Page 51 of Sheltered By Love

I stay riveted to the floor as he removes all his clothing until he’s standing in his boxers revealing every inch of his well-toned body.

Like the pervert I accused him of being, I stand leering at him until he steps into my shower and disappears behind the curtain.

Zane

I make it to Mom and Dad’s old room when a flustered Felicity rushes past clutching her tool kit to her chest.

“You’ve got to stop treating my house like it’s still yours,” she squeaks.

I step back and give her room as she takes off down the stairs before I can say a word.

Still shaking my head, I enter, ready to begin my laborious task of going over the footage just in case, and pause as I see my laptop and night vision goggles at odd angles.

For a second, I think someone’s been in here, somehow circumvented the alarms until I spy a gold hoop earring Felicity must have dropped.

I take a seat, place my phone on the desk, and pull up the footage while I dial Garrett.

“Any movement on your end?”

“Nada. How about you?”

“I’m just going over the tapes now. I’ll let you know if I see anything.”

He half grunts, half sighs. “Let’s hope you do. The chief’s getting grief on this from the council, so I’m getting grief. Not like this is the only thing I have to do.”

He fills me in on another couple of cases he’s working on and swings back to our Search and rescue op this morning.

“How’s Noah’s mom?”

“Pleased he’s home safe. Can’t say the same about his dad.”

I shake my head as I scroll through the footage showing me leaving in a hurry. “He told me two months ago he was putting an emergency beacon, a white light, and an air horn in that dinghy.”

He mutters something under his breath. “I’m sure the coast guard will have something to say when they look into this.”

I keep my eyes on the screen, watching the footage at double speed so I get through it faster.

Nothing happens until Nicki shows up around twenty minutes after I left and the rest of the house shows no one was anywhere near it the whole time we were gone.

“Felicity’s thinking about going to the dance next week.”

“And you encouraged her to?”

“Ayuh. If she makes it known in advance she’s going, they may make a move and it’s safer if she’s not here.”

He’s quiet for a minute. “People saw you talking. And they saw you leave together.”

On-screen Felicity and Nicki fill Nicki’s Honda with cookies and take off, leaving me with nothing but a stray cat to watch.

“So?”

“So, think about it. News travels. If anyone assumes you and Felicity are an item, they’ll think robbing her isn’t a viable option anymore.”

Dammit.

Why the hell didn’t I think about that?

“I have an idea. It’ll serve two purposes. I can send someone to watch the house until you can get back,” Garrett says.

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