Filed to story: Crushing on My Enemy Stepbrother
She nods, stepping inside and turning to shut the door, ‘what about you?’ she asks worriedly.
I grin and I’m pretty sure it’s not a nice one, ‘I’ll be fine’ I reply, ‘be more worried about whoever just set off our alarm.’
Waiting for her to close the door and to hear the sound of the click from the lock engaging, I pull on my jeans and rush out of the room, heading to my own to grab my weapon and a torch, before making my way toward the stairs.
There are no noises that I can hear, but with the alarm still shrieking, that’s not a guarantee that whoever tried to break in isn’t still here.
Holding the gun in front of me, I step noiselessly down the stairs, back to the wall, sweeping everything in view as I reach the bottom.
Checking every shadow, I creep toward the front door, typing in the code to the alarm that immediately falls silent.
Methodically, I start to check each room, making sure to keep my ears trained on the stairs just in case the intruder manages to get past me during my sweep.
When I step into our living room, the light from my torch falls on scattered glass next to a broken window. The window itself is still closed and locked so looking around I soon find the culprit of the noise. A small rock is on the floor, a piece of paper wrapped around it and secured with an elastic band.
Backing up, I grab a tea towel from the kitchen and bend down to pick up the stone, turning it over in my hand just as a loud buzzing echoes from the front door. Straightening up, I hurry back to the door, gun in position as I stop to the right of the frosted glass.
Pressing the intercom, I study the face of a man who is looking at the camera built into our keypad by the front gate.
‘Who’s there?’ I demand with authority.
‘Police Mr Hawthorne’ a man’s voice replies, ‘responding to your alarm.’
‘Show me ID’ I order, just before a badge is held up for me to see.
Releasing the tension in my shoulders, I tuck my weapon away and press to open the gate remotely for the patrol car.
Moments later, to two large male officers are standing on my doorstep, watching me warily.
‘Is everything OK Mr Hawthorne?’ the first officer asks, the name Benson is pinned to his uniform.
‘Someone through a rock through the window’ I reply, holding it up as I step back to allow the two men to enter the house.
Officer Benson nods as the second officer, Alvarez, according to his name plate, pulls out some gloves and snaps them on before taking the rock from me.
‘Someone got past your gates?’ Benson asks as he looks around the foyer curiously.
I shrug, ‘seems so’ I reply, ‘though I don’t know how, only family has the access code and our security firm to give emergency access if needed.’
‘Cameras?’ Alvarez queries as he carefully extracts a plastic bag and starts to remove the elastic bands, placing them in the clear bag.
‘All around the perimeter’ I reply immediately, ‘walls are ten feet high and there are no trees growing near enough to use to scale over. There are also laser connections along each perimeter wall that alert if something breaks the beam. Cameras are also around the front gate and the perimeter of the house.’
Benson raises an eyebrow at my words and I just shrug, yeah it might seem like it’s overkill but we work in security, we take safety seriously.
‘Anyone else in the house?’ the officer asks and I swear, nodding.
‘My . . . ‘ I balk, what exactly are we? ‘Tessa’ I finally continue, ‘she’s upstairs, I had her barricade herself in the bathroom whilst I swept the house.’
Not waiting for them to reply, I hurry out of the room, taking the stairs two at a time and rushing into her bedroom, knocking on the door.
‘Tessa?’ I call out, ‘baby? Are you OK?’
There was a few seconds silence as my heart starts to hammer in my chest before the door bursts open and Tessa throws herself at me, gripping me tightly as I wrap my arms around her instinctively.
She’s trembling, and the wetness that falls onto my bare chest tells me that she’s crying.
‘Hey, it’s OK, you are OK’ I try to soothe her.
‘I was so scared’ she gulps, ‘you didn’t come back, and the alarm went off but you still didn’t come back. I thought I should come find you, in case you were hurt but you told me to stay here until you came for me.’
Shit, she was worried about me and like an asshole, I forgot to come back.
‘I’m fine’ I promise, holding her to me, ‘the police arrived and I was just answering their questions.’