Page 46 of Serve ’N’ Protect

“Will this be assigned to a detective?” Markus asked.

The woman nodded. “There’ve been a few burglaries in town lately, but none on this street. I’ll make sure this report gets in front of the detective working that case. We’ll also canvas the area around the house, in case he left any footprints or dropped anything.”

“Are there any street cameras in the direction of Point Lookout Road?” Markus asked. Point Lookout Road was the first major street Chesapeake Bay Retriever Lane ran into.

Trooper Collins chuckled. “You must not be from around here.”

“I just moved in,” Markus answered.

“This is a pretty rural part of the state. There are no cameras on this street, and even if one of your neighbors has a door cam, the houses are too far apart to pick anything up. But it was a good thought. Learned that on one of those cop shows, did you?” She arched a brow.

“There’s one more thing,” Markus said, ignoring the trooper’s comment. “A couple of weeks ago, her ex-boyfriend came to the house. He wanted to reconcile. She didn’t. His name is Hugh. He’s about five-eleven, 180 pounds, with blond hair and blue eyes.”

“You don’t really think…” Cassidy trailed off as the possibility took root. “I don’t believe it. He wouldn’t hurt me.”

Markus gave her a pointed look at her choice of words. He had hurt her, terribly.

The cop’s pen poised over her pad. “What’s Hugh’s last name?”

“Brady.” Her shoulders sagged. “He owns Brady Construction.”

“We’ll talk to him,” the trooper said. “I’m sorry this happened to you. We’ll be in touch tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” Cassidy managed, numbness settling in, along with her dire financial predicament. She still couldn’t believe Hugh would ever do something like this.

A moment later, the police filed out and the door shut. The blue-and-red strobes that had been lighting up the street were turned off, then the police cars drove away.

Cold air streamed in through the broken window and she shivered. Ghost laid his head in her lap, gazing up at her with understanding, sympathetic eyes. She scratched his ears, taking comfort from both Markus and his dog.

“C’mon.” Markus stood and held out his hand. “You’re sleeping with me tonight.”

Huh? His words snapped her out of her pathetic woe-is-me doldrums faster than her brain could calculate one plus one.

“You can take my bedroom. I’ll sleep in one of the guest rooms.”

Oh, right. Idiot. Not as in sleep with him tonight, just sleep in his house.

“Let’s go. It’s getting colder in here by the second.”

Only then did she notice his feet were bare, and the only clothes he wore were sweatpants and a T-shirt. Might as well take him up on his offer. Even if the window hadn’t been broken, her house felt so…violated.

She slid her hand into his, feeling the warmth of his long fingers closing around hers and liking that feeling more than she should.

Not long after, she lay in Markus’s king-size bed with the covers tucked up to her chin. The bedside clock numbers glowed red and clear. It was 3 a.m. She’d been to the bathroom twice for a glass of water, and now she was right back to where she’d been thirty minutes ago. Twisting and turning, trying to find a position that would render sleep and not put too much pressure on her goose egg. Exhausted though she was, sleep refused to come. Her mind kept replaying the shock and biting fear when she’d realized someone was in her house, followed by getting dragged down the stairs and the stinging pain of getting punched in the face.

With absolutely nothing better to do, she shifted onto her side, burying her face in the pillow and inhaling Markus’s woodsy, spicy, citrus scent. And maybe a little gun leather from where his holster had been sitting on the table.

He and Ghost were sleeping not twelve inches away in the guest room on the other side of the wall. Not for the first time, she wondered if he really slept in the nude.

Erotic visions of what his naked, powerful body looked like without a stitch of clothing swam before her eyes. Oh, come on, girl. If sleep was the goal, thoughts like that wouldn’t help any.

“That’s it,” she muttered, throwing back the covers. The only thing that might help was, of course, chocolate. Even if it didn’t, a few ounces of sweet chocolaty goodness would ease her emotional pain and suffering.

With her hand on the doorknob, a terrible thought punched her in the gut. What if he doesn’t have any chocolate in the house? Mr. Perfect Body probably didn’t eat chocolate, what with the whole carb-free thing and all. He probably didn’t even have juice. There had to be something in the kitchen that could double as a chocolate placebo.

She opened the door and slammed into something hard and hot. Markus’s chest. The shock of seeing him and Ghost right outside her door had her stumbling backward until he reached out to steady her.

“Can’t sleep?” Moonlight from the bedroom window escaped into the hallway, casting dark shadows beneath his high cheekbones.