Page 4 of Operation Protector
“Whether they were treated that way by other people, or by life, we try to help,” Hayley agreed.
“As long as they’re in the right, the Foxworth Foundation is there,” Quinn added.
Ali sighed audibly. “Wonderful. Thank you for…being.”
They’d finished their coffee, and Ali noticed it was Quinn who stood and gathered all the mugs and took them into the kitchen, all without comment.
“At the risk of being clichéd, I love what you’ve done with the place. Welcoming, comfortable and functional.”
Ali laughed. “That’s practically my business motto.”
“Business?”
“I do residential and business interiors, for people who want function over form, but still want to like what they’re looking at.”
Hayley looked around again, and slowly began to nod. “I can see you’re good at it, just from this. Clean lines, but not cold.”
“Thank you,” Ali exclaimed gratefully. “That’s exactly my goal.”
“Ali?”
Quinn spoke from where he’d walked after dropping off the coffee mugs, over by a side window that looked out toward the house next door. Grace’s house, as she preferred to think of it, since her mother seemed to have no desire to be on a first-name basis.
“What?” she asked.
“When you heard Ziggy barking, did you hear anything else?”
Her brow furrowed. “I heard something right before, but it was far away. So I thought he was just barking at the noise, or I’ve got a family of rabbits living out there he always yips at, so I thought he’d seen one… Why?”
It was Hayley who answered her. “Forgive us for not telling you right away, but we wanted to check you out before we got into this. When Cutter brought Ziggy to us, he had blood on him. Quite a bit.”
Ali gasped. “What?” She immediately looked back at the puppy in her lap, running her hands over him urgently.
“He’s fine,” Hayley assured her. “We took him to our vet to be sure. It wasn’t his blood.”
For a moment Ali felt as if she could breathe again, but then the implications of what Hayley had said sank in. “Then what…?”
“The blood,” Quinn said from his spot over by the window, “was human.”
She blinked. Human? How on earth? “But… I’m the only one here, and I’m not— I haven’t—” She broke off, at a total loss.
“I believe you,” Quinn said. “Because I think I know how it happened.” He turned then to look at them. “I think that sound you heard came from next door.”
“What?” She felt like she’d missed something in a complicated story she was reading. She got up, started toward him, wondering what he’d seen. When she got there, he pointed toward the back of the house across the side yard, where a window was clearly broken.
“You want my best guess,” Quinn said, “Ziggy heard the breaking glass, barked at the person who broke it—and apparently cut himself up in the process—and who obviously didn’t want to be discovered, so he ran over and grabbed your pup to shut him up.”
Ali sucked in a harsh breath. And cuddled Ziggy even closer.
“But he didn’t hurt him,” Hayley, who had joined them now, assured her. “Our vet checked him thoroughly.”
Ali looked at the broken window at the back of the house next door. It did make sense, but if it was true… A memory hit her then of that time little Grace had climbed through a window to come over to play with Ziggy.
“Oh no,” she said, staring, feeling more than a little stunned. “That’s Grace’s room.”
Chapter 3
Ali hastily explained about her charming, dog-loving little neighbor, but then hesitated. Hayley, who had come up beside them, urged her on.
