Page 98 of Sweet as Sin (Bad Habit 1)
I decided I wanted to stay right where I was.
Five minutes passed. Then ten. After twenty minutes, my nerves were shredded. I was just about to throw open the door and make a run for it when Nico knocked on the closed bathroom door.
“Baby. Open up.”
When I did, Nico pulled me into a brief, hard hug. “You okay?”
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I nodded. “What did the cops say?”
“They wanna talk to you for a minute. Put somethin’ on.”
Hurrying to the clothes I’d left in a pile on the floor beside the bed, I dressed quickly while Nico pulled on jeans and a T-shirt.
“Did they find anyone?”
“No.” He paused to run a hand through his hair. “Went through all the rooms. Nobody’s here but us. You sure you saw—”
“One thousand percent sure,” I said firmly.
“Okay, baby,” he murmured, drawing closer. He gave me another hug. “C’mon downstairs.”
Nico took my hand. I followed him silently through the house, which was now lit up like a Christmas tree. Lights blazed in every room, making me feel safer, if not entirely safe. Even though Nico assured me no one was in the house but us, I was still frightened.
What if they’d forgotten to check a closet? Or behind a bathroom door?
A cluster of uniformed officers were conferring in the foyer. They turned when we neared. One of them, the one in charge I gathered, nodded to me. “Miss Reid?”
“Yes.”
Nico stood behind me, his chest touching my back, his hand warm support on my hip. I leaned into him, grateful for his strong presence.
“Reynolds.” The lead cop offered his hand, and I shook it. Then he got right down to business. “Can you give us any information about the intruder’s appearance? Clothing? Height? Anything like that?”
Officer Reynolds looked like he’d been on the job a hundred years. The others with him were much younger, but he had a weathered face, iron gray hair, and sharp eyes that didn’t miss anything. I trusted him immediately.
“It was too dark for me to see much of anything. He was just standing there right outside the door.” I swallowed. “Watching us.”
“You’re sure it was a male?”
“Women don’t stand like that. Legs open, arms a little away from the body, like a bodybuilder. Plus with the height and build . . . it was a man.”
Reynolds nodded thoughtfully. He glanced at Nico. “How many people have your alarm code?”
“No one. Just me.”
Reynolds’s gaze snapped back to mine. “Well, you got a problem, then, son. We just spoke to your alarm company. They said someone disabled the system by entering your code into the keypad in the garage. Got the code right on the first try.”
As Nico cursed, my hand flew to cover my heart. I went cold with fear. “Wouldn’t a break-in to the garage have triggered an alarm?”
Nico’s voice was dangerously hard. “There’s a ten-second delay after an outside door’s opened. The alarm only sounds if you don’t enter the code.”
Reynolds nodded. “We’ll review the video feeds from around the property. Should be able to get back to you shortly to let you know what we find. In the meantime, call your security company and reset the code. We’ll keep a unit posted at the gate.” He paused. “The gate code different than the house code?”
Nico replied that it was.
“Change that too. Whoever it was didn’t come through the gate, but you can’t be too careful. Might want to think about getting a dog, too.”
