Page 27 of More Than A Boss

“This cat is dangerous,” Zane joked.

“Don’t I know it,” Allie said, trying to match his light tone.

“We’re going to ride over to the Havers’ house to see if they are there, since I wasn’t able to reach them last night. I just tried again and same thing, straight to voicemail,” he said worriedly.

“We?” Allie asked, eyebrows raised.

“Yes, Allie, ‘we.’ You’re coming with me. I’m not leaving you alone at this point. We can reevaluate after we have more information,” he said firmly.

Walking over, he tilted her head back with his index finger and kissed her pouty lips, then sucked her lower lip into his warm, moist mouth.

“Allie don’t argue about this please,” he said quietly.

“I don’t want to be alone anyway. I just object to your bossiness!” she replied.

“I’ll make note of that,” he grinned devilishly.

“Do that!”she responded saucily.

Laughing, he grabbed their jackets from the coatrack and threw Allie’s at her, which she managed to catch. He double-checked the locks on the French doors and kept the curtains pulled shut. “Onward,” he said. Opening the front door, they headed to his Dolomite-brown Mercedes-Benz.

Pulling into Will’s drive, the place looked deserted. They both exited the car and proceeded to the front door. After knocking for several minutes and calling out loudly, Zane walked to the front window and tried peering in through the crack in the curtains. He couldn’t see much, but it appeared to be abandoned. Zane reached for Allie’s hand and, intertwining their fingers, he held on as they walked around to the backyard. Allie discovered it first and cried out, pointing at a busted-out window and back door gaping wide open. Zane released her hand and pulled out his phone, dialing 911 as he walked toward the open door.

He drew his gun and peered inside. It had obviously been ransacked. Kicking the door open wider, he put his index finger to his lips and motioned for Allie to back up against the outside wall of the house as he entered, crouching down and doing a crablike walk to make himself a smaller target.

Zane looked around with dismay at the destruction. Everything appeared to have been pulled out of drawers and shelves and tossed around. The refrigerator had its contents emptied onto the tiled kitchen floor, obviously just an act of maliciousness. As he moved further into the house, he soon realized that nothing had come out unscathed. The mattresses in the bedrooms had been sliced through, dressers overturned, curtains ripped from their rods, baby crib toppled over. In bright red lipstick on the bathroom mirror, someone had written, “SNITCHES DIE.”

Whoever had been there was now gone. The police arrived moments later with sirens off but lights swirling, and they began to take inventory of the mess before them. Since there was no blood and no bodies at this point, they assumed it was a simple breaking and entering with vandalism. Zane explained that he had been unable to reach his client since yesterday. The threat on the mirror coupled with the dead possum at Allie’s last evening indicated something more ominous. He suggested that they might want to consider this a crime scene and possible kidnapping.

The officers looked at each other and agreed to put crime scene tape around to protect any evidence and to call in a forensics team to check for fingerprints and blood that might not be visible to the naked eye. Satisfied with their plan of action, Zane and Allie left the scene.

Discussing what their next move should be proved frustrating. Zane felt Allie was being arbitrary and stubborn, while she thought he was being bossy and unreasonable. He wanted her to stay at his house until things calmed down, and she thought they would be just as secure at her house. Zane argued that he had a state-of-the-art security system, with cameras covering his whole property. Every door, window, or point of entry was monitored 24/7. In addition, he could observe everything from inside the house to see who came and went, and he could even surveil from a distant location. It was impossible for her old farmhouse to be as safe as his home since he had designed it with security in mind he argued.

“What about Kit Kat?” she asked contrarily.

“What about her? We put her in her crate, buy a new litter box, and move her right on in,” he said reasonably.

“What about my birds and squirrels?” she asked, losing steam.

“Allie, they will find another source of food supply. They’ll understand after I leave them a note explaining,” he said, trying to get her to smile.

She did smile slightly, then caving said, “I’ll have to pack some clothes and shoes.”

“Of course. We can go back to the house now and pick up Kat, and you can grab a few things. The sooner we get you out of there, the better. Deal?” he asked, proffering his hand.

“Deal,” voice a little wobbly, she shook on it.

—

Allie cried softly as she closed the front door of her farmhouse, not knowing when she would return. Kat was making her displeasure known, howling from the backseat of Zane’s SUV, safely enclosed in her crate.

Zane was all business now, determined to get Allie to his house as quickly as possible. “All set?” he asked, suddenly noticing her tears.

“Hey, you.” Turning her head and wiping her tears with his thumb, he coaxed her to look at him. “You’ll be back. It’s not forever, it’s just for now. It won’t be so bad. I promise I won’t hog the TV remote,” satisfied when he got a small smile for his effort. “When we get to the house you should start making phone calls to your family and friends, filling them in on what’s going on,” he suggested.

She nodded, then took a deep breath, as if shaking off the gloom, and turned around to the howling Kat and said, “Kit Kat, it’s just a little change of scenery here. No worries!” Then they pulled onto the road, headed to their new temporary home.

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