Read Online THE GIRL NEXT DOOR by Cynthia Eden - Free Book Online Page A

murmured. “Sometimes...sometimes we all need to crash.” That was exactly what she wanted to do. She wanted to get inside her apartment where she could fall apart and no one would see her break.
    He put his foot on the bottom stair. “Whatever you need, I can give you.”
    She shook her head.
    Cooper turned her back to face him. His hand lifted, and his fingers curled around her chin as he stared into her eyes. “I can keep you safe. You can crash, you can fall, and I’ll be there to pick you right back up.”
    Her lips trembled. She caught her lower lip between her teeth because she didn’t want him seeing that weakness.
    Just hold it together a little longer.
    But McAdams—those last, terrible moments—had stirred up memories of her own past that she just couldn’t shut out any longer.
    There was a reason she took the cold cases. A reason she tried so hard to find justice for the ones who had been forgotten.
    “Fall into me,” he told her again. “I’m here.”
    When had anyone else ever said something like that to her? She’d stood on her own for so long, Gabrielle couldn’t remember what it was like to have someone else there when the storm hit.
    She found herself nodding. “Come...upstairs with me?” So she wouldn’t be alone when the crash hit.
    Then Gabrielle turned. She headed slowly up that staircase, and Cooper was right behind her. She could feel the reassuring heat and strength of his body following hers.
    She opened the door to her apartment, flipped on the lights, reached for the alarm—
    And realized that her place had been trashed.
    Couch cushions were cut. Furniture overturned. Her files were scattered across the floor.
    “Get back!” Cooper’s low snarl. He didn’t wait for her to comply. He grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back behind him.
    He had his gun in his hand again. She didn’t even remember him getting that weapon back from the cops at the precinct. While he pushed her back, Cooper stepped inside her place.
    No. She grabbed his arm. “He could still be here.” Wasn’t that what they’d feared at McAdams’s place? That the killer was there?
    “I hope he is,” Cooper whispered back.
    Then he advanced.
    Fear twisted within her, but she wasn’t about to stay in that hallway by herself. Maybe that was the killer’s plan. Divide and conquer. So when Cooper stalked forward, she leapt right after him.
    Her hands fisted around her keys—and the mace attached to that keychain. Having her own weapon made her feel a little bit better.
    Until they got to her bedroom.
    And she saw the clothing that had been slashed. The other room...it had almost looked as if someone was searching for something in her den. But this—this was just destruction.
    Her pillows had been slit open. Feathers covered the floor. Her sheets were cut, her mattresses sliced.
    Her dresser mirror was smashed.
    All of her drawers had been yanked out and tossed. Her breath heaved in at the sight.
    Rage. She could feel it in the room.
    Cooper’s body stiffened, but he didn’t speak. He kept searching her home—checking the closets, the bathroom.
    No one was there.
    The intruder was long gone.
    Gabrielle found herself standing in the living room, gazing around with dazed eyes. Everything that she’d valued was gone.
    Cooper was on his phone. Probably calling the police for her. Again.
    She rubbed chilled arms. The cold wasn’t just on the surface, though, it went bone deep.
    Cooper shoved his phone back into his pocket. He’d already holstered his weapon.
    You can fall into me. She wanted to fall right then, but Gabrielle was afraid that if she did, she’d never be able to get up again.
    “I told you,” she said and was surprised by how eerily calm her voice sounded. “Someone was watching me.”
    “You were right.” His eyes blazed with a barely banked fury. She should be feeling a similar fury, but she wasn’t. That coldness seemed to be cloaking all of her emotions.
    “I called in a favor,”