Free THE GUARDIAN (Taskforce Series) by Marliss Melton Page A

burned out or. . . She didn’t want to think about the other possibilities .
    The crickets chirping in the fallen pine needles fell mute as she felt her way to the porch. Stubbing her toe on the step, she hobbled for the door. At her touch alone, the door cracked open, and fear shot straight up Lena ’s spine. She dropped the keys, plunging her hand inside her purse to reach for the Micro Compact .45 caliber pistol she never left home without. The reassuring feel of its stainless steel frame steadied her pulse as she thumbed off the safety and cautiously pushed the door open .  
    A hush emanated out of the darkness. Sliding her free hand along the wall, she felt for the switch and snapped on the light.
    “ Diavolos! ”     
    It looked like a tornado had swept through her rental. Cushions littered the floor. The recliner lay on its side. Even the braided rug had been ripped from the hardwood. In the kitchenette, drawers and cupboards stood open, their contents swept onto the counters and floor. Ceramic and glass shards lay broken and gleaming on every surface. And in the midst of the chaos, a steak knife stood straight up out of a cutting board, its point imbedded deep into the wood .
    Shock ricocheted through Lena ’s body .
    The silence suggested the intruder was gone, but he might still be here, lying in wait. Holding her gun aloft, she waded deeper into the wreckage. Was there some malicious intent behind this ransacking? What had the intruder been looking for? Hopefully not her.
    Oh, crap, my camera! My laptop!
    She pushed open her bedroom door with her toe. The room stood dark and still. Braced for the mess, Lena hit the light switch. The house appeared clear, but God in heaven, her laptop was gone and so, it seemed, was her camera .
    The wardrobe, where her camera had been hidden, stood gutted, its contents strewn like entrails across the floor. When she failed to spy her camera case, she laid her pistol on the bed and sifted hopefully through the piles of clothing at her feet, to no avail .
    Devastated, she crossed to the vanity where she had left her laptop and stared at the table top, where a single sheet of notebook paper lay with the message GO HOME OR DIE scrawled on it.
    The warning yanked Lena ’s scalp tight. Her gaze flew to the window. Was someone out there watching, even now? Assailed by vulnerability, she spun toward her bed and snatched up her pistol.
    Bang!
    It discharged without warning, tearing a startled scream from her throat and ripping a hole into the drywall by the head of her bed.
    Cristemou! She’d forgotten the safety was off .
    Numb with shock, she reset the safety, whipped the curtains across the window to conceal herself from spying eyes, and sank onto the edge of her bed, shaking . She could have shot herself.
    Calm down. Breathe .
    She had faced retaliation in the past, but never anything this personal. Who would do this?
    Abdul Ibn Wasi.
    The name jumped into her head, and her spine stiffened.
    Yes, he was the only soul in Mechanicsville who even knew about her camera. Plus, he’d demanded she delete her photos, the ones she’d already offloaded onto her computer, which was now stolen. All those pictures of Davis and Abdul Ibn Wasi, gone! 
    Violation gave way to chagrin. If he was somehow able to circumvent her password and examine the contents of her hard drive, he might guess her obsession with him. Either that, or he’d wrongly assume that she’d been spying on him all along. A look at her browser history would reveal that she’d researched his arrest history, or tried to. That would be misleading, too.
    That bastard!
    But wait. How could Abdul have broken into her place when, according to Bill, all the parolees had left Gateway that morning with their parole officers. Her six-hour shift had been endless and uneventful without them.
    Leaping off the bed, Lena paced her room, kicking aside the clothes that littered her path .
    Could Abdul have discovered where she