Aunt Sue.
Chapter Seven
Cal reacted immediately. In an instant his gun was in his hands, held straight-armed out in front of him, his stance low and guarded, one hand holding me back as he slowly approached the door.
Not that I was going anywhere. In fact, my entire body felt frozen with dread, my feet suddenly encased in lead. My breath sped up as I watched Cal slowly push the door open and ease inside the condo.
God, if anything happened to Aunt Sue…
No. I didn’t even want to think about that. I shut my eyes, giving myself a mental big-girl talk, then followed a step behind Cal, adrenaline backing up in my chest at what horrible sight might greet me.
The kitchen was trashed. Cupboards open, pots and pans strewn all over the floor, broken glass in the sink, an entire box of spaghetti noodles dumped over the counters. And the living room hadn’t fared much better-coffee table overturned, vases smashed, sofa cushions slashed, the stuffing bulging grotesquely out their sides.
I watched as Cal slowly circled the room, then entered the bedroom on the left, Aunt Sue’s. I held my breath, tension building in every part of me.
“What in God’s name happened here?”
I jumped. And may have even peed my pants a little.
I spun around to find Aunt Sue standing in the doorway, her eyes bulging behind her bifocals.
“Oh, thank God!” I rushed her like a linebacker, squeezing her in a hug that had her making strangled little gurgling noises in the back of her throat. “You’re okay!”
“Of course I’m okay,” she mumbled, disentangling herself.
I sniffed back a tear of relief. “Where were you?”
“At Hattie’s. I was trying to get her lasagna recipe, but the old bat wouldn’t let it go. Said her mother brought it from the old country. Baloney. I know for a fact she got that sucker off the back of a Ragu jar.”
I couldn’t help it. I hugged her again.
“What happened here?” she asked, her gaze pinging around the room, unsure where to focus.
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I think someone broke in.”
“Wait, what was that?” Aunt Sue asked. “That sound?”
I froze. But before I could answer her, Aunt Sue picked up a frying pan off the counter and lunged toward me, screaming like a banshee.
On instinct, I ducked.
Unfortunately, the guy behind me didn’t.
“I got him!” Aunt Sue yelled, a sickening crunch filling the apartment as her frying pan connected with his nose.
“No!” I grabbed Aunt Sue’s arm, pulling her back.
Cal grabbed his nose. “Sonofabitch!” he groaned.
“Oh, God, Aunt Sue, that’s not the intruder. That’s Cal.”
She cocked her little pink head to the side. “Who’s Cal?”
“My bodyguard.” I grabbed a towel from the kitchen, quickly pressing it to Cal’s nose, which was oozing red stuff all over the linoleum. Not good.
“Are you okay?”
“I think she broke it,” he said, sounding like he had a cold.
“Why do you need a bodyguard?” Aunt Sue asked.
I snatched the frying pan from her hand. “Because someone’s been threatening me. Do you need to sit down?” I asked Cal.
He shook his head. “Ice.”
I picked my way over the broken debris on the floor, filling another towel with cubes from the icemaker.
“Who’d want to threaten you?” Aunt Sue asked, her wary gaze still ping-ponging between the frying pan and Cal.
“Someone who doesn’t like my column. Here.” I handed Cal the icy towel. As he switched them out, I got a good look at his nose. Yikes. Marcia Brady had nothing on this guy. He was right. I think she broke it.
Cal winced as the cold hit him.
“Thanks.” “Sorry,” I said. Then nudged Aunt Sue in the ribs.
“Sorry,” she echoed.
Cal looked from Aunt Sue to me, to the frying pan. “That’s it. I’m charging Felix double.”
Three hours later we’d eaten pizza for the second night in a row-much to Aunt Sue’s delight-managed to clean most of the broken glass off the floor, and I’d explained as best I could to Aunt Sue what was going on with my creepy caller turned vandal. Not that I was entirely convinced she’d remember by tomorrow.
After promising that I’d call a locksmith to fix the front door, I tucked her into bed with Tom Brokaw in the background to lull her to sleep.
I came back out into the living room to find an open bottle of wine, two full glasses, and Cal trying to shove the stuffing back inside the sofa cushions.
“It may be time for a new couch,” he said.
“Ya think?” I sank down onto the only unmolested cushion, leaning my head back against the wall. If this day had been any longer, it would qualify for Guinness.
“Thought maybe you could use a drink,” he said, handing me a glass.
Oh, mama, could I. Gratefully, I sipped at it. “Thanks.”
“You okay?” Cal asked, righting the coffee table in front of me. I put my feet up on it.
“I will be.”
“Nothing’s missing. No one was hurt. Chances are whoever did this just wanted to scare you.”
I nodded. Though I hated to admit just what an effective job they’d done. While my heart rate had slowed, my hands were still shaky enough that my merlot was bouncing in its glass.
“I’ll be fine,” I repeated. Hoping I’d believe that at some point.
“Right,” he said. “But, just as a precaution, I’d feel better if your aunt wasn’t here alone tomorrow.”
I nodded. “I’m sure I can find someone to sit with her.”
“Good.” He paused, picking up a bent picture frame from the rug. He looked down at the image inside, his lips curling into a lopsided smile. “This you?”
He held it up. A little girl with dark hair and pigtails sat on a pink Big Wheel. Wearing a tutu, cowboy boots, and a plastic Viking hat.
I nodded. “Yep.”
“Cute.” He placed it on the coffee table. “Even then you had your own style, didn’t you?”
I looked down at my funky T-shirt. Was he making fun of the way I dressed? “So sue me if I’m not an Abercrombie zombie.”
Cal put both hands up in a surrender gesture. “Take it easy, Bender. I didn’t say I didn’t like it.”
I bit my lip. “Sorry. Guess I’m a little on edge.”
“Apology accepted. And I’m glad you’re on edge.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“I’d be worried if you weren’t. When you’re on edge, you’ll be careful.”
I nodded. “Right,” I croaked out, my throat suddenly clogged with emotion at how real this whole situation had become. Annoying phone calls and emails were one thing, but this guy had actually broken into my home. What would he have done if he’d found me, or worse yet, Aunt Sue?
“The guy your father?” Cal pointed to another photo, this one of my pigtailed self and a dark-haired man in khakis beside a palm tree.
Grateful for the change of subject, I cleared the thickness from my throat. “Yeah. He and my mom are both archeologists. When I was little, I used to travel all over with them.”
“Must have been fun.” He sat down on the sofa next to me.
“It was. Most of the time.”
“Only most of the time?” He shifted to face me, the movement causing his thigh to rub against mine. Making me acutely aware of just how close he was sitting. It stirred a feeling in my stomach that was somewhere between incredibly uncomfortable and kinda excited. I tried to shrug it off.
“Well, it was cool being the only kid in third grade who’d been in an actual Egyptian pharaoh’s tomb. But the traveling meant I didn’t exactly have an ordinary childhood.”
He cocked his head, his eyes assessing.
It was kind of unnerving, and I felt myself fighting the urge to fidget. I took another sip of wine.
Finally he said, “An ordinary childhood would have bored the shit out of you.”
I laughed. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”