Daphne sat up in bed and checked her bedside clock. Who was calling her cell at two in the morning? She fumbled for her lit-up phone, trying to clear the sleep from her voice before answering. Pulling an all-nighter yesterday had not done wonders to her ability to wake up in a flash.
“Hello?”
“Daphne.” It was Evander, his voice low and urgent.
She was out of bed before she processed a thing, hurrying to Tigger’s room, heart pounding.
“Where’s Chuck?” Evander asked.
“Chuck?” Who was Chuck?
“Can you see him on the street? No, don’t go to your window.”
Daphne froze, unsure what he needed her to do.
Evander swore under his breath and she could hear clanking in the background, a door slamming, an alarm going. Another curse and a “Hang on a sec.” A truck started up. “Stay on the line.” Another phone chimed as it powered up.
Heart pounding, Daphne climbed into bed with Tigger, careful not to wake the girl. She placed her back to the wall, eyes on the doorway.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered into the phone, listening for any sounds in the small house. She found herself wishing Melanie still lived with her. Technically, she’d kicked her out only for one night, but her sister had stayed away longer. Right now, Daphne wished she had someone bigger and bolder to lead a charge against whatever was going on that had Evander flipping his lid.
She eyed the bedroom window, wanting to escape, believing the wide-open yard would offer better fleeing options. At the same time, she was too freaked out to move. Was Evander overreacting to a tripped sensor?
“There’s been a disturbance to one of your windows,” he said, and she could hear his truck picking up speed in the background.
“Sometimes they rattle during thunderstorms,” she replied, eager to dismiss the fear coursing through her nervous system.
“It’s been opened.”
Daphne held in a terrified gasp.
“Have you heard anything?” he asked.
Her old house creaked, but she couldn’t tell if it was a late night breeze or someone inside.
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Hang on, okay? I’m right here if you need me.”
She overheard Evander giving Chuck heck over voice mail, on what must have been the other phone she’d heard start up moments ago. A moment later he was talking to the police.
“Do you have a grip on the wheel?” she asked, envisioning him with a phone in each hand as he stormed the curvy road between the two towns. He didn’t answer, although she could still hear the hum of tires on asphalt. So he was still moving, still right side up, still on the road. All good.
Daphne wrapped Tigger in her blanket and carefully lowered the sleeping girl to the floor, then slid her under the bed, joining her a second later. In the movies, they always hid under the bed or in the closet. And they were always found.
“Daphne?”
“Yes,” she whispered, afraid to be overheard.
“Do you have a weapon?”
“No.” Her voice quavered.
“Stay where you are. I’m on my way and so are the police. Stay…stay hidden.”
He’d save her.
But he was still at least ten minutes away. Anything could happen in ten minutes.
“Hurry,” she whispered, and curled tighter under the bed.
* * *
The house rocked as the front door banged open, and Daphne held in a squeak, squeezing Tigger close, her own back to the room as she wiggled closer to the wall, trying to flip the edge of the blanket Tigger was wrapped in over herself for more cover. The little girl moaned in her sleep and stretched her arms, knocking the underside of the wooden bed frame.
“Shh,” Daphne begged.
There were shouts, the thumping of heavy feet, the slamming of bodies and more shouts. Daphne could barely breathe, and tears trickled out the corners of her eyes.
Please, Evander, please.
The house grew quiet around her. Then the bedroom light flicked on.
“Daphne?” It was Evander.
She pulled her head out from under Tigger’s blanket, body still curved protectively around her daughter, then craned her neck to look behind her, counting feet.
Two very large black army boots were in the middle of the room. Just Evander. She sighed in relief and Evander’s face popped into view, his shoulders bulging as he watched from a plank position. Slowly, he lowered his chest to the floor, his biceps rippling under his T-shirt in a way that would have left her in awe if she hadn’t been busy losing her mind with fear.
He cautiously extended his hand, as though to a feral kitten. “Are you two okay?”
She gripped his fingers, snatching them to her as she rolled to face him, placing her back to her still-sleeping daughter.
“Is Tigger in there?”
“Asleep,” Daphne whispered.
“You okay?” He pulled on her arm, gently tugging her out from under the bed as though reeling in a fish. Once she was clear, she threw herself at him, collapsing onto his chest and knocking him onto his butt. His arms wrapped around her as he squeezed her close, his breath ruffling the curls that had fallen over her forehead.
“Everyone accounted for, Evander?” asked an officer from the doorway.
“Yes, sir. Everyone is fine.” He tipped her chin up. “Right?”
She gave a tiny nod, her mouth trembling. He pressed her to his hard chest so she wouldn’t wake Tigger as sobs broke free.
“We’ll give you a minute,” the officer said. “Meet us outside when you’re ready.”
“Roger that,” Evander said.
Daphne burrowed deeper into his arms, protected by his strength.
“We caught the man who broke in,” Evander murmured. “He was riffling through papers in your living room. Came in through the kitchen window.”
Daphne shuddered. A man had broken in, unbeknownst to her, while they were sleeping. What would have happened without Evander and his gadgets?
He stroked her hair and her hiccupy breathing slowly worked its way back to regularity, with only the odd hitch here and there.
“How’d you get here so fast?” she asked.
He ignored the question. “He wasn’t armed and the police have him in custody. I’m sorry, Daphne.” Evander sounded so grim.
“Why?” She looked up, amazed at how angular his face was from this viewpoint. All sharp lines, but soft, too. Caring. Warm. Safe.
Ridiculous. He was an army man who had served several tours of duty. And his scars? You didn’t get those by sitting behind a desk. This man wasn’t here to comfort her, he was here to take care of problems. She pushed herself out of his arms, feeling small and alone.
“I should have been here,” he said.
“Chuck was on,” she replied, wiping her cheeks dry.
As if feeling her need for space, Evander stood, moving to the doorway. “He was at the local convenience store. He’s been dismissed.” Evander ran a hand briskly down the scarred side of his face. He spied the cardigan she’d left on Tigger’s dresser during story time. “You need a wall safe.”
Daphne stared at the sweater, which she’d been wearing when he’d paid her for the paintings. There was a lot of money in its pocket at the moment. “Do you normally have that much cash on hand?” she asked him. She knew he hadn’t been to the bank between buying the paintings and paying her.
“I was trained to be prepared for anything.”
He was watching her in a way that made her feel nervous. No, not nervous, just…inspected. He was trying to figure something out about her and she wasn’t sure if he was drawing positive conclusions or not.
“The army had a pretty big impact on you, didn’t it?”
“Yes,” he said awkwardly. “But this is…this is real life. It’s good to have money on hand in real life, too.”
He moved to sit on the edge of the bed, making it creak with his size. Daphne had a momentary vision of it collapsing and her daughter being squished. Evander clasped his hands together, elbows on knees.
“What did he want?” Daphne asked, sitting on the opposite end of the bed. “The person who broke in?”
“He was eavesdropping on you in the market today while you were talking to that hippie guy about your plans for the development. You need to start watching what you say and where. Tyrone and I have ideas about this guy and we’re confident someone from Rubicore sent him.”
“Rubicore?” A cold dread settled deep in Daphne’s gut. “It wasn’t Mistral.”
“What are you not telling me, Daphne?”
“Nothing. I just know Mistral, and that you and everybody are going to assume it was him. He’s not like that. He wouldn’t do this.”
“Well, we’ll put a tail on this guy once he’s released from custody, and find out for sure.”
“They’re going to let him out?”
“Probably.”
“But he just broke into my house in the dead of the night and you saw him spying on me.”
“Yup.” Evander’s hands were clenched together, his knuckles turning white, and she got the feeling he was fighting back something dark and sinister.
“I let you bug my house because I felt…and now it just…” She bit her knuckle, her breath hiccupping again.
Evander, with fluid, easy moves that came from using his body in unpredictable, real life settings rather than in a regimented gym, had an arm around her in seconds. She pushed him away. If she let herself collapse into his strength she’d never be able to stay strong on her own, and would turn into a blabbering puddle of desperate tears and wails, dependent and needy.
“You can’t be a passive participant in your life any longer, Daphne. You have to take action.”
She nodded, not following his logic.
“I mean it. You need to take action like you do with your environmental protests.”
The intense look in his eyes made her throat catch.
“Nobody can stop you when you take charge. But with this whole thing going on, you’ve been allowing yourself to be the passive recipient. It’s real, Daphne. It’s very real. Take charge. Take the reins. Take control. This is your life. Yours.”
Her lower lip started to tremble, but he didn’t come to her this time. She breathed through the upset, imagining being wrapped in peaceful, loving light, and positive energy.
“I am taking charge,” she said finally. She’d arranged to meet with Mistral several times and could have simply run away after the gun incident. But she didn’t.
The break-in wasn’t about her and Mistral. It was related to the battle her sisters were having with Rubicore.
“You need to step it up. Your ex…” Evander paused and glanced toward the underside of the bed, as though on the lookout for a girl eavesdropping on them “…is working with men who just had someone break in to find out what you have planned against them.”
“Custody and Rubicore are unrelated.”
“You need to take this seriously. You owe it to her—” he tipped his head “—to act as though this threat is real, and to keep yourself and your daughter safe.”
Daphne swallowed hard. “I can’t be like you.”
He lowered himself onto his knees, joints popping with the controlled effort, and took her hands in his. His eyes were dark, but in this light she could see flecks of copper running through the dark blues, their star-shaped pattern feeling familiar.
She withdrew her hands from his. “I’m about peace. Harmony. Mistral and I can talk through all of this. Weapons and fights aren’t the way, Evander.”
“I know.”
She looked at him in shock.
“But sometimes you’re working against someone who is operating on a different plane, Daphne, and you need to protect yourself accordingly.”
“I can’t arm myself.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“You need to move somewhere more secure. You need to let me watch over you and your family. For real. Twenty-four/seven.”
“I can’t be around that kind of energy. Not for all hours of the day.” She wrapped her arms around herself, imagining him putting her and Tigger into a bunker.
“Was today really that bad?” he asked, the corners of his lips turning downward.
She had to admit that today had been okay, and he’d been helpful at both the market and the park. She’d seen a different side to Evander even before the issue with his mother.
But she couldn’t reconcile the man who’d escalated a conversation to drawing weapons in a public park, with the one who had been so tender and caring toward her daughter, then nearly out of his mind over his mother’s illness. Add in the fact that he’d come here at high speed to rescue her, and then held her tight. There were many sides to Evander de la Fosse, several that she quite liked and admired, but she couldn’t forget that he was trained to do things she couldn’t even imagine one human doing to another.
“Put better locks on the windows, Evander, or whatever you need to do, but I am not leaving my home. I have my own life and I am going to live it. Alone.”