“Okay, I understand,” she said in a mock cheerful tone. “Let’s go grab the kids.”
She turned quickly but not before he saw the disappointment in her eyes. Lianna broke contact with him and strode off. He knew with each step she was re-establishing the distance between them both physically and emotionally.
****
An hour later, Gabe parked in Lianna’s driveway and immediately hopped out of the car. At first, she hoped that he had changed his mind about spending the evening with them. That hope was quickly diminished when he walked straighttowards the side of the house, calling out that he wanted to look at the spot the alarm had been triggered.
Lianna knew Gabe was trained to look for clues, but it was remarkable watching him in action. He found her security cameras working but scolded her for not having the app downloaded that let her view the footage. Gabe was adamant that he found boot prints in the mud by her back fence. But when Lianna looked at them all she could make out was an odd tread pattern. It could have been from one of Harris’s construction toys or Annie’s big wheel.
Lianna left him to his investigative work and got the children settled at the kitchen table. She covered the already nicked up dining table with old newspapers. She had just handed them the package of kid-friendly carving supplies, when Gabe knocked on the window and motioned for her to come outside.
Walking onto the back deck, Lianna found Gabe crouched down along the row of windows from the kitchen that overlooked the yard. The windows extended from thigh level to about eight feet up. The bottom quarter was sliding glass with a screen, the upper portion only glass. His attention was focused on the bottom section.
Folding her arms around her midsection to stave off the chill in the air, Lianna walked to him. “What’s up?”
“Were these markings always here?” His face looked grim as he stood up to make room for her to look.
Lianna’s gaze went directly to the scrapes alongside the window screen. It looked as if someone had tried to shove a screwdriver or other tool inside the now mangled screen edge to pop it out. The siding on the house had long, thin scrapes similar to the ones she found on her car in the parking garage last week.
“No. At least not when I cleaned the windows a few weeks ago.”
Gabe scrubbed a hand roughly against his bearded jaw. This was him in work mode, laser focused, commanding. Then he turned those intense eyes on her and she took a step backwards.
“You need to start taking this seriously. We’re going to call it into the local PD. Someone is going out of their way to scare you and now it looks like they may be trying to physically harm you.”
She sighed, looking over her shoulder and through the window at the children. Harris threw pumpkin guts at Jacob. Then, as if he could feel her stare, looked up and locked eyes with his mom. Lianna narrowed hers and Harris quickly put his head down and went back to carving.
Despite the anxiety churning in her stomach, she grinned. Those children were her world. While she may think the things happening to her were misguided but harmless pranks, she couldn’t risk the kids’ safety on that assumption.
“Okay.”
When he didn’t comment, she looked up at him. He seemed to be waiting for her to say more and stumbled on his words when he realized she hadn’t argued with him.
“Okay, then. Good.” Then his gaze softened. “Well, it’s not good, but it will be.”
“This is so frustrating. Why is someone targeting me?”
Lianna wasn’t scared, she was annoyed. As if she didn’t have enough on her plate, someone chose to toy with her. Gabe put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his side. Giving her a gentle squeeze, he sighed as if the whole thing exhausted him as well.
“I don’t know, but we are going to figure it out. In the meantime, I need to make sure you and the kids are safe.”
Lianna let herself sink into his strong frame. He hadn’t touched her like this in weeks and being supported, even forjust a moment, was irresistible. If she wasn’t careful, she could start depending on him and that was pointless. Lianna knew Gabe would begin pushing her away as soon as the threat was gone, and his protective instincts calmed down. Gathering her strength, she moved away from him.
“Can we just wait until tomorrow to call it in? I’m assuming that an officer will have to come out and look around. That might scare the kids. They have a birthday party late morning. Can we do it then?”
Gabe relented with a nod. “Fair enough.”
They stood outside for several long seconds without speaking. Lianna took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. Gabe tucked both hands into his pockets and stared through the window in the direction of Jacob.
“If the invitation is still on the table, I’d like to stay for dinner. Don’t think I could get Jake to leave now anyway.”
“Gabe, we will be fine. I’ll set the alarm as soon as you go. You don’t have to stay.”
“I want to stay. If we’re still invited,” he asked, raising a brow.
“I don’t want to cause a scene by kicking you out, so fine, you can stay. But you have to wash the gunk off the pumpkin seeds while I start dinner.”
“Deal. We make a good team,” he said, turning and starting for the patio door. Lianna was glad he didn’t stick around long enough to see her mouth hanging open after him.