Solidly on the ‘not walking’ plan now, I stopped to admire the photo of Adam and me one more time before I took a step in the direction of the bedroom.
My eyes were on the floor. The kitchen and living room had a blonde wood that was a light gray oak, and the hallway into the bedroom and bathroom had a darker stained wood of the same color. My feet were solidly on the two different types when the front door was opened.
Excited now, my head jerked up thinking I was going to see Adam walking in.
Only, it wasn’t Adam. It was Hilton Barnes.
Fear slithered through my brain as I made a mad dash for the bedroom.
Only the moment that I got to the threshold, I slammed off of a hard body and fell back on my ass.
I gasped as I stared up at Rogan Germain.
“Do you know how much fucking ruckus you stirred up?” he asked. “Do you know what it’s going to do to my image? A fucking restraining order is going to ruin me!”
I swallowed hard.
I didn’t know what to say.
The man was in my house, and he wasn’t alone! What if I said the wrong thing?
My father and brothers had taught me a lot on how to survive. The only problem was, there was no way that I could fight back. Two against one was never going to happen for me. I had to try to stall.
Except, before I could think of something to say, Hilton’s fist met my temple and I was out cold.