Center Stage
Page 40

She lowered it to her side.
John took it from her hand carefully and uncocked the gun. He set it on the counter and pulled her into his arms.
“Honey, you’re shaking like a leaf. Calm down.”
“The door. The house was…”
“Shh.” He smoothed a hand over her hair. “The furnace went out. I’m trying to fix it. I had the door open so I could go out to my truck.”
“I thought…” She couldn’t even get the words out.
John let go of her long enough to shut the door. Then he guided Arianna to the living room and set her on the couch. He reached for a throw and wrapped it around her shoulders.
“Calm down.” John sat down next to her and put his arm around her.
Arianna sucked in a deep breath and let it out very slow. Then, she did it again.
John was keeping her very close. It was comforting. But the moment that the thought was clear—she could have killed John—the tears were back.
“What if I’d shot you?”
“You didn’t.”
“I was going to.” She sucked back a sob. “I could have killed you.”
“You were prepared.”
“The front door wasn’t locked. And then the back door was wide open and…”
John pushed back. “The front door wasn’t locked?” Arianna shook her head, and John stood. “I didn’t go through the front door.”
Arianna covered her mouth with her hand as John moved to the door.
He opened it and looked at the lock. “It isn’t jimmied. No one has messed with the door or the lock.”
“So maybe I just left it unlocked?”
“I think so.” He closed the door and locked it again.
How could she have been so forgetful? In all her life she’d never left the front door unlocked. Maybe she’d been too excited to have dinner with the girls. That had to be it.
“Listen. I have to get that furnace working. It is freezing in here. Go upstairs. Run yourself a hot bath and get yourself calm.”
Arianna nodded.
John kissed her gently and headed back to the basement.
With the blanket still around her shoulders, Arianna walked out to the kitchen and picked up her purse and the gun. She slid the gun back into the pocket of the purse and headed upstairs.
As she walked back through the kitchen, she looked down at the table. Simone’s business card looked back up at her.
She must have dropped the card on the table when she pulled the gun from her purse.
She walked back through the living room and up to the bathroom. Hopefully the hot water heater was still working, or a hot bath wasn’t going to soothe anything.
John had heard the bathtub running, and a moment later, he had the furnace kicking to life. He was glad. If he didn’t get the heat going soon, they were going to have to find a motel for the night. He’d been tired and irritated from his findings at the site, but nearly being killed by the woman he loved had him a little jumpy.
Why did she think it was necessary to pull her gun on him? Didn’t she say, just the other day, that she thought the worst was behind them, and no one was after her?
Well, something had her scared enough to nearly kill him.
He packed up his tools and thought he shouldn’t look at it that way. Yes, he could have been shot, but he hadn’t been. Arianna was prepared and cautious, that was all.
By the time he’d made it upstairs, Arianna had tucked herself into bed, bundled in sweat pants, socks and a flannel shirt.
“You don’t have that gun tucked up under there with you, do ya?” He smiled, but there were still tears in her eyes.
“I’m very sorry.” She wiped her eyes. “What if I’d shot you?”
“Let’s just hope you don’t have a great shot.”
“I have four first place trophies for trap shooting, of course Regan has six.”
John unbuttoned his shirt. “Great. She and her sister can hit moving targets.”
Arianna sat up and looked at him. “I don’t remember not locking the door. I’ve never left a house without locking the door.”
John sat down on the bed next to her. “Do you think someone was in the house?”
“I don’t know. Nothing is missing. The door isn’t broken. It had to have been me.”
He took her hands in his. “I’ll tell you what. Tomorrow we will look into a security system. Would that make you feel better?”
She leaned in to him and rested her head on his shoulder. “Yes, but what if he is still out there? What if he’s not in Paris.”
“He’s not going to touch you.”
“What if he gets to me or Regan? Those boys can’t lose their mother.”
The sobs were shaking her body, and he pulled her in closer. “Don’t think like that. This family is stronger than one man.”
As he held her close to him, her breath began to slow.
He’d protect her and her family with his life, if it came down to it. No one would hurt the Keller family. No one.
Chapter Twenty-One
John stayed home with Arianna the next day, and just as he’d promised, there was a crew there installing a security system.
Regan had called her four times before lunch to check on her, and Arianna could hear it in her voice. She, too, was scared and now locked in her own house.
This was no way of life.
The bastard couldn’t just keep them living in fear, but he was. It had been four years, and he’d been the one to try and kill Regan. Why now was it so important to try and hurt them all?
Of course there still was an obvious issue. Alexander Hamilton was apparently in Paris, and what if it was Eric who was terrorizing her? Then again, what if it was all her imagination?
It was nearly three in the afternoon when the security system had been installed, and John was antsy.
“You can go in to work if you need to,” she said as he poured water into the coffee pot for the third time that day.
“I told you I’d stay with you.”
“C’mon, I don’t want to be away from the theater just because I’m paranoid. I’ll go into my office for a few hours, and you can get some work done, too.”
He filled the filter with coffee and pushed the brew button. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
She needed to stay busy, or she knew just contemplating things would make her crazy.