Bella rolled off the blow-up mattress in the master bedroom of her flip. Her back ached from working in the house and sleeping on a mattress on the floor, but she wouldn’t let anyone else vandalize her house. Her iPhone screen had a message wishing her sweet dreams, which brought a smile to her face.

Whenever Ian’s name crossed her phone, her heart would flutter. That man gave her butterflies with each text message. The next night was their date, and she still needed to find an outfit. He hadn’t told her where he planned to take her.

She’d started demolishing the kitchen the previous day, so her coffeepot was next to her blow-up mattress along with a minifridge. Bella had never planned to live in one of her flips, but if she wanted to stay on budget and keep to her timeline, she didn’t have time for any more surprise expenses.

The sound of hammers downstairs made her get her butt in gear. That day she and her crew would be finishing the demo in the kitchen. She would move on to the bathroom while her hired hands, Tom and Ed, worked on the second bathroom. One piece of advice she learned from her mentor was to hire a contractor that charged per job and not by the hour. It worked wonderfully. The men she’d hired had shown up each day on time and worked their asses off. If they finished early, they would make more money.

When she rounded the corner into the kitchen, she was surprised by how far the hired hands had gotten. She must have slept through part of the demo.

“Hey, guys.”

Ed turned and gave her a nod. He was in his late forties, and like Tom, he’d worked for Bella’s old mentor. When Mr. Ainsworth had gone down for what he’d done, his construction crews had lost their jobs. Ed and Tom had struggled to find work. Both had done amazing work in the past, so they were the first people she’d reached out to when she had a flip.

Tom was in his early thirties. When he removed his shirt, he showed perfectly sculpted abs. The man was sexy as hell, but he didn’t make her heart flutter the way Ian did. He almost seemed like a brother to her. In past jobs, he’d gone into detail in explaining how to do certain jobs such as replacing a toilet.

Tom turned his gorgeous smile on her. “Good morning, Bella,” he said in his deep Texas drawl. He reached up and wiped the sweat off his brow. Ed continued to take down the old brown wall cabinet.

“Do you think we can finish the kitchen today?” Bella asked. The demo had been fun the first day, but Bella was over it. Her body hurt in parts she hadn’t known existed.

Tom surveyed the kitchen. “I think Ed and I can finish the kitchen today. You might want to run to the store and put up some cameras. We had to clean up the front of the house this morning. Someone threw eggs at it. I took pictures and texted them to Officer Anders.”

Bella had put motion floodlights on the front porch to help keep the vandals away at night. Cameras were another expense she didn’t have money for. Officer Anders wanted her to get them, and Ian asked every night if she’d had them installed.

“Who from Mr. Ainsworth’s past do you guys think would do this? I wasn’t the only one that worked for him.”

Ed didn’t speak very often, so when he answered instead of Tom, Bella was surprised. “Bella, I don’t think it’s someone from Mr. Ainsworth’s past. The people he screwed over had millions. They wouldn’t hire someone to throw eggs at your house—they’d hire someone to kill you. Maybe it was someone you outbid on the house. What’s that guy's name who overpays and takes all the houses? It could be him.”

Ian wouldn’t throw eggs at her house. They texted each other each night. Hell, he’d helped her clean up the last mess. Why would he paint the house then stay back and help her? But Ed was right: many of the people Mr. Ainsworth had screwed over were rich. Did she have to worry about having a hit on her head? She could dip into her emergency fund to purchase some cameras. If it saved her from further setbacks, it would be worth it.

“It’s not Ian,” Bella said. When Tom started to respond, she stopped him. “Ian chased off one of the vandals and made me call the cops. Afterward, he helped me clean up paint off the side of the house. We text every night.”

“Like I said, you need cameras. Ed and I got this. You go get cameras, and we’ll help you put them up when you get back.”

A half hour later, she stood in front of a display of cameras. The cheapest camera set was a thousand dollars. There was no way could she justify spending a thousand dollars on cameras.

When she turned to leave, a salesman stopped her. He was short—maybe an inch taller than her five-foot-two height. His black-framed glasses were too large for his skinny face. “Can I help you, ma’am?”

“I was looking for some cameras, but these are out of my price range.”

He told her to hold on while he ran to the back of the store. She knew the camera gods had worked in her favor today when the skinny geek came out with a box and produced a set of cameras for five hundred dollars.

When Bella left the shop, she noticed a Victoria’s Secret store next door. She put the cameras in the back of her trunk and spent the next hour shopping. She found a cute red-lace bra and matching panties. Bella didn’t plan to sleep with Ian after their date, but she wanted to feel sexy, and a new bra and panties would do that.

When she got back to her car, her phone vibrated in her pocket. Ava’s name flashed across the screen.

“Hey, girl,” Bella said.

“How’s the flip going? Are you ready for your date tomorrow?”

“Good, and I’m scared out of my mind. I still can’t believe he asked me out.”

In the background, Bella could hear Ava’s heels clicking across the floor. “Don’t forget to call me afterward. I want to hear all the delicious details.”

Bella switched the call to speakerphone and started her drive home. “I’ll call you as soon as the date is over. I’m headed back to the house right now. Ed and Tom are working on the kitchen demo. They plan to help me hang cameras before they head out for the day.”

Ava’s breath hitched on the other end. “Did something else happen?”

“Someone egged the house. These don’t seem like professionals, so I don’t think it has to do with Mr. Ainsworth.”

“Did you call the cops?”

“Ed sent a picture to Officer Anders, it was only eggs. I’ll hang cameras and turn the footage over to the cops if I have another incident.”

Ava and Bella talked the rest of the ride back to the house. Bella had shopped longer than she’d planned. The sun was starting to set behind the house. After pulling into the driveway, she sat and stared at the house. She still had to pinch herself each time she looked at it. She couldn’t believe she was doing her first big flip. This was the beginning of her new life.

Tom and Ed were sweeping the floor in the kitchen. They’d completed the demo. The flip was ahead of schedule. The earlier Bella finished, the sooner she could get the house listed and make more money, but she wouldn’t cut corners for a few extra pennies in her bank account.

“Did you get the cameras?” Tom asked.

Bella held up the box with the cameras inside. Tom nodded and set down his broom. The three of them worked to install the cameras. They took around two hours, and it was dark by the time Tom and Ed left. After a few tweaks, she could see five camera locations on her phone. They’d put all the cameras around the outside of the house. The perp hadn’t come inside yet.

She cleaned the debris that remained in the kitchen before she called for pizza. Bella’s stomach grumbled as she made the call. She stared down the hallway at the downstairs bathroom, which was next on the list to demolish. If she started that night, she would put herself further ahead of schedule, but she talked herself out of that idea and took a shower before the pizza boy showed up.

When the doorbell rang, Bella used her new app to see who was at the door. She liked the added security she felt with the cameras. The purchase had been a good choice. It didn’t take long to grab her pizza and head upstairs to her blow-up mattress. The latest episode of First Time Flippers was on. She loved to watch other people work on their houses. The best was when they didn’t use a power tool correctly, and the bubble popped up and told the home viewer that what they’d done was wrong.

It wasn’t long before Bella fell asleep. She was in the middle of a good dream. Ian had just removed his shirt, and the sun reflected off his toned chest. Bella was about to run her hands up and down his chest when a loud crash woke her from her dream.

The noise brought Bella to her feet. She reached for her app to pull up the video. The feed was black. Whoever had broken the glass downstairs had destroyed her new cameras.

Bella’s fingers shook as she called the one person she knew would help her.

“Bella.” Ian’s rich voice came across the line.

“I need your help. Someone is inside my house.”

She could hear fabric rustle in the background. Bella hadn’t stopped to see what time it was before calling Ian.

“Did you call the cops?” he asked.

Bella worked her way around the corner and peered down the stairs. “No. I checked the cameras first, and someone blacked them out. You were the first person I thought to call.”

A sledgehammer lay on the floor across from the master bedroom. She worked her way over to hammer. She felt better with a weapon in her hands.

“Bella, I’m almost to the house. Go into the closet, and don’t come out until you hear my voice. I’m going to call Officer Anders and have him meet me there. Do not leave that room.”

“Hurry,” she whispered.

She could hear faint footsteps downstairs. She knew she should listen to what Ian said, but the person was still inside the house. With the sledgehammer in her hand, she slid her phone into her pocket and worked her way down the stairs.

The last step creaked under her feet. She held her breath and listened for footsteps. When she didn’t hear anything, she slowly worked her way down the hallway till she reached the living room. There, a man was kneeling at the fireplace, jabbing a rod up the chimney.

Bella gripped the sledgehammer with both hands and slowly approached the intruder. She was almost there when the board under her foot squeaked. The man turned. She couldn’t see his face because he wore a black ski mask.

He didn’t run toward the door—he ran at her. She swung the hammer a second too soon and missed her target. He didn’t miss her. The intruder hit her with so much force her head bounced off the floor when she fell backward.

The man jumped on top of her and wrapped his hands around her neck. “Where is the money?” His voice was strained.

Bella couldn’t reply while he had his hands around her throat. She kicked her legs, trying to get the intruder off her, but he was double her size, and his arms bulged with muscles. Bella used her nails to claw and try to peel back his hands, but blackness started to take over. In the distance she thought she heard a car door and hoped it was Ian. It would piss him off if she died.

Everything went black.