Lethal Allure: Cowboy Justice Association (Serials and Stalkers Book 2)

by Olivia James

  Blood roared in her ears but the rest of her body had gone numb with cold. Every single step was like shoving knives in her feet and legs but she couldn't give in, she couldn't stop. Was Oliver behind her? Was he still lying on the ground? She couldn't hear his footsteps behind her but then she couldn't hear anything but the sound of her own heartbeat as loud as a marching band in a parade.

  The first step onto the pavement was a relief but she wasn't home free yet. She turned to her left, so she was running towards traffic and almost screamed with relief when she saw a vehicle in the distance. Placing herself in the middle of the lane, she ran to it, waving her arms and jumping up and down.

  The car braked and swerved but halted, two familiar men jumping out of it. Luke and Ryan. She didn't know how they were there but she was so happy to see them.

  With no more energy to be had, she fell onto her knees in the road, her entire body shaking in delayed reaction. She hadn't even realized she was crying until she touched her face but her cheeks were all wet.

  "Baby, I'm here." Luke had scooped her up in his arms and was cradling her to his chest. "I'm here. No one is going to hurt you now. No one."

  "Oliver," she said, but the words weren't coming out very well. Her voice was a mere croak because of all of the cold air and she was still trembling, her hands not able to grip his shirt. She wanted to touch him to make sure he was real. For a moment, she thought that perhaps her imagination had conjured him up in desperation but the warmth from his body was beginning to seep through her clothes and she was beginning to believe that this might be real.

  "Where is he, Shaw?" Ryan asked, his gaze darting around the area. "Point me in the right direction."

  It took tremendous effort to raise her arm. "My mother. I don't know where she is."

  Ryan nodded and took off into the trees where she'd just exited. Luke strode back to the vehicle and tucked her into the passenger side before climbing into the driver's seat.

  "I'm taking you back to the house." He picked up his cell and thumbed the screen. "I'm also going to call the police. We'll find your mom, Shaw. Don't worry."

  Worry? She didn't even know where to begin worrying.

  "I feel numb."

  He gave her a reassuring smile. "That's probably a good thing, honey. It will hit you later but we'll deal with it then. Just know that I'm here for you, okay?"

  Luke was here. He wasn't a figment of her imagination. Unfortunately, none of this was make believe. The entire scenario was almost too far-fetched to be real, but it was. She'd lived it.

  She was alive. She'd survived. But now what?

  Shaw didn't know what she was supposed to do next.

  25

  The color was beginning to come back into Shaw's cheeks. Luke had been worried about her for the last few hours. She'd barely spoken except to tell her story to him and Ryan, and then the police. He didn't want to push her though. She'd been through enough without him being a jerk.

  When he'd seen her running toward them on that road, flailing her arms in the air... Shit, he couldn't even begin to describe the fear and panic he'd felt. Fear that she'd been hurt and panic that he wouldn't be able to help her, protect her. There was anger too - at himself and at Stephenson.

  I should have known. Somehow. I should have.

  He was supposed to be an expert, a professional but he hadn’t seen anything sinister in Oliver Stephenson. Perhaps that was how the older man was so effective; he'd been hiding in plain sight.

  One thing he was sure of though was that this woman was the most important thing in his life. He hadn't known her long, but he knew for sure that he wanted a future with her. He could only hope that she felt the same.

  When they'd arrived back at the house, he'd helped Shaw inside and wrapped her in a blanket that had hung off the back of a chair before searching through every room for her mother. Luckily, he'd found Julia sleeping in the master bedroom, but he couldn't rouse her. Suspecting that she'd been drugged by her husband, he called an ambulance. She was breathing fine and didn't appear injured in any way, but she definitely needed to see a medical professional.

  He'd gone back downstairs and assured Shaw that her mother was alive. That numbness that she'd talked about earlier had to still be in residence because she simply nodded and thanked him. It was then that Ryan showed up, dragging a limping but angry Oliver with him. The older man had been cuffed and they sat him down on the back porch while he raved and ranted against the world in general and Shaw in particular.

  Luke let Ryan deal with Oliver and he stayed close to Shaw until the police and the ambulance arrived. There were statements to make of course, questions that needed answering. Julia was loaded into an ambulance and by that time she'd woken up confused and disoriented, but quite alive.

  She couldn't answer any questions as to what happened to her but Shaw was able to describe how she'd been lured to the house by Oliver, telling her that her mother was ill and wanted soup. She told them how she'd realized that he was the stalker and also how she'd thrown soup in his face to run out of the house. Then she'd smacked his knees with a tree branch. He was almost bursting with pride when she described her escape. She'd done what needed to be done.

  Now she needed him to take care of her. All the adrenaline had to have drained from her body by now and that numbness would eventually leave too. She was going to need him and her friends to help her through this traumatic event.

  I wouldn't be anywhere else.

  "Do you want some more tea?" he asked, gently tucking the blanket around her knees. He'd brought her back to his place and stationed her on the couch. The dogs had immediately picked up on her distress and they'd taken up residence on either side of her as if to protect her from the outside world. "I could make you some toast."

  She shook her head and placed the empty cup on the end table. "No, I'm fine."

  She wasn't fine. At all.

  "Honey, it's okay to be upset."

  "I know that." She pointed to her temple. "In my head, I know that, but there's a little voice in there too that's been telling me that I need to hold it all together. That I can't let myself cry or break down. Even though I cried before."

  "That little voice sounds like a real pain in the ass."

  It was a joke and she gave him a small smile in return.

  "It is," she agreed. "I can't help but feel..." He didn't prompt her or interrupt, letting her piece her thoughts together in her own time. "I can't help but feel like this is all my own fault."

  He sat down next to her, moving Murphy to do so. "This is no one's fault by your stepfather's. No one, Shaw. He's to blame here."

  "My mother–"

  "Is going to be fine. They're keeping her overnight for observation. That's all. She'll be out tomorrow."

  "But I'm the reason–"

  "No," he said firmly. "You are not the reason she's in the hospital. Shit, she brought him into your life, not the other way around. The blame is his. You and your mother are victims."

  She wrinkled her nose. "I don't much like being a victim, to tell you the truth."

  "Then don't be one. But don't discount what you've experienced here today. That's something that you're going to have to grapple with. What would you tell someone that wrote in to you for advice if they were in this situation?"

  "I'd tell them to see a therapist."

  "Sounds like a good idea to me. It couldn't hurt."

  She sat back against the cushions. "What happens now, Luke?"

  A good question. Luke had been thinking about that himself.

  "Your stepfather has been arrested. He'll probably make bail, to be honest. If you and your mother press charges, there might be a trial but more likely he'll make a deal. He'll promise to stay away from both of you in exchange for probation and community service."

  Shaw's mouth fell open. "Community service? Probation? He won't go to jail?"

  Luke had to be honest. "If it's his first offense? Probably not. I won't lie to you about
that. Now if he has a history of doing this, then it might be different. My bet is he's done this before."

  "He probably has," she agreed. "But if he's never been in trouble for it before..."

  Her voice trailed off with a soft sigh. She was right. This wasn't fair.

  "I'm going to dig into his background, sweetheart. If he's done this before, we'll find it and give it to the district attorney. I'll do what I can to make this stick."

  "What if he doesn't leave me alone?"

  "Then I'll kill him," Luke growled, his teeth snapped together in a snarl. "I'll make him wish that he was a thousand miles away. Now that we know who was stalking you, he's never going to get near you again. I promise you that, Shaw."

  "I'm going to hold you to that." She reached out for his hand, their fingers tangling. "Have I thanked you yet for coming to my rescue?"

  Snuggling closer, he pressed a kiss to the satin skin of her forehead. "No thanks needed. I was glad I was there. But I have to be honest, I don't think you needed my help. You handled Stephenson just fine. You put a major hurt on him. You could be the star in an action flick."

  Giggling, she placed her cheek on his shoulder and his heart almost burst from his chest. The feelings that he had for this woman were so incredibly strong. She was the one. He knew it deep inside.

  "I don't think so, but I tried to take your advice."

  "You did great, honey. I'm really proud of you."

  "I'm proud of me too." Shaw yawned widely and then laughed. "I don't know why I'm yawning. I'm not tired. I mean, I am exhausted but there's no way that I could go to sleep now."

  "I could order a pizza," Luke suggested. "We could play Monopoly if you want. I might even let you win."

  Murphy and Dylan both jumped to attention at one of their favorite words. Pizza. The canines' tails were wagging furiously. Their expression could only be described as hopeful.

  "Maybe later." She wrapped her arm around him, cuddling even closer. "I just want to lie here in your arms for awhile. When I first saw you on that road today I thought I had conjured you out of my imagination. But you're really here."

  Luke was here, and he wasn't going anywhere. This woman had stolen his heart and he didn't want it back.

  He'd hold her for as long as she'd let him.

  It was Vegas, baby.

  Two months ago Shaw would have never thought she would be sitting in a fancy steakhouse inside of an even fancier hotel in Las Vegas but then her life had taken quite a few twists and turns in that time. Some of them for the better, and a few... Well, time would tell the tale.

  "To us and to Vegas," Luke said, lifting his glass of beer. "And to steaks, medium rare."

  "I'll drink to that," she giggled, lifting her own pomegranate martini to clink glasses. "But only if we can get baked potatoes too."

  "Of course. You can't have one without the other."

  Leaning down, Luke brushed Shaw's lips with his own. As always, she was swamped by emotions whenever he was near. He'd been a rock through all of this, never wavering in his support.

  And love?

  They hadn't said it yet, but she was sure they both felt it. If this was how he treated a woman he wasn't in love with then she'd love to see what he'd do when he'd fallen. She'd been planning for weeks to tell him on this trip how she felt. Despite being sure that her feelings were returned it was a little scary. Stepping out onto the edge of cliff scary. Once she said the words she couldn't take them back.

  Oops! I was just kidding. Ignore what I said.

  Their relationship had already moved forward a great deal, but this was going to send it into a whole other level. Love was the real deal. It meant a commitment for both of them. They would instantly become a serious couple. Not that they weren't serious now. After all, no man could have been more devoted than Luke had.

  She'd been practicing how and when she would say it but so far, she hadn't found the right moment. Was this it?

  "I'm so glad we were able to get away on this vacation," Luke said, settling back into his chair but keeping ahold of her hand, their fingers entwined. He looked so handsome this evening, dressed in a blue suit and an ivory silk tie. It wasn't his usual attire but the minute he'd put it on she'd been more than a bit heated. If he dressed like this all the time, they'd never make it out of the house. "We deserved it, don't you think?"

  "We definitely did, although you more than me. You closed that cold case Logan and Reed gave you. I bet you're going to make the permanent team."

  He'd explained that his assignment to the special task force was contingent on success and so far, from what she could see, he'd found it. He'd certainly wrapped up her issues in a timely manner.

  "We'll see." Luke shrugged as if it didn't matter but she knew it did. He had a tremendous drive to succeed. "The other guys are damn good at their jobs too."

  His phone buzzed and he checked it quickly, a grin crossing his handsome features before holding it up to show her.

  A photo of Dylan and Murphy. Melissa was watching the two canines and they were each wearing signs that said how much they missed their daddy and Shaw.

  "She's probably giving them cheese every day," Shaw warned him. "You know she spoils them."

  "She does and they love it, but she says it's an aunt's prerogative. Family and all that."

  Family. That was a subject that Shaw was beginning to believe she truly didn't understand. After Oliver had been arrested, she'd assumed that her mother would be outraged by what he'd done and leave him.

  Not at all. Instead, Julia had defended him - even after spending a night in the hospital - and had blamed Shaw for everything that happened. She'd said that Shaw had somehow led Oliver on and her actions had brought this on herself.

  In the ultimate action of boundary setting, Shaw had finally had no choice but to cut her mother out of her life. Julia wasn't going to change, or at least she wasn't going to change anytime in the near future. She could never take any blame herself and Shaw could never do anything right. It was a recipe for a poor relationship. Luckily, Shaw's friends had rallied around her and Luke and Melissa had offered up their own parents as surrogates.

  As for Oliver, there had been talk of making a deal with the prosecutor, but Luke had found a treasure trove of information about her stepfather and none of it was good. First of all, his name wasn't Oliver Stephenson. Second, he had a history of harassing women in a few other states. Stealing their personal possessions - he'd admitted to stealing her blue scarf, among other things - and keeping them as some sort of creepy souvenirs. He'd also skipped out on court-mandated therapy over ten years ago. It was looking like this time he might actually go to jail. Julia was standing by him.

  As for Shaw's neighbor James Hornsby, he'd sworn up and down that he was looking in her windows because he was worried about her, not that he was trying to be a pervert. Shaw had declined to press any charges. She’d wanted to put it all behind her. The police had given Hornsby a stern warning to stay away. If they hadn’t, she was sure that Luke would have gladly done the job.

  Whether her neighbor had been truly worried or was a big creep was a question they might never get the answer to. A few days later Hornsby had left on a long vacation and then a month ago a For Sale sign had gone up on his house. She wouldn't be sorry when he was gone.

  As for her ex Eric Bishop she hadn't heard from him since, so he must have received the message that she wasn't interested. Taylor's boyfriend Austin turned out to be married with three kids. She'd dumped him immediately despite his begging and pleading that it was simply a misunderstanding. Melissa was seeing a guy she'd met at the gym and so far they seemed happy.

  "We should pick them up a couple of t-shirts in the gift shop," Shaw suggested. "They'd look adorable."

  "We'll have to get Melissa a matching one and put all three of them in a photo for my parents."

  Luke's mom and dad adored their granddogs.

  Fiddling with the stem of her martini glass, Shaw tried to gather
her courage to tell Luke how she felt about him. This was a romantic meal in a fancy restaurant. This had to be a good time to take the leap.

  "Are you okay, honey? You seem a little distant tonight."

  This was her opening. Right here. Taking a fortifying drink of her martini, she placed the glass down and took a deep breath.

  "Actually, there was something that I wanted to tell you."

  "Don't say it."

  What? Huh?

  He rubbed the back of his neck, his smile sheepish. "I mean...shit...I think I know what you're going to say. Dammit, I should have said it a long time ago. I should have said it every day for the last two months. Shaw, I love you."

  A thousand butterfly wings flew free in her abdomen and her heart fluttered in her chest.

  "I love you too."

  Luke was grinning ear to ear as if she'd given him a terrific Christmas present. "If we weren't sitting in a public restaurant, I'd grab you and take you straight to bed."

  It was tempting. Luke and a comfortable mattress or this fancy, expensive meal. They hadn't ordered any food yet.

  "I might be persuaded."

  "Are you serious? Because I can throw down some cash for these drinks."

  "Do it."

  They could order a pizza later. Shaw would rather have fast food with this man than chateaubriand with anyone else.

  She loved him that much.

  I hope you enjoyed Lethal Allure. Don’t miss the next book in the Serials and Stalkers series – Gilded Craving. Coming soon!

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  About the Author

  Olivia Jaymes is a wife, mother, lover of sexy romance and cozy mysteries, and caffeine addict. She lives with her husband, son, and two spoiled dogs in central Florida and spends her days typing on her computer with a canine on her lap.