It Wasn't Me - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,60

with me.

Together we rode toward my house, and all the while my heart was pounding.

Thoughts of ‘what if’ were pouring through my head.

What if the intruder found her and shot her?

What if he hurt her in other ways? Tortured her? Raped her?

I was so in love with her.

I was head over heels, never going to deny it again, stumble over my own tongue in love with her.

It took us five minutes to arrive at my home.

Three hundred seconds.

I blew through four stop lights, five stop signs, and illegally passed a tractor trailer.

But when I arrived and headed inside, gun drawn, I wasn’t thinking about anything but making sure my woman was okay.

“Unit 322 on scene,” I murmured, depressing the mic’s button long enough to speak into it.

“10-4,” the dispatcher said, sounding slightly disembodied due to my helmet. “Homeowner is in the master bathroom with the door locked. She says she went to take her animals to the groomers. Came home, headed to the bathroom to take a shower, and then heard banging from the hall bathroom. She went to investigate and saw movement underneath the door from the end of the hall. She didn’t investigate further, but she can hear banging.”

Heart in my throat, I entered the house, using my own goddamn key to unlock the door.

Pace was on my ass the entire time, gun drawn as well.

Pushing the door open wide, it was completely foreign not to be greeted by the dogs.

We’d discussed taking them to the groomer days prior.

Hell, she’d even taken my cat as well as hers.

Eyes sweeping over the room in quick, efficient movements, I cleared first the living room, followed shortly by the kitchen.

By the time I made it to the hallway, I heard the thump she was talking about.

Pace moved to the other side of the bathroom door and frowned.

His eyes caught mine just as he tried the doorknob.

Locked.

What. The. Fuck.

Another thump followed by something mechanical sounding.

Reaching above the molding, I pulled out the small key that I used to unlock the doors that accidentally got locked—and unfortunately, I’d found out more than most that it happened quite a bit with the particular door handles I’d purchased.

I nodded at Pace, who covered me as I opened the door with a rough push.

My gun automatically trained on the Roomba that started to make its way out of the bathroom.

That’s when I burst out laughing.

The Roomba hit my feet, turned, and went straight back into the bathroom.

I watched in fascination as it managed to close the bathroom door all over again.

Mouth twitching with laughter, I depressed the button on my mic again.

“Dispatch, this is unit 322. There is no intruder. No additional units required,” I said.

“10-4,” the dispatcher murmured.

That was when I went in search of my wife.

***

Piper

I was scared shitless.

I was also nauseous, cold, and naked.

Well, kind of naked.

I was wrapped in Jonah’s uniform shirt. It stopped mid-thigh and could technically count as being fully clothed had I had something on underneath of it.

I heard the thump again, followed by footsteps.

“Ma’am,” the dispatcher said, sounding tired. “The officers inside the house said that it was a false alarm. You can go out now.”

I sagged in relief and squeezed my eyes tightly shut.

“Okay,” I said. “I’m sorry. Thank you so much.”

“No problem, ma’am. Have a good day,” she said, then hung up.

Heavy footsteps started my way, and I knew without actually seeing that the man heading into our bedroom like he owned it walked like that because he did, in fact, own it.

Jonah made it to the bathroom door and tried the knob.

Jumping when it shook twice, I hurried toward it.

The moment that I had it unlocked, the knob was turning.

Jonah swung the door open and we stared at each other.

Seeing the look on his face, I burst out crying.

“Oh my God,” I sobbed. “I’m so sorry!”

I didn’t know why I was crying.

It was a good thing that it was a false alarm.

I’d come home after dropping all the animals off and had headed straight to the shower. It was only when I was stepping out of it that I’d heard the noises.

And seeing as the dogs were at the groomers, there damn well shouldn’t have been any noise.

“It’s okay,” Jonah said, hugging me tightly.

I soaked his uniform shirt through with my tears, and only when he stiffened around me did I stop long enough to realize that he was no longer comforting me.

I looked up at him, only to see his head turned away and