no.” She whirled to rush back into the house. His hand grasped her upper arm, halting her progress. She spun around. “What?”
“Let me get him. I don’t want you destroying any evidence.”
“Is it bad?” Anguish squeezed her heart.
“I don’t think so. The guy hit him with the lamp from your end—” Ethan blinked, his attention caught by something behind her. She followed his gaze—Twister slowly made his way down the hall, his eyes cloudy with pain but fixed on his mistress. A trickle of blood made its way from the middle of his head down over his brown-and-black snout.
“Oh, Twister,” she whispered, dropping to her knees. He came slowly, weaving slightly. When he arrived at Marianna, he dropped to the floor with a cross between a whimper and a grunt to lay his head on her knee.
“Will you make the call for me?” She wondered if he could hear the tears she felt clogging her throat as she asked him the favor.
“Sure.” He squeezed her hand in silent sympathy and pulled his phone from the clip. She looked up the number on her BlackBerry and Ethan complied.
As once again her house flooded with authorities and crime scene investigators, Marianna gave her statement, then sat in the back of Ethan’s car, hugging her beloved pet to her as Ethan drove them to the vet’s office.
After leaving Marianna’s dog at the emergency veterinarian’s office, Ethan replayed his part in the scene of the break-in. What had he done wrong? How had he let the guy get away?
Fatigue gripped him. It had been a long while since he’d had a good night’s sleep. And now the sun crept toward the horizon. Soon it would be dawn…and he’d yet to go to bed. Oh well, he’d survive.
Marianna, however…“Hey,” he said as he touched her arm. She swung her head around to look at him. He kept his face angled toward her so she could see his lips but he was still able to keep his eyes safely on the road. “Where do you want to go, your parents’?”
She gave a listless shrug. “I guess so.”
“Twister is going to be all right. You heard the doctor.”
Marianna blew out a sigh. “I know and I’m grateful, but I’m also terribly frustrated. What is going on, Ethan?” Tears surfaced once again. He watched as she held them at bay with sheer determination.
He shook his head. “I don’t know, Marianna. I think you’re the only one who can really answer that. Unfortunately, you might not even know what you know.”
“Well, that’s clear.”
A rueful chuckle slipped out. “I’m sorry. I wish had something more to tell you.”
“I’ve racked my brain trying to come up with something. Why someone would kill Suzanne? Why did, possibly, the same someone come back to the house and was willing to break in with me there?” She turned thoughtful. “Although, he may not have known anyone was there, because I parked my car in the garage when I got home.” Her eyes narrowed. “Do you think he’s looking for something?”
Ethan pulled into her parents’ driveway and glanced at the dashboard clock. It read 6:42. “It’s certainly a possibility. At first, when I got to your house the day of the murder, I thought there’d been a huge fight in Suzanne’s room. But there was no evidence she’d struggled. So, it could be the guy was definitely looking for something. Could Suzanne have been involved in something shady? Something you wouldn’t have known about?”
“Absolutely not.” She spoke without hesitation. “Suze was a great girl and a devoted Christian. There’s no way she would be associated with something illegal.”
“Then the incidents may not be related. It’s possible our burglar read the story about Suzanne’s murder in the paper, did a simple online search to find out where Suzanne lived and decided to help himself to anything he could find.”
“Only I was there.” She frowned, her dark, finely arched brows coming together above the bridge of her delicate nose. “It mentioned me in the article, so he had to know she had a roommate.”
“Maybe. Then again, he may have figured no roommate would want to stay in a house all by herself after her friend had been killed in said house, and therefore he would have free reign.”
She rolled her eyes, her gorgeous, chocolate eyes. He blinked. She was saying, “There are so many possible explanations it makes my head hurt. Thank you for having my house cleaned up, by the way. That was a very thoughtful thing to do.”
Ethan could feel the heat rising to his face. He didn’t really know why he was embarrassed; it was just that her smile did crazy things to his emotions. He reached out to brush a finger under her hair, to push it away from her face, then moved his hand, cupping her cheek. “You’re quite welcome.” She looked…kissable. He leaned closer and let his hand slide to the back of her neck.
The porch light came on; a face appeared in the window. Ethan felt another flush start to creep up his neck as he slowly pulled back, turning from the watchful eyes peering at them from behind the glass and connecting his gaze with Marianna’s once more. He felt as if he was back in high school on a date and his girl’s dad had just sent him a warning.
Marianna’s short, lilting laugh told him she’d read his thoughts. He smiled at her. “Aw, stop,” he drawled. She grinned, her dimples flashed and his heart sputtered. Crazy.
A light tap on his window jerked his attention from the woman beside him. He pressed the button and the glass slid down in a smooth ride. A tall, dark-haired, dark-eyed male replica of Marianna stared down at him. In his early thirties, the man had the air of one who knew what he wanted and had what it took to get it.
Ethan had the uneasy feeling this man wanted him, or at least Marianna, out of the car.
Marianna leaned forward and asked, “Joseph, what are you doing up?”
“When I hear a car pull up in the driveway and then silence, I’m going to investigate a bit.” Sarcasm dripped, but Ethan could tell the man wasn’t angry. Joseph, FBI agent and big brother. He could handle the FBI agent part; it was the big brother part that had him leery. But there was no way he was letting that little secret become public knowledge. Ethan gave Joseph a cool nod and held eye contact as he shoved open his door.
Joseph stepped back and Marianna took the cue to climb out her side. She walked around and slid her arms around Joseph’s waist. Ethan felt a twinge of jealousy that took him by surprise as her brother gave her a comforting hug. He wished she trusted him that way. Then he gave a mental roll of his eyes and told himself to get it together.
He said, “Marianna had another little incident early this morning.”
Joseph’s gaze sharpened. “What kind of incident?”
“Someone broke in my house. Twister scared him off. I called 911 but must have hung up too soon. I couldn’t tell if someone answered or not. Then I called Ethan and he came to the rescue. Now, I want to go to bed.”
Joseph’s expression said he wouldn’t be satisfied with that piddling explanation, but wasn’t going to push it for now because he could see the exhaustion on her face. Ethan’s respect
