"You'd better be. Keep me in the loop and don't worry about coming in today. I'll call Bonnie and see if she can come in for a few hours. She's been asking for a few extra hours so I bet she'll take them."
Dylan opened her mouth to argue but Gloria must have expected it because she didn't give her a chance to speak.
"No, Dylan. You're staying home and handling this today. Do what needs to be done and I'll see you the day after tomorrow."
"I can come in tomorrow," Dylan offered.
"No, it's one of your days off and you're going to take it."
Considering she'd probably be paying for an alarm system soon, Dylan didn't want to take the time off, but she probably needed to give herself a couple of days to figure out her next move.
"Keep me in the loop," Gloria repeated. "I'll talk to you later."
Dylan hung up and took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly. Now that her situation was sinking in, the stress threatened to overwhelm her. It was terrifying to think that there was a man following her. Watching her. And that he'd been in her house this morning.
She didn't have time to wallow in this right now. She had a statement to give, a window to board up, a mess to clean up, and plants to tend to.
When it was all over, she'd take a boiling hot shower and cry.
Until then, she had to take care of business.
ChapterSixteen
Clay was putting the finishing touches on the rocking dragon he'd made for his nephew when his cell phone rang.
Since the phone was hooked up to his Bluetooth speaker, which was blasting rock and roll, that meant the ringtone he'd assigned to Dylan scared the shit out of him. Clay hurried over to the bench that held his phone and his speaker and grabbed it.
"Hey. Did you make it to work on time?" he asked, smiling.
"Nope," she answered.
Her tone was tight. In fact, she sounded upset.
"What's wrong?"
"I know you have work to do today, but do you think you can come over?"
"To your house?"
"Yes. Someone broke the window on my back door and got into my house last night or this morning. He was waiting on me when I got home. The police are about to leave and I don't have any plywood to put over the broken glass pane." She paused, but when she continued, her voice was shaking. "They don't want me to be alone but my neighbor has to go to work in a couple of hours."
"I'll be there in a few," he said, already moving toward his toolbox to grab the things he'd need to help fix her door. "Are you sure you'll be okay with just your neighbor until I get there? I can have my dad come by."
"Yes, I'll be okay. The police will be here for a bit longer and my neighbor is armed."
"With a gun?"
"No, with her homemade replica of Lucille."
"Who's Lucille?"
"I'm not exactly sure, but it's a baseball bat wrapped in barbwire at the end."
"Oh, like fromThe Walking Dead."
"I guess so," she replied. "Thank you, Clay."
"Don't thank me until I finish fixing your door."
