The day had been way too long. The press conference had taken a lot out of me, but then there were meetings after and security plans. My head was still buzzing from the fluorescent lights and too many voices talking at once.
Steam filled the small bathroom, fogging the glass that encased the shower. I braced my forearm against the tile wall and closed my eyes.
Immediately, I thought of her.Palmer.Particularly the way she’d flushed when I’d mentioned showering.
My mind replayed exactly how she’d stepped back, like I’d said something indecent. There’d been heat in her face, and I felt it too. That warmth hit low in my stomach…and then lower than that.
I gritted my teeth.
“Shit,” I muttered under my breath.
I should’ve taken a cold shower.
I didn’t know what it was about being alone with her lately, but my body reacted before my brain ever got a say. I wanted to kiss and hold her, though I hadn’t done so since she’d returned from the safe house.
I took a few deep breaths. I needed to stop lusting over my goddamn nanny. I straightened, dragging a hand down my face. That was easier said than done when she was the one woman who stirred feelings inside me that had been dormant for a better part of a decade.
Quickly, I washed off and shampooed my hair. I was eager to be back to her to help with dinner. No matter what she said, her hands must be painful.
I had cut off the water and stepped out onto the bathmat, when an alarm exploded through the house.
My head snapped up. For half a second, I didn’t move. Then, my entire body went cold with dread and panic. Heart slamming against my ribs, I checked my phone. A red flashing notification from the security app alerted me to a front window breach.
I yanked on a pair of sweatpants with wet hands, not bothering with a shirt before moving straight for the gun safe in thecloset of my bedroom. It popped open the instant it scanned my thumbprint, and I snatched up the Glock and pushed in the clip.
The alarm kept screaming, so loud my ears hurt. I chambered a bullet as I ran down the hall toward the stairs.
Only one thing was on my mind.Palmer.
A crash echoed from below, and I hit the stairs two at a time, gun raised, adrenaline flooding every vein in my body.
The living room was chaos.
One of the front windows was shattered. Cold air poured in through jagged glass. An armchair and side table were toppled over, but Palmer wasn’t there so I didn’t linger before rushing into the kitchen.
Broken plates and cutlery were scattered across the long table and on the floor. A chair lay tipped backward, with one leg broken. One of the cabinet doors hung open and crooked, hanging by a hinge.
My vision tunneled.
I swept the room, gun steady, checking corners automatically. My limited security training took over while my brain screamed. The stove was on and something bubbled in the pot on the burner, but Palmer was nowhere to be seen.
The back door stood open. Snow swirled in over the threshold, freezing my heart.
I moved, flying outside and scanning the yard. Footprints cut through the snow, leading away from the house toward the tree line. It was one set of them. Just one, but my stomach dropped.Where the hell was she?
Did he carry her?
Did he— No.
I forced air into my lungs and backed into the house.
Sirens wailed in the distance now. Close, but not close enough.
“Palmer!” My voice cracked as I screamed her name, waiting for a response that did not come.
She couldn’t be gone. She wasn’t.
I cleared the living room again, then the entryway and the library room across from it.
