rose on Brooke’s cheeks, her gaze turning to Josh’s. Josh smiled at her.
Adam cleared his throat and raised a brow. “Just call me if you have any trouble.”
“Same with us. If these guys show up at the house, don’t play the hero. Let me know, because I’ll be your closest backup,” Josh said.
“Right. What appeals for lunch?” Adam asked Brooke.
“Pizza. I haven’t had any in ages.” Brooke motioned to the bathroom. “Bathroom is that way. Feel free to eat or drink anything you want. Make yourself at home.”
“Thanks. I will,” Adam said. “See you at lunch then.”
Brooke and Josh left the house, thermoses in hand. Even though he and his brother had pizzas recently, he didn’t mind eating one again.
“You said you were able to sleep finally. How are your injuries this morning?” Josh asked her.
“They’re much better. They hurt some, but not like yesterday.”
“Do you want me to check them? I thought you might have groaned a little at one point when you were in bed with me, but then you didn’t do it again, and I didn’t want to wake you to see if you were hurting. I should have asked you first thing this morning.”
“I groaned because you pulled the covers off me.”
He chuckled.
“Really, my injuries are fine.”
Wanting to be sure, he transferred the second thermos into his other hand and placed his free hand against her forehead. He was glad to feel she wasn’t too warm. “No fever.”
“No, the EMTs did a good job of disinfecting the wounds. I’m sure I’ll be fine, but thanks for being concerned.”
“You tell me if you start feeling poorly.”
* * *
With apprehension, Brooke unlocked the door to her shop and opened it. She couldn’t believe her eyes. She’d envisioned seeing broken glass, porcelain, and merchandise scattered all over the floor. But everything—that wasn’t broken—was neatly stacked on the shelves again, and there wasn’t a shard of breakage on the floor anywhere.
Tears filled her eyes. “They did this? Adam and Maverick? They cleaned everything up?” She hurried into the shop to turn off her security alarm.
“They did so you’d be all set when you returned to the shop.”
“Ohmigod, I’ll have to have all of you over for dinner one night to thank you. You don’t know how much all this means to me.”
“We’d love that. Since they were looking for something specific, we figure they did damage like some thieves looking for random stuff would do to throw us off the case. Do you have a list of the merchandise you’ve bought recently in case there’s something among the items that those guys were after?”
“No. I haven’t purchased anything since I’ve been here. All the stuff that’s still coming in are things my great-aunt purchased. Well, except for the five boxes I have coming from Gulliver’s estate, but I haven’t received them yet. The things my aunt purchased were preordered or handmade—like the Colombian pottery stuffed with cocaine—so they weren’t shipped right away.”
“I wondered about that.”
“I thought we could unlock those trunks. I don’t even want to see the condition of them after those bastards shot so many bullets all over the attic last night. I had figured I might be able to sell the trunks. There may be nothing salvageable inside them, but the trunks themselves would probably have sold.”
“I’m sure we can find someone in the pack who can restore the trunks.” Josh pulled out a set of lockpicks.
She eyed his lockpicks. “What would I do without you?”
“Call a locksmith?”
She smiled and then set the thermoses in the kitchen.
“Why don’t you wait here, and I’ll check everything out first, even though Adam was just here. He did run to the doughnut shop, and that took him a little while.” Josh pulled out his gun and headed into the other rooms of the shop.
Brooke pulled a knife from a kitchen drawer for protection, realizing she hadn’t even thought of the possibility that the intruders from last night had gotten into her shop while Adam was out. She was glad Josh was here with her. She imagined if he hadn’t come with her, she would have been feeling horribly spooked, afraid the thieves would be waiting in the shop for her to arrive or could show up at any time tonight after she closed the shop. In fact, she probably would feel unnerved when Josh couldn’t be here with her a couple of days from now, if Adam or someone else couldn’t stay with her. She hated feeling like that. At