Page 22 of Sweet Temptation

“You should have an alarm on the house,” I told Summer, backing him up. “We can discuss, beyond that.” It didn’t seem like right now was the best time to get into the finer details. One look at Summer made that clear. The woman needed the assorted men out of her house, and she needed sleep.

“We just don’t want this happening again,” Brody told her, gently. “One random break-in attempt, where the police were able to intervene, should be a warning. And we need to heed it.”

“I don’t think it was random,” she said softly.

“What?” Brody said.

She looked up at him. “His name is Blair Sanchuk.”

He stared at her, absorbing that, as I did. “Did the police tell you that?”

“They didn’t have to,” she said. “I saw his face.”

Well, shit.

Even though I already suspected that the intruder knew her, it made the hairs at the back of my neck stand on end to hear the truth.

She knew him.

Brody sat down on the stool next to her. “Summer. You know this guy?”

“Not really. I mean, I met him a bunch of times. He comes to my shows. He hangs around in the scene, you know? He’s never been here before. I’ve never invited him here. I don’t keep cash here or anything… I have no idea why he’d try to break into my house.”

Brody glanced at me.

I shook my head.

Now was not the time, so whatever he was thinking, I silently willed him to bite his tongue. Telling a woman in her pajamas that she just had some obsessed fan try to break into her bedroom was not what she needed to hear.

Brody had assumed it was just a random break-in attempt, and maybe the police did too, depending on what she’d told them. But this changed things. Complicated them.

I wasn’t gonna question her anymore right now, except for one thing.

“Did you tell the police that you knew him?”

Summer looked at me. “I don’t think so. It was a bit of a blur.”

I doubted that. If the police asked her, point-blank, if she knew the guy—and they would ask—I was pretty damn sure she’d remember whether she said yes or no. Whether she lied to the police or not.

I wasn’t sure how to read that.

Was she lying to me, and Brody, too?

“You’ll need to call the police,” I told her, “and request a restraining order.”

Summer looked from me to Brody. “But the police already arrested him. They’re taking him to jail, right?”

“I’ll talk to our lawyers in the morning,” Brody said. “And we’re putting a guy on you. A bodyguard.”

“I don’t need a bodyguard, Brody,” Summer protested.

I thought Brody might push back, but he didn’t. I took his cue, and we all just let it drop, for now.

Maddox left, and while Brody calmly explained to Summer that he was leaving a bodyguard with her tonight, that it was non-negotiable, and that they could discuss it further in the morning, I called a cab to come get Andre, who I’d almost forgotten about.

It was the middle of the night and we all needed sleep. Summer tried to argue with Brody for a bit, and I just stayed out of it.

The woman was clearly a fighter.

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