**Edited By krisgree***
“The Rented Husband”
2011 © All Rights Reserved
Chapter 12
Brody carefully pushed the door open with his foot and stood rooted in place while he strained to hear if there was any indication that an intruder was still in the house.
He remembered specifically looking in the rear view mirror once they were in the car and backing out of the driveway and seeing the front door closed. It had also been daylight out when they first left for the restaurant and there was no reason for any of the lights to be on.
Right now, as bright as the place was lit up, you could land an airplane anywhere within a mile radius of the condo. He had little doubt that someone had been in Olivia’s home while they were gone and with that thought cold chills erupted all along his arms.
Brody slipped inside the open door quietly and on full scale alert. It didn't escape his attention that all was eerily quiet throughout the condo with the exception of the low hum of the central air system blowing in the background.
He stopped in the entry way for a moment and let his eyes roam, taking a cursory glance of the place to see if anything looked out of sorts.
At first glance, everything seemed perfectly fine - neat and tidy, the same way that the beautiful Ms. Olivia Murray presented herself.
Stealthily, he moved towards the kitchen all the while keeping his eyes moving in every direction, taking in every nuance and cataloguing even the smallest of things all along the way.
Stepping into the kitchen, he observed that nothing in there seemed to be out of place either. He spotted the wooden knife block sitting on the counter and considered that it might be smart to have something just in case he ran into the perp. After all, it was he that ran into the condo, all gung ho with nothing more than his bare hands to defend himself. Reaching for the largest of the knives he gripped it in his hand, weighed it for familiarity and then continued on to the next room.
Again, all the lamps and overhead lights were on in the den but not a sign of anything out of place. This was really strange he mused, glancing down at the most current issue of Lawyers Weekly sitting on the end table. A small smile tugged at his lips because it was him that graced the cover this week due to his big win in the Demascus case last month.
Shaking his head, he turned away and continued his search. They were several thoughts that he just couldn't seem to shake though.
Why would someone break into Olivia's house and just cut all of the lights on, not take anything and not hang around until she returned? Something just wasn't adding up.
Then his mind flashed back to the phone calls that Olivia had mentioned. The "prank calls" as she referred to them. She wanted to blow them off and blame it all on the kids. Brody wasn't too sure about that. He checked with security this morning and had learned that the caller used a disposable phone and there was no way to track it.
Could she have a stalker? He shuddered at the thought but it was a very real probability.
He continued to creep down the back hall and was headed for the stairs when he heard a thump. Then a scraping sound like someone was walking across the hardwood floor in the dining room. He listened carefully and decided that it was coming from the front of the stairs.
Brody flattened himself against the wall, moved in that direction of the sounds and waited. He hoped to hell that this was the perpetrator. Olivia was a co-worker and a friend; he didn't like the fact that she was being harassed at all. It didn't sit well and if he could end it now, the better he would feel.
He could hear the sounds of the sirens closing in somewhere off in the distance and knew that help was on the way, all he had to do was subdue the creep until they got there.
Holding his breath, he waited, listening to the footsteps as they got closer and closer. He could see the shadow of the guy as he approached the corner of the stairwell.
Raising his hand, he was poised to lunge when the stranger come around the corner and screamed a high pitched wail.
He saw the bat coming at him but it was too fast for him to react. He felt a sharp stinging pain radiate on the top of his head and then everything suddenly went black.
"Ah crap, Brody. You weren't supposed to be playing ninja in my home," Olivia muttered. She dropped the bat to her side and fell to her knees, hovering over him. He was out stone cold and she could already see the huge knot forming on top of his head.
Lightly rubbing her fingers over the bump, she frowned. "You’re going to have one hell of a headache when you wake up." She sat back on her legs and sighed. "Serves you right though, running off like that, leaving me in the car like some helpless vixen."
"Ma'am?"
Olivia jumped up at the sound of an unfamiliar male's voice and stared back at two uniformed police officers. Simultaneously, they both glanced over at the humongous knife laying in the floor by Brody's side, then to the bat still in her hands before finally resting on the unconscious Brody.
The taller cop with brilliant blue eyes kicked the knife out of reach first and then gently took the bat out of Olivia's hands. Handing the bat off to his partner, he hooked his thumbs on his belt loop and pinned her with his stare.
"Would you like to tell us what is going on here?" he asked with a serious expression on his face.
Olivia licked her dry lips, glanced back down at Brody before looking back up at Mr. Policeman. "You see," she started, "We came home and the door was standing open," Olivia stopped all of a sudden when the paramedics came in and instantly went to work on Brody.
One of them had a pen light and was inspecting the knot that had doubled in size in the last five minutes. "How long has he been out?" he asked turning to Olivia.
"Five minutes, maybe?" She said, cracking her knuckles nervously.
"Hmm," he replied and grabbed and ice pack out of his bag, breaking it apart to enact the coldness. He spotted the bat in the officer's hand and inclined his head towards it. "I'm just taking a wild guess that the bat was the weapon of interest."
"Seems so," the officer replied curtly and turned back to Olivia, shooting her an accusing glare. "We're still waiting to get the story, ma'am."
Brody groaned from his position in the floor and tried to sit up. Olivia tried to hunch down and check on him when the officer grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back up. "Ma'am, let the paramedics take care of him. We need to get the facts."
She stood and took one last fleeting glance at Brody before blowing out a ragged breath, nodding and then letting the officer pull her into the kitchen.
It took her a whole hour and five separate times to repeat the exact same story of how they came home to the door standing wide open and all the lights in the house on, Brody taking off and her following, then the whole mistaken incident of her thinking that Brody was the one who broke into the house hence the knot on his head before they were finally satisfied. They walked with her through the house to make sure nothing had been disturbed or taken, took a few finger prints at the door and that was it. There wasn't much more that they could do unless the fingerprints gave them a lead.
Even then, since nothing was taken all they could do was charge the person with breaking and entering. That was a child's play charge these days.
She closed the door behind the police officers and was relieved when they were finally gone. She dropped her head to the door and closed her eyes for a moment. A killer headache was already pounding in her temples from the stress of earlier today and the night was not yet over. Brody was still here.
"Are you okay?"
Speaking of the devil himself, Olivia half smiled and lifted her head from the door, turned around and was slightly taken aback by the concern in his eyes. She was the one that had knocked him out and yet here he was worried about her.
"I'm fine." Closing the distance between them she lifted her hand to his head and inspected the bulging knot. "What about you?" she asked when he winced from her touch.
"I'll live," he mumbled and grabbed her hand in his.
For a long moment, neither of them spoke, neither of them moved. Their hands intertwined and they both just stood there in the entry way looking into each other eyes. She was lost in the calm of the oceanic blue of his orbs and Brody was spell bound by the coffee brown tint that reflected back at him.
The clock struck midnight and twelve dongs started to sound, breaking the moment and bringing Olivia back to reality. She stepped back and cleared her throat, "Um, do you want me to drive you home?"
Brody shook his head and declared, "I'm not going anywhere, Liv, not after what happened here tonight."
Quickly snapping her head up, Olivia gasped. "You can't stay here," she proclaimed. He had to be out of his mind if he thought that he was going to spend the night at her house. What would the neighbors think?
Brody smirked, "I can," he said and took a step forward, "And I will."
Olivia held both of her hands up, palms facing out and took a shaky step backwards. "No you're not. I want you to go home Brody."
He took another step forward placing his hands on her hips, splaying his fingers outwards and pulled her flush up against him. He could feel her heart beating wildly being this close to her. He could smell her enticing scent and wanted nothing more than to mold his lips to hers.
Her breath hitched from the sudden intimacy and instinctively her hands flew up to his chest in a last ditch effort to erect a wall between them. "Brody," she breathed out, looking at her hands, "Please, don't do this right now."
Releasing one of his hands, Brody lifted it to her head and slowly began to pull the pins out of her hair. "You're my wife," he said simply, focusing on his task at hand.
She clenched her back teeth. "Not for real Brody, only in front of family."
"We have an image to keep up," he insisted, pulling out the final pin in her hair and threading his fingers through the thick mane of brownish blond locks. She tried to push back from him but he held strong. "Don't worry cupcake, I'll sleep on the couch," he whispered, leaning over so that he could better inhale the flowery scent wafting up from her hair.
"You can go home," Olivia retorted grumpily.
"Not happening, sweetness." He curled a ringlet around his finger and was fascinated by the way the highlights shimmered against the lamp light in the room.
"Brody...," she pleaded, feeling her resistance starting to slowly break down. "It's time to go home."
Brody clucked his tongue. "You see babe, the way that I see it, someone broke into your house tonight and I feel that as your honorary hubby it is my duty to protect you and I can't do that if I'm not here."
"I don't need your protection," she snapped back.
"I disagree," he mumbled, pressing his nose into her hair. "You have two choices Liv, we can stay at my house or yours, which will it be?"
She seethed. She jerked back and this time was able to put a little breathing room between them but his one hand was still latched to her hip not quite fully letting her go. "I choose neither."
Brody chuckled. "That wasn't an option dear. My house or yours," he repeated, watching her every move very carefully.
Olivia adverted her gaze and refused to look up at him. "You can be such an ass," she grumbled just loud enough for him to hear. "Fine," she conceded irritably. "You take the couch, I'm going to bed and if you come anywhere near my room, consider that knot on your head just a taste of what I'm going to do to you."
Brody grinned that famous grin of his. Looking every bit like the playboy she knew he was.
"I consider myself fairly warned, slugger," he stated and bowed his head in a gentlemanly gesture.
She groaned and he took a step back, releasing her in the process. She stumbled but quickly steadied herself.
Brody looked her over from head to toe in a blatant scrutiny before intentionally turning his back on her. He started to head off towards the living room before pausing and calling back to her, "Good night sweet cheeks. Sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite."
Her mouth dropped in exasperation but she didn't bother to respond. She turned on her heels and proceeded to stomp up the stairs towards her room, hearing Brody's laughter ringing in her ears. "Stupid men and their egos," she mumbled walking into her room, slamming the door firmly closed behind her.