Page 7 of Keeping Her Safe

His heart stopped when he heard the front door open with a squeak, and Zachary realized the bed was empty and cold. Where was she? Glancing at the bathroom door, he saw it was open, and the room was empty. Scanning the room, he saw a faint light coming from the closet. Jumping to his feet, he ran to the door and pulled it open, hoping it did not squeak. Lucking out, the doors silently opened to reveal Zephyr sitting against the wall, computer open on her lap, and giant headphones on her head. Faint music hummed from the headphones.

At the sight of him, her blue eyes grew wide behind round glasses in the light from the computer screen. Her mouth opened in an ‘O,’ but no words were spoken. In one move, he was in the closet with her, pulling the door shut behind him.

Turning with his gun in hand, he slowly closed the laptop, plunging the closet into darkness. He was practically sitting on top of her, holding the gun in his hands, pointing it at the door inches from his face. Behind him, he could feel Zephyr squirm, so he shifted slightly so that he wasn’t pushing her into the wall behind them.

The music had stopped when he had shut the computer, and he saw her pulling off the headphones from the corner of his eye. His eyes were focused on the unopened door. She was squirming again, and he realized he was pushing her into the wall. Instantly, she stopped moving when they heard the bedroom door creak open.

Suddenly, Zachary was torn. Should he stay in the closet and protect Zephyr or rush the guy and maybe let her get hurt? Or worse. The answer was as obvious as the nose on his face: he had to keep Zephyr safe, even if it means letting this guy walk today.

As Zachary listened to the man walking through the room behind the door, he could feel the heat from her body. Somehow, he had trapped her entire upper body between him and the wall. Her face was just behind his shoulder, and he could feel her breath on the bare skin of his back.

Silently, he chastised himself for being stupid enough to go to bed in just underwear. But the house had been so hot he didn’t think he would be able to sleep in anything else. Had he not thought the threat was real or just not immediate?

As the moments ticked by, Zephyr placed her hand on his bare thigh, and the touch nearly made him jump. How was he going to be ready when the door opened if all he could concentrate on was her hand on his thigh and her breasts against his back? He silently cursed as he felt blood rush to his groin. He would blame it on the situation out of the closet, not in it.

The footsteps made their way closer to them. Silently, he leaned back into Zephyr, hearing her squeak as he did. Before he could think about his plan, he raised his foot and kicked at the closed door with all the strength he had. The door flew off the hinge, sending the intruder sprawling back onto the bed.

Zachary Zephyr and had them out of the closet and across the room before the man had fully landed on the bed. Whoever it was had left the door open, and Zephyr yanked it closed behind her has he pulled her along. “Out,” he whispered at her. Why had he whispered? The guy knew they were there.

Grabbing his pants, he turned to make sure she was following, but she wasn’t. There she was, cradling her computer and reaching toward a shelf just out of her reach for something. Running over to her, he demanded, “What?”

“Vase.”

He spotted the green vase and grabbed it. “Now out.”

Following behind, he almost ran into her as she grabbed shoes from the floor by the door. Once they were outside, he glanced at her car to see the tires were flat. He led her to his car, which was parked on the street. He reached into his pants’ pocket and pulled out the keys, unlocked it, and hurried in.

He had it started in gear and moving before Zephyr got her door closed. After pulling out onto the street, he had the car doing fifty as he ran three red lights. It was just after four in the morning, and the streets were empty.

Checking the rearview mirror, he saw nobody was following, but he wasn’t taking his chances at this time. He was driving fast and on pure adrenalin.

Once they were two blocks from the house, he pulled out his phone and contacted his partner from work. Travis had known Zachary had taken the job of protecting Zephyr, though Travis didn’t really know who she was, just that the two of them had known each other through Brian. He informed his partner about the break-in, and Travis promised to get down there and look into the situation himself and report back to Zachary. With that, he hung up.

They had made it halfway from her beach house to his house in Tampa before he looked at his passenger. The small woman was still hugging the computer and vase to her chest. It surprised him she was not crying or reacting at all.

“Are you okay, Zeph?”

“Yes.” Her voice was a little shaky.

“Why the vase?”

She didn’t answer his question, but instead asked, “What happened to you?”

He looked at her, eyebrow raised. “What? Someone tried to kill you, Zephyr.”

“No, you have a pretty extensive bandage there.” Her eyes were looking at it as she spoke.

To his surprise, he hadn’t even noticed the wound during the ordeal in the closet, but now it was making itself known. Yesterday was the first day he hadn’t had pain from it. Today, it was going to bother him a little.

“I was shot last week on the job,” he replied coolly.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she whispered.

“Because I didn’t die, and we weren’t exactly talking before yesterday.”

“Would they have called me if you died, or would I have had to hear about it on the news?”

He paused before answering, “I don’t know, probably the news.”

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