me up. I supposed I’d counted on him as my armour, and now I had none.
In a daze, I was stroking Penny’s hair when I heard the faint sound of footsteps downstairs. I froze, straining to listen as the floorboards groaned. I knew exactly where that sound was coming from. The floorboards between the kitchen and the entrance hallway sounded like that. Noise carried in this house, but those floorboards were the worst. I sat up, my spine was straight, my nerves shot.
Someone was in our house.
I slipped out of bed and took my phone with me. Tiptoeing, I made it to the door with my heart in my throat. I was close to a panic attack, convinced it was Dave or his posse I’d find, and I’d be thrown into the streets. But that didn’t make sense. Dave wouldn’t go through the effort of threatening to enforce the courts to remove me. It couldn’t have been him.
I opened my bedroom door all the way and slipped my head out. 911 was ready on speed dial – my thumb so close to pressing the call button – when I heard a voice.
“No, I’m not going into business with the Lebanese. I’ve been done over enough times by them. Good food, but they’ll stab you in the back the second you look away.”
My shoulders slumped in relief. I knew that voice. How could I forget it? My heart stirred with surprise.
Max Locke was in my house.
I frowned. Why was Max Locke in my house?
Turning away, I went to the bed and set up the baby monitor. I honestly didn’t know what I’d do without the thing. I situated the camera on Penny and then I barricaded the bed with pillows all around her. I stood there for a while, staring down at her, wondering if this was going to work, and then I shook my head. Yeah, this was bad parenting. I’d had my fails but this…yeah, not gonna happen. With a sigh, I took her into my arms and carried her out of the bedroom and into hers. I situated her in her crib so unbelievably slowly, hoping to God she didn’t wake up. I didn’t need to endure that look of betrayal right now.
Situating the camera again, I took the monitor and left. I didn’t know how long I had, but it wasn’t going to be long at all. Penny had a sixth sense when it came to that goddamn crib. She was going to know of my violation very soon.
As I approached the kitchen, the sound of rapid whooshing erupted. I blinked several times to adjust to the bright light. He’d turned every single light on in the kitchen, and he was standing there, with his back to me, facing one of the counters. He was busy, moving his hands quickly, grabbing at handfuls of something.
I didn’t know if he heard me over the noise. I stood still, absorbed by the sight before me. His blue suit jacket was splayed over the island neatly. His grey dress shirt wasn’t thoroughly tucked in, and the sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. I saw the strong tendons in his arms, the muscle protruding from them as he moved. He had a worn-out looking watch on his left wrist that he stopped to look at twice in the span of a few minutes. As he stared at it, his face looked far off in thought. It was a bizarre watch to wear with a suit like that, but now I was thinking about the time and…
God, what time was it?
Just as I muttered, “Locke?” my eyes were scanning the counters, taking in the mess before us. My gaze paused at one corner where all my letters had been neatly stacked. They were opened – all of them – and looked like a mountain of rubbish. My lips parted in surprise. He’d gone through my fucking mail.
He barely turned to look at me, not at all phased by my presence. His hair wasn’t done up like usual. I realized it had been a long while since I had seen him, probably the same amount of time I hadn’t seen Conor. His jaw still looked like it could cut steel, but he wasn’t clean shaven like before. The five o’clock shadow made him look wilder and less refined than what I was used to.
“Charlotte,” he acknowledged, his tone impossible to read.
“Did you break into my house?” I asked, bewildered.