Stitched Up Heart (Combat Hearts Book 1) (9 page)

Jase grabbed her face with both hands and deepened the kiss, sweeping his tongue into her mouth before raising his head. “You’re welcome.” Back to sweet.

They made their way down the hall into the family room and open concept kitchen. Deputy Grant sat at the angled bar. Tim had made himself comfortable at her small kitchen table tucked into the breakfast nook.

“Ms. Marks,” the deputy began.

“Dr. Marks,” Jase said.

The deputy looked at Jase, then looked back at Bree.

“Bree is fine,” she said. She grabbed a glass from the cabinet and poured herself some water from the pitcher on the counter.

“Yes, ma’am. What time did you leave your house today?”

“Seven o’clock. Give or take a few minutes.”

“Is that what time you normally leave in the morning?”

“Yes.”

“There’s no sign of anyone tampering with your locks. Are you sure you locked the door on your way out?”

“Yes. I always check the front door and leave through the door off the mudroom.”

“Who else has a key to your house?” he asked.

“My grandmother, my best friend, and my ex. I’m sorry, I’m being rude. Would anyone like something to drink?”

The deputy shook his head. Tim and Jase copied the gesture when she looked at them.

“No one else has a key? No cleaning service or pet-sitting service?”

“No. I don’t use either. Is it okay if I go get my dogs’ beds and bring them in here? I don’t want them walking in the living room until I can clean up the glass.” she said.

The sheriff nodded as he made notes in his note book. She retrieved the two beds from the living room and dropped them against the far wall in the family room.

“Has your ex made any threats against you?” the sheriff asked.

She opened the back door and let her dogs in. “Not that I’m aware of, but I’ve been deleting any messages without listening to them or reading them.” Sensing Bree’s heightened anxiety level, Polly sat down at Bree’s feet and whined up at her. Bree ruffled her ears and closed the door. Her pit bull’s butt wiggled in excitement as he made a beeline for Jase, now sitting with Tim at the kitchen table.

“How’d he lose his leg?” Jase asked.

Bree looked up from scooping dog food to find Jase petting Charlie.

“He got hit by a car. I found him on the side of the road and took him to the vet. He wasn’t chipped and no one came forward to claim him, so I kept him.”

“Ma’am, is there anyone who might hold a grudge against you or your ex?” the deputy asked, drawing Bree’s attention back to him.

“My ex, maybe, against me. I caught him cheating on me. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the only time.” She shook her head and mumbled, “Jackass.”

“Did you know the woman you caught him with?”

Bree shook her head. “I’d never seen her before and didn’t bother with introductions.”

“Did she say anything to you? Threaten you or your ex?”

“Mostly she just called my ex an asshole. She seemed embarrassed more than anything. Told me she was sorry and left as quickly as she could.”

After writing a few more notes, he flipped the notebook closed and placed it in the breast pocket of his shirt. “I think I’ve got everything I need. You can request a copy of the report in a week or so for insurance purposes.”

“Thank you, Deputy Grant. I appreciate you coming out.”

“No thanks necessary, ma’am. Just doing my duty.”

Bree walked him to the door and shook hands with him as he left. When she came back into the kitchen, Tim smiled at her while Jase glared.

“What?” she asked.

“You’re not staying here. Pack a bag with a few days’ worth of clothes,” Jase ordered.

“Why?”

“You’re not staying here.”

“You said that already. It’ll be fine. I’ll sleep in the guest room until I can get my room cleaned up.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in the chair. “No. You won’t sleep in your guest room. Not until you get your locks changed and have an alarm installed.”

“That’s ridiculous.” Bree put her hands on her hips. “The locks still work and an alarm system can take days to get installed. I’m not staying in a hotel that long, especially with my dogs, and Denise lives in a one-bedroom loft apartment above the kennel, so that’s out.”

“You’re staying with me.”

“No. I’m not.”

“Yes. You are.”

She threw her hands up. “Why are you insisting on this?” In her peripheral, she saw Tim try to hide his smile as he watched them argue.

Jase leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. His eyes narrowed. “Because someone broke into your house, shredded your bedding and selectively shattered pictures of you and your ex. As you pointed out, this was personal. You’re not safe here by yourself.”

Her breath caught when she remembered the sight of the ripped bedding. As creepy as it was, she could still take care of herself. “I have a gun, and the dogs will let me know if someone comes into the house.”

“Not if they’re outside, they won’t.” Jase stood and took a few steps toward her. Bree crossed her arms and tilted her head back a little to keep her gaze with his.

“I don’t leave my dogs outside; they’re always in the house unless they have to go out.” Bree was becoming annoyed with Jase for pushing the issue. This was her house, dammit. She wasn’t going to be scared out of it.

“They weren’t today,” Jase pointed out.

“They were when I left.”

“Wait. What?” Tim interjected. He wasn’t trying to hide a smile now - he was frowning.

Bree looked at Tim. “I left the dogs inside this morning, like I always do.”

“Did you put them out when you called the police?”

“No. They were outside when I got home. I figured Chad came by, let them out while he was here, and forgot about them. He’s not their biggest fan.”

“But you don’t know that for sure,” Jase said.

Bree looked between Jase and Tim’s matching serious expressions. “No,” she said in a soft voice.

“They’re friendly dogs.” Tim scratched Charlie behind the ears. “Anyone could have let them out the back door to keep them out of the way while they were in your house.”

Bree’s chest tightened as what Tim insinuated finally sank in.

Jase drove the point home. “They could have done something else to them to get them out of the way.”

It was the threat to her dogs that finally made Bree agree to go to Jase’s. She could have taken them to Denise’s and gone to a hotel, but she preferred to keep them near, and Jase was offering her a solution. Maybe not the best solution, but after what happened in his office, then later in her bedroom, a part of her wanted to learn more about this man who could be both demanding and sexy, sweet and attentive. She just wasn’t willing to examine that part of her too closely yet.

Jase went through her house and made sure all the windows and doors were locked. He examined the lock on the front and kitchen doors. It didn’t look like someone had pried the doors open. He’d pick up a couple of deadbolts from the hardware store this weekend and change her locks for her, whether she liked it or not.

Grabbing the broom and dust pan from between the washer and dryer in the laundry, he cleaned up the majority of the glass in her living room. He studied one of the pictures of Bree and her ex. The guy was clean-cut - white dress shirt, tan blazer, styled hair. He had an arm thrown around Bree like she was a prize. She looked stiff and uncomfortable, both her arms in front of her, elbows tucked into her sides, holding a drink in front of her like a shield. The dress she wore was black, sleeveless, and clung to her body. She was beautiful. He set the picture on the coffee table with the others.

He walked over to the bookcases, checking out the other pictures scattered on the shelves. Her and an older woman. Her and Denise. Pictures of her in scrubs and different Air Force uniforms, including one of her and Denise in their battle rattle - helmet, body armor, loaded down with weapons and ammunition. It was like looking at a different person - open and friendly, smiling and laughing. He didn’t yet know what the deal was with her ex, but Jase was pretty sure he didn’t have anything to worry about.

He turned as Bree came down the short hall with a duffle bag thrown over one shoulder.

“Is that all you’re taking?” he asked.

She glanced at the duffle bag. “I wear scrubs for work, so I only need a few changes of clothes for the week. I need to bring Charlie and Polly’s beds, their bowls, and their food.”

“Why don’t you grab the food and bowls while I put their beds in my truck?” He took the strap of the duffle off Bree’s shoulder, then grabbed the two dog beds from the family room.

He went out through the mudroom and put everything in the back of his pickup. By the time he went back in, Bree had dragged a small bin into the mudroom. He hefted it up and led the way out. He watched carefully as Bree locked the door, making sure he heard the bolt slide into place.

He loaded up Bree and her dogs and drove the twenty minutes to his house. Turned out they were practically neighbors. Since he had convinced her to leave her car at her house, she was stuck. He was already thinking of the night to come. No way in hell she was sneaking out the next morning. She was also going to answer some questions. Like why the hell she had gone home with him the day she broke it off with her ex.

Jase pulled up in front of his garage, turned off his truck, and looked at Bree. She hadn’t said much during the drive other than to ask how far away he lived.

“Where are we?” Bree asked.

“My house.”

“This isn’t where you took me last week.”

“That was my buddy Chris’s house. He was supposed to be out of town.”

“He was the guy on the couch?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, that’s embarrassing.”

“Don’t worry about it. You good otherwise?”

“Other than being mortified that we had sex in your friend’s bed and being overwhelmed thinking about everything I need to do this weekend, sure. I’m just peachy.”

“I washed his sheets. Can’t go back in time and bring you here instead. What do you need to do this weekend?”

“Well, I have to work in the morning, so you’re going to have to take me to my car.” She gave him a pointed look. “Then I need to buy a new mattress and clean up my house, set up a time for the locksmith to change the locks, and call an alarm company. It doesn’t seem like a long list of things to do, but it’s all time consuming.”

“My schedule is flexible so I can get your locks changed and meet the alarm company if you have to work. We’ll figure it out,” Jase promised.

W
e’ll figure it out.
Chad would have told her not to stress about it, that she’d figure it out, and he would have left it to her. He would have helped if she’d asked, of course, but he wouldn’t have offered. He wouldn’t have asked what he could do to make things easier for her.

She’d waited too damn long to break things off with him.

“You ready to in?” Jase asked.

“You okay with the dogs coming inside?”

Jase looked over his shoulder at the two dogs panting in his back seat. Charlie leaned his head forward and licked Jase’s face.

“Yeah. They’re good.”

Bree laughed, opened her door, and hopped down. They unloaded the truck and let the dogs down. They immediately sniffed around the yard and relieved themselves before following their humans inside.

Jase led her to a covered walkway, which connected the colonial-style house to the much newer-looking oversized two-car garage. A small porch opened into a breakfast room with an old-fashioned potbelly stove tucked into the corner.

“Do you actually use that?” Bree asked, looking at the stove.

Jase glanced to where she was looking. “Sometimes, during the winter. My bedroom is right above us, and the chimney goes up through the wall, so I use it for heat instead of turning on the thermostat.”

“Doesn’t that make the rest of the house kind of cold?”

“Don’t really use the rest of the house. There are two more fireplaces if I need them. I cut enough wood to get me through the winter. It’s not like we’re up north and I’m battling negative degree temperatures.”

“Good point.”

“Come on. Let’s get your mutts settled and get dinner started. I’ll take the rest of your stuff up in a bit. The family room okay to put their beds?”