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each room until he arrived at her bedroom. He stepped through the door. No one was there! His heart threatened to stop. “Layne?” He was surprised his voice sounded so steady.
    With a soft gasp, Taysia leaped up from between her bed and the wall. “Oh, Ky!” She pressed a hand to her throat, moonlight reflecting off her tears as she rushed to him.
    Holding his gun away at a safe angle, Kylen caught her to his chest with his free arm and kissed the top of her head. Looking toward heaven he rasped, “Thank You, God!” He blinked hard and rested his cheek on her hair. “Thank You!” He kissed her head again, and then with sudden swiftness, he put her from him. “Tell me what happened.”
    Taysia pressed a hand to her forehead. Her whole body trembled. “I don’t know. I—I woke up and—and I heard a noise in the living room like someone stumbled into a piece of furniture and grunted. So—so I called 9-1-1 and asked them to send you over here. Then—then something broke. It sounded like”—her eyes widened—”my new crystal vase!” She started for the door, but he reached out and jerked her back. There were still a couple rooms he hadn’t cleared on down the hall past her room.
    “Keep talking.”
    “After I heard the glass break”—her teeth chattered and her head came up with a start, and her voice dropped till it was barely audible—”whoever it was went into the bathroom, and I hid between the bed and the wall.”
    “You mean someone is still in your bathroom!? You should have said that first!”
    Her eyes narrowed, and her hands clenched into fists by her sides. “Well, excuse me for being a little scatterbrained in the middle of the night when a person has just broken into my house!”
    Just then they heard the toilet flush. Kylen blinked in disbelief. The perpetrator was flushing evidence! But of what?
    Kylen motioned her to get down. “Stay here!” he whispered as he dashed into the hallway and flipped on the light.
    Back pressed against the wall, gun held at the ready, he slid toward the bathroom. Taysia had ignored his command and crawled to her bedroom door. She poked her head out to peer down the hall. He started to motion for her to get back just as the bathroom door opened.
    With a swift jerk, he leveled his gun. “Freeze!”
    An old man stepping from the room halted so suddenly he almost lost his balance.
    Eyes round as tennis balls, the man thrust gnarled hands straight up. The tips of his fingers rammed into the lintel above his head with a loud crack. “Ow!” His bulging eyes never left Kylen’s gun as he scuttled a reluctant inch forward and again stiffened his arms, pinning his ears to his head.
    “Taysia! I’m Taysia’s father. Don’t shoot. Please. Don’t! Shoot!”
    Recognition hit Kylen at the same time as Taysia screeched, “Daddy! Kylen, it’s Daddy! Don’t shoot!”
    Kylen lowered his gun, a release of breath easing his thundering pulse.
    Mr. Green, arms still ramrod straight, looked from Kylen down to his gun, then glanced at Taysia and swallowed thickly. Slowly he lowered his arms, patted his chest, and ran a hand back over his disheveled white hair. He looked back at the gun. “I need to use the restroom again. Excuse me, please.” Turning, he closed the bathroom door.
    Kylen slumped against the wall and glanced at Taysia. She too had sagged in relief, forehead pressed to her knees.
    The bathroom door had only been shut for three seconds when it jerked open and Mr. Green charged out like a bull that had just seen a red flag. “Young lady, what are you doing with that man in your bedroom?”
    “Daddy!”
    “Sir!”
    Kylen wanted to laugh at the crazy turn of events, but instead he looked at Taysia, motioning for her to explain.
    “Daddy, you remember Kylen Sumner—”
    “Of course I remember him! He broke your heart! So what in thunderation are you doing with him in your bedroom?” He sized up Kylen’s bare chest and legs with a glare of decided