Rattled by Kris Bock

wove around their ankles, purring. Would he be more anxious if someone were still there? No sound came from the house. Any thief should have heard them drive up, maybe heard their voices. They’d had plenty of time to sneak out the back by now.
    Erin took a deep breath and straightened. “All right, we’ll go in. Together.” She wondered if he’d refuse. She met his gaze, determined not to back down. No way was she going to sit in the truck worrying while he searched the house.
    His lips parted in a slow smile. He rubbed a thumb over her cheek. “You’re one hell of a woman.” He gave her a quick, hard kiss and turned toward the door.
    Erin almost staggered backward off the steps. She pressed a hand to her heart, glad his back was turned, and fished her key out of her pocket.
    Erin unlocked the door. Drew held up a hand to keep her back as he opened the door a few inches and listened. Erin let him go through first, to make up for challenging him before. And, if she had to admit it, she much preferred to hang back. She thought she’d been tough enough for one evening.
    Drew stepped through the door quickly. He flicked on a light and glanced into the living room and her office before darting back to the kitchen. He returned moments later. “Back door’s locked.” He headed up the stairs.
    Erin hesitated. Perhaps she should follow him, be there in case—well, she had no idea what she would do if he actually found someone. Scream and run, probably, and she could do that from downstairs. In fact, the best thing might be to retrieve her phone and have it ready in case she needed to call for help. She’d left her phone on the desk in her office, which was where she really wanted to go anyway.
    She grabbed her phone and leaned over her desk to see the bottom corner of the bookshelf. The book lay right where she’d left it. She sighed with relief and hurried out of the office as she heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
    “Upstairs is clear. Nice bedroom, by the way.” He studied her. “You look happy now.”
    Erin tried to pull her smile down a notch. “Relief, I guess. No one’s here, nothing’s been trashed or taken. That makes it a good night by recent standards.”
    Drew kept studying her. “There is a window open in the living room.”
    “What!” Erin rushed into the living room. The side window was open a foot. The screen had been popped out at one corner. She shook her head. “I checked all these windows before I left. And I never open it halfway like that. An inch to help ventilation if the swamp cooler is on or all the way if it’s nice out and I want the breeze.” She couldn’t look at Drew. She knew she was right, but she still felt like a fool.
    He walked to the window and poked at the loose corner of the screen. “I doubt that big cat could have gotten out this way without doing more damage, at least popping out the other corner of the screen.” He grabbed a lamp from a nearby end table, switched it on, and held it close to the window. “No orange hairs on the screen or the outside of the window sill. One on the inside of the sill, but that’s the least to be expected with a cat like that in the house.”
    “He prefers to sit in the front window to watch the world go by. And he’s only been here for a couple of days. He’s Camie’s cat.”
    “Oh?” Drew turned and looked down at Tiger, who gave a curious meow. “You’re cat sitting?”
    “Camie left him for my protection. She says he’s a guard cat.”
    “Is that right?” Drew bent down and scooped Tiger into his arms. He leaned the big cat against his shoulder and scratched behind his ears. “Yep, pretty ferocious, aren’t you?”
    “Hey, you’d be surprised.” She decided not to explain about the earlier attack. What kind of woman suffered two break-ins and two violent attacks in less than a week? She wasn’t sure what impression it gave, but it definitely wasn’t one that fit her normal life. “There could be a