I had never felt safer or more cared for in my life.
When I woke up, he was carrying me upstairs.
“What’s going on?” I asked sleepily.
“Round two. My turn.”
The next afternoon,Anton and I sat in silence at the dining room table, working. He was using Axel’s glue gun to apply all the faux fur pieces to the fur balls. I was sitting across from him and working on the most intricate pieces, the Santa balls.
Bandit, who’d been asleep on his side, suddenly sat up and cocked his head toward the ceiling. I paused and listened but heard nothing.
“What’s up, Bandit?”
“What?” Anton was still focused on his ball.
“Bandit’s acting weird.”
He glanced at Bandit, who was listening intently at the ceiling. That made Anton stop and listen too.
Neither of us could hear anything, but Bandit kept staring at the ceiling.
Creak.
It was soft, but I heard something above our heads. Anton also heard it, because he quietly put down his stuff and motioned for me to hold on to Bandit while he went upstairs.
“Be careful,” I whispered, as I grabbed Bandit’s collar.
“Stay here.”
I watched in pounding silence while Anton crept up the stairs and disappeared from sight.
There was a tremendous crash and thump from upstairs, and then nothing. Bandit whined softly and licked his lips.
I walked to the bottom of the steps, still holding on to Bandit’s collar.
A huge man with a beard appeared at the top of the landing. Bandit immediately lost his mind, barking and lunging toward the staircase, which only slowed me down as I tried to move back into the kitchen.
“Anton!” I screamed, as I worked to drag Bandit away from the man.
He just kept coming. We had barely reached the kitchen and the man was already backing us into the living room.
I was half crying as I yelled at him over Bandit’s wild barking. “Who are you? Where’s Anton? Did you kill him?”
He grabbed Bandit by the collar and, ignoring my screams, dragged him out of the kitchen. I hit the man as hard as I could on his back but he didn’t stop until he had shoved Bandit outside and pulled the door shut. I only got two steps before he grabbed me, twisted me around and pushed my torso against the island with my hands behind my back. I could feel my shoulder extendwith a dangerous amount of tension. It hurt so bad I couldn’t even scream.
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Axel’s voice commanded from behind us.
The intruder let out a guttural laugh and then shoved me aside.
I scrambled behind the island and watched as they began to circle each other like big dogs. Then the man lunged. It was a flurry of fists, hits and terrifying violence. They were both exceptional fighters, and anything within reach became a weapon. I ducked and moved away in horror as pots, knives, and even Jordan’s heavy wooden cutting block were used in their attempts to inflict damage.
I spent most of the fight trying to get out of their way. I tried to exit out to the patio to get to Bandit, but they crashed the table against the doors.
I screamed and scrambled into the dining room.
They followed, crashing through the open bookshelf wall, sending shelves, books and glass decorations flying toward me.
I crouched behind the settee while the man pulled the television off the wall and heaved it toward Axel. I saw something that looked like a gun go flying and then get kicked under the coffee table, but then they both crashed on top of the table, with the assailant landing on Axel.
