Noah ground his jaw. There was no way he could do nothing but sit around on his butt for that long.
Chasen must have expected him to argue because he held up his hand. “It’s either that or you spend the next sixty days pushing paperwork.”
Noah sighed. While the idea of sitting around doing nothing for two months scared the hell out of him, it was nothing compared to how terrified he was of becoming a desk jockey. If hanging out on his couch playing video games was what he had to do to get back on active duty, he’d handcuff himself to his frigging Xbox.
CHAPTER ONE
San Diego, California
MAYBE IT WAS just a random break-in.” Peyton Matthews eyed the recently repaired sliding glass door and the section of living room floor that had been covered with broken glass until a little while ago. “That happens, you know.”
While that might sound completely logical, one look at her best friend, Laurissa Bradley, and literary agent, Em Fuller, told Peyton that was probably wishful thinking. Both of them sat on the cushy sectional couch looking like they weren’t buying it. Peyton had expected as much from Laurissa, since her friend had been with her when they’d gotten back from the movie theater last night and discovered someone had smashed in the back door. Laurissa had been freaking out ever since.
But Em, her no-nonsense agent with her bob hairdo and oversized eyeglasses, was supposed to be the calm, reasonable one. The clear-headed person in her corner who always advised Peyton to think through every situation and never jump to conclusions. She thought for sure Em would be the first one to tell her to relax and chill out. Instead, her agent had jumped on the first flight out of San Francisco the moment Peyton told her that someone had broken into her house. Em had landed in San Diego earlier that morning.
“Right,” Em said, sharing a look with Laurissa. “Someone went to all the trouble to break in and the only things they took were your desktop computer and laptop? They left behind the TV, didn’t ransack your closets and drawers looking for valuables or touch your jewelry armoire? I don’t think so. They wanted your book, and we all know it.”
Peyton flopped down on the other end of the sectional and blew out a breath. She’d been hoping against hope there was another answer here, but she knew Em was right. Someone had been trying to steal her manuscript, plain and simple.
“Is it really any surprise?” Laurissa asked, blue eyes knowing. “Your book releases in a few days and people are going crazy to get their hands on it. Whoever broke in probably thought they could get an advance copy if they grabbed your computers.”
Peyton considered that. The next book in her young adult series was coming out soon and the anticipation had been building for so long that it was at a fever pitch, so she supposed Laurissa could be right.
“That makes sense, I guess. Not only would they have gotten a copy of the new book, but the next one in the series after that.” She let out a snort. “I can just imagine the look on their face if they got their hands on both of them. It’d be like Christmas and their birthday rolled into one.”
She might have said that last part in jest, but truthfully, she knew that most readers didn’t realize how the writing process worked. She’d talked to hundreds of fans who assumed she finished writing a book, and then poof, a few days later, it was in bookstores. They had no idea she’d written this newest book last year. Or that the one she was furiously trying to get to her publisher in less than two weeks wouldn’t be released until next year.
“Regardless of whether they knew what book they were trying to steal, I’m just glad you agreed to follow the extra security precautions your publisher insisted on or we’d all be screwed right now,” Em said.
Peyton groaned at the reminder. At the time, she thought her publisher’s demand that she write on a desktop computer with no internet connection instead of a laptop like she always did was the stupidest thing ever. And if that weren’t enough, they’d wanted her to save the manuscript and all her notes on an external hard drive only. Talk about adding more to her workload. While it’d seemed ridiculous, she was glad they’d been so damn paranoid.
She opened her mouth to say as much, only to have a yawn steal the words right out of her mouth. Picking up her mug, she got to her feet. “I need more caffeine. Anyone else want more coffee?”
“I’ll have some,” Em said, holding out her cup.
Peyton glanced at Laurissa, but her friend shook her head.
Mugs in hand, Peyton walked around the big, granite island that separated the living room from the kitchen to get refills. This side of the house faced the ocean and as she poured the coffee, she gazed at the rough waves lapping against the sand on the beach below the house. Usually, the sight was calming, but after last night, she had a hard time focusing on the beauty.
As bad as it had been to come home to all the glass and the broken door, the night hadn’t ended there. After calling 911, she and Laurissa had to wait for what seemed like forever at a neighbor’s house for the police to show up. When they finally did, they checked the house to make sure no one was inside, then spent hours asking her questions as the rest of the cops looked for clues. She’d assumed crime scene techs would dust for prints or something, but they hadn’t. A detective named Dwayne Harrison had come by, though. A nice guy with a friendly demeanor, he told her that he’d do
