Page 48 of Necessary Roughness

Chapter Seven

THE NEXT MORNING, Tanner stirred in his sleep as sunshine warmed his face. He still had his arm around Jordan. He breathed in the scent of her perfume as she snuggled against him. He wanted to go back to sleep, but something was wrong. Seconds later, he heard footsteps in the hallway outside his room. Adrenaline flooded his system. He sat straight up in bed and looked around for anything that could be used as a weapon. The security system was on. He remembered arming it when they arrived home last night, but it wasn’t going to help him now. His phone was across the room.

He was going to have to deal with whoever was in his house with whatever he could grab.

He threw back the blankets as he heard the “crash” of the bedroom door hitting the opposite wall. He was off the bed seconds later. He grabbed his cane. He’d hit the intruder with it, and hopefully it would slow him down enough to get to the panic button on the security system.

“Get the fuck out of here,” he shouted.

The woman now cowering next to the bedroom door screamed. He was so far gone on his fight-or-flight response that he almost hit her. It took him a few seconds to figure out this wasn’t the typical intruder.

“Don’t hit me! It’s Star!”

He lowered the chair to the floor and forced himself to take deep breaths.

“Tanner?” Jordan said. She sounded scared. He was scared too, and pissed off. He stepped away from Star. She was giving him a defiant glare. Of course she thought it was perfectly normal to break into his house, and he hadn’t seen her for months. He didn’t want to see her again. She must have thought he was joking.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

He could hear Sadie’s frantic barking. She must have shut herself inside Jordan’s room somehow.

“I wanted to talk to you,” Star said.

“Have you heard of a cell phone? You broke into my goddamn house!” He stared at her. “What exactly did you think was going to happen here, anyway?”

Jordan grabbed the robe that was draped over his bedroom chair. “I’ll go get Sadie.”

“You don’t have to do that,” he said.

“Don’t worry about it.” Jordan shoved past Star like she was attempting to avoid dog poop in the street.

“Of course I’d come over and you’d have another woman here,” Star said. “Doesn’t surprise me at all.” She stared up at him with disgust in her eyes.

“It doesn’t matter what I am or am not doing with anyone else. We’re not together. I told you I didn’t want to see you again, more than once. You need to leave. Right now.”

“I have to talk to you.”

“No. Get out.”

The newly released Sadie threw herself onto Star. Tanner pulled Sadie off before the dog bit Star and he ended up getting sued for it. Star was screaming, Sadie was growling at her and trying to get free of Tanner so she could protect her owner, and Jordan stepped into the room.

“I hit the panic button on your security system,” she said.

“Fucking bitch!” Star screamed as she jumped to her feet.

Tanner reached out to grab Jordan and shove her behind his back. If things had been less than optimal before, they were degenerating by the second.

***

TANNER WAS SHOUTING at Star to leave, she was yelling back that she didn’t have to, and Sadie was still barking. It was a good thing Tanner had a grip on her collar. Jordan heard sirens outside, and she reached out to grab Tanner’s arm. She tried to shout above the din.

“The police are here.”

“Great,” Tanner said. “Let me grab something to put on.” He pulled another robe off the chair in his room. He must have collected them.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Star said. She grabbed the doorknob and pulled the door shut behind her.

He tried to yank the door open. Initially, he couldn’t get enough of a grip on the doorknob. He was still shaking with adrenaline. He pulled the door open, it slammed against the wall, and he managed to get into the elevator for the trip downstairs.

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