“You don’t need to talk to her alone,” Kellan stated.
“Fucking hell,” Eli stated from the entrance to the living room. “Who the fuck would do this? What did they take?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have much. The most expensive thing I own is my laptop,” she said. “And it’s sitting in pieces.”
“Jesus, baby.” Eli walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her. “This is the last thing you need. All this stress can’t be good for you.”
“We shouldn’t be in here,” Jake said firmly. “Let’s go wait on the front porch for Duncan. I think I heard another car pull up.”
“We know how to treat a crime scene,” Kellan said.
To her surprise he drew her from Eli’s arms and carried her out of the house.
It felt better to get out into the fresh air and away from the house. Even if the evening sun did hurt her eyes. Closing them, she buried her face in Kellan’s chest. She heard a loud noise coming from somewhere but she couldn’t seem to figure out what it was.
“Is the sun hurting her eyes?” Eli asked urgently.
“Yeah,” Kellan replied.
“Being out here is no good, Jake,” Eli said. “The sun is hurting her eyes.”
Good Lord.
She was fine. They didn’t need to fuss so much.
“She should be in bed,” Kellan said.
“Hey, all. Is Arabella okay?”
Who was that? Oh, was it Duncan?
“She’s exhausted, she’s just out of the hospital after nearly dying, and now her place has been trashed and to top it all off, the sun is hurting her eyes,” Eli snapped. “So, no, she’s not all right.”
Poor Eli.
He sounded so stressed.
“Let’s get her to the hotel,” Kellan said.
“I’m all right,” she croaked. “It’s just a bit of sun. I’m fine.”
Kellan leaned into her. “I hate when you say that. Especially when you clearly aren’t. So stop saying it.”
Lord, he was so bossy.
“All right, you guys take her to the hotel,” Jake said. “Duncan and I will process this place and then come to talk to you all soon. That okay, Arabella?”
“Yes, that’s fine. Thanks, Jake.”
He patted her arm gently. “Don’t worry. We’ll find who did this. And we’ll figure out if there’s anything here that survived these assholes.”
She nodded. Right. That actually sounded good.
Without protesting, she let Kellan carry her to the car and set her into the passenger seat.
Then Eli produced a blanket from somewhere and put it over her legs. Even though it was a warm day.
Although she realized suddenly that she was shivering.
