Page 58 of Burn With Me

“Knock, knock,” Noah says as he walks in.

He locks eyes with Luna for a beat longer than the rest of us, and a blush creeps up her neck. If I wasn’t barely holding it together, I would ask her about it, but for now, I have to file that away for a later date.

“For the record, I think you’re here for nothing,” I say to him and cross my arms over my chest.

Luke throws his arm around my shoulder to pull me close, and his breath hits my ear. “Just let him look from a professional point of view, sweetness. We just want to make sure you’re safe.”

I glare at him over my shoulder. “This is pointless, it was probably just an accident with the construction.”

“Let Noah check it out. If it is, we’ll go from there, okay?” he says and kisses my forehead.

“Your forehead kisses won’t save you from my irritation for letting him call Noah to come here and waste his time.”

Noah looks over the door, and the more he looks, the more nervous I get.

After a couple of minutes, I start to bite my thumbnail, and then he turns around. With his hands on his hips, he pauses before his eyes meet mine. He’s in cop mode right now.

“In my professional opinion, Am, this doesn’t look like construction damage. This wasn’t picked, but if you look at the doorframe, the latch point has been tampered with so that it never fully engages. I think this was done on purpose, and it was done by someone who knows what they’re doing.”

Luke squeezes my arm as I stare at him in shock.

“Who would do this? There’s no one in town who doesn’t like her. Well, maybe Brian after last night,” Pam says.

Everyone talks around me, but my heart is beating so loud and fast that it drowns everything out.

Pam is right.

I can’t think of anyone who would be mad enough to do this.

It’s getting hard to breathe. My chest is tight, and my eyes burn as I try to hold back my tears.

I’ve worked so hard to get to this point in my life. What did I do to deserve this? I thought after I got established, the bad shit would stop.

I feel myself being picked up and taken into the office, but I’m too far gone into my panic attack to know what’s going on. Next thing I know, I’m sitting in Luke’s lap on the floor with Penny and Ginny.

“Breathe with me, sweetness. Match your breathing with mine.” His voice breaks through the wall of panic surrounding me as I try to match his breathing. “We’ll figure it out, okay? I promise it’ll be okay.”

“How? How do you know that? What did I do to deserve this?” I whisper as the tears continue to fall.

“Nothing. You did absolutely nothing to deserve this. We’ll look into alarm systems and get it all set up. We’ll also talk to Wayne, tell him what’s happening, and see if he can fix your door. You aren’t going to like it, but I think we should mention the window at your house to Noah. Just to be on the safe side,” he says, resting his head on mine.

“Why do you keep saying we? I can do this on my own, and I told you Pam probably opened the window and forgot to close it,” I say defensively.

“I know, but I want to help wherever I can so that you don’t have to do it all on your own. I’m not taking over. I’m just here to help. I just want you safe.”

A knock on the door makes me jump, and Noah walks in.

“Sorry to intrude, but I do recommend that I take your statement so that we can keep track of it. However, without cameras, this will just keep things on the record.” He pauses, and his look is full of sympathy. “I have to ask, but have you noticed anything weird? People acting differently around town or at any of the meetings you’ve gone to?”

“No, nothing really comes to mind. I mean, when I’m walking Penny at night by myself, I sometimes feel like someone is watching me, but I watch a lot of true crime, and we tend to listen to some true crime podcasts on our walks,” I admit.

He looks at Luke and then back to me, and he sits down in one of the chairs. “Do you always feel like this? Or is it just recently?”

“Well, most of the time, but more so the last couple of weeks,” I say, and Luke stiffens.

“Well, trust your gut. You might have heightened senses after listening to a podcast, but make sure you’re being smart out there. We live in a small town, but you still need to be cautious.”

“I found one of her kitchen windows open this morning, and she says she didn’t open it. Do you think that might be related?” Luke asks.

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