Until Cobi (Until Her/Him #7)(31)

When I get to the door, I stop. No way in hell am I leaving Hadley unprotected. I watch them run down the block, keeping to the shadows. I close and lock the door then go to the bedroom and grab my cell. I call dispatch and inform them of the break-in. During the call, Hadley wakes up and stares at me with wide eyes as I relay into the phone that someone was in the house and that they got away before I could apprehend them.

“Get dressed, baby,” I tell her once I hang up and turn on the light. “Officers are on their way.”

“Someone was in the house?” she asks, pulling the blankets up over her lap and looking toward the living room with fear in her eyes.

I get closer to her and place my hand against her cheek, dragging her attention to me. “They’re gone. You’re safe.”

“Someone was in the house?” she repeats, staring into my eyes. “Did you see who it was?”

“No.” My jaw clenches.

Her eyes close and she drops her head forward. “He wouldn’t,” she whispers, catching me off guard, and I frown.

“What?”

“Was anything taken?” She looks up at me.

“I haven’t had a chance to look around. If they did take something, it was small enough for them to carry without me noticing.”

She nods then tosses back the blankets and gets up off the bed. I start to open my mouth to ask what she’s doing, but stop when I see she’s on a mission. I follow behind her then freeze as she picks up her purse and dumps the contents out on the top of the island. “My wallet.” She looks at me. “My wallet is gone.”

“Anything else?” I look around and she does the same, leaving the island and walking around the room. Nothing seems out of place, but I haven’t been here enough to know exactly where everything is.

“I don’t think anything else is gone.” She shakes her head. “I… I think I know who did this.”

“Who?” I growl, and she bites her bottom lip while wrapping her arms around her waist.

“My dad.”

I blink in surprise. I must have heard her wrong. “Excuse me?”

“My dad. I think….” She shakes her head and looks away. “Yesterday, he asked if I could help him and my mom with their electric bill. I told him no.”

“You think your father broke into your house in the middle of the night to steal from you, even after what happened to you days ago?” My words are spoken through clenched teeth and anger starts to fill every cell in my body. What kind of man would do that to his child, especially after what she just went through?

“I….” she starts, but stops when there is a knock on the door.

“Get dressed,” I order softly, turning away from her. I don’t want to make her feel any worse than she already does. I don’t want her to see how pissed off I am.

“Cobi.”

When my gaze meets hers, the anger I’m feeling is amplified. Her eyes glistening is my undoing, and I swear to God I’m going to kill her dad if I find out it was him who broke in. I move toward her, calling, “Hold on,” to the officers outside. Once I’m close, I wrap my hand around the side of her neck and gentle my voice. “Get dressed and come right back out to me. It’s going to be all okay, sweetheart.”

“Cobi.”

“I promise you, baby, it’s going to be okay.” I bend my head down and kiss her wobbling bottom lip then pull back to look into her eyes once more. “Do what I asked and come back to me.”

“Okay,” she whispers, and I let her go, watching her as she disappears into the bedroom.

I pull in a few breaths before going to the door and opening it. I let Haws and Tracy, two officers I know, into the house, shaking their hands. I’ve worked with each of them a few times in the past, and both are good people and officers, having been with the local PD for years. While Hadley is getting dressed, I relay the story of what happened to them, tell them how I woke up and heard a sound, then went in search of it and saw someone run from the house. I tell them I didn’t get a glimpse of him or her, but in my estimation, the person was a man, the height alone leading me to believe that fact. They must have been at least six foot, and not many women are that tall. I tell them about Hadley mentioning that it might have been her father who broke in, and when Hadley comes out of the bedroom dressed, they ask her what her father’s name is. I’m stunned that I know of him. I’ve personally never dealt with Derrick Emmerson, but his name and his wife’s have come up in meetings more than once since I started with the department.

“I don’t know for sure if it was him,” Hadley says, and I pull her against me, rubbing her arm when her voice cracks. “But he asked me just yesterday to borrow money, and he knows I always keep at least a hundred dollars cash in my wallet.” She shakes her head. “He’s the only person I can think of who’d break in.”

Not liking the idea of her believing her father would do this to her, I ask, “Do you guys know if any other break-ins have happened in the area?” Looking between both officers, I watch as they share a look then shake their heads.

“None in this neighborhood, but the days are getting shorter and the holidays are coming up. People always start getting desperate around this time of year,” Tracy says, and I nod. Hadley’s neighborhood is one of the safer ones within the city limits, but Tracy is right. With the holidays fast approaching, break-ins are occurring more and more. Most people will get a second job to provide for their family, but there are some who will just go out and take from others in order to give their loved ones what they think they need. I can’t even tell you the number of times I’ve been called to a home in the month of December with the owners telling me that someone stole all the gifts from under their tree or packages off their doorstep. Christmas makes people crazy, and the crime rate during the holidays is proof of that.