“You cook?” He seemed surprised.
She shoved her glasses up on her nose and hooked her hair back over her ear. “My grandmother grew up on a farm outside Dallas. She was a fantastic cook. She raised me, so yes, I like to cook.” She smiled. “I’m really good at it.”
A low groan slipped from Jax’s throat. “What if we stop at the store and pick up whatever you need?”
She laughed. “We don’t have to do that. I keep a lot of stuff in the pantry. I can make pasta or something. Do you like Italian?”
“Hell, yes.”
She smiled. “I’ll make a salad to go with it and we’ll be fine.”
Except that when they got to her home and Mindy found her front door pried open, thoughts of supper shot right out the window. The entire apartment looked as if an earthquake or a tornado had totaled the place.
“OHMYGOD!”
Jax’s HK45 slid easily out of its holster. “Stay here.” He started forward, the gun gripped in both hands, panning the living room for any sign the intruders might still be there.
“Oh no, Muffin!” Mindy bolted forward, but Jax’s arm shot out, blocking her way.
“I said stay here!” he said sharply, but softened his tone when she shrank back from him. “Let me check things out first, make sure it’s safe, okay? I’ll be right back.”
Her color returned, and she nodded. He made a sweep of the apartment, checking the bathrooms, under the bed, the closets, but whoever had been there was gone.
The apartment was in complete disarray, sofa and chairs overturned, drawers left open, the books on the shelves knocked onto the floor. The place was a mess, but it wasn’t vandalized. The apartment had been methodically and thoroughly searched.
He found Muffin beneath an overturned chair next to the kitchen table, holstered his weapon, knelt and extended a hand. “It’s all right, sweetie. You’re okay.”
The cat meowed and crept slowly toward him. Jax stroked a hand over her fur, then scooped her against his chest. When he looked up, Mindy was standing in the kitchen doorway.
Unlike his SEAL teammates, clearly she wasn’t afraid to disobey his orders. He almost smiled.
“She’s okay.” He handed her the cat, which she cuddled against her full breasts. He had never been jealous of a cat before. He sighed. There was a first time for everything.
Her hand shook as she stroked the cat. “She’s all I really care about.” She sniffed and dragged in a shaky breath, but didn’t cry. “The rest is just stuff.”
Her positive attitude was one of the things he liked best about her. “That’s exactly right.”
“Do you...do you think the break-in is just a coincidence? Teenagers, maybe, who did this for fun?”
The front door had been jimmied open, probably with a crowbar. “I don’t believe in coincidence,” he said. “And teenagers might vandalize your place for some warped idea of fun, but this place was searched. Whoever did it was looking for something.”
“What?”
“No idea.”
“Should we call the police?”
It was definitely a crime scene, and probably linked to the abduction attempt. They needed to phone Lieutenant Gunderson. Maybe the CSIs could come up with some prints or something. He’d get to it, but he preferred to stay one step ahead.
“First I want you to take a look around, see what’s missing. Try to touch things as little as possible.”
She nodded, started walking around the apartment, surveying the damage. Things were moved and overturned, the medicine chest emptied into the bathroom sink, the kitchen canisters dumped out on the counter. The desk in her bedroom had been thoroughly searched.
She sighed as she walked back into the living room. “Good thing I had my laptop with me.”
“Yeah.”
She glanced at the destruction in the apartment. “They made a terrible mess, but they didn’t go out of their way to destroy things for no reason. Most of it can be put back the way it was.”
