Brave Love

by Allyson Simonian

  As she sorted through the stack, Ethan stood beside her. She’d almost reached the end of the pile when a postcard fell out from a magazine. As it fluttered to the foyer table, she inhaled a sharp gasp.

  Ethan grabbed her hand before she could reach out for it, and brought out an evidence bag from his pocket. “Don’t touch it.” Using the edge of the bag, he turned the postcard over.

  How was your trip?

  Fear pounded in Paige’s chest and she began to tremble. The familiar constriction grabbed her throat, and she sucked in several breaths, feeling light-headed.

  Taking firm hold of her shoulders, Ethan led her to the sofa. “Sit down.”

  She nodded, sat down, and took a shallow breath. Was this ever going to end? Why in the world was this person doing this, sending her these messages to torture her? What had she done to attract the unwelcome attention of this psycho?

  As her mind spun with unanswered questions, she lowered her head and willed herself to calm down, taking slow breaths as she stared at the carpet between her feet.

  “Should I get you a pill?” Ethan asked as he rubbed soothing circles on her back.

  Paige shook her head. A few seconds ago she’d been sure she was headed for an attack, but now there was another emotion beginning to envelop her—anger.

  Ethan gripped her hand, and she looked up at him. Worry had etched new lines in his face, and she suspected it was from more than just this new postcard. He was probably wondering if she’d pull away from him again. Unsure of how to reassure him, she stayed silent.

  Two years of her life had been ruined by this madman. It was time to stand up for herself, to stop falling apart and letting these panic attacks break her down. Paige steeled herself as she realized she needed to be strong and stop leaning so much on Ethan.

  It was time to take her life back.

  Chapter 59

  Ethan paced his living room floor as he waited for Paige to finish in the shower. When they’d arrived at his place twenty minutes before, he’d insisted she take a long, hot shower to loosen up her tense muscles. She’d tightened up once she’d seen the postcard, her muscles quickly knotting up until she was as tightly drawn as a violin string.

  Once they’d gotten to his house, he’d pushed her toward the shower, needing a moment for himself as much as he wanted her to relax. The worry that had been simmering inside him since discovering the second postcard was now on full boil, and he needed to bleed out some of the rage and energy before Paige came out.

  It wasn’t as if this case was predictable, he thought as he gripped the back of his own neck, nearly as knotted and tight as Paige’s had been. He couldn’t trust that he’d be able to escort Paige at all times. Nor did he feel comfortable about her being in her office without a guard. The time for round-the-clock protection had arrived.

  He thought of his old partner, Jonathan, who had retired to an island near Seattle, Washington, only a few hours away. They hadn’t spoken in the last couple of months, but Ethan knew Jonathan would back him up without question if asked. Picking up his phone, Ethan called him. When he answered, Ethan explained everything.

  Not surprisingly, Jonathan offered to host Paige at his cabin.

  “Bring your girl to us,” the older man said. “Ellie will like having some company, and someone else to cook for.” He chuckled. “She says I wolf down my food so fast I can’t possibly enjoy it, and she’s wasting her time. She’ll do her best to fatten Paige up while she’s here, though, I’ll warn you.”

  Jonathan’s wife, Ellie, was the quintessential hippie. She’d been a teenager during the sixties, and had embraced the back-to-nature lifestyle throughout her life. Her recipes were adventurous, to say the least, and Ethan had enjoyed many entertaining dinners at their house when they’d lived in Bennington. He was sure Paige would like her a lot.

  “Thanks, Jon, but I like Paige just the way she is,” Ethan said with a laugh. “You tell Ellie that I miss her cooking, though.”

  “Seriously, son, she’ll be safe here,” Jonathan said, changing the subject. “We’re pretty remote, the closest neighbor is half a mile away. Everybody knows everybody on the island, and strangers stick out like a sore thumb. You won’t need to worry.”

  “That makes me feel a lot better,” Ethan said with a sigh.

  “How soon can you get here?” Jonathan asked.

  “We can be there by tonight.”

  “Ellie!”

  Ethan grinned as he pulled the phone away from his ear as his former partner shouted for his wife.

  “We’ve got company coming!”

  When Ethan pressed the phone back to his ear, Jonathan said, “Ellie said that’s just fine. You both come on up as soon as you can get here.”

  They said their good-byes and Ethan set down his phone before he resumed his pacing. While he didn’t want to be apart from Paige, it was a good solution, the best he could come up with. When she came down the stairs a few minutes later, he explained.

  She stared at him in disbelief. “You want me to just leave here and go to someone I don’t know?”

  Ethan stepped closer. “Not just anyone. Jonathan’s someone I trust. He and his wife are great people.”

  “I’m sure they are, Ethan, but—”

  Ethan cut her off, explaining again why it was for the best. He led her up to his bedroom and got out a suitcase. “You pack while I get ready,” he said over his shoulder. “We can stop at your place if you need to get more clothes.”

  Back downstairs, he packed some bottles of water for them and checked the locks on the windows and doors. Then he went up to pack a duffel bag for himself. For that night at least, he’d stay in Washington with Paige.

  He walked into his bedroom and stopped short. The suitcase he’d taken out had been put away.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I’m not going,” Paige said as she stepped out of the bathroom. She stopped just short of him, her jaw set in a stubborn line.

  Ethan aimed for what he hoped was a calm tone. “I told Jonathan we’d be there tonight.”

  “Then you’ll need to call him back,” she shot back.

  Christ. “Paige . . .”

  She folded her arms across her chest. “I said I’m not going.”

  Squeezing his eyes closed, Ethan willed his rising temper to recede. “I promised your father that if you weren’t safe—”

  “This isn’t your decision, Ethan. Or my father’s. It’s mine!”

  Ethan’s jaw clenched while Paige stood there, unyielding. Why couldn’t she understand that this was for the best?

  Glaring at him, she said, “I’m tired of this controlling my life. It’s time for me to make my own decisions.” Her voice rising, she added, “I’ve had enough of the panic, of the fear. It’s crippling me, Ethan, and I can’t take it anymore. You’ve got to understand—running isn’t going to solve anything!”

  Too worked up to go to her, Ethan left the bedroom and pounded down the stairs. He paced the living room, running a hand through his hair.

  Short of tossing Paige over his shoulder and cuffing her once she was inside his truck, he had no way to make her leave. He fished his phone out of his pocket with a sigh. He’d call Jonathan and give him an update. With any luck, he’d be able to change Paige’s mind by morning.

  Chapter 60

  Two weeks later

  Paige was easing out of bed as Ethan shot out his hand and caught her wrist. His eyes were bleary as he sat up in bed. “Where are you going?”

  “It’s all right, Ethan. I’m just going to work at the desk. Go back to sleep. I won’t leave the room.”

  Nodding, he lay back down.

  God, he looked exhausted. Every night since the second postcard had arrived, he’d been on guard, staying up into the early hours of the morning.

  He’d also made modifications to the house. Security sensors were now in place on the windows of the first floor. Video cameras had been set up in the front and back of the property.
Here in the master suite, he’d reinforced the windows and added a dead bolt to the door. Despite that, he awakened all too easily the few hours he did sleep.

  As Paige walked to the desk, she wondered if she should have gone to Ethan’s old partner. At least then, there wouldn’t have been the need for all of this. Ethan had barely recovered from a gunshot wound only to become a full-time protector. All while trying to solve a case. With a shake of her head, she pressed the On button of her laptop.

  Two hours later, she was dressed and downstairs when Sam arrived. He was the security agent her father had hired, a compromise that seemed to satisfy everyone. Sam spent days at the office with her now. David still wasn’t back at work, and she and Sam were using his office since it was larger than hers. It was a crazy situation, to say the least.

  Paige went upstairs to say good-bye to Ethan, then followed Sam to his car. An ex-Marine, Sam was built like a linebacker; his muscles rippled when he moved. His shoulders were even broader than Ethan’s.

  On the way to the office, Paige realized she’d forgotten to give Ethan a check for her rent. He’d be stopping by the duplex later in the day to check her mail. Chastising herself—the rent was already overdue—she fished her phone out of her purse and called Melissa.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Melissa said after she answered. “You can just give it to me whenever we see each other.”

  “It’s okay. I can do a transfer online. I just need your account number.”

  “So, how are you doing?” Melissa asked once she’d given Paige the number.

  Paige had already told her about the second postcard. Now she told her friend that otherwise things were the same. So far the killer hadn’t mailed anything else. But who knew what Ethan would find that day? To change the subject, she asked how everything was going with Melissa and Mark. They’d been casually dating since the barbecue at Ethan’s.

  “I think that’s pretty much fizzled out. I haven’t heard from him in over a week.”

  “Really?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “What happened?” Paige asked, hoping it had nothing to do with the disagreement she’d had with Mark in the hospital.

  “It’s hard to say. You might say our schedules never synced up long enough for us to really get to know each other.”

  Paige shook her head. What was wrong with the man? Melissa was a great person.

  A moment later, Melissa seemed to read her thoughts. “It’s fine, Paige. Really.”

  If anyone had their head firmly on their shoulders, it was Melissa. Still, she had to be hurting, Paige thought, so she said, “Come over this weekend. There’s no way Ethan would let me go out to PJ’s; he’d have a heart attack if I even suggested it. But we can hang out at Ethan’s. It’ll be fun! We’ll order in some Chinese, have some wine . . .”

  “No,” Melissa said firmly. “I don’t want to take you away from Ethan. You’ve only just gotten back together.”

  “But you and I haven’t gotten to hang out enough lately,” Paige insisted. “We could use some girl time.”

  “I guess I can’t argue with that,” Melissa said.

  Paige could picture her friend smiling. “Good. I’ll ask Anne too.”

  Chapter 61

  That night when Paige mentioned the upcoming girls’ night, Ethan summoned up the energy for yet another argument. “It’s not a good idea to meet them anywhere.”

  “We’ll be meeting here.” Paige was facing the counter as she spoke. Her shoulders heaved with a sigh.

  Ethan shoved his hands into his pockets. How was it that he always managed to say the wrong thing lately? “Of course it’s all right if they come here.”

  She turned around, eyeing him as she said, “Melissa and Mark broke up.”

  Ethan tilted his head. “Really?” Mark hadn’t said anything. Then again, they’d barely seen each other since Ethan had returned to work after being released by the doctor.

  “I need to talk to you about something,” she said slowly, not meeting his eyes.

  His heart stuttered to a halt. “What?”

  Paige turned back to the counter and set down the dish towel she was holding, then she looked out the window. “It’s time David came back to the office.”

  Although relieved that it wasn’t something worse—Ethan’s imagination had run wild for a second there until she’d put him out of his misery—he still stiffened. “That’s not a good idea.”

  When she turned around again, her brows were pinched together and her eyes flashed with anger. “For God’s sake, Ethan. He’s locked out of his own office because of me. It’s ridiculous!”

  “I don’t want him around you or my mother,” he said evenly, gritting his teeth. “Not until he comes clean.”

  “But he passed a polygraph!”

  Ethan’s jaw tightened, and he willed himself to stay calm rather than follow Paige’s lead. It wouldn’t do them any good if he got worked up too. “He’s hiding something, Paige.” That was the bottom line—the truth as plain as he could make it.

  Paige took in a deep breath and stayed silent, but the stress was radiating off her in waves. Her refusal to go to Jonathan’s was still a sore spot between them. And while he understood her perspective, the truth was she would have been better off in Washington. With her here, no matter how well protected, he always felt like the other shoe was about to drop.

  They were no closer to getting a break on the case. Like the first postcard, the second had provided no clues. Forensic testing had also been done on the Bobcat at Naughton’s old property. Nothing had been found there either.

  • • •

  Paige was just coming down the stairs when Ethan woke the next morning. He’d fallen asleep on the sofa.

  “How much sleep did you get?”

  He scrubbed a hand over the back of his stiff neck and stood. “Enough.”

  She frowned before walking into the kitchen, and his heart sank. He just couldn’t win with her lately, and the stress was getting to him.

  With a sigh, he followed. “Coffee?”

  “I’ll make it,” she said. “You go ahead and shower.”

  “I can shower after Sam gets here.”

  “Fine,” she said, her tone abrupt.

  Ignoring the tension between them, Ethan busied himself with the coffeemaker.

  When Sam arrived a few minutes later, the coffee still wasn’t finished. Paige mumbled something about getting some at work instead. She barely managed to brush his cheek with a kiss before she left.

  The strain from all of this was becoming unbearable. This case needed to be solved.

  • • •

  A few nights later, Ethan met Paige at her office. Once he and Paige said good-bye to Sam, they headed to Ethan’s truck.

  “I need to stop by Mark’s,” Ethan said. “He’s going to lend me his air compressor.”

  It had been weeks since he’d been able to get anything done on the house. Between the investigation he’d been running before he went back to work, then the security system he installed, he’d had little time to concentrate on any more house renovations.

  He planned to work on a short project while Paige’s friends were over Saturday. Maybe the work would bring some new perspective on the case; physical tasks always helped him think better. There was something about busy hands that stimulated the mind, and he needed all the help he could get now.

  When they pulled up to Mark’s house, Paige said she’d wait inside the truck. Mark’s breakup with Melissa clearly still bothered her, but Ethan didn’t want her sitting there by herself.

  “Just come to the door with me,” he pleaded. “We won’t go inside.”

  Paige closed her eyes for a moment before opening her door with a sigh. Together they walked to Mark’s back door.

  When he opened the door, Mark’s gaze flickered over Paige before settling on Ethan. “Hey, I was wondering when you’d stop by. Come on in,” he said, and stepped aside for them to enter.

  E
than glanced at Paige, and seeing her lips pressed tightly together, said, “Not this time, but thanks. We need to get home.”

  Mark nodded, then asked them to wait a moment. He walked away, leaving the door open, then a few seconds later returned and handed over a plastic case.

  “Thanks for letting me borrow this,” Ethan said.

  “No problem.” Mark gave them a nod before closing his door.

  “I can’t believe he broke up with her,” Paige muttered as they walked back to the truck.

  Ethan gazed at her. He badly wanted to distract her from all that was going on, but it didn’t seem possible. She’d been a bundle of nerves ever since the first postcard had arrived, and then after the second she seemed to be angry all the time. Not only at the situation, but at him as well. Nothing he said seemed to go over well, she bristled at the slightest little thing, and he was getting frustrated.

  God, he loved this woman, but she was driving him crazy. He knew this wasn’t her normal personality, that she was just under a tremendous amount of stress, but damn it, so was he. He was terrified that something might happen to her, and he was determined to keep her safe at all costs.

  Even if she hated him for it.

  Chapter 62

  That Saturday night, Paige sat with Melissa and Anne at Ethan’s dining table, passing around cartons of Chinese food. Aromas of garlic, cabbage, and soy sauce mingled in the air, and Paige inhaled with pleasure as Anne reached across her to grab the lo mein, then spoon a portion onto her plate.

  “It’s like Fort Knox in here,” Melissa said as she glanced around.

  Paige gave her friend a half smile as she poured her a glass of merlot. Ethan was upstairs using the air compressor Mark had loaned him. Every few seconds a nail gun pounded, and Melissa would flinch.

  “Hopefully it won’t be for much longer,” Melissa said as she took the glass.

  Anne nodded her head in agreement, adding, “It’s got to be hard living this way.”