Cora left her groceries in her car and slowly made her way towards the front door with her car keys in her hand,ready if she needed to make a quick getaway. She was walking up the front steps when she saw her front door was barely cracked open. What the hell? Did someone break in? But why wasn’t the security system going off? Why weren’t the police here? The security system she bought the other day promised her that once the alarm was tripped, police would be there in less than five minutes. She hadn’tbeen gone more than thirty. So where were the police cars?
Cora’s first instinct was the push the door open and see if someone was still there or if anything was missing but she didn’t want to contaminate any evidence. Cora stepped away from the door and locked herself in her car as she called the police. They arrived within a few minutes and did a sweep of the house. Once they proved no onewas there, they allowed Cora into her home to see if anything was missing. Cora looked around, but nothing looked out of place. It was as if whoever broke in just opened the door and left again.
“Ma’am does anything look to be missing?” an officer next to her asked.
“No, everything looks here.” That was a relief. She didn’t have money in her house, and most of her jewelry was cheap, so itwas easily replaceable. Her computer was what she was most worried about. She ran over to it and did a system check. There had been several log-in attempts, but it looked like her firewalls had held up. Whoever had broken in knew what they had been doing. They had tried getting around her security, which meant they had been in her home for a while. She would have to add a few more firewalls for extraprotection. “Can someone tell me why the alarm never sounded when the front door was opened?” Cora asked the officers standing in front of her.
A few looked around sheepishly before one spoke up. “Because it was never turned on, ma’am. We checked with your security provider, and you had set it but turned it off a few minutes after that.”
That was impossible. She hadn’t returned until shehad groceries. That was thirty minutes later not a few minutes. The fact it was turned off shortly after she left gave her pause. Someone had been watching her. Waiting for her to leave. Cora thought she was going to be sick. Her parents had taught her always to be aware of her surroundings. How had she missed a car parked out somewhere near her house? Hannah’s warning was coming back to bite her.
Could the person after Hannah or his people have done this? He was the only threat that she knew of. She didn’t have any enemies. She worked in security. She didn’t know anyone. She didn’t even meet all her clients. Most she met online through a referral. If it was the trafficker after Hannah why would he try getting on her computer? She didn’t know anything about him. There was nothing on hercomputer worth stealing to a trafficker. None of this made any sense. Liam had kept trying to get a hold of her to tell her something important, but she had brushed him off. Did he know who broke into her house? There was only one way to find out, but she couldn’t say she was happy about it. She had hoped to be done with Liam, but it seemed that was not meant to be.
Cora sat down thinking shewas going to be sick. How could she have the worst luck suddenly? She was sending the police on their way, after she gave her statement, when she heard a dispute on her front porch.
“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave. This is a police matter.”
“Fuck that. Cora,” The man shouted.
Liam? What was he doing here?
Cora came around the corner and saw two police officers trying to sendLiam away. He was starting to walk away when he saw her standing there. He turned back around and tried to force himself past them again. Knowing a fight would break out if she didn’t speak up soon Cora stepped out on the porch. “It’s okay. I know him. He can be here.”
Liamshrugged the hands off him and raced to Cora taking her in his arms. “What happened? Are you okay?”
His concern was sweetand Cora was thankful for the comfort he was giving her but she wouldn’t allow herself to get used to it.
“I’m fine. I came home from the grocery store and saw that the front door was cracked open. I immediately called the police.”
“Was anything missing?”
“No, but-” Cora looked around to see if anyone was listening to them before leaning towards Liam to whisper to him. “Someone tried toget on my computer.”
Liamlooked down at her confused as if he didn’t understand the significance of her statement.
“I’ll explain later.” She waved it off. She wasn’t willing to admit she needed help at least to Liam but he needed to know that she thought the man after Hannah was behind her break-in.
Once everyone left, Cora led Liam to her computer and showed him the log-in attempts andthe breaches to her security.
“I think the person after Hannah is responsible for this.” She watched Liam’s face for his reaction.
Liamturned his predatory eyes on her. “Why do you think that?” He asked with a guarded look. A look she knew all too well. He knew more than he was leading on.
“Hannah told me the man after her is a drug dealer and trafficker. You guys rescued her from him,and he killed your commander.” It was a watered down condensed version.
“Hannah was very forthcoming with details she wasn’t supposed to reveal,”Liamsaid evenly, but his hands were clenched at his sides.
“She probably didn’t know she was revealing something she wasn’t supposed to. It’s her life, Liam. She didn’t tell me anything about the mission. Only that you rescued her from him. That’son Ben to explain to her about national security and all that.” Cora was quick to defend Hannah. It wasn’t like dating a military member came with a manual of the dos’ and don’ts of what you could and couldn’t say.
“I’ll have a talk with Midas. We can’t have Hannah saying the wrong thing to the wrong person.”
“Will you listen to yourself? Hannah doesn’t know anyone here but me. Who is shegoing to tell? The grocery clerk? It took her a month just to tell me what happened to her and how she came to meet you guys. I doubt she would start shouting it from the rooftops.”
“Some things are meant to be secret. Our job being one of them. She needs to learn that. Even when talking to you,”Liamsaid harshly.
“You would know all about secrets, wouldn’t you?”
Liam’snostrils flared.His temper was rising, and soon they would be shouting at each other. It was an age-old argument between them. “I’m not going to rehash this with you, Cora. Everyone has secrets. Some more in-depth than others.”
