Page 12 of The Bombshell and the Bodyguard
“You’ll have to speak up please. I can’t hear you,” the operator said.
I spoke a little louder. “There’s someone in my house. Please send the police.”
The operator asked for my address then commented, “We just had a patrol out there last night for a false alarm.”
“Well this is arealone,” I hissed. “I saw someone in my house.”
“You’re there alone?”
“No. There are two security guards here, too, but I don’t know where they are.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t one of them you saw?” the operator asked.
“Yes. I don’t know. I don’t think so.” The woman had me questioning myself. “Please just send someone. I’m afraid.”
“Alright, they’re on their way, ma’am. I’m going to put you on hold, but I’ll be right back—”
I hung up and dialed Hap. There was no way I was going to just sit in my closet waiting for the emergency operator—who may or may not have thought I was crazy. If these were my last few minutes of life, I wanted to spend them talking to someone I loved.
After several unanswered rings, I remembered Hap saying he’d be working late tonight. He must not have had his phone near him or had silenced it while he worked. Or maybe he had headphones on while editing.
Holding the phone to my chest, I strained my ears for any indication of approaching sirens or sounds outside the closet door.
Had the intruder managed to unlock my bedroom and bathroom doors?
By now he could be standing right there outside the closet, about to come in and do God knows what to me. This could be it for me—the end.
Well, I wasn’t going to make it easy for him. Looking around, I grabbed a black patent stiletto shoe. It was the closest thing I could find to a weapon. They certainly hurt my feet enough.
Whereweremy security guards? How could an intruder have gotten past the watchman at the gate and the two of them at the house?
Hap had been right—that company wassofired. That was if I lived long enough to fire them.
Why hadn’t I listened to him and waited another day to come home? If I had, the bodyguard from Wilder’s firm would have been here with me, and I’d be safe.
Wilder.
Swiping my phone again to wake it, I brought up Hap’s last text and tapped the number he’d sent me.
Though it was the middle of the night, Wilder answered on the first ring, a sleepy rasp softening his deep voice. “Hello?”
“Wilder? It’s me, Jessica.”
His tone crackled with sudden alertness. “Jessica, are you okay? What’s going on? Are you with Hap?”
“No. I’m at home alone, and I’m scared. I think there’s someone in my house. The alarm went off and then stopped.”
Unlike the emergency operator, Wilder didn’t question my instincts. “I’ll be there in two minutes. Where in the house are you? Are you somewhere safe?”
“I hope so. I locked the bedroom door and the bathroom, and I’m in my closet. It’s upstairs, the third door on the—”
He broke in. “I know where it is. I looked at the blueprints and floorplan of your house this morning. Stay there and be quiet. Don’t open the door for anyone but me, okay?”
I nodded rapidly, then realizing I hadn’t actually said anything, issued a breathy, “Okay.”
“Good girl. You did exactly the right thing. Everything’s gonna be okay.”
“Hurry Wilder.”
