Stitched Up Heart (Combat Hearts Book 1) (8 page)

Jase walked out of his office to an empty reception area. Impatiently, he walked Richard to the door before turning to Carol.

“Please tell me she’s in the bathroom,” he demanded.

“Jason Larken, don’t you use that tone of voice with me,” Carol scolded him for the second time that day.

Jase hung his head like he used to when she chastised him as a child. “Yes, Ms. Carol.”

“Now,” Carol went on. “I couldn’t very well hog-tie her to keep her here, now could I?”

Jase threw up his hands. “What does everyone have against hog-tying her? Don’t suppose she mentioned why she was here?”

“Well, I suppose she wanted to talk to someone about setting up a referral system for some of her patients. She’s a physical therapist.”

“Don’t suppose she happened to leave her contact information, did she?”

“I suppose I might have her business card right here on my desk,” Carol told him with an evil smile.

Jase smiled and took the card from her outstretched hand.
Brianna Marks, DPT
. And it had her cell phone number on it. His smile stretched into a grin.

“Love you, Ms. Carol.”

“Love you too, Jason. Go get her.”

Jase pulled out his cell phone and called his brother. “Hey man, can you do me a favor?”

B
ree parked on the side of the small ranch-style house her grandparents had built early in their marriage. They had raised their children here; then later, her. After her grandfather passed away, her grandmother moved to a retirement community and deeded the house to Bree, along with the acre and a half of property they still owned.

Bree entered through the mudroom and laundry off the kitchen and set her bag on the counter. Her dogs scratched at the french doors in the living room leading to the back yard. She grabbed a beer from the fridge on her way to let them in. Glass crunched under her shoes as she crossed the threshold into the living room.

“What the hell?” She looked down. A framed picture had fallen off the wall and shattered on the floor. “Crap. How did that happen?” She stopped before going farther into the living room. More pictures lay shattered on the floor in a pile. She glanced around the room. Only the pictures of her and Chad had fallen - or had been thrown.

She turned and froze. The front door stood slightly ajar. She hardly used the front door. She might live in the country, but she always made sure to lock her doors when she left.

Why are the dogs outside?
They should be inside, where they usually had free roam of the house.

She listened to the house. “Chad?”

She retraced her steps back to the kitchen to get her phone out of her bag and dialed 9-1-1.

“9-1-1 operator. Please state your emergency.”

“This is Brianna Marks. I’m at 5335 Lakeview Drive. Someone broke in to my house.”

“Ma’am, do you think someone is still in your house?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t gone past the living room.”

“Ma’am, for your safety, please exit your house. Do you have somewhere safe you can go? A neighbor, for instance.”

“Not really; I’m out in the country.”

“Do you have a working vehicle you can lock yourself in?”

“Yes, I can do that.”

“Alright ma’am, a sheriff’s unit is on its way. I’ll stay on the line with you until they arrive.”

“No, thank you, I’m good. I’ll just keep my phone on me.”

“Ma’am, you should really stay on the line until the sheriff arrives.”

“I’ll be fine. I’ll go wait outside.”

She heard the operator’s sigh on the other end. “Call back if you need to.”

“Thank you.” Bree disconnected. A hand grabbed her upper arm. She let out a scream, wrenched her arm away and spun. She dropped to a knee as she turned and punched out at the attacker, connecting with his crotch.

“What the fuck, Bree,” Jase ground out as he dropped to his knees.

Her hands flew to her mouth and her eyes widened at the sight of Jase crumpled in front of her. “Oh my god.” She dropped her other knee. “I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”

He dropped his head on her shoulder, curling in on himself. “Fuck no. What did you do that for?”

She ran a hand through his hair, petting him, and tried not to smile. She shouldn’t laugh. She felt bad, but he kind of deserved it for sneaking up on her. “I thought you were whomever broke into my house.”

“What the hell do you mean someone broke into your house?”

“Someone broke into my house,” she repeated. “What more explanation does that need?”

“Did you call the cops?”

“Yes, I called the cops. A sheriff is on the way.”

His head came up off her shoulder. “Why are you still in your house?”

“I was on my way out when you grabbed me.”

“Well, let’s go,” he said as he carefully stood up.

Bree rolled her eyes. Could he be any more bossy? She led the way out of the front of her house.

A sheriff deputy’s car pulled into the drive as they went down the porch steps, a Haven Springs police car close behind. A uniformed officer got out of each car. She fell in county jurisdiction, so why did Haven Springs PD send a car?

“What are you doing here?” Jase demanded.

Bree looked askance at Jase, who stared at the Haven Springs officer rounding the hood of his car.
Who talks to a cop that way?

“The very address you asked me to look up not thirty minutes ago goes over the net for a B and E and you don’t think I’m going to show?” the Haven Springs officer asked as he joined them on the walkway.

“It wasn’t me, jackass. I got here after she called the cops.”

“Is that true, ma’am?” The Sheriff’s deputy joined them.

“Yes,” Bree replied.

“Why are you limping?” the cop asked.

“I ran into something,” Jase said.

“What was that?”

“My fist, for scaring the crap out of me,” Bree said.

The cop threw his head back and laughed. The deputy coughed into his hand.

“Not funny, man,” Jase grumbled.

Bree finally noticed the similarities between the cop and Jase – same height and build, similar facial features but with some slight differences. “Are you two related?”

“Jason here is my baby brother. I’m Tim.”

Bree took his outstretched hand. “Bree. Do you always give out women’s addresses to anyone who asks?”

“Uh, no?”

“Are you asking me if you do it all the time, or telling me you don’t?”

“Telling you I don’t do it all the time?”

“You’re still answering in the form of a question. Do I look like Alex Trebec?”

“You gave out someone’s personal information?” the deputy asked.

Jase looked down at Bree. “You know I could have found you on the internet, right?”

“You know that’s not the point, right?”

Jase winked at her. Her eyes rolled again. If she kept doing that, she was going to get a headache.

The deputy stepped forward, hand outstretched. “Ma’am, I’m Deputy Grant. Is it alright if I take a look around your house?” Jeez, he was young looking. Was he even old enough to be a cop? He was probably fresh out of the academy. It was just a break-in; it wasn’t like he was investigating a murder.

“Go for it. Door’s open,” she said. “Shit, I need to call a locksmith.” She pulled out her phone and opened her internet search app.

“Do you want me to go with you?” Tim asked.

Deputy Grant raised a hand. “No, I got it.”

They watched the deputy enter the house. “Did you notice anything missing?” Tim asked Bree.

“No, but I didn’t really take a good look around, and I never went beyond the living room.”

“Why did you think the house had been broken into?”

“The front door was open and there were some pictures that looked like they had been thrown on the floor,” she explained.

“Only certain pictures were broken?” Tim asked.

“Yes, just the ones of me and my ex.” She looked sideways at Jase to judge his reaction.

“How long ago did you break up?” Tim asked.

Bree cringed, stealing another glance at Jase. “A little more than a week ago.” One of his brows lifted, but he didn’t say anything.

“Was it an amicable split?” Tim continued.

“Uh, no. It was in no way shape or form amicable.”

“Did he threaten you?” Jase asked, in a low, controlled voice.

Bree let out a small laugh. “No, I did the threatening. I found him screwing a living Barbie doll in my bed and told him if he didn’t get out of my house, I was going to shoot him.”

“You own a gun?” Tim inquired.

“Yes, I own a gun. It’s in a gun safe, locked with a biometric lock and six-digit PIN. No one is getting in that safe except me.”

Tim let out an impressed whistle. “I kind of want to see that gun safe.”

Bree grinned. “It’s all sorts of awesome.”

“Ma’am,” the deputy called out from the porch. “Your house is clear. You can come in and see if anything is missing.”

Bree led the way back to her front door. They entered the foyer and walked through to the living room where the sheriff was standing.

“Do you mind checking to make sure all your valuables - computers, laptops, jewelry - are accounted for?” Sheriff Grant asked.

“Everything of value is in the spare bedroom I use as my office,” Bree said.

“There’s also quite a mess in the master bedroom.”

“What kind of a mess?” Bree asked.

“It looks like someone ripped up the bedding.”

Jase held Bree back by grabbing her hand. “Hold on. I’ll go with you.” All three men followed her to her bedroom.

Feathers. Feathers everywhere. Her down comforter was shredded, as were her pillows and mattress.

“I’m assuming from the lack of blood, no one sacrificed a chicken in here,” Jase said.

“Down comforter.”

“Don’t those get hot in the summer?”

“Not as much as you would think.”

“If you two are done playing Martha Stewart, you want to check your gun safe?” Tim asked.

“It’s fine,” Bree said.

“You can’t know that unless you check it,” Tim mansplained.

“Considering I can see it from where I’m standing, I actually can know that.”

“Your gun safe is in your bedroom?”

“In plain sight.” Bree walked over to the full-length mirror attached against the far wall of her bedroom, next to the walk-in closet. She found the keypad on the top edge of the mirror and entered her PIN, then placed her hand on the upper right-hand corner of the mirror. With a soft whir of moving parts and a click, the mirror came away from the wall on a hinge, revealing her three rifles and two handguns.

“All weapons accounted for.” She turned and faced three stunned men standing in the doorway of her bedroom.

“That’s cool.” The deputy stared wide-eyed at her state-of-the-art safe before giving himself a small shake. “Uh, ma’am, I need to get some information from you to write up my report, if you don’t mind.”

“Yeah, we can go into the kitchen, if that’s okay.”

“I’ll meet you in there,” he said.

“No problem.” Bree turned back to her gun safe and closed the mirrored door, locking it again by reentering her PIN. When she turned, she was alone with Jase.

“You think it was your ex?” he asked.

She walked toward him. She couldn’t get a read on him. Was he upset about the thought of her having a recent ex? Did he think he was just a rebound and that was why she took off? She wished he would give something away.

“I don’t think so. This doesn’t seem like something he would do. Send me twelve dozen roses even though he knows I don’t like them, or some over-the-top gift, sure; but this is angry. Personal. And I think it’s a little weird that nothing else in the house was touched.” Bree crossed her arms over her chest, hugging herself as she looked at the shredded bedding. “Whoever did this came into my personal space and attacked it. It’s creepy.”

Jase closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his embrace. “You don’t like roses?”

“Hate them. Too cliché.”

“What’s your favorite flower?” he asked, rubbing small circles on her back.

“Calla lilies.” She turned her face into his neck. She liked this side of him. It reminded her of the guy she met in the bar. Sweet. Attentive. His hands on her back soothed her in much the same way petting her dogs helped her calm down when she was anxious.

He bent his head and whispered in her ear. “I can’t tell you how hot it is that you have guns. And that safe is cool as hell.”

And there was the guy she met this afternoon. Bree smiled against his neck, inhaling the hint of aftershave lingering on his skin. “Don’t get too excited. I haven’t been shooting since before my grandfather passed away – it was our thing to do together.”

“Still hot.” His hand drifted down to the cheek of her ass. She titled her head and opened her mouth against his neck.

“Y’all comin’ sometime today?” Tim yelled at them from the hall.

“I would really like it if people would stop interrupting right when things are getting interesting,” Jase grumbled.

Bree smiled. “Come on. I need to let my dogs in.”

She pulled back and looked up at him. She rose up on her toes and kissed him briefly, his beard tickling her face. “Thank you.”