Page 68 of Protecting Kelli
Dude nodded at the door, then at Flash. He held up three fingers.
Flash returned his nod and stepped back a bit, giving the other man room to work.
Dude squared himself with the door, counted down on his fingers—three, two, one—then lifted his leg and kicked the door as hard as he could.
It flew open, slamming into the wall in the small foyer of Kelli’s apartment.
Strangely, the smell of bacon was the first thing Flash noticed as he quickly swung into the apartment, weapon at the ready.
He and Dude moved forward, scanning the living area and kitchen. It was empty. Ignoring the absolute destruction, Flash moved down the hall. Checking the bathroom and finding it empty, they continued to the master bedroom.
The sheets and blankets had been pulled off the bed, the tables on either side kicked over and smashed. Knickknacks and books were strewn everywhere. Pictures that had clearly once been on the wall were now on the floor, stomped on, leaving broken glass behind. The bookcase had also been knocked over.
Whoever had done this was…angry. This wasn’t a random break-in, Flash would bet his life on it.
Dude moved to check the closet, and when Flash reached him, he saw that it had suffered the same kind of destruction as the rest of the apartment.
The rods had been ripped down and clothes were strewn all over the sizable room. Flash shook his head at the needless destruction. It didn’t seem to him that whoever had done this was looking for anything valuable. He’d just broken stuff and destroyed Kelli’s belongings because he could. It made the situation more dangerous in Flash’s eyes. If the intruder had no intention of stealing anything…whatwashis intention?
“Where is she?” Dude asked.
Flash had no idea where Kelli had hidden herself. Granted, he and Dude hadn’t done an extensive search, but he hadn’t seen any place where she might have squirreled herself away.
“Check the bathroom again?” he suggested.
When they did and still found no sign of Kelli, Flash’s adrenaline spiked even higher. And it was already pretty damn high. Where was she? Had she left? Had whoever done this found her? Had the intruder taken her down via the elevator while he and Dude were running up the stairs?
No…he was sure that hadn’t happened. He hadn’t hung up with her until he’d pulled into the parking lot. And he hadn’t seen anyone lurking around, hadn’t seen Kelli being forced into a vehicle or carried over someone’s shoulder. She was here somewhere. She simply had to be.
Then he remembered what he’d told her. That he’d give her the all-clear code word. He’d totally forgotten in the heat of the moment.
“Fred!” he called out loudly.
“What the hell?” Dude asked, giving him a look.
“Fred!” Flash yelled again, walking into the bedroom.
Then he heard it. A rustling coming from the closet.
“We checked the closet, right?” he asked Dude, even as he was striding toward it.
What he saw made his legs go weak. The large mound of clothing in the corner was moving slightly. “Help me!” he exclaimed, dropping to his knees and frantically clearing the space of the clothes.
Dude was at his side in a heartbeat, pulling parts of a rack, pants and shirts, and even shoes off of the massive pile. Under it was a suitcase.
“Kelli?” Flash asked in disbelief, even as tiny fingers appeared in the opening between the top and bottom of the case. Next he saw an eyeball, and finally Kelli’s body as the top of the suitcase flew open to reveal her hiding space.
“Holy shit!” Dude exclaimed.
Flash was already reaching for the woman who’d crawled under his skin and refused to leave. She threw herself up and out of the suitcase, and he ended up on his ass on the closet floor with a shaking, freaked-out woman in his arms.
“You came,” she whispered into his neck.
“Of course I did,” he soothed. His own heart was beating out of control. It was just settling in that he could’ve lost her. That whoever had broken in could’ve seriously hurt her. Assaulted her in a way that she might never have recovered from.
Or even killed her, if the destruction the intruder had caused was any indication of his rage.
He didn’t know how long they’d sat on the floor of the closet, just holding each other, but eventually Dude walked back in—when he’d left, Flash had no idea—and said, “The police are on their way. And I called Kevlar. I know it’s two-thirty in the morning, but your team would kick my ass,andyours, if they weren’t informed as soon as possible about what happened here.”
