Page 68 of Unseen Danger
Unless…
“The window.” Branson stepped to the desk next to Louis.
“What?” Louis swiveled to the screens.
Branson leaned over and pointed at the current view of the garage from the camera attached to the house. “We can’t see the window. If a person approached the garage from the back, he or she could scoot around the side and enter through the window while staying out of view.”
“Did you check to see if the window was jimmied?”
“Can’t.” Branson straightened. “The fireworks destroyed it.” But if his guess was right, Jill wasn’t the only suspect. Any member of the staff or even one of D-Chop’s guests could’ve accessed the garage last night or this morning.
“Looks like the ladies are here.” Louis’s statement brought Branson’s gaze to movement on the monitor that showed the front entrance.
His heart lurched in his chest, then sank as he saw Nevaeh wasn’t one of them. Pretty pathetic. He’d known she wasn’t coming tonight since she would work tomorrow during the day instead. But apparently the hopeful part of him hadn’t gotten the memo.
He’d think about why that was later when he had the energy for it. “Keep an eye out, man.” Branson thumped Louis on the shoulder and left the room, heading toward the foyer.
The two women, Jazz and Sofia, smiled as he let them in.
“Heard you had some excitement today.” The black-haired beauty aimed intense dark eyes at him.
He nodded and filled them in on the fireworks incident and what he’d found. “So stay on the alert out there tonight. Though it seems whoever the culprit is might be brazen enough to do the dirty work in daylight.”
“Or clever enough to know we have the nighttime locked up.” Jazz looked at Branson.
“True.”
“All right.” Sofia glanced at Jazz. “Let’s get on it. Start at the front tonight to change things up.”
Jazz nodded, and they turned to go out the front door.
“Jazz, could you stay a second?” Branson blurted the words before he gave them enough thought.
The women exchanged a look, then Jazz glanced at Branson with her eyebrows raised. “Sure.” Hesitation lengthened the word.
Sofia gave Jazz another short stare he couldn’t read, then went outside with her German shepherd.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to be awkward.” He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “I just wanted to ask you about Nevaeh, but I didn’t know how much Sofia knows about…”
Jazz’s green eyes locked on him. “Her PTSD.”
“Yeah.”
“She does keep it private, so I appreciate your discretion.”
He nodded, but his mind was on the woman with black curls and big brown eyes. “How is she?”
“You mean in general or…”
“No, after last night. Is she okay now?”
“She’s doing better.” Jazz closed her mouth, seemed to hesitate, then opened it again. “Thank you for what you did. For helping her.”
A lump slid into his throat at the memory of the way his heart had seized when he saw her on the ground. And the way she’d felt in his arms, her body trembling as he cradled her. Her grip on his sweater, as if she needed him and didn’t want him to let her go.
He nodded, not trusting his voice to sound normal at the moment.
“So we can count on you to keep this to yourself?” Jazz’s voice brought his attention slowly to her face.