Free The Awakening by Kat Quickly Page A

their systems and they’re eating properly again. As long as it takes, I guess. They’re both on drips. They look so sad, Andrew.”
    “Well that settles it. You’re coming home with me. You can’t possibly stay here.” He clapped his hands and tried not to smile too widely.
    “Don’t be silly. I’ve got all this cleaning up to do,” Carmen glared at Andrew. “You can see that. Now that the police have finished – “ she looked at Josh who nodded.
    Andrew couldn’t believe it. He wanted to shake her. Knock some sense into that blonde air head of hers. “Help me here, Josh. Look, Carmen you’ve just been broken into. Someone has trashed your home and tried to kill your beloved dogs and you think you can stay here. It isn’t safe. Read my lips. I’ll say it again. It’s. Not. Safe. Here. Carmen.”
    Josh was nodding his agreement. “He is right, Carmen. It’s not really a good idea to stay here. At least not until we know more and certainly not without the dogs. I was just about to suggest you stay somewhere else for a while. We normally do in cases like this. And you couldn’t be safer than with AA. Right?”
    “What choice do I have?” she let Andrew hug her and kiss her. She knew this was what he wanted. If she was some sort of paranoid loony she’d suspect AA of setting up the whole thing. But he had called in Josh as soon as she’d panicked and he’d been here all afternoon being supportive and loving. And he was doing his best to be understanding about the dogs.
    “Come on, Babe. I’ll help you pack your things.” He took her hand and led her to her closet. “A week’s worth. Can you cope?”
    She nodded. “I guess.”
    “I’ll get someone in to clean this all up so by the time the dogs are well you can all come home to everything as it was. Only better really. I’ll get your security up-graded too. I’m sure Josh would approve.” His smile was warm and convincing although Carmen suspected Andrew was in fact quite pleased by the turn of events as it had delivered him his heart’s desire: them both happily living at his place. She expected a week of devoted attention. She expected she would enjoy it, despite her fears of his inability to stop smothering her with his intensity about how she should live and how impossible it was for him to leave her alone. She knew as sure as the sun rose in the east that she would be very pleased to go back to her own space with those beloved shaggy friends of hers.
    It was late afternoon by the time they returned to Andrew’s loft. He was planning a romantic dinner after Carmen had a chance to soak in his spa bath. He let her settle into his room, made space in his closet, on his dresser, in the sumptuous bathroom. He put Michael Buble on the sound system, poured Carmen a glass of Moet and took it to her in the tub.
    “You realise it could have all been much worse, don’t you, Babe?” he began.
    “I guess. Things could be damaged beyond repair. The dogs could be dead. Of course it could have been worse.”
    “No, you silly thing,” he sighed. “Imagine if you had been there instead of here. Imagine what might have happened to you. Not just to those all important animals of yours. I think you were lucky you were here last night and not there. Think about the mess, the damage those idiots did. Who knows what might have transpired if you’d been there, if you’d confronted them? They trashed everything, Carmen. Nothing was left in one piece. Josh was staggered by the mess and the bizarreness of them not taking anything, Really, it’s all very odd. Not a normal sort of break in at all. Josh said.” Andrew looked into her eyes. “I don’t want to think about what might have been.”
    She took her glass. “I guess not. I hadn’t thought about that.”
    “No. And neither you should.” Andrew kissed her forehead, moved his hands to her shoulders, massaged them gently, moving his thumbs up and down the spine at the base of her neck, which he