A single tear escaped the corner of her eye, falling down over her temple before splashing against the shiny floor below. “I can’t.” Her response was barely a whisper.
“Tell me who it is, and I’ll do whatever I can to help you.”
A glimmer of hope stared up at him through the shadows. Raegan opened her mouth to say…something…when they heard the familiar sound of a car door slamming shut from outside.
With a low curse, Rocky released her wrists and pushed himself up to his feet. Reaching down, he offered the woman a helping hand, which she accepted in an instant.
“They can’t know we were in here.” She rushed over to the displaced hutch.
They?
With no real choice but to help now and get answers later, Rocky turned and pressed his palms against the front of the hutch’s solid frame. Together, they pushed it back in place with ease.
Apparently, Raegan had no problems taking charge, because the next thing Rocky knew, she’d grabbed his hand and was pulling him toward the back door.
“Come on!”
He curled his fingers around hers, purposely letting her take the lead. With him following her out, he was able to keep himself between her and the perceived danger about to make entry into the house.
Raegan opened the back door and rushed outside. The cool night air felt crisp against his skin as Rocky cleared the threshold just in time.
Because someone had just entered the house through the front door, barely giving Rocky enough time to flick the lock on the interior knob and silently pull the door shut behind him.
Keeping his voice in a low, hushed growl, he ordered the woman still holding his hand to, “Go!”
With their heads down and their bodies slightly hunched, the two took off through the neighbor’s backyard. When they came to Raegan’s house, she slowed to a jog and began turning in that direction.
“Oh, I don’t think so.” Rocky reached out and took her hand in his once more. Pointing to his house, he informed her brusquely, “We’ll talk over there.”
“But—”
“I’m not asking.”
This time,hetook the lead, though he did slow his broad steps a tad to keep from making her jog to keep up. Barely.
Swear to Christ, she’d better have a damn good reason for doing what she did, or so help me…
They finally made it up the few steps of his small, covered back porch. Having kept his focus split between their path ahead and the potential threat behind them, Rocky felt confident they’d escaped undetected.
With his free hand, he reached for the keypad mounted above the back door’s handle. At the last second, he shifted his body a few inches to the right, effectively blocking Raegan’s view.
“Really?”
He could practically hear her rolling her eyes at him while he forced her to blindly wait.
“I just watched you break into someone’s house.” Something he still couldn’t wrap his mind around. “You really think I’m going to just willingly show you how to break into mine?”
“I would never do that,” she claimed.
The keypad beeped, and the tiny red light turned green as the locks automatically began to disengage. Rocky turned the knob and opened the door.
Shooting her a quick, disbelieving glance over his shoulder, he told her, “Recent actions prove otherwise.”
“I told you, already. I wasn’t there to steal stuff.”
Flipping on the lights, he led her through his newly renovated kitchen, past a small dining nook, and into the living room at the front of his house. With a quick flick of his thumb, the room’s rustic, wrought iron light fixture came to life.
“Sit.” He dropped her hand and motioned toward the couch.