Jaci Burton - Hope Flames

Never again.

She walked to the door and stood at the other side. If someone opened it, she could at least surprise them instead of sitting at her desk waiting for them to rush in and attack her.

“Still there, ma’am?”

“Yes,” she whispered, her voice quavering.

“Our car will be there in thirty seconds.”

She hoped she’d still be standing there in thirty seconds. Her heart pounded and her throat had gone sand dry. She couldn’t muster up enough saliva to swallow, and she felt the sudden need to cough. Daisy kept growling, and she had to keep a tight hold on her to keep her from barking.

Emma shook violently, and it was all she could do to stand upright against the wall.

It had been much longer than thirty seconds. But how much longer? She was so hot.

She wanted to go find Annie. Poor Annie. She was tiny and playful, not at all a threat. Whoever was in there wouldn’t hurt a puppy, would they?

She heard footsteps, then a loud bark.

“Emma? Emma are you in here?”

Luke.

“Is the officer there now, ma’am?”

“Yes. I’m hanging up now.” She clicked off the phone and opened the door.

“I’m here.”

Daisy took off like her tail was on fire. So did Emma, flying through the door. Luke was there, his gun in hand, looking fierce and alert, and oh, God, she’d never been happier to see anyone in her life. Boomer was circling the room, tail up, his neck fur standing on end. She threw herself against Luke, and when he wrapped his arm around her and tugged her close, she felt safe.

“It’s okay, Emma. Whoever was in here is gone now.” Even better, he didn’t let go. She was still shaking. He holstered his weapon and put both arms around her, sliding his hands over her hair and her back. “It’s all right. He’s gone.”

“Someone was in here,” she said against his neck.

“I know. Your drug cabinet was broken into.”

She finally pulled back, though every part of her was still shaking. “What?”

“Boomer and I did a search of the whole place before I came to find you. Looks like they were after drugs.”

Her fear was quickly replaced by shock. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. Come on, I’ll show you, but be careful not to touch anything. Crime scene unit will want to dust for prints.”

“Okay.”

Just then Annie raced toward her. Tears pricked her eyes. She picked up the puppy. “Oh, Annie, I’m so glad you’re okay.” She inspected the puppy for any signs of injury, found none, and snuggled her close to her chest.

As they walked through the clinic, Emma put both Annie and Daisy in one of the nearby kennels so neither of them would cut their paws on the glass, or mess up the crime scene.

She heard sirens outside but ignored them, sticking close to Luke as he led her to the room where they kept all the pharmaceuticals. Boomer followed.

The room was a train wreck. One of the cabinets had been busted open, some of the drugs were clearly missing. Everything was out of order. They’d have to do a full inventory.

“Damn.”

“It was a dash-and-run, obviously,” Luke said. “I don’t know what kind of drugs you keep on hand, but they didn’t take everything.”

“I was on the phone with my sister when I heard the crash and barking. I thought Daisy and Annie had been playing rough and had toppled something over.”

“Whoever broke in likely didn’t expect to find a dog in here. They made a grab for whatever they could and ran out. Otherwise they’d have cleaned you out.”

Two more officers came in. Luke nodded and introduced them to her. She gave them her best effort at a smile, while Luke filled them in on what happened and told them they’d need to sweep for fingerprints and other evidence. They left the room, and so did Luke and Emma.

“Come on. You look like you need to sit down.”

“I have to clean this up. And replace the door and the lock. And call my insurance company.” She looked up at Luke. “How did he get in?”

“Picked the lock on the back door. The crash you heard was after he smashed through the locked door on the drug cabinet.”

She inhaled and let out a shaky sigh.

“Do you have an alarm?”

“Yes. I deactivated it when I came in to work tonight.”

“I’m surprised they broke in, knowing someone was here. Normally they wouldn’t hit a business if someone was inside.”

“I parked across the street because of the road-repaving project they’re doing this weekend. The parking lot is blocked.”

“That’s right. I didn’t even notice your car wasn’t out front. So he wouldn’t have known someone was in here.”

Now that the adrenaline rush was over, her head had started to pound.

“You want something to drink?”

She nodded. “Water. My throat is dry.” She looked in her small refrigerator in her office, but it was empty. She made a mental note to restock it, if she could even remember. Her thoughts were scattered.

“I’ll go get you something. Boomer, stay.”

Boomer sat with her. She took a minute to call her insurance company to report the break-in. She told them the police were there right now. They said they’d send someone out in the morning to look things over and file a report.

Luke came back a few minutes later with a bottle of water. He unscrewed the cap and handed it to her. “Raided your main fridge.”

“Thanks.” She grabbed a couple of acetaminophens from the drawer in her desk and popped those with the water.

“I’ve got the guys taking photos, and the crime-scene van just arrived to dust for prints. Chances are it was someone looking for a quick drug score.”

“We keep painkillers here and anesthesia drugs.”

He nodded. “I know. We see that a lot. Some of the medical and dental clinics have reported break-ins over the past couple of months.”

“Great. Just great.”

He took a notepad and pen out of his pocket. “You want to tell me everything that happened again? Anything you saw or heard.”

Emma dragged her fingers through her hair and recounted everything that had happened from the time she came to work to the time she saw Luke.

“Thanks, Emma. That’s helpful.”

“I don’t see how anything I just told you could help. I didn’t see him. I could have gone out there when I heard the crash. Maybe I would have seen him and could have given you a description.”

He frowned. “That would have been stupid. What would you have done? Yelled at him? You don’t know what kind of person that was. High or desperate, and he could have had a weapon. Criminals are unpredictable. You did the right thing staying in here and calling it in. Now we’ll do our job and try to catch him.”

“I just hate being a victim.” Again.

“You’re not a victim. You did everything right.” He came over and crouched down in front of her, his warm eyes sincere. “You took care of your own life. Some people are stupid. You aren’t. You were very brave tonight.”

He was trying to make her feel better. And he was taking care of her. In her past, someone would have called her stupid, would have blamed her for the break-in and the loss of inventory. Illogical, but that’s the way it would have been. Luke didn’t think she was stupid.

“Thank you.”

“Let me go check on the crew, see how things are going.”

“Okay.”

She should call her parents. And Rachel and Leanne.

Not right now. She’d do that tomorrow, after she passed out and slept off this nightmare. If she called her mother right now, she’d rush right over and want to baby or pamper her, and she wouldn’t be able to handle that smothering kind of love. She felt inept enough as it was.

“We’re clear here. And I fixed your back door,” Luke said when he came back into her office.