Chapter Twenty-Three
“Today’s the big day, sweetheart.”
Maggie buried her head in her pillow. It had been a week since Colton started staying with her. A week of wonderful, bliss-filled nights.
They’d settled into a routine very quickly. After closing up her shop, she would head upstairs to her apartment where he’d already be waiting. Most nights, they made dinner together, and afterward, stood side by side in the kitchen washing and drying the dirty dishes. Then they would try to watch a movie or play poker, but inevitably, ended up in bed.
Not that she was complaining.
Her favorite place to be with Colton was in bed, or the shower, couch, floor. Really, anywhere she could feel his warm, hard body against her own.
He seemed to take her disbelief at using the entire hundred-count condom box as a challenge. To his credit, they’d made a sizeable dent in just one week.
The saboteur had been quiet. No more broken windows. No threatening notes. No shop vandalism. It was comforting and suspicious at the same time. She had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Like she was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Soft lips grazed her shoulder, sending chills skating along her body.
“Rise and shine, Magpie.”
A groan escaped her lips. “I should have been a bartender. They get to sleep ’til noon, and they don’t have to worry about impressing critics. Enough alcohol and everyone loves your drinks.”
A firm hand stroked her from hip to chest. The large palm cupped her naked breast and squeezed. Her breath caught in her throat.
“You’re too sweet to be a bartender. That’s why you make delicious, wonderful cupcakes that everyone loves. And so will the blogger today.”
Her stomach sank again at the reminder of what the day held.
“You need to relax, sweetheart.” His hot breath fanned her ear. “Can’t make scrumptious cupcakes if you’re all tense.”
She laughed when his breath tickled her neck. “Who the hell says scrumptious?”
Rolling her beneath him, Colton rose over her. A wicked smile played on his lips as he pressed himself into her. He was hard. She knew men always had morning wood, but he seems to be permanently hard around her. Kind of flattering.
“Now,” he said, moving his hips against hers, forcing all thoughts to scatter from her brain. “Let’s see what we can do to relieve some of that tension.”
****
After Colton had relieved her tension, he left to go back to the ranch, and Maggie hit the trails for her morning run. Instead of taking the small loop as she normally did, she ran the long trail. Anxiety still racked her. A good long run would help.
She decided to forgo the coffee at Merle’s since her run was longer than usual and Jamie was coming in early today to help with the regular orders so she could focus on the blogger. She had decided on three recipes: Chocolate Mint Truffle, Buttercream Vanilla with champagne frosting, and Raspberry Chocolate Torte. All three were Gran’s recipes with a little twist thrown in to make them her own.
Sweat coated her body from the run. The days were getting warmer, finally. A shower was in order, but it would have to be a quick one.
Climbing the outside stairs to her apartment, she noticed the door slightly ajar. Had she left it open when she went for her run? No, she always made sure to lock it. Maybe Colton forgot something and came back? She’d given him her spare keys when he started spending the night.
Her heartbeat picked up at the thought of seeing him again—and maybe convincing him to share that shower with her.
“Colton? Did you forget something?” she called as she walked through the open door.
One step into her apartment and her overheated body turned ice cold. Colton had not came back, but someone had.
Breath left her lungs as if punched right in the gut. A cold sweat coated her palms as she gazed at the surroundings of her once cozy and safe apartment. Furniture was turned over. Piles of papers littered the floor. Pillows slashed. Her TV had been smashed. Picture frames broken. Glass was scattered everywhere, and on the walls, hateful blood red words: Slut. Whore. Bitch.
Who would do something like this?
Her saboteur had changed his tactics. He was coming after her now.
Fear formed a solid lump in her throat. Pulling the cell phone from her pocket, Maggie hit the speed dial. It rang four times.
“Hey, sweetheart, I’m kind of in the middle of—”
“Colton?”
“What’s wrong?” His tone went from jovial to concern in an instant.
“H-he was here.”
“Who was? Maggie? Maggie, talk to me. What’s going on?”
She couldn’t stop the tears from flowing as she glanced down and saw the picture of her and Gran baking a cake. It had been her eleventh birthday and the first cake she ever made entirely by herself. Gran declared it to be the best cake ever, even though the bottom had burned. It was one of her best memories. The picture had been slashed, Maggie’s face scratched out.
What had she done to deserve such hatred?
“Maggie! Answer me, goddammit!”
She could hear the fear in his voice. Join the club. She stepped back and closed the door. “I have to call the sheriff. My apartment’s been broken into.”
An understatement. It’d been destroyed.
“Don’t go inside. I’ll be right there. Lock yourself in your shop. Don’t go inside your apartment!”
She wouldn’t. She would not let this asshole ruin all the hard work she had achieved. They may have destroyed her home and her sense of security, but they wouldn’t destroyed her.
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
He made it in five.
Sheriff Ryder arrived only seconds after. Maggie stood on her front stoop, Colton’s strong arms wrapped firmly around her. It was the only place she felt safe anymore.
“Colton. Maggie.” Ryder tipped his hat. “What happened?”
“I came back from my morning run and saw my door was open. I thought maybe Colton had forgotten something after he left and had come back to get it.” A shiver of fear racked her body. Strong arms tightened around her, giving her the strength to continue. “I stepped inside and th—the placed is trashed.”
“All right. Stay here, but don’t leave. I’m going to need a statement. I’ll also need you to come in after I check the place out, to see if anything is missing.”
“I don’t think robbery was their motive.” Moisture pooled in her eyes again as she remembered those hateful words scrawled across her walls.
“All right. I’ve got a deputy on his way over. I’m just going to make sure no one is inside.”
With that, Ryder disappeared into her apartment. He came out a few minutes later with the all clear. A deputy arrived, a young, red-haired man who didn’t look old enough to shave. She recognized him from the earlier incident. He carried the same large, gray metal case and had a camera hanging from around his neck.
“I want pictures of everything, Tom. Dust the doors and windows for prints. Let’s see if this bastard left us anything to catch him.” The deputy nodded and headed into the apartment. Ryder turned to her with sympathetic eyes. “I know this is hard, but I need you to look through the place and tell me if anything is missing. Can you do that?”
With Colton close on her heels, Maggie made her way back into her apartment. Only, it didn’t feel like home anymore. Whoever did this had destroyed her sense of safety. How could you call a place home when you didn’t feel safe there?
Going room by room, she surveyed the devastation. The bathroom was untouched, as was her small dining area. The kitchen had broken dishes, glasses, and overturned drawers. The living room held most of the damage, but her bedroom had also been wrecked. Her mattress was slashed from top to bottom. Sheets, blankets, and pillows were torn to shreds. Her clothes were strewn about the room. Scissors had been taken to a lot of her clothing.
And blazed above the bed in deep red letters: GO HOME WHORE!
“Who would do this?”
She hadn’t realized she asked the question out loud until Ryder answered her.
“Who knows your schedule? Who knew you would be out running this morning?”
“Most everybody in town knows I run in the mornings. I usually go to Merle’s for coffee after my run, so lots of people see me. I didn’t go today because I ran longer than usual, and I wanted to get ready for—shit, the blogger!”
Colton grabbed her arms when she turned about her room frantically.
“It’ll be okay, sweetheart.”
“No it won’t! The blogger is coming in a few hours. I need to open the shop, make the cupcakes—crap.” She looked down at her running clothes then around the room at the scraps of what used to be her wardrobe. “I don’t have anything to wear. That asshole ruined all my clothes!”
“Maggie, calm down. Take a deep breath.”
Jaw clenched tight, she scowled at him. She was pissed as hell, and he was telling her to calm down?
“Let’s look in the back of your closet and see if there are any clothes intact. Is that okay, Ryder?”
The sheriff nodded.
She stomped over to her closet, thankful and angry at Colton for being the voice of reason. Flipping on the light, she saw, however, that he was indeed right. There were a few T-shirts and a pair of jeans on the closet floor that the vandal missed. They were dirty, but at least they were in one piece.
“There, see? Problem one solved.”
She turned at the sound of his deep voice so close behind her. Glaring, she replied, “You’re not always right, you know.”
He grinned, placing a kiss to her lips. “There’s my feisty Magpie.”
She sighed, arms going around his waist. Taking her frustrations out on him wasn’t fair. “I’m sorry, Colt.”
“Hey, it’s fine. You have a big day ahead of you, and this was the last thing you needed. No one needs this, ever. We’re going to find this guy, Maggie. I swear.” He growled the last part.
“I’m going to find this guy,” Ryder corrected from outside the closet door. “You two are going to stay out of it and report anything you know to me. Right?”
“Right,” they both answered, coming back into the bedroom.
“You can go about your day. I’ll let you know what we find out. I think it’s better if you don’t stay here tonight.”
“She’s staying with me, at the ranch.” Colton tucked her under his arm.
She could argue about him making assumptions, but truthfully, she didn’t want to stay here. Even with Colton staying with her, she wouldn’t feel safe. Someone had violated her home. She felt an intense need to take a shower, wash away the cold dread seeping its way through her.
“I’ll stay at the ranch,” she agreed.
“Okay. As soon as we have any information, I’ll let you know. Now, go wow that blogger’s taste buds off.” The sheriff winked.
She smiled, clutching her few remaining clothes tight to her chest. “Thanks.”
That was precisely what she intended to do. The asshole who did this might have taken away her sense of security, but he couldn’t take away her ability to make a kickass cupcake.
Time to keep calm and bake on.