I have decided to try out a little muff diving this month.”
I stop talking when he chokes on his eggs, picking up my coffee and sipping it while he gets himself under control.
“I will amend the rule then. Thou shall prevent anything with… with—”
“Thick fingers?” I fill in helpfully, but shut up and duck when he throws his fork at me.
“You are such a brat,” he says with a shake of his head.
I sigh, sitting on the chair beside him with one leg tucked beneath me.
“I know, and I’m just joking.” I wait for him to take a sip of the coffee I slide in front of him.
“I really do prefer the D.” I lean to the left to avoid the spray of coffee from hitting me as I continue to sip my own.
“How about for the next five minutes while I finish my eggs, you don’t speak at all? Then I’ll take a quick shower, and as soon as Johnson is here, I’ll be out of your hair?” he grumbles, shoveling a forkful of eggs into his mouth before I answer.
“Why is Johnson picking you up?” I ask, climbing to my feet and heading back to the coffee machine.
I lift the pot at him, but he shakes his head no at my silent offer before answering my question.
“Because he’s my partner and that’s what partners do, Reign,” he says slowly, like I’m dumb and haven’t lived with a household of cops for most of my life.
“I mean, why are you leaving your car here? Are you hoping it will act as a stalker deterrent?” I joke, pouring coffee into my cup before turning to face him again.
“Johnson dropped me off last night, Reign. I didn’t bring my car.” The cup of hot coffee slips through my hand and crashes to the floor, dousing my legs in the scalding hot liquid.
“Fuck,” Owen is up on his feet, picking me up and setting me on the counter before I can blink. Soaking two towels with cold water, he wraps them over my bare legs before bending to scoop up the large shards of broken cup from the floor.
Tossing them in the trash, he lifts the towel to check my skin while I sit in somewhat of a daze as my mind sifts together the pieces and comes up with a frightening picture.
“Owen, if you didn’t bring your squad car, why was one outside the house last night?” I ask him with a shaky voice as he looks at me.
“What are you talking about?”
I filled him in on the weird feeling last night, and the cop car outside I had assumed was his.
“Might have just been one of the guys doing a drive-by check-in. People will have heard your story now and will want to look after one of our own.” He shrugs, but it doesn’t stop the unease from growing inside me.
“Don’t worry so much, Raindrop. I’ll ask around the station and find out who it was. I know what you’re thinking, but the captain doesn’t drive a squad car.”
Owen slides his finger under my jaw and tilts my head up, my worried eyes clashing with his. “I’ll do some digging, I promise, and I’ll come back and stay tonight.”
I shake my head with a sigh. “No, I’m fine. You can’t keep sleeping on that sofa. You are too big to get comfy, and it’s not fair. I have the best alarm available thanks to you guys. This whole thing has just left me shaken, that’s all,” I admit.
“I know, I get it, and if you are right about the captain... well, fuck. We will cross that bridge when we get to it, but for now, keep your head down, your doors and windows locked, and your gun beside your bed,” he orders.
“I will, I promise.” Not that I don’t usually sleep with a gun beside me, because I do. I have a .45 cal Sig Sauer in a nifty lockbox my father got for me for my eighteenth birthday, but tonight I think I’ll be sleeping with it under my pillow so it’s within easy reach, just in case.
He stares at me for a moment longer, his frown deepening.
“Stay with Dad or one of us, even if it’s just for a little while.”
I put my hand up and shake my head. “This is my home, Owen. I don’t want to leave unless it becomes absolutely necessary, okay?”
He sighs but reluctantly agrees. He knows how hard it was for me to