Page 89 of Serve ’N’ Protect

With his hand over her mouth and part of her nose, she could barely draw in a breath. Her heart pounded faster. The only reason she wasn’t dead already was because he needed her laptop.

Footsteps sounded on her front porch, then someone knocked. A few seconds later, the knocking came louder.

“Cassidy, are you in there?”

She tensed. Markus. What was he doing here?

The outer door opened then the latch jiggled.

“Cassidy?”

The hand over her mouth tightened. Hot breath washed over her ear. “Not. A. Word.”

Ghost’s claws clicked on the porch. Her breath quickened as a shadow passed in front of the window on the other side of the door. A flashlight shined through the window, sweeping the inside of the living room in an eerie glow.

The guy hauled her backward, tighter against his chest and deeper into the shielded area where the light wouldn’t hit them.

Please, please go away. Had she ever given Markus a key? She didn’t think so. The last thing she wanted was for him to bust through the door and get blown away. He might not love her, but she would always love him. Right up until the moment she took her last breath.

Which, sadly, could be very soon.

The light shining through the window went out. Booted feet sounded on the steps as Markus left. Cassidy let out a silent sigh of relief, tensing again moments later when the back doorknob in the kitchen jiggled.

That door was definitely locked, too, and with a brand-new deadbolt the security company had installed.

The jiggling stopped, and the only sound she heard was her own labored breathing as she struggled to draw in air through her nose.

Outside, the faint sound of a vehicle’s door opening came to her ears, followed by the same door shutting. Markus was leaving. Her gut clenched as she struggled not to cry. As much as she wanted him to come back, it was better this way. Watching him die trying to save her would kill her.

She listened to Markus back out of the driveway and drive off. So much relief coursed through her, she sagged like a rag doll against the hard body behind her.

Markus was safe.

And now I’m truly alone.

…

Markus drove off, not in the direction he’d come but down Chesapeake Bay Retriever Lane, taking the bend in the road faster than he should before pulling over and parking out of sight from Cassidy’s house.

She was in there. He was sure of it.

Not only was her car sitting in the driveway, but there’d been a light on in the house and as he’d pulled up, the light had gone out.

Since she’d been staying with her parents, she could have attached a timer to one of the table lamps to give the impression the house was occupied, but he didn’t think so. The light he’d seen go out was the one on the ceiling right in front of the door. No way to stick a timer up there.

He hadn’t seen another vehicle nearby that he wasn’t familiar with, and he’d mentally tagged every neighbor’s car. Still, there could be a small army inside Cassidy’s house, and given the fact that someone had tried to kill her…

Having Kade and Matt with him on this would have been ideal, but they were both working a night shift two hours away.

He called the number for Dwayne Chang, the state police detective working Cassidy’s case. The call went directly to voicemail. When the recording said, “If this is an emergency, dial 0 now,” he did, clenching his free hand into a fist as he waited impatiently for the dispatcher to pick up.

“State police,” a curt woman answered.

“This is Sergeant Markus York with the U.S. Secret Service,” he began, then quickly related his situation, along with his request for immediate backup, and made sure the dispatcher understood Cassidy was the victim in an ongoing attempted murder investigation.

“Stand by,” she said in an emotionless voice.

With every second that ticked by, his blood pumped faster and with enough fury to light a rocket ship. Cassidy’s life could very well be on the line, and she wanted him to stand by? Not a chance in hell.