Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 89840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Jolene knows he’s hiding something. She’s always been good at reading him. He isn’t quite sure how to make it up to her. Perhaps if he tells the truth, she’ll perk up. She is his wife, after all. His secrets are safe with her, and she’s always had his back. Any sticky situation he’s been in, she aids him. But this . . . it’s different. He has to deal with it himself.
Something appears in the corner of his eye, and he nearly chokes on his next sip when he spots a silhouette approaching the double doors on the other side of the office. The doors lead to one of the patios, and his home is closed off with oversized iron gates, but he’s sure that’s a hooded figure coming toward the door. And he’s damn near positive that figure has grabbed the door handle and is jiggling it to try and break in.
His heart slams in his chest as he freezes in his chair. He’s left his cellphone upstairs in the guestroom. His eyes drop to the desk phone, and he rapidly picks up the receiver as the person continues rattling the door handle. The door shakes roughly as he dials the officer parked at the end of the driveway. There’s an officer on duty every night, a safety precaution for him as governor.
“Sir? How is it going?” Stephen answers. He knows it’s Stephen by his deeply southern accent, sounding more like Sir? Haow’s it goin’? It’s always either him or a man named Tyler.
“Come to the house now,” Dominic breathes into the phone, watching the door rattle again. The hooded person is now raising an arm, as if trying to see through the blinds. “Someone is trying to break in. Come now!”
“Let’s get in there!” Stephen orders, and he’s thankful the officer isn’t alone.
The door handle continues rattling and Dominic shoots to a stand, gripping a paperweight and glancing at the door that’ll take him out of the office. Then, just as quickly as the rattling started, it stops, and the silhouette retreats and disappears. He waits a moment, breaths ragged, clutching the paperweight, as silence fills the room. When he doesn’t hear anything, his mind jumps to Jolene.
Shit. Jolene.
He bolts for the door and thunders up the stairs. He tries pushing their bedroom door open, but it’s locked again so he bangs a fist on it. “Jo!” he shouts. “Open the door, Jo!”
The door swings open and Jolene stares at him like a deer stuck in headlights. “Dom, what the hell is wrong with you?” she screeches, wiping tears from her eyes.
“There’s someone trying to break into the house,” he says, catching his breath. Jolene’s shock morphs to sheer terror and she looks over his shoulder, just as a knocking comes from the front door.
TWELVE
DOMINIC
“Perimeter is clear, sir.” Stephen looks different. He used to have a beard, but now he has a thick, comb-like moustache. He’s dressed in uniform, the brim of his hat low on his head. The other officer is a woman, short but well-built. She goes by Burnell. “We didn’t see any foot prints around the house, no open windows, or doors. Nothing outside the home was tampered with. If there was someone here, the intruder most likely got spooked and ran, jumped the fence. We’ve put out more cruisers, who’ll keep an eye on the area and look for anyone suspicious.”
“Good, because I’m sure I saw someone,” Dominic insists as Jolene rubs circles on his back. His nerves are fried. He saw that person trying to break in. Could it be the same person who left that note in the mail? Anger floods him, but he swallows it down as Officer Stephen says something about more burglaries that have happened nearby. Who is doing this to him? Why now, in the middle of a brutal campaign?
“I want officers here morning, midday, and night,” Dominic demands.
“Of course, sir,” Stephen responds.
“We’ll be keeping an eye, sir,” Burnell informs him with a nod.
A sense of pride washes over him. They must protect him. They must keep him safe. He should also contact Frank and his hired security team. He reserves them for rallies and public events, but he may have to change that.
Normally, Dominic isn’t so keen on keeping security around his private home. He likes his privacy, hence the reason he doesn’t stay in the Executive Mansion, but when you become governor, privacy dwindles.
There is one officer on duty every night, and one who arrives in the mornings if he needs to be escorted to Executive Mansion. But with that note from the mail (crumpled in the bottom drawer of his desk), and now an attempted break-in, he can’t take any chances. It’s almost as if the person knew his office doors were the only place on the property without cameras. The officers checked the security camera footage. There was nothing out of the ordinary, and of course no visuals of the office patio. Dominic makes a mental note to have a camera installed by the office door immediately. He’d never had one there. It didn’t feel necessary since one was in the backyard. Plus, he smoked a lot of weed on the patio and didn’t want any footage of that circulating. There were ways for people to hack home security systems. What would the citizens say when they saw their governor smoking weed? He faced so much flack and hate already, he didn’t want to give the people more reason to drag him down. He needs to stop smoking anyway. Now is as good a time as any.