HH01 - A Humble Heart (31 page)

“I know. Also, Mom is taking the kids tonight so Dana can have a girl’s night out.”

“Won’t she know what’s going on?”

“Not until tomorrow,” Edward said smugly.

“How are you going to pull this off?” Seth asked.

“Amy is going to tell her she needs to try on the dress for the movie and do up her hair. Then bring her into the back yard,

which will be set up by then. She won’t know a thing because Rick is going to keep her in the office all morning going over her

book.”

“Nice,” Seth said appreciatively. “What else do we have to do tonight?”

“Nothing. The girls have it all under control. We’ll just sit back and relax. Go to my place later and cook up some steaks

and then go to the game.”

“What if Dana’s home? Are you going to be able to hide this from her?”

“It will be fine. I doubt she’ll be home. She’s taking the kids to a water park after she picks up Elizabeth from

kindergarten. Then Mom’s taking the kids. Deana, Amy, Diane, and a bunch of women I don’t know are taking her out. They

know not to say anything to her.” Edward stepped up to take his shot.

“Sounds good, just don’t mess up.”

Edward cocked an eyebrow at him. “I’m not going to mess up.”

*******

fourth Christian and Bailey book. Edward called two hours ago to let her know the game was going into extra innings and that

he'd be late. She told him not to worry about it.

Now was the time to relax. It had been a very long day. They ran errands all day. Tyler was really nice and got along with

Cole. She took the kids out to the water park and had a great time. It was tiring though. Tyler was a godsend, he let her relax

while he took the kids in the water.

When she came home Eleanor and Amy were waiting for her in the kitchen. Eleanor scooped up the kids and took them

away, freeing her for the night. Amy made her dress up and they went out with friends. They hit several clubs. Poor Tyler was

kept busy pushing away drunk horny guys from them all night.

She got home an hour ago and put the finishing touches on the book. Tyler went home a half hour ago after double checking

the house. Now she was alone for the first time in her house, ever. She planned to take full advantage of that by skinny dipping.

If anyone asked she would deny it up and down, but it was very relaxing as long as she knew no one would catch her. She

figured she had at least one more hour before Edward came home, not that she would mind him seeing her, but there was

always the possibility that Seth would be with him.

A noise caught her attention. “Hello?” She looked around the pool. She didn’t see anyone so she went back to swimming.

A minute later she heard another noise. “Look, I know someone’s there. So you might as well come out,” she said, swimming to

the edge of the pool, hoping to block the view of her body.

A man stepped out of the darkness in front of the gate. She didn’t recognize him. “What are you doing here?” she

demanded.

“I…I’m sorry…I just had to meet you. I’m a huge fan,” the man said.

He took another step into the light and Dana realized to her horror that the man’s pants were unzipped and he was palming

himself. “You need to leave! Now!”

The man reached for the gate and yanked on it. The padlock stopped him. Dana knew it would only keep him out until he

found a way to pull himself over the top. Dana pulled herself out of the pool, wrapped a towel around her body quickly and

grabbed her cell phone.

She looked back in time to see the man pull himself over the top of the gate. She made a mad dash to the house. She slid

into the house and turned around in time to close the sliding glass door. The man grabbed the door and pulled. She shoved as

hard she could and locked it. She reached over and hit the panic button on her security system.

Ear splitting sirens went off. Every light in the house and outside flew on. Within seconds the house phone rang. She

grabbed it knowing it would be the security company.

The sound of glass shattering sent her flying through the house. The man threw a chair through the glass door and was

coming inside. She ran into her office, locked the door and ran for the hidden panel. Her hands were shaking violently as she

pressed the code in.

“Come on..come on!” she said. The phone was still ringing. The door slid open. She jumped inside and hit the button to

shut the door. She dropped to her knees, gasping for air.

She answered the phone. “Ms. Mathews, this is McGuire Security. Are you okay?”

“No, a man is inside my house!”

“The police are already on the way, ma’am.”

“I have to call Edward and stop him from coming inside,” she said to herself.

“I have him on the other line, ma’am. He added himself to the account a few days ago. He’s on his way now.”

“Tell him not to come inside until the police are here. Tell him I’m safe in the office bathroom.”

“One minute, ma’am. Hold while I relay that message.”

Dana sat on the tile floor. She could hear the man tearing through her office. He sounded frustrated. She heard the office

door slam shut. Whether or not it was a trick or the guy was really gone, she had no plans of finding out.

She heard a click followed by the operator's voice. “Mr. Pierce stated and I quote ‘you better keep your ass in that room

or he’ll wring your neck’”

She chuckled while tears streamed down her face. “I’m staying, don’t worry about it.” She sat quietly on the floor for

several minutes trying to hear what the man was doing.

“Ms. Mathews?” a woman’s voice said beyond the door.

“Ma’am, I’ve just been informed that the police are there,” the operator said.

“Thank you for everything.” Dana pulled herself to her feet and hit the button to open the door. It slid open. Four officers

were standing in the trashed office.

“Are you okay?” the female officer asked.

Dana tightened her towel when she caught the male officers checking her out. “Yes, I’m fine. Did you get him?”

“Yes, he was searching the house for you,” one of the men said.

They heard screaming and rushed out of the room. Dana followed them. She could hear Edward screaming.

“You fucking piece of shit! I’ll fucking kill you!” Edward yelled. Dana came in the room to find Edward being restrained

by three officers and a naked intruder pinned to the floor ten feet away.

“Edward,” Dana gasped. Edward took one look at her in the towel and flipped out more.

“I’ll fucking kill you! You break into my house go after my fiancé? My fucking kids live here, you stupid shit!”

“They weren’t here. I saw them leave earlier,” the man said as if that would make Edward feel better.

“Get the fuck off me! I’m going to kill him!” Edward fought against the officers harder.

“Cuff him!” the officer near Dana said.

The officer yanked Edward's hands behind his back and cuffed him. “What are you doing?” Dana demanded.

“Don’t worry, it’s just to keep him from doing something he’ll regret later.” the officer said.

“Fuck that! I won’t regret shit!” Edward pulled against his cuffs.

“Calm down, man,” Seth said.

“He was going to rape her!”
Edward roared.

Seth's jaw clenched as he stared at the man on the floor for a long moment. Then he looked at Dana who was on the verge

of breaking down and back to the man. He lunged at the man and punched him several times in the ribs and the side of the face

before he was pulled off.

“Put him in another room!” the female officer ordered.

The man on the floor gasped for air. “He attacked me!”

“I didn’t see a damn thing,” the woman said.

Bret moved past the police and put an arm around Dana. “Come on, Dana, you don’t need to see this.”

“Get her out of here! And you tell Tyler he’s fucking fired!” Edward yelled.

“Edward-” Dana began to say.

“You mean the guy who was here before? I left the property when he came. I waited until he left before I came back.”

“Are you on fucking crack? What’s wrong with you?” Edward demanded.

“I love her,” he said.

“Shut up, you sick fuck!” Edward snapped.

“Get her out of here,” one of the officers said.

Seth pulled her out of the room. She went into her room and pulled on her clothes and came back out to see the man was

gone and Edward was sitting on the couch, still cuffed, panting heavily.

“Let him calm down,” Seth said. He put an arm around Dana’s shoulders and led her into the kitchen. Bret was sitting

down with several officers, drinking coffee. They nodded to her.

Seth released his hold on her and began sweeping up the glass. “I called a twenty-four hour glass repair service, Dana.

They’ll be here within the hour,” Bret said.

“Thank you, Bret.”

She moved around the kitchen, trying to keep busy. “H-how was the game guys?”

“It was good, Dana. Thanks for the tickets,” Seth said, solemnly.

She nodded as she pulled everything out of the fridge to make sandwiches. She made up a bunch of sandwiches and

placed them on the table. After a few minutes the guys began eating.

“Ma’am, I need a sworn statement,” the female officer said.

“Of course,” Dana said. She looked around to find all eyes were on her. They wanted to know what happened. “Um, can

we talk about this in another room?”

“Sure, let’s step out onto the pool patio,” she said. Dana nodded and followed her.

Dana explained swimming and admitted to skinny dipping. Her face was burning when she explained that part. The

woman smiled warmly and told her she completely understood. Then she told her about catching the man and what happened

after that.

“I don’t see a problem with his arrest. I think he’s going to end up in a psychiatric unit for a while.”

“As long as he’s off the street,” Dana said.

“I’ll be filing for an emergency restraining order on him for you.”

“Thank you,” Dana said absently. Her eyes were locked on the gate where the man first approached her. God, if the kids

had been home she didn’t know what she would have done.

“Can I ask something? If my kids were here that wouldn’t have stopped him would it?” Dana asked.

The officer shook her head. “No, he admitted to having plans to um,…he had a plan to rape you undisturbed,” she said

nervously.

Dana felt her heart speed up. Her head became foggy. “He was going to kill them, wasn’t he?” she asked slowly.

The officer nodded slowly. Dana’s hand shot to her mouth and she stumbled away. She fell to her knees and began

vomiting.

“Ma’am?” the officer said anxiously.

Seth ran out. “Dana!” He dropped by her side and put an arm around her back. He held her hair back while she vomited.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he crooned softly.

“What should I do?” the officer asked.

“She’ll be okay. She’s pregnant,” Seth said.

“I’ll get her a drink,” the officer said, quickly walking back towards the kitchen.

“It’s okay, Dana.” Seth said.

She cried, “No, it’s not!”

“Shh, we’ll fix this.”

“How? This can’t be fixed! I don’t know what the hell I’m doing anymore.”

Seth gently rubbed her back while she cried against his chest. “Edward is going to take care of this. Don’t worry.”

“You’re telling me not to worry? A nut job broke into my house with plans to rape me and apparently kill my kids. I didn’t

ask, but I’m pretty sure the guy would have killed Edward too if he was here. How can I not worry? I could have lost my entire

family in one night!”

“But you didn’t. Everyone is safe. The kids are safe. Edward called them to make sure.”

“Dana?” Bret said.

“What’s up, Bret?” Seth asked.

“Officer Fields said he’d come over tomorrow on his day off to go over security with me. We’re going to set up tighter

security and he thinks it would be better to have a live in security.”

“Can you talk to Edward about this? She’s really upset.”

“Okay,” Bret said, trying to give her an encouraging smile.

“I’m going to stay in one of the guest rooms tonight, Dana, okay? Until they put that plan into motion.”

“Sounds good,” she said, getting to her feet.

The female officer walked onto the patio, carrying a can of ginger ale. “Here you go.”

“Thank you,” Dana mumbled. She sipped the soda slowly.

Seth stood by her, watching her every move, afraid that she was going to pass out or be sick again. “Seth, can I ask you

something?”

“The answer is yes I am trying to steal you,” he said, smiling wryly.

She rolled her eyes and ignored his comment. “I wanted to ask you why Edward stopped using security. When I met him

the first day he had security, but by that night they were gone. What happened?”

Seth winced. “Oh that…..umm, okay, but don’t tell him I told you, okay?” She nodded encouraging him to continue. “He

got rid of them for you.”

“For me?” Clearly not the answer she was expecting.

“Yeah, see he said that you weren’t hiding behind security and were leading a productive semi peaceful life and that if he

had any chance with you he couldn’t have security around. He didn’t want to scare you off.”

“Hmm, well, that was pretty dumb.”

“That’s what we told him,” Seth agreed. “But that boy was so head over heels in love with you we couldn’t talk any sense

into him.”

“I didn’t know,” she said, feeling guilty.