Page 48 of Rebel

“Don’t be like that. You know I’m not with you for the fringe benefits. I just like being with you and I’d be a fool not to at least offer you the opportunity to stay with me. I won’t get mad if you say no.”

Feeling guilty for being snarky with him, I immediately tried to make it right. “I’ll pack a suitcase. If I’m staying a few days, it makes sense not to have to worry about what I’m going to wear every day.”

“That’s my girl,” he said warmly, making me smile again.

I didn’t know why but when we pulled into my parents’ driveway, I started to feel really unsettled. Apparently, Rebel could tell something was up just by looking at my expression.

“What’s wrong, Lacey? You look like you just saw a ghost.”

We climbed out of the car and stood looking at the front of my parents’ house. It looked like it always did. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something was off. My Spidey senses were going off wildly, cautioning me to stay away.

“I don’t know. My gut instinct is telling me something is wrong.”

His hand went for the holster he wore at the small of his back, “Look carefully, Lacey. Is anything out of place?”

The closer I looked, the more I realized what my unconscious brain had been picking up. “The blinds are closed. My parents normally keep them open and close the curtains instead when they’re not at home.”

“Anything else?”

“Yeah, the chair near the door is turned at an angle. My mom likes to have the back flat against the house.”

“Alright, that’s enough. I’m going inside. If I don’t come out within fifteen minutes or if you hear gunfire, call the police.”

“Let’s just call the police right now. I don’t want you to risk your life when that’s what law enforcement gets paid to do.”

“Nah, I’m fine. Just remember what I told you and do it.”

“Okay,” I told him, not knowing what else to do. Watching him walk up the front sidewalk gave me chills. I told myself that I was being absurd but still couldn’t shake the bad feeling.

I knew something was terribly wrong when he reached out and shoved the door open. Jesus, the door was not only unlocked, it was ajar. He walked in with his gun held high. As the seconds ticked by, I didn’t hear gunshots or any noise that indicated there was an intruder. Eventually, he came to the front door again and motioned for me to come close. The look of stone-cold fury on his face played in my mind as I headed up the driveway and stepped into the house.

What I saw inside was a sickening reenactment of what went down at my office. Someone had broken into my parents’ house, only instead of totally trashing the place, they just made a huge mess when they ransacked the house. The thought occurred to me that whoever did this had more ground to cover and therefore didn’t really have time to commit the kind of destruction of property that took place at the office. Then I realized that if I hadn’t been staying with Rebel, I might have been home when they broke in.

I dropped down onto the sofa while Rebel called it in. My brain was working overtime trying to figure out who did this and what they could possibly want from me and my family. If I was being honest, this didn’t seem like something our former employees would do. Zoe and I had turned our attention in their direction for lack of better options. And Rebel had beenincredibly thorough in eliminating almost everyone else who might have harbored a grudge against me or my parents.

I was working so hard at trying to unravel the mystery in my mind that I didn’t realize he had called his club president rather than the police. I only figured it out when he used Storm’s name. I looked up at him, confused.

When his call ended, he announced, “My club brothers will be here shortly. They’re bringing our police contact from Griffinsford PD.”

“Why not call the police directly?” I asked.

Rebel shrugged, “You saw what a mess they made of your office and the half-assed investigation. Our contact is a good man. Having him be eyes on first at least gives us a chance of a proper investigation happening.”

It only took a second for my shock and disbelief at what had happened to give way to white hot fury. “I don’t know who in the hell is targeting my family, but I plan to get to the bottom of it.”

Rebel sat beside me. “I’ll be real honest with you, sweetness. That anger you’re feeling will be a lot more useful than that lost kitten, deer-in-the-headlights thing you do.”

I wanted to argue that I didn’t do that, but that would be a lie. My first response to trouble usually wasn’t all that helpful in terms of dealing with a crisis. In my own defense, I’ve never been through anything remotely this horrible before. Instead of admitting to that, I turned my head away.

When he put his arm around me again, I let him. I was angry at whoever did this, not at Rebel for pointing out the obvious. I didn’t want to misplace my anger, so I just let him hold me andtell me all about how everything was going to be okay. Inside, I was still simmering though.

Thankfully, it didn’t take Storm and their police friend very long to arrive. When they rang the bell, Rebel went to the door to let them in. Instead of coming in, the officer immediately wanted everyone outside. I walked to the door and followed them out.

Once on the porch, the officer explained. “I don’t know what went down with the investigation at your office. I’m the first officer on the scene here. That puts me in charge of the case. I’m going to control the scene because we don’t want to risk it being contaminated with extra fingerprints and DNA.”

Storm cut in. “Gimme a break. Our local police department ain’t gonna swab and process DNA evidence from a damn break-in.”

The officer shot him a dark look. “We have no idea what we’re dealing with. It could be a simple burglary, or we could find the occupants dead in the basement.”

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