Page 25 of Break The Ice

Raider laughs as he walks out of the room.

I stand there clenching my fists, frustrated and horny. Why is he so hot? It’s criminal.

I stalk after him, ready to rip him a new one. I’m at the bottom of the stairs when the doorbell sounds.

The instinct to disappear silently grabs me. My hand clenches on the rail as I run through my options. At the end of the day, I do what I know. I frown and move down the hallway and duck into the bottom floor bathroom.

“Hello, Officers,” Wren says. “How can I help you?”

“Hi, Wren. Well, first things first, outstanding game on the weekend. My kid was screaming his little butt off.”

Wren laughs.

The other says something, but I can’t hear properly. I sneak out of the bathroom and duck into the kitchen, making sure I’m hidden safely behind the fridge.

“We’ve come about a report?”

“A report?” Wren asks.

“Yeah, some anonymous tip off that you guys have a girl here who might be getting abused.”

My body floods with super heat and then goes ice cold. I hold on to the side of the fridge just in case I manage to fall.

“That’s a really rough accusation,” Wren snaps. “You know us!”

“We know, and we wouldn’t have come, but we, well, really, the person who dropped the tip heard screaming.”

Did I scream? I might have. I can’t remember.

“So, you need to look around?”

“Yeah, look, it would be easier this way. We don’t want to have to go back for a warrant.”

No, no, no. Don’t look around. Go, leave. There’s nothing here.

“Do you even have evidence, or is this because I totaled Branson’s truck?”

There’s some muttering, but I really need to hear the story now. Curiosity was always my downfall. When they speak, I almost let out a squeak, surprised by how close they’ve gotten while I’ve been locked in this need to glean more about my hosts.

The police enter the kitchen, and I pad quickly to the hallway that leads outside.

“We don’t have a woman here,” Wren snaps.

A hand slides up my ribs and pulls me back. I go with him, recognising Raider’s intoxicating peppermint. He quietly opens the back door and pushes me outside.

There’s no time to acknowledge the terror. I shove it aside, quickly get my bearings, and am three steps away when Raider hisses at me.

“Go hide!”

I nod my head, and with a quick look back at the house; I face the forest that backs up their quiet suburbia and take off towards it. They even have their own little fence. With a code. I mutter about wool-headed alphas and yank myself up and over.

Just in time, too, because I’ve no sooner got behind a tree than the back door opens. The two police men wander out, looking around and doing an absolutely terrible job of being officers.

Callan comes out and leads Kit, who looks awful.

“You can go look in my workroom. Sorry, I didn’t know it was important,” Kit murmurs.

“Making another dress, Mogel?”

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