Fiona grabbed her bag from the library staff room. It was late—half an hour past the time she was supposed to finish work, and the library had closed a while ago. Damn Rick and his stupid to-do list. It had been a mile long and impossible to finish. In fact, it still wasn’t completed. But she’d decided it never would be, even if she stayed until midnight. Let the man yell at her tomorrow, see if she cared. She wanted to get home to Callum.
Her phone vibrated as she moved around the library. She’d just flicked off the last light when she pulled it from her pocket.
Callum: Hey, I just got to your place, but you aren’t home. Everything okay?
Crap. He was early. Only five minutes, but still. Callum had arranged for her locks to be changed the day after the person had broken into her house last week, but he’d still stayed over every night since. Not that she was complaining. Have big, beautiful Callum in her bed every night to keep her safe and warm? Heck yes!
Fiona: Sorry, I had to stay late and do some small jobs. Leaving now.
Small, ha! They weren’t small.
Callum: Want me to come over there? It’s dark.
She stepped outside and cringed. It was dark. She’d been inside so long, she hadn’t even noticed. Not that the dark made her nervous. The last week had been fairly quiet. Only a couple of texts, and no home visits. God, what had her life become when she thought a quiet week was only receiving a couple of abusive texts.
She locked the library door, then texted him back as she walked across the lot to her car.
Fiona: I’m okay. Be home in five. X
She slid into her car just as her phone rang. Argh. Amanda. She hadn’t spoken to her sister since the wedding.
Maybe she should let it go to voicemail…but then more calls would come. Probably a few texts.
Fine. One quick conversation. “Hey, Amanda.”
“I need you to come to a family dinner this Saturday night. I have news to share.”
Well, hello to you too. “I can’t make it this weekend. I have a shift at the library on Saturday, and it’s over a three-hour round trip—”
“So change the shift. And you’re the one who decided to move to Cradle Mountain, so you should have expected to do some driving to come home. This is important.”
Then Amanda hung up. Just…hung up.
Well, if the woman thought Fiona was going to rearrange her life so she could announce something, she was wrong. Especially after what she’d told their cousins at the wedding.
Fiona: No. I will not be coming this weekend. I have work. You have important information for me? Text it.
She stabbed the send button like it was a weapon. There. Sent. Done.
Heck, after everything, she shouldn’t even be talking to the woman!
She was just about to start the car when she realized she didn’t have the book she’d promised to bring home for Callum. Crap. Her gaze flicked to the building. She really did want him to read it. It was a good one.
Quickly, she grabbed her keys and phone, climbed out of her car, and jogged back to the building. The door unlocked with a click, and she stepped into the library, then ran to the staff room. She was in such a rush, she didn’t see the person until she stood in the doorway. Her feet ground to a halt, cementing to the floor, and her breath caught in her throat.
Because there, standing in front of her locker, was a figure dressed in black clothes. It was dark, so they were little more than a shadowed outline, but that outline was clear as day.
Fear washed over her like acid.
Suddenly, the person turned. Fiona only had time to make out the balaclava over their face before the person grabbed something from the table.
It took her brain a second too long to realize it was a heavy-duty stapler.
They turned and hit her so hard, she dropped, her head hitting the doorframe on her way down.
Pain radiated through her skull. The pounding of steps through the back of the library barely registered.
With trembling fingers, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, but her eyes were too blurry to make out the call function.
Nausea crawled up her throat and darkness hedged her vision. When her phone started to ring, she touched the screen, hoping she hit answer and not cancel.
“Fiona?”
His voice sounded distant to her ears. She tried to get out words but barely breathed them. “Callum…help.”
Callum’s jaw clenched with worry as he sat behind the wheel of his car. Where the hell was she? She lived a couple of minutes from her work. If she’d left when she’d said she was, she should be home by now. He looked in the rearview mirror. It was too late and too dark. The woman knew she shouldn’t be out alone at night, not with the texts and the perp entering her home.
He waited one more beat, then called her again. The phone rang three times before it was answered…then there was silence, bar some heavy breaths.
His gut tightened. “Fiona?”
One more heavy breath, then two words. “Callum…help.”
Callum started the car and slammed his foot on the gas, everything inside him tightening at the pained fear in her voice. “Fiona? Are you okay?”
When there were no more words from her, his muscles bunched, and he forced the car to move faster. “Fi, honey, talk to me!”
Silence. It was so fucking loud, he could have drowned in it. As much as he wanted to stay on the line, he needed to call his team for backup.
“I’m gonna be there in two minutes, honey. Hang on.”
He hung up and called Liam.
“Hey, Cal, what’s—”
“Fiona’s in trouble. She’s at the library. I’m driving there now.”
There was a rustle of movement over the line. “What kind of trouble?”
“I don’t know. She was finishing work so I’m hoping she’s still at the library. She may have lost consciousness. She said two words to me, then nothing.” Fuck, saying that out loud stabbed at him like a dagger to his flesh.
“I’ll call paramedics and alert the team. We’ll check the routes between the library and her place too.”
“Thank you.”
Callum made it to the library in half the time it normally would have taken him. Her car sat out front, dark and closed. He could only hope like hell that meant she was inside.
He grabbed his Glock and entered the building, scanning the dark library, everything clear to his enhanced vision.
When he saw her on the floor of the office, his heart crashed in his chest. Fiona lay on her side, still.
He rushed over to her and kneeled, gut tightening at the blood that covered her hair and seeped into the carpet beneath her head. A slew of curses flew from his mouth. “Fiona? Wake up, honey.”
She didn’t, and the only thing that kept him calm was that he could hear the beating of her heart in her chest.
He touched her cheek and lowered his head to her ear. “Fiona, can you hear me?”
A soft groan sounded, then her eyes fluttered. Air whooshed into his chest.
“Callum?”
“Yeah, honey, it’s me.”
Her eyes scrunched, and she touched her head, letting out another low moan. “My head. Someone hit me.”
Her words were like gas on the fire of his rage, but he forced gentleness into his voice as he spoke. “I’m gonna help you up, okay?”
She sucked in a long breath and nodded slowly. “Okay.”
Carefully, he took hold of her upper arms and pulled her into a sitting position. Her brows slashed together in pain, and that made the fury barreling through his chest intensify.
“I forgot your book,” she breathed, once she was sitting. “I came back in to grab it, but someone was in front of my locker. They…they grabbed my stapler and hit me in the head, then I hit the doorframe when I fell.”
So, she’d had two knocks to the skull.
“Did you recognize them?” Callum asked through gritted teeth.
She swallowed and shook her head, then cringed at the movement. “No. They were wearing a balaclava over their face, and it was dark, so I couldn’t make out their eyes. They were the same height and frame as me.”
His chest seized. Just like the person who’d entered her house. And now they were breaking into the goddamn library to go through her shit?
Engines sounded from the street, then footsteps. Seconds later, Liam stepped into the room, closely followed by the ambulance team.
Callum remained close to Fiona’s side the entire time the paramedics ensured she was stable enough to move, then as they treated her in the ambulance while the police spoke to her. In that time, Jason and Tyler arrived. It wasn’t until the paramedics were almost done, and the guys were talking at the front of the library, that he squeezed Fiona’s arm.
“Is it okay if I go talk to them?”
He didn’t want to leave her but needed to talk to his team.
“Yes, go.”
“I’ll stay close.” He gave her one more squeeze before moving to the guys. “What did you find?”
“The back door was unlocked and open,” Liam said quietly.
Callum flinched. “Unlocked?”
Jason nodded. “So, either the door was unlocked when she left, or whoever it was had a key.”
What the fuck?
When a car drove into the lot, all four of them watched Rick, the library manager, climb out. His eyes shot around the area before landing on Fiona, then he rushed across the lot and stopped far too close to her as she climbed out of the ambulance.
“Fiona, are you okay?” he asked. “I received calls from locals saying something was happening at my library!”
“I’m fine, Rick.”
When he got another step closer and touched her arm, Callum was moving before he could stop himself.
“Rick, I don’t need your help.”
“Fiona—”
“That was her telling you to take your hand off her,” Callum cut in, before Fiona could respond.
Rick looked up, his eyes narrowing, hand dropping. He cleared his throat as he stepped back. “What happened?”
“I left but ran back in to grab a book,” Fiona said, leaning into his side. His arm went around her. “Someone was in the staff room.”
Rick pulled back in shock. “Who?”
“We don’t know,” Liam said as he drew closer. “You don’t seem to have any cameras here.”
“Of course not. We’ve never needed them.”
“Well, you do now,” Callum said through gritted teeth. “Who has a key to the back door?”
“The back door?” Rick’s gaze flashed to the building. “No one. We keep a copy in my office.”
Callum frowned. “So no one takes one home?”
“No.” It was Fiona who answered. “Staff only have a front-door key. Someone came in through the back?”
He softened his tone. “Yeah. So either it was left unlocked or they had a key.”
Rick shook his head. “We never leave it unlocked.”
“Then someone has a key.” Just like someone had a key to Fiona’s damn house. “You need to change the locks and put cameras up. Do everything you can to ensure the safety of your staff.”
Rick shot a look at Fiona, then to the library before returning to him. It took the man a moment to give a jerky nod.
Callum turned to Fiona. “How are you feeling?”
“Not too bad. It’s just a concussion and some cuts and bruises. The paramedics wanted to take me to the hospital as a precaution, but I just want to go home.”
His jaw clicked. “You sure you don’t want to go in?”
She shook her head.
He tightened his arm around her. “Let’s get you home.”
