Page 64 of Further To Fall

I grabbed the keys to my Rover just as I connected with dispatch. I gave the woman Carter’s address and the little information I had. “She’s alone. She’s all alone, and someone broke into her fucking house,again. You need to get someone there NOW,” I growled.

“Sir, we have a unit three blocks away. They’re en route now.”

I hung up and gunned it down my driveway. Liam was in the passenger seat and kept asking Carter if she saw anyone, and she clearly kept saying no.

“Okay, Carter, go talk to the cops. We’re ten minutes away.” He knew I’d be breaking all sorts of traffic laws to get to Carter. Liam tapped the screen of his phone and turned to face me. “She said someone trashed her room. What the fuck is going on?”

I gripped the wheel so tightly, I thought it might break in two. “I don’t know, but we sure as hell are going to find out.”

I wove in and out of traffic, causing more than one person to honk at me, but no cops tried to pull me over. The lights on two squad cars flashed as we reached Carter’s house. I threw my car into park behind the cop cars, not caring it was in the middle of the road and launched myself out of the SUV.

My eyes immediately found Carter surrounded by two cops, her arms were curled tightly around herself, and Blue stood at her side. Her head snapped up at the sound of my door slamming. She said something to one of the cops, handing the woman Blue’s leash as I rounded the squad cars. I recognized that I was running just before Carter’s body collided with mine. I held her tightly to me, cupping the back of her head. She was shaking, and I realized it was with tears. “I’m so sorry.” Her words were muffled by my shirt and her sobs.

I held her even tighter. “Baby, what do you have to be sorry for?” I was so confused.

“I was mad at you, and I didn’t talk to you all week. It was so stupid.” She was barely making sense, only getting out one word between every two or three hiccupped sobs.

I trailed a hand up and down her spine. “Don’t worry about that, everything’s going to be fine.” In that moment, every doubt about whether Carter and I could make this work melted away. Faced with the prospect of a single hair on her head being harmed, I knew I’d move Heaven and Earth to keep her safe, to keep her happy, and to keep her by my side.

Carter only started crying harder. “Why does this person hate me?”

One of the officers walked up then. “Should we call the paramedics? We might need to sedate her.”

I scowled at the guy. “Just give me a few minutes.” He nodded, and I lifted Carter up. She instinctively wrapped her legs around me. Walking a few houses away, I sat down on the curb. “Let it out, Firecracker, just let it out.”

She continued to weep as I just held her. Looking back toward the scene, I could see that Liam had a hold of Blue now and was giving a statement to the female cop.

Slowly, Carter’s sobs lessened, and she nuzzled deeper into my neck. “I love you, Austin,” she whispered.

I closed my eyes, soaking up her words. “I love you, too.”

“We don’t have the best timing for dropping the L-bomb, do we?” Her lips stretched into a smile against my neck as she said it.

“Never a bad time to hear those words from your mouth.” She pulled back, and I dropped a kiss to those perfect bow lips, lingering there.

When I retreated, she looked down at my shirt, one hand covered her mouth, but she was giggling. “Austin, I’m so sorry, I snot-cried all over your shirt.”

“Got other shirts, Firecracker.”

“That’s good because this one should probably be burned.”

I pulled her back into my chest. “You okay?”

“I am now.”

“Good. You want to tell me what happened?”

Before she could answer, the female officer approached. “How are you doing, Miss McCarthy?”

Carter blushed and tried to get off my lap, but I kept her firmly in place, not quite ready to let her go. “I’m fine now. Sorry about that meltdown.”

The woman smiled reassuringly at Carter. “Don’t worry about it, it’s completely understandable. Your home was violated in a very personal way.” My arms tightened around Carter at those words. She ran a hand over my buzzed hair as if to reassure me everything was okay, but it damn well wasn’t fine.

“What the hell happened?” I asked.

The officer, her name tag readOfficer Hollis, fixed her gaze on me. “Miss McCarthy’s bedroom was vandalized, and it was clearly a very personal attack. I was coming over here to let you know that given the other incidents, we’ve called in the Threat Management Unit. They specialize in stalking cases, and I think they will be able to best handle the situation. They have expertise and resources that the rest of the LAPD simply doesn’t have.”

Carter squeezed my hand. “Thank you. I really appreciate all your help. You’ve been so kind.”

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