Page 27 of Havoc's Fox

“Oh, well, I’ll go get some from Christian’s.”

“He’s not there, he went to his parents’ house.”

“It’ll be alright. I got this.” Emmalyn closed the door, grabbed her own purse from her bedroom, then headed out of the front door.

“Where are you going?” Bam demanded from the formal living room where he was setting up the table.

“I’ll be right back. Just over to Christian’s for a second.”

“Fine, but don’t be long. People will start getting here in the next hour.”

“I’ll be ten minutes,” Emmalyn promised, closing the door after herself and rushing off.

Emmalyn hopped in her car and drove straight to Christian’s house. She pulled up in the driveway and turned off the engine. She got out slowly, and took a minute to admire the house. “Damn, Christian. Very nice. Very, very nice.”

She walked up to the door and tried the handle. It was locked.

She walked around to the back door and tried it. It, too, was locked. So she started trying each window as she got to them. They were locked. By the time she’d made it almost around to the front of the house, she was no longer alone.

“Can I help you?”

Emmalyn turned and looked at the owner of that voice. A slender woman, about her own age with light brown hair and big brown eyes was standing at the edge of her own driveway watching Emmalyn try to break into Christian’s house. “Nope. Just trying to break into my friend’s house.”

“I think maybe you should just leave.”

“No, see, my sister wants some bourbon. Her ex is coming over with his family for Christmas, and she really needs a drink. All we have is wine, and she’s like ‘ewww’; so, I’m here to get some of Christian’s bourbon, because she knows he’s got some because they drank it last night.” Emmalyn smiled prettily, then went back to trying windows.

“Ma’am. Miss, whoever you are, if you don’t have a key, you obviously don’t belong in that house. That’s my neighbor’s house and I’m not going to just stand there and let you break in.”

Emmalyn huffed an irritated sigh and turned back to the woman. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Addie.”

“Addie. I’m Emmalyn. Christian is family. In fact, my sister spent the night here last night, and I’m just trying to get some of his bourbon.”

“I don’t know who your sister is, but I saw the woman who was here last night. You look nothing like her.”

“I know. Because I look like my dad, who’s a Bear, and she looks like our mom, who’s a Fox. Who do you look like?”

Addie opened her mouth to answer and realized the question was ridiculous in this particular setting. “Stop trying to break into his house!”

“Why do you even care?”

“Because I’m protecting his place and his things.”

Emmalyn canted her head sideways as she considered the woman’s response. Something unexpected was lingering under those tones, an emotion Emmalyn couldn’t quite put her finger on, but stood up and yelled ‘hello’ nonetheless. “Did he ask you to?”

“No.”

“Then why do it?”

“Because he doesn’t know you’re here trying to break in.”

“He might.”

“I’m pretty sure he doesn’t.”

“Does he know you’re here trying to stop me?”