Alone in her clinic, she made notes on the animals she’d kept in the clinic, then went to check on them. As she stood in front of the cages, talking to the two cats and one dog, she knew she was just delaying the inevitable.
She would have to go into Eagle Ridge tonight. The food she had brought with her was gone, and she needed to get some groceries. She wished passionately that it didn’t have to be tonight, but if she didn’t shop she’d go hungry.
And she couldn’t put it off forever. Sooner or later she’d have to go to the grocery store and the hardware store, where she’d be the center of attention. Everyone in town wanted to know why she’d decided to come back and what her plans were for the future. Each of her clients had asked her, some more diplomatically than others, and she knew that the first few times she went into Eagle Ridge she would be the jar of honey to all the town flies.
She’d managed to make it to the post office and back without being waylaid, but that was because she’d been caught by Holt. This time she’d be on her own.
After checking the animals one last time, she finally walked out into the crisp autumn air. It wouldn’t be long before the sun went down, and before she got into her car she walked to her house and turned on all the outside lights. The last thing she wanted was to drive into her yard in total darkness.
She made it halfway through the grocery store without seeing anyone who recognized her. Congratulating herself on shopping while nearly everyone else was eating dinner, she turned into the next aisle and stopped dead in her tracks. Her stomach fluttered with fear.
Of all the people she’d imagined running into while she shopped, she hadn’t thought of him. She didn’t think Bobby Duvall knew what a grocery store was.
His back was to her as he studied a shelf. As she tried to turn her cart, she banged into a display of soup. When Bobby looked up and saw her, his small eyes narrowed, then he smiled.
“Well, well, well, look who’s here. It’s Eagle Ridge’s own celebrity. I thought you kicked over the traces of this town long ago, Tory.”
Tory stared at the man who had tormented her all through school and slowly realized that he’d changed. Or she had. His massive frame no longer scared her. Instead of the bully she’d feared, she saw a man who hadn’t taken care of himself and was running to fat. The mean glint in his eyes that had always made her run in terror now made her feel almost sorry for him. She had done something with her life. Bobby Duvall had stayed in Eagle Ridge and was still playing the part of town bully.
Tory smiled at him. “If I recall, the only thing I kicked in this town was you, Bobby.” As she backed up her cart she saw his smirking smile disappear, replaced by the ugly, mean look that had always intimidated her. Now it only made her regret all the years she’d run from him.
There were some things to be said for living in Chicago, she thought as she paid for her groceries. Dealing with gang members and street toughs, as she had in her inner-city practice, made Bobby Duvall merely pathetic. She was smiling as she left the grocery store, her arms full of bags.
“It looks like you could use some help.”
She stopped so suddenly that one of the bags started to slip. Holt lifted it from her in one smooth move and cradled it on his hip. He reached for another one, but she backed up a step.
“Thank you, but I can get them. You just startled me.”
“Sorry.” He nodded toward the grocery store. “You look like you enjoyed yourself in there.”
She felt the smile creeping onto her face. “I ran into someone I knew when I was a kid.”
An odd look flashed over his face, one she might have called jealousy if there had been any reason for it. Then he said carefully, “It’s always nice to see old friends.”
Her smile turned into a laugh. “I wouldn’t exactly call him that.”
“Him?” Holt’s voice was quiet.
“I wouldn’t describe him as a...” Her voice trailed off as she saw someone dart around the corner behind Holt’s back. There was something familiar about him, something that reminded her of the man she’d seen from the window of the police station. As she stared over his shoulder, Holt turned to see what she was looking at.
“What is it?”
She shook her head slowly. “I don’t know. That person looked familiar.” Staring at the spot for a moment, she finally shrugged her shoulders. “I guess there’ll be a lot of people who trigger that reaction for a while. I won’t remember everyone who was here when I left.”
“But we remember you, Tory. We remember all about you.”
The voice behind her was low and ugly, filled with the kind of threatening insinuations that used to make her cringe and run away. She turned to face Bobby Duvall.
“How sad for you, Bobby. Believe me, I haven’t spent the last thirteen years thinking about you. I put that part of my past behind me.” She paused, then said deliberately, “You might say I’ve kicked it behind me. I’ve had better things to do with my life.”
The bewilderment on Bobby’s face would have been amusing if it hadn’t been followed by a look of pure rage. His eyes narrowed and glittered with fury as he looked at her.
“I’ll see you around, Tory.”
“I doubt it, Bobby. I’m very busy these days. I have a business to take care of.”
His face turned purple as he stared at her, and she felt Holt-tensing beside her. Then without another word Bobby turned and walked away.
“What was that all about?”
Tory watched Bobby disappear down the street. “That was Bobby Duvall.”
“I know who it was. What the hell was going on?”
Tory felt her arms trembling. She tried to tell herself it was because she held the heavy bags of groceries, but she couldn’t forget the rage and hatred in Bobby’s face. He might not be able to make her turn tail and run anymore, but the look in his eyes would make anyone nervous. Everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours came back with a rush.
“Bobby and I go way back,” she said, her voice suddenly weary.
Holt pulled the bags of groceries from her arms, and she didn’t object. “I could see that.” His voice was gentle. “Do you want to tell me about it?”
Suddenly she did. “Bobby has always been a bully. He was in my grade in school, and I became his favorite victim. He tormented me almost until the day I left Eagle Ridge.”
“Why did he pick on you?” Holt’s voice was low and without expression.
She shrugged, hoping to look nonchalant. Her childhood in Eagle Ridge wasn’t something she wanted to discuss with anyone. “Why does a bully pick any victim? But he kept it up because he could tell I was scared of him.”
Holt exhaled slowly. “You didn’t act too scared of him today.”
She felt her muscles begin to relax. Holt was right, she realized. She allowed herself a small smile. “I wasn’t. I met enough truly frightening people in Chicago to make me see that Bobby is just pathetic.”
“Something else happened with Duvall, didn’t it, Tory?” Holt asked as they neared her truck. “What was it?”
She opened the back of the truck without looking at him. “What makes you say that?”
“There was too much unspoken in your conversation. I could tell.” Holt set her bags of groceries in the truck then turned to look at her. “He hates you, Tory. Deep down hatred. I saw it in his eyes. What happened?”
She took a deep breath and looked at the darkening sky, remembering the fear of her last encounter with Bobby before she left town as an eighteen-year-old. Remembered the fear and the terror, and the fierce surge of triumph when she’d thwarted him. There was no reason to keep quiet about it anymore. And as Eagle Ridge’s new police chief, Holt had a right to know.
“He tried to rape me.”
Chapter 5
“He what?” Holt didn’t raise his voice, but tension electrified the air as his knuckles whitened on the door of her truck.
Some part of her wanted to reach out to him
and reassure, but instead she wrapped her arms around her waist to stop her instinctive trembling. As hard as she’d tried, she hadn’t been able to forget about that particular spring evening.
“Don’t worry, he didn’t even come close to succeeding. In fact, the only reason I know that’s what he intended was he told me so.” Hating the sudden tremor in her voice, she paused for a moment before she continued. “I was stupid enough to take a shortcut home from school one day during my senior year in high school. He caught up with me behind the stadium. There wasn’t anyone else around, and he tried to take his verbal harassment one step further.”
“What happened?”
She straightened, remembering again the rush of anger and rage she’d turned on Bobby Duvall that spring night. And realized it had freed her forever from his domination.
“I kneed him in the groin. When I tried to get away he grabbed my ankle, so I kicked him again. He never touched me or looked at me after that.”
“My God.” Holt looked at her, his face tight and controlled. When she looked in his eyes, she saw dark, black anger. “Did you call the police?”
“His father was the chief of police.” She turned away and rearranged the bags of groceries. “Do you think they would have listened to me?” Even then she’d known the answer. The Falcon family had been notorious in Eagle Ridge.
“You mean you let him get away with it?” His incredulous voice rose in the still, twilight air.
“He didn’t get away with it. He limped for two weeks afterward.”
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it. You should have called the police.”
“I didn’t, and now it’s ancient history. I’d rather not discuss it anymore, Holt. You know now, and I’m sure Bobby will figure out that you know. Let’s drop it.”
She could feel his eyes on her as she opened her door. Before she could slide onto the seat, he touched her arm.
“Stay in town and have dinner with me. It’s getting late to go home and fix a meal.”
A few bright stars were visible in the navy blue sky. The thought of driving home alone and parking her truck in the dark made a ripple of fear climb her back. Wanting to postpone that moment was almost enough to make her agree to have dinner with him.
Almost, but not quite. Given a choice between Holt and the dark, she realized she was less afraid of the dark. At least the dark didn’t threaten to take away all the control she’d tried to rebuild so carefully over the past few months.
“Thank you, but no. I need to get back.”
To her surprise he didn’t try to argue with her. Instead, he nodded and waited for her to get into the truck. “I’ll follow you to your house, then, to make sure everything’s all right.”
She hated the relief that overwhelmed her, hated knowing how much she’d dreaded going to her house alone in the darkness. Hated the involuntary burst of joy she felt hearing that Holt would be there, too.
Her hand tightened on the key and she shoved it into the ignition. “Thank you.” She didn’t look up as he closed the door of her truck and walked away.
She drove along the tree-lined road through the gathering darkness, watching his headlights in her rearview mirror. It was absurd how comforting two points of light could be.
She would never admit it to Holt, but she was damn glad he was there. Seeing Bobby Duvall again, telling Holt what had happened thirteen years ago, had opened the dam on a rush of memories. Most of them she would have preferred to forget.
But in facing Bobby that evening, she had realized, finally, that he was merely pathetic. The remembered fear would never go away, but there would be no new terror to replace it. Her hands tightened on the steering wheel in exultation, then relaxed. She was free. Bobby Duvall was one ghost she had managed to exorcise.
Seeing the reflector that marked the entrance to her driveway, she slowed and turned onto her property. When she stopped the car and turned off the engine, the sudden silence seemed to throb with night sounds. An owl hooted somewhere in the distance, two branches rubbed together in the surrounding forest, and the ever-present wind sighed through the trees. The pungent scent of pine surrounded her, and she hurried to the back of her truck without looking at the trees.
“Let me get a couple of those bags.”
Holt walked toward her in the darkness. She began trembling again, but this time it wasn’t from fear. Wanting to tell him no, to ask him to leave, she swallowed hard and shoved a bag into his arms. He had followed her home, after all, to make sure that nothing had happened at her house or clinic. She knew he wouldn’t leave until he was satisfied everything was all right. “Thank you,” she muttered.
He followed her silently with his arms full of groceries. When she fumbled with the lock on her door, he eased one of the bags out of her hands. Even though she turned her back on him while she opened the door, she was acutely aware of him right behind her. His scent filled her senses, obliterating the smell of pine. Heat and energy seemed to roll off him and surround her. She felt as if he’d planted himself between her and the woods, using his body as a buffer between her and whatever evil lingered out there.
The door opened with a jerk, and she half-stumbled into the living room. One of Holt’s hands snaked out and caught her wrist, steadying her. “Take it easy,” he murmured. She looked at his fingers encircling her and waited for the fear to come.
Instead all she felt was his hard, callused palm on her arm. That, and a warmth that seemed to penetrate her skin and sink all the way into her bones. She stared at his hand for a long time, wondering why a policeman affected her this way
He let her go and shifted the bags in his arms. “You want these in the kitchen?” he asked, nodding toward the other room.
Heat suffused her face. “Just set the bags on the counter. I’ll put everything away later.”
He slid the brown paper bags onto the counter, then stepped back and shoved his hands into his pockets. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was as unsure of himself as she felt.
“Would you like me to check the house for you?”
Her pulse leaped, and she told herself it was fear. Merely thinking about Holt looking in all the rooms of her house couldn’t make her heart pound.
“I’m sure you’ll find everything is all right, but check if you like.” He disappeared from the kitchen, and she busied herself with putting away the groceries. When she found herself straining to hear his footsteps she snapped a paper bag and folded it noisily, then squatted to shove it into a cabinet.
A few moments later he appeared in the doorway. “Everything looks fine here.” He paused for a moment until she reluctantly stood up and faced him. “Do you have to go back to the clinic tonight?”
“Yes,” she answered. “But I thought I’d do it later.” She needed time to get up enough nerve to step into the darkness, where she would be unprotected and surrounded by the trees.
He watched her steadily. “Any reason you can’t do it now?”
“I suppose not,” she said.
“Good. I’ll walk over there with you and wait until you’ve finished.”
“You don’t have to do that, Holt.” She knew her voice sounded weak and unconvincing. Her nerves crawled as she thought about walking to the clinic and back, wondering who or what was hiding in the trees, watching her.
“I know I don’t have to do it. I’m going with you because I want to.”
She shrugged into her coat, trying to disguise a rush of relief so profound her arms trembled. Even before he touched her, she knew he’d moved behind her.
“Let me help you.” His voice sounded more gentle than she’d ever heard it as he settled the coat over her shoulders, and she ducked her head as she pushed the buttons through the buttonholes. What a fool she must be making of herself.
“There’s nothing to be ashamed of, Tory.” He spoke from behind her, resting his hands on her shoulders, and she imagined she felt his warm breath caressing the nape of her neck. “You have a
reason to be frightened out there. Someone was in the woods last night, watching you. Any normal person would be scared.”
She looked at the keys in her hand and her knuckles whitened. “I have to get over it sometime.”
“Some things are easier to get over if you don’t have to face them alone.” His hands tightened painfully on her shoulders, then dropped away. The pain in his voice made her face him.
He’d shuttered his face. The man who looked at her was cold and remote, not the man with the gentle voice who had tried to soothe her just moments ago. His hard, set expression and the badge gleaming on his chest were the marks of a policeman, but she suddenly realized she wasn’t afraid of him. She was looking at Holt, a man who tried too hard to disguise the pain in his eyes.
“Holt?” She heard the question in her voice but wasn’t sure what she was asking. Apparently he didn’t want to answer, because he headed for her door.
“Let’s go. The longer you think about it, the harder it’ll be to walk out there.”
He was halfway out the front door when she caught up with him. The porch light cast a golden glow that spilled onto the steps and the first few feet of driveway. After that there was nothing but darkness and the faint, glittery light from the stars.
Taking a deep breath, Tory pulled the door closed behind her and clutched the ring of keys in her pocket like a talisman. Holt waited for her at the bottom of the stairs. She hurried down the steps and headed for the clinic.
“I didn’t see anything over there,” he murmured, nodding toward the woods.
She knew he was referring to the place where the watcher had stood yesterday. “Thank you for checking.” She heard the wobble in her voice and cleared her throat. “I’m sure whoever it was won’t be back, now that he knows we’ve seen him.”
“I hope you’re right.” His grim voice told her he wasn’t so sure. “How’re you doing?”
“I’m okay.” She was surprised to realize it was the truth. The sense of menace that seemed to reach out from the trees was missing tonight. They still made her nervous, but she wasn’t terrified of the forest. “Whatever was spooking me seems to have gone away.”
The Dark Side Of The Moon Page 7