But rather than pull out his phone to make another call to the police, as she’d expected, the intense man reached just behind his right hip and pulled out a gun.
“Stay here.” He turned to leave.
“Like hell!” Cassie raced to catch up to him. Doing her best not to panic, she half-whispered, “If they’re still here, they could be down in the basement or hiding in one of the closets!”
Though he looked as if he wanted to argue, Archer instead gave her a curt nod. “You stay right behind me. I tell you do something, you do it. No arguing. Understood?”
The second she began nodding, he was on the move again. As promised, Cassie stayed right with him as they made their way through the entire house. Each room they entered greeted them with more of the same.
Half-opened drawers. Items strewn carelessly about. Even her underwear drawer had been gone through, her thongs and panties hanging out over the edge for all who entered to see.
Yeah, that’s not embarrassing in the least.
But as they made their way back to where they’d started, Cassie realized whoever had messed up her house was long gone.
Did you notice anything missing?” He slid the gun back into the concealed holster she’d only just noticed.
With a frown, Cassie tore her eyes from the real-life warrior and looked at her disheveled kitchen once again. “I don’t…the place is such a mess.” She shook her head in disbelief. “How can I even be sure without making an inventory of every item in every room?”
“Look around. Focus on things that are worth a lot. Either by monetary or sentimental value.”
“I mean, it’s obvious someone’s been in here, Archer. We should call the cops and tell them there’s more to report than some annoying reporters.”
Turning in a slow, methodical circle, he surprised her by saying, “This doesn’t feel like a typical break-in.”
“What do you mean?”
He stopped moving and looked back at her from over his shoulder. “Those paintings we passed in the hallway. They worth much?”
“Six figures.” Cassie nodded. “At least.”
“And yet, they’re still here. What about those?” He pointed to a pair of matching vases Russ’s mom had given to them as a housewarming present.
“Early Nineteenth-century English porcelain,” she shared the specifics. “Russ’s mom gave those to us as a housewarming present.”
“You happen to know how much they’re worth?”
“Four grand for the pair. Or at least that’s how much Barb claimed she paid.”
This gave the man pause. “Your mother-in-law bought you a housewarming gift and then told you how much she spent on it?”
With a click of her tongue, Cassie planted the same fake smile on her face she always used when talking about her inlaws. “That’s Barb. She makes sureeveryoneknows just how generous a person she is.”
“Well she sounds like a peach.”
A bark of laughter bubbled up from deep inside her chest. She’d been arrested, held in jail for two straight days, and now she comes home to find her house in shambles. And despite all of that, this man had still managed to make her laugh twice since they’d stepped foot inside her door.
“That’s one way to describe her,” she told him. But in the very next beat, another thought struck. One that had her truly panicking.
“What is it?” Archer asked when her face fell flat.
“My office. I was so busy looking for a burglar, I didn’t even think to…” Without waiting, she raced out of the kitchen, past where Archer stood, and back down the hallway. Reaching her office near the home’s entrance, she didn’t wait before making her re-entrance.
Getting her second look at the damage, Cassie realized her office was in worse shape than the rest of the main floor combined.
With a slacked jaw and a pit in her stomach, she took in the books that had been haphazardly pulled from her floor-to-ceiling shelves. The twin filing cabinets she always kept locked had been picked open, their drawers partially closed in various degrees. It was obvious they’d been gone through, as well. As had the contents of her desk.
But what left her feeling more lost than any of that was when she realized the place where she always kept her laptop was empty.