| |
Jodie was sound asleep, curled into Mitch, when his phone went off. They’d headed up to his room after dinner, and he’d been proud of the fact he’d managed to exhaust her so quickly. She stirred as Mitch reached to the table beside her to grab the offending object. It was almost eleven, and whoever was calling better have a great reason to pull him away from lying in bed with Jodie in his arms.
“What?” he barked into the phone as Jodie put a palm in the middle of his chest and pushed herself up.
She looked sleep-dazed and slightly confused as to where she was and how she’d gotten there.
“Is Jodie with you?” It was Deke.
Mitch went instantly alert. “Yeah.”
Deke’s relief was evident. “The alarm in the spa has gone off. I’m there now. Someone has trashed the place.”
Mitch sat up, taking Jodie with him, curling her into his side. “Her apartment?” He felt her tense in his hold.
“That’s worse. Lake said she forgot to set the alarm in her flat. They must have trashed that first. We only knew they were there when the spa alarm went off. Lake came out straight away. Matt arrived soon after.”
“We’re on our way.” Mitch ended the call with a stab of his thumb.
“What?” Jodie was looking up at him, all wide, dark eyes and sleep-softened skin.
“The spa has been vandalised.” He paused. “Your apartment, too.”
She didn’t say a word. The fury and fear at war in her face said it all for her. In a heartbeat, she was out of bed and searching the floor for her clothes. Mitch jumped up, quickly pulling on a pair of faded jeans and a t-shirt. Shoes on and he was ready to go as Jodie came out of his bathroom.
“It’s probably the same yobs who graffiti-ed the building,” she said, but she sounded more hopeful than certain. “They did try to break in the other night.” She looked up at him. “It has to be them, right?”
“I don’t know, baby, but we’ll find out.”
Mitch grabbed her hand and held tight, in case she pulled away, but she didn’t. He needed to touch her. He hated that she lived in a world where she hoped an attack was an act of senseless vandalism rather than the alternative—a guy who’d found the women she was trying to shelter.
The drive to the spa was short. When they got there they spotted Matt’s police car, along with Lake’s SUV and another two cars—one emblazoned with the Benson Security logo.
Jodie was out of Mitch’s car before he’d even pulled on the handbrake. She rushed over to Matt. “Did you catch anyone?”
Mitch came up beside her and put a hand on the small of her back as a gentle reminder that she wasn’t alone. Jodie didn’t need him taking over—she probably didn’t even need his support, but he was giving it anyway.
“They were long gone by the time Grunt got here.” Matt inclined his head towards the Benson Security vehicle. “Lake and I did a sweep of the area. There was nothing.”
Deke came up beside them, Brenda at his side. “I saw the tail end of a car when I ran out at the sound of the alarm,” he said. “No plates.”
“No plates, as in you couldn’t see them, or as in they weren’t there?” Mitch asked.
“They weren’t there.” Deke’s closed face said everything. It was a whole other level of forethought to remove the plates from a vehicle before you broke into a place.
“The women?” Jodie asked her brother.
“Everyone’s good.” Deke held her eyes. “The vandals didn’t go near the manse.”
Mitch felt Jodie relax under his touch.
“You forgot to set the alarm for your apartment again, Jo,” Deke said.
And Jodie was instantly tense again. Mitch could have thumped her brother.
“There’s more.” Lake stood beside Matt, his arms folded over his black sweater. “Grunt checked the alarm system on the spa. They tried to bypass it and they would have managed if it had been a standard system.”
Mitch felt his stomach clench. “Experience?”
Lake nodded, shattering any hope Jodie may have been holding that it was a couple of amateurs from town who were taking the protest too far.
“They take anything?” Jodie asked her brother.
“Not that I can tell. They only got as far as the reception area of the spa. The computer is trashed, the desk cracked, plant pots smashed. The damage one or two people could do in a couple of minutes.” Deke looked pained. “Your flat, though...”
Mitch took a step closer to Jodie and gently rubbed her back. He felt the shiver go through her, although there was no visible sign that she wasn’t taking everything incredibly well.
“They would have had more time in my flat. I need to go look.”
“What we need to do,” Matt said, “is sit down and have a long talk. You two have been holding out on us.”
A look passed between Deke and Jodie as Brenda visibly paled. Jodie nodded then turned to Matt. “Let me have a look at the damage, then we can talk.”
“Brenda and I will make coffee,” Deke said. “Meet at my place when you’re done here.” He headed in the direction of his house with Brenda close to his side.
Mitch followed Jodie. His jaw clenched when he saw that the door to her apartment had been kicked in and was hanging askew on its hinges. Jodie didn’t say a word, just climbed the stairs to her home. The damage was worse than Mitch had expected. Everything that could be smashed was smashed. The floor of the open plan living, dining and kitchen area was covered in broken ceramic and glass. The table had been upturned. The wooden chairs broken. The walls had gouges in them. The glass doors to the patio had been shattered. And the smell—one look at the overstuffed sofas made it clear that someone had urinated all over them.
Jodie stood in the middle of the room, her lips thin and her face white. Her body was stiff as she checked through the rest of the apartment. Mitch followed, finding more of the same. All of her bottles emptied in the bathroom, mirror broken, sink pulled away from the wall. In the bedroom, her clothes had been shredded and there was evidence of defecation on the bed. Mitch could tell by the stiff way Jodie held herself that she’d seen more than enough. He gently took her hand and led her out of the apartment. It was clear she was in shock when she didn’t object to him leading the way.
They found Grunt waiting at the bottom of the stairs. The man mountain’s face softened when he looked at Jodie.
“You want me to take care of it?” he said.
Jodie stared at him for a moment. Mitch hated the blank look in her eyes. Grunt pointed up the stairs.
“Want me to clear it out?”
Jodie swallowed hard. Her shoulders straightened and she dropped Mitch’s hand. There she was—the shock was passing.
“I’d appreciate it,” she said.
“You want to keep anything?” Grunt used the same tone with Jodie that he reserved for his wife—as though she was made of priceless porcelain.
“Only if it clearly hasn’t been touched.” Her jaw clenched before she spoke again. “High in the closet, there’s a box. Mementos, photos, that sort of thing. If it hasn’t been touched, I’d like to keep it. Can you get someone to retrieve what’s left of my hard drive? Most of my stuff is stored in the cloud, but there are still photos on the drive I’d like to save.”
“No problem.” Grunt stepped to the side to let them pass, pulling his phone out of his back pocket as he did so. The conversation was clearly over.
Mitch followed Jodie through the darkness to the converted carriage house. Before they went inside, Jodie turned to him, her expression pained.
“I can’t live there now,” she said softly, as though ashamed. “Does that make me weak?”
“Baby.” Mitch pulled her into his embrace. “It’s just a house. If it has memories you don’t want to have, you move. It isn’t about being weak or being strong. It’s about making decisions that suit you. You live there or you don’t; doesn’t matter. You’ll never be weak. You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met. Do what you feel is best, and stuff what anyone else thinks of it.”
He felt her relax against him briefly before she nodded and stepped back. Her eyes were blazing. “Let’s get this over with.”
With that, Mitch followed his woman into Deke’s tiny house.