Page 48 of Stopping Short

I stay in the car with Mason while Dad moves my car into the driveway. That way if Evan drives by, it will look like I'm home and no one else is here.

We wait until Dad enters the garage, then we shut the garage door. Dad takes my hand in his as we open the door to my kitchen and enter the house.

Mason has a gun out and a bright flashlight attached to it. He quickly sweeps the house, making sure no one is in here. My heart beats frantically in my chest, each second that ticks by making me more and more anxious. I was terrified of what they might find.

“The house is clear,” Mason says, walking into the living room as he holsters his gun. “What parts of the house has Evan been in?” He glances around, already lifting things off of my bookshelf and looking behind them.

“Everywhere,” I whisper.

Dad’s gaze snaps to mine and he arches a brow, giving me such a disapproving dad look.

“Oh, not like that!” I roll my eyes. “The spare bedroom is my study room, so he’s been in there. He hasn’t been in my bedroom that I know of… but when Jackson was in town, Evan walked in after I left the door unlocked for Jackson. I was taking a shower and when I went into my room, he was in there. I don’t know how long he was in there…” I trail off, feeling even more violated than I did when I found him in my home.

“I'm checking the entire place,” Mason murmurs, already walking away from us.

When Dad doesn’t follow him, I frown and take a seat on the couch. He follows my lead and plops down next to me. He wraps an arm around my shoulders and watches me carefully.

“Aren’t you going to help?”

“Nah, he’s got this. I think my time is better spent comforting my daughter. Plus, Mason’s like a drug sniffing dog. He’ll find anything in this place. If I help, it will only slow him down and he’ll complain I'm in his way.”

“Because he’s always in the way,” Mason calls from somewhere deeper in my house.

“How are you?” Dad lowers his voice to a soft rumble.

“I'm ok.”

“Nah, you’re not. No one would be ok in this situation. How are you really?”

“I'm terrified,” I whisper.

“That makes much more sense.” He presses a soft kiss to my head. “You know we’ll be with you every step of the way. We won't let anything happen to you.”

“I know.”

“I’ve got good news and bad news,” Mason says as he drops several small cameras and boxes on the coffee table.

He turned the electric back on a few minutes ago. The light was making me feel slightly better and safer, but staring at these devices is changing that rather quickly.

“How is any of this good news?” I motion to the cameras.

“Well, only one of them had dust on them. I'm thinking he broke in while you were gone and planted the cameras around the entire house, but only on the inside. I didn’t find any outside. Even if they were in here before that, they couldn’t have been there long or you’d see at least a little bit of dust.”

“What’s the bad news?” I groan.

“There was one in every room of the house except the bathrooms… I guess that’s both good and bad news. He wasn’t spying on you when you were showering at least.” Mason lifts his shoulder in a shrug.

“Oh, how lucky of me,” I deadpan.

“I did find a window open in your study. I'm thinking he probably unlocked it when he came into the house. Jackson’s appearance and you breaking up with him probably forced his hand and he had to take action. He came back while you were gone. Since we think he was tracking your phone, he knew he wasn’t in danger of being caught.”

Peck thought he’d be able to inspect the app that was on my phone quickly, but it’s taking him longer to figure everything out. I have my phone back, but he’s still looking into the app since it wasn’t something you can download on the app store.

“Wait… you said one of them had dust on it. Which room?” I squeeze my eyes shut, really hoping he doesn’t say my bedroom.

“The study. Did you spend a lot of time in there?”

“Probably more time in there than any other room of the house.”