Page 10 of Knight Before Christmas

“I-I don’t know. I wasn’t gone that long.” I stand up. “How could this have happened?”

“Is there anything else?” I follow his big, comforting figure, not willing to let him out of my sight. But he whips around when he goes into the storage room, his big hands on my shoulders bracing me. “I don’t think you should go back there.”

I push past him and when I walk into the store room, I feel relief for one brief second. There’s no damage in here.

But then I see the red paint on the bare brick wall by the window. My face pales and I sink down to the ground, stunned.

I’m coming to get you, bitch! You’re mine! is scrawled on the wall in thick red paint, dripping like blood down the brick.

“You stay there, raindrop. I’ve got to call your brother. Hopefully this asshole left prints or something. Just don’t move. We’ve already contaminated the crime scene enough as it is.”

I hear his words. But I can’t respond. All I can do is stare at the wall, the words eating into my soul and tearing at my nerves.

I’ve never hurt anyone in my life. Why would they want to hurt me?

I must have said it out loud because Knight squats next to me, chafing my ice-cold fingers. “People are strange animals, raindrop. Who’s to say why they do what they do.”

I nod and gulp but I can’t see anything past those words on my wall. And that’s when I realize that there is something worse than the way Knight makes me feel.

Fear. Bone-chilling, mind-bending terror that someone out there that you don’t know wants to hurt you and you’ll never see it coming.

CHAPTER 8

Grayson

Her face is pale and I don’t think she’s said more than one word at a time since we walked into her shop and realized how bad things are gonna get. Or have gotten. Seems like we’re in the midst of a massive storm of anger boiling over and someone’s about to get hurt.

It’s my goal to make sure that the person who is doing this is the only one that’s gonna get hurt.

I pull up outside of Raine’s house and park my car, turning to look at Raine. I’ve never seen her so quiet and unmoving. Usually she’s laughing and talking, her hands waving around like she needs them to be moving to talk.

I volunteered to bring her home and since Colt had an emergency call that came in, he agreed that I should take her in. Especially since I live right next door. I would have parked in my own driveway and walked her across but she’s so out of it, I’m not sure she’d even know what was happening. She’s…in shock.

I’ve seen it many times. Victims that have no idea why something happened to them, what they did to bring the wrath of someone down on their heads.

I study her for one minute more, not really sure what to do for her. I just know that I desperately want to take care of her. And I also want to kill the person who did this to her. With my bare hands in the worst way possible.

I reach across and she jumps when I touch her hand gently. “Hey, raindrop. Let’s get you home.” She nods but still doesn’t say anything and I really want to hear her voice. I miss the sound more than I ever thought I’d miss something in my life.

She turns towards the door and then just stops, staring at it like she doesn’t have a clue what to do. I sigh and step out of my car, running around to the door and opening it, holding out my hand to her.

“Come on, raindrop. I’ve got you. You’re gonna be just fine.” She barely glances at me but I know she hears me because her fingers tighten on my hand and she follows me without question.

We walk up the sidewalk to her house and she stops, staring at it blankly. At this point, I just don’t think that she can be left alone by herself so I lean down and pick her up, carrying her over to my place. “I think you’ll be safer over here with me, raindrop.”

Still silent, she reaches over and rests her head on my shoulder, her eyes closing, a single tear trailing down her alabaster cheek, breaking my heart into a million pieces.

“Oh, raindrop. Don’t you worry, baby. I’ve got you and nobody’s gonna hurt you. They’ll have to get through me and I’m a bit of an asshole.”

I groan and settle her deeper into me, fighting the urge to lean down and take that sweet mouth of hers with mine.

I open my door and settle her on my couch before I lean down and kiss the top of her head, petting her soft curls gently.

“You stay right here. I’ve got to go get my car and check the windows and doors. Then we’ll get you in bed for the night. You’ll feel better in the morning.”

I wish she would respond but she just nods and sighs, leaning back on the couch and staring off into space.

I rush over and move my car to my driveway, then I walk inside, checking the doors and the locks on all the windows. I installed a security system as soon as I moved in and I check to make sure that all the sensors and cameras are armed and good to go.

---