Page 23 of No One But You
“What happened?”I asked as she sniffled into my chest.
“He was here,” she whimpered, her voice muffled by my shirt.
I stiffened, my gaze rising instinctively to Nate’s.He was leaning against the wall by the hall door, his arms crossed, scowling fiercely.
“Bailey was doing a live talk with some of her followers when one of them spotted a man standing in the window,” Nate said, pushing away from the wall and moving a step closer.“When she turned, she saw a guy in a ski mask.She locked herself in the bathroom and called for help.”
“Did he get in?”I demanded.“Did you catch him?Fuck, I never should have left her alone today.”
I hadn’t felt right about leaving her here, but she’d insisted, and I knew my worry could be smothering, so I’d let my concern about pushing her away overrule my anxiety over her safety.
“He didn’t get in.”Nate gestured toward the hall.“There’s evidence he was trying to force the lock on the back door, but it didn’t work.”
I pursed my lips.“Why not just break the window if he wanted to get in?”
Nate shrugged.“No idea.As for whether we caught him, unfortunately not.He was gone by the time we arrived.I have officers searching the neighborhood and knocking on doors for possible witnesses.Mehrtens is collecting evidence—including fingerprints—from the back door.She’ll also check whether there were any footprints left by the window.”
“Okay.”That all sounded positive.I was glad to hear the lock had held, even if I was confused as to why he hadn’t just smashed the window and saved the hassle of trying to break the lock.
Bailey had stopped sniffling, and she pulled away from me, swiping at her eyes.“Sorry.I didn’t mean to cry all over you.”
I sat beside her on the sofa and started to reach for her hand before stopping myself with a sharp internal reminder that we didn’t have the sort of relationship where I got to hold her hand whenever I wanted.I was just here for whatever support she requested.
“You can cry on me whenever you need to,” I said softly.“Are you okay?”
Her lower lip wobbled.“Not really.”
Of course not.That was a stupid question.
“Did you recognize him?”I asked.
“No, but the live session was recorded.That happens automatically, and then it uploads afterward.”
Nate held up a phone.“Want to see?I’m going to send the video to a technical team to analyze, but in the meantime, maybe you’ll notice something we didn’t.”
I grimaced.I didn’t really want to watch Bailey go through something like that, but if it might help, then I would.I took the phone from him.Bailey’s face was in the center of a paused video.I hit the button to play it and watched the window carefully.
The figure wasn’t very clear at first.It could have been mistaken for a small tree moving in the wind, but it became clearer seconds before, onscreen, Bailey’s face fell and she slowly began to turn.
I stared at the figure in relation to the window.He must be around six feet tall or perhaps a little under.With shoulders that broad, it was almost certainly a man.The miniature Bailey screamed silently, and her hand flew at the camera.The man moved to the right just as her surroundings blurred—presumably as she ran through the house to the bathroom.
“He went to the right,” I said, returning the phone to Nate.
My brother nodded.“I noticed that.”
Bailey frowned.“Why does that matter?”
I pressed my lips together.Perhaps I shouldn’t have said anything.
Nate sighed.“To get to the back door, he’d have had to go left.”
She cocked her head, obviously confused.
“It’s possible that he tried the doorbeforecoming to the window,” Nate went on, his expression grim, “but it’s also possible that there was a second person working on the door while this man was keeping an eye on you and that when he ran, it was to their getaway vehicle so he’d be ready to escape with his partner.”
“Oh.”
Her voice was small, and I instantly felt terrible for mentioning it.I should have known that Nate wouldn’t have missed a detail like that and was keeping it to himself for a reason.
