by Rachel Lee
“Sophie? Hell, yeah. And I was halfway around the world. I didn’t hear about it until it was over. Why?”
Kylie spoke. “I remember even though Connie is older and I wasn’t in her circle then. My God, I was still in high school, and I was petrified. Deputies everywhere, being warned not to walk alone...and then Sophie vanished. Thank God Ethan was able to track her.”
Coop looked at Glenda again. “Why did you bring that up? Did something happen?”
Glenda hesitated. “Well...the deputies are working overtime because a stranger has been hanging around near the school and he spoke to one of the girls. After what happened to Sophie, do you think Connie is in the best of moods? I think she’s wound up tighter than her kids. It’s not you, Coop.”
He drummed his fingers briefly on the tabletop. “I read you. I guess I didn’t pick the best time to visit.”
Kylie felt sympathy for him. “Like you got to pick your time? I’m sure this wasn’t on anyone’s calendar. Glenda? Is this a big deal?”
“Not yet. They’re kind of keeping a watch on it. The guy could just be passing through and there hasn’t been another incident in three days. But—” she shrugged “—nobody wants to take the chance.”
“And the threat would really hit Connie hard,” Coop offered. “No wonder she’s acting like her plate is too full. I’m just adding to it.”
“Well,” Glenda replied, “spend as much time here as you want. Kylie doesn’t mind.” She eyed her sister.
“I don’t mind at all. Coop’s been helping me sleep.”
The smile he gave her then lit the room. “I’m so glad,” he said quietly. “So very glad.”
He offered to stir-fry under Glenda’s watchful eye, and an hour later they were sitting down to a wonderful meal that exploded with the flavors of ginger and soy sauce.
Conversation hovered around the edges of Glenda’s job, a safe topic, but after they’d finished the dishes, Coop asked a question that almost left Kylie gasping for air.
“Wanna try a stroll with me after dark?”
The formless, shapeless nightmare of terror about things she couldn’t remember slammed in on her then. The room went nearly dark, and as her vision gradually returned she realized she had two very concerned people hovering over her. Glenda kept calling her name. Coop cussed quietly.
“That was dumb,” he said to no one in particular.
But as the world began to settle, as her heart started to slow down and she caught her breath again, she looked straight into the heart of the darkness that stalked her. Was she ever going to face it or was she going to cower forever?
Coop squatted beside her. “I’m sorry,” he said, touching her forearm. His fingertips on her skin almost felt like an electric shock that raced to her core. “Too soon. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
She managed to meet his gaze. “You’ve been here.”
He nodded slowly. “I’m still there at times.”
“But you take walks.”
“It’s the only way I know to beat it down. But maybe it’s not the right way for you.”
She drew a long shaky breath. Glenda immediately started to say, “She’s not ready—”
“No,” Kylie interrupted. “I want to try. My God, Glenda, I’ve got to keep trying or you might as well put me in a rubber room for the rest of my days. I won’t be alone.” She turned to Coop again. “If it becomes too much...?”
“I’ll bring you right back. Promise.”
She hesitated a little while, drew a deep breath and gathered herself, clinging to every shred of courage she could find. “I want to try.”
*
Todd had parked just down the street and was astonished to see Kylie come out of the house on Coop’s arm. Man, that guy moved fast.
Kylie wore a light jacket; Coop seemed content with a fleece shirt. Her arm through Coop’s bothered Todd more than anything. And now he’d have to wait until they came back to find out what was going on. After a moment, he decided to follow them at a distance. Maybe this was nothing. Maybe Coop was poaching.
Because for some reason it felt to Todd that he had far more right to Kylie than some guy just passing through town.
But then Kylie had broken it off with him years ago. They’d been just casual friends since. Poaching? He tried to tell himself he was being ridiculous, but the anger wouldn’t subside.
He climbed out of his car and followed. It was as if a cord linked him and Kylie, a cord he could cut only one way.
*
Glenda had clearly been nervous about this walk, but she hadn’t protested. With her arm through Coop’s, tight to his side, Kylie felt his strength like a huge wall around her. He could keep her safe from almost anything, she thought.
“I hadn’t realized how much I missed being out in the dark,” she said.
“Not making you too nervous?”
“A little, but not as bad as I feared.”
He tightened his arm, bringing her more firmly against his side. “Good.”
She took another few steps, then asked, “What’s it like for you?”
“Being out walking in the dark, you mean?” He paused, evidently giving it some thought. “In my job, light conditions are extremely important. Nighttime provides cover, both for me and for the enemy. So I’m cautious about it. But I still like it. That’s why I take so many walks. I guess it’s a kind of immersion therapy. The more I do it, the less nervous I get about it.”
She thought that over, and decided it might be the only way she could handle all these pointless fears. The breeze rustled the spring leaves gently, like the whispering voices of nature. The air smelled fresh and alive. To miss this for the rest of her days? No way.
But they’d barely rounded the second block when she froze in place, her skin crawling.
“Too much?” Coop asked immediately.
She didn’t want to sound crazy but blurted it out, anyway. “Do you ever feel like someone is staring at you?”
“How so?” He faced her now, his face in shadow despite the streetlights.
“I don’t know. It’s just... I keep feeling watched. I thought it was just my nerves, but now I’m not sure. That’s crazy, right? We’re in town. Anyone could be watching.”
She was right about that, but he silenced his other thoughts, nearly every one of them a screen to keep away the memories that so often haunted them, and opened his senses in a way he tried to avoid when he was home. Living on constant alert only made him dangerous to innocent people.
He felt it. Eyes were on them. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t felt it immediately. Turning his head slowly, as if glancing around casually, he tried to see another soul. The street appeared empty. No one stood at any of the lighted windows he could see.
Imagination? Combat experience had taught him never to ignore the feeling. But he wasn’t in combat and he had a woman to reassure.
“I don’t see anyone.”
“I’m probably imagining it, then.”
But he didn’t want her to dismiss such feelings. That could be dangerous, too, even if he didn’t believe her to be facing any real threat right now.
“I never ignore that feeling,” he admitted.
“Are you having it?”
“Just a bit,” he said honestly. “Let’s keep walking and see what happens. It’s probably just someone else out for a walk.”
But her arm tightened around his and he was sure she didn’t quite believe it. Years of experience had taught him not to quite believe it, either, but he kept reminding himself with each step that they were in Conard City, a safe little town, a place where threats didn’t stalk every shadow and corner, unlike too many places he’d been.
She’d brought it back, he realized. All the buried things, all the instincts that had no place here. She felt watched, and as soon as she said it he had wanted to kick himself because he’d been ignoring the same feeling on purpose, telling himself it was nothing to worry about.
But w
hat if it was? That was the devil in the instincts he had learned the hard way. You couldn’t just put them on a shelf and ignore them because you thought you were safe. Safety was never guaranteed, and he knew it.
But he didn’t want Kylie to feel that way. He gathered from his cousin and Glenda that people here spent most of their lives feeling perfectly safe. Kylie hadn’t lived his kind of life, and he wanted her to rediscover the security that was her birthright here.
He just wished he knew how to help it along. He wouldn’t be here forever. He couldn’t watch her every night as she slept, couldn’t take every stroll with her. At some point she would have to be able to retake her life, as if it were a fortress in the hands of invaders.
Already he was regretting his impending departure. Kylie appealed to him in ways few women had. Maybe that was because she shared some of the same feelings he lived with. She understood, sad to say. But she was also an appealing woman, and he seldom looked at her without feeling the stirrings of sexual response.
He was also quite certain that she wasn’t ready for that kind of attention from a man. Her trauma was too recent, and it made him feel special that she had come to trust him so much so quickly. He didn’t want to risk damaging that.
So they kept walking, he with his eyes and ears on high alert, and the feeling of being watched remained with him. There was something wrong.
He knew it in his bones. Casual surveillance should have come and gone, possibly to return as someone else saw them. This didn’t go away. It might just be someone strolling somewhere behind them, but when he glanced over his shoulder he saw no one.
Covert surveillance. A curse word rose silently in his mind. They were being stalked. He had no proof, no good reason to mention it to anyone, but he knew it with honed instincts.
Now who the hell would be following them?
In that moment he knew in his heart that Kylie wasn’t safe yet and that he had a mission.
“I think I’m going to extend my leave,” he remarked casually as they rounded the last corner that would take them back to the house.
“Why? Can you do that?”
“Yeah, I’ve got more time. As for why?” He looked down at her as they passed under a streetlight and summoned a smile. “I’d like time to get to know you better. A whole lot better.”
The smile she gave him then lifted his heart, even though his spirit darkened with worry.
*
When they entered the house, they found that Connie Parish had dropped in. Connie still wore her full deputy’s uniform, except for her hat, and her blond hair was caught up in a ponytail. She was seated at the kitchen table with Glenda. Coop bent and dropped a kiss on her cheek. “Something wrong?” he asked.
“First,” she said, “I want to give Kylie a hug, if that’s okay with her.”
It was okay. She’d known Connie forever, and they had been part of the same group of friends until she left for Denver. The hug felt good, and then the four of them gathered at the table.
“So what’s up?” Coop asked. “Escaping the hellions? Sorry I unleashed them.”
Connie waved her hand. “It doesn’t take much to excite the younger two. No, I’m going back on duty in twenty minutes. I just wanted to check on Kylie and ask you if you’d walk the kids to school in the morning, Coop. Ethan has to be out at his dad’s place early. Some late lambs will be here soon.”
Coop nodded. “Sure. Glad to do it, Cuz.”
“I thought you would.”
Glenda leaned forward a little. “Still worrying about that stranger?”
Connie nodded, compressing her lips. “There hasn’t been another contact in this case, but after Sophie...” She shook her head. “I was lucky. It was my ex who took her, criminal though he was, but we found her and she wasn’t hurt. But I’ve never been able to quite escape the fear that it could happen again, and not just to one of my children. And then we did have that serial killer a couple of years ago, although he went after young boys, not girls. Anyway, I probably won’t get past this for a few weeks. To be safe, we’re pulling double shifts in case.”
Kylie spoke, admitting to another gap in her memory, difficult as it was. “When did Ethan stop being a deputy?”
Connie smiled gently at her. “Two years ago. Micah started needing a whole lot more help at the ranch. As he’s getting older, balancing his work as a deputy with the sheep is becoming more difficult. And Ethan likes the work. I think he’s happier looking after sheep and horses than he was as a deputy.”
“And Micah’s other kids?”
“All grown up. The twin boys work on the ranch, too. The girls had bigger ideas. They’re in college.”
Kylie was grateful to Connie for filling in the blanks so easily, as if she were talking to a stranger. No expression of surprise that Kylie didn’t remember, just simple acceptance. Something deep within her relaxed a bit, let go of some of the tension that never left her. Then she asked a question to which she needed an answer.
“Connie? Are you still afraid a lot?”
Connie tilted her head, smiling faintly. “Not like I used to be. It’s not constant, it’s not every day. Most of the time I don’t think about it anymore, but every so often... I’ve got two little ones again, Kylie. So yeah, it hits me every so often, and this incident is so similar to how it started with Sophie that I’m scared to death. I don’t want my kids to be alone at all. Ethan and I have a schedule pretty much worked out, but tomorrow...”
“You can count on me,” Coop said. “As much as you want or need. Maybe Kylie can help me take the kids to school tomorrow.”
He eyed her and Kylie knew he was remembering her fear when they’d walked just a little while ago. Did he really think this would help? But it would be broad daylight and she wouldn’t be alone, and she wanted to see Connie’s kids again. Three years were missing, and those children must have grown up a whole lot during that time. “I’d like to help,” she said, sounding braver than she felt.
Connie’s smile widened. “Thanks. I’m sure none of this is easy for you. I hate the way life can teach us to be afraid.”
Good way of putting it, Kylie thought. Lessons of life.
*
When Connie left, Coop excused himself to walk her to her car.
“Okay,” Connie said as they reached the driver’s side of her official vehicle, “what’s working on you? I can feel it, Coop.”
He kept his voice low, so it wouldn’t carry. “I took Kylie for a walk. Glenda probably told you.”
“Yeah. I gather Kylie is pretty scared most of the time.”
“She’s afraid to be alone, understandably.”
“Very understandably.” Connie leaned back against her car door. “And?”
“She felt she was being watched. Which wouldn’t worry me except that I started to feel as if we were being stalked. Not casual glances. Stalking.”
Connie hesitated, chewing her lower lip. “You’re sure it’s not...”
“It’s not PTSD,” he said flatly. “I self-checked. Now, you can brush it off, but someone was following us.”
“You didn’t see anyone?”
“Not a soul, which makes me even more uneasy.”
“Hell.” Connie tipped her head back and stared up at the night overhead. “There’s no reason to think...” Then she shook her head. “And no reason not to think. She didn’t die. The bad guy might be unhappy about that.”
“Exactly.” Coop folded his arms and looked down, testing everything inside himself. “It’s not much to go on. I get it. But I can’t afford to ignore it.”
“Absolutely not. Okay, let’s make sure she’s never alone. And I’ll mention it quietly to the sheriff. I’m not sure what we can do with all this uproar about the stranger, but we’ll try to think of something.”
Suddenly she reached out and laid her hand on his arm. “Some vacation, huh?”
He laughed quietly and shook his head. “We do what we must.”
She turned and op
ened the door of her car. “Call if anything grabs your attention. See you in the morning at seven, okay?”
“You got it.”
He closed the door for her and watched her drive away. A stalker? He wanted to dismiss it, to tell himself he was overreacting because of past experience, but he couldn’t do it.
Somebody had tried to kill Kylie once. That sure as hell didn’t mean they wouldn’t try it again.
He stood outside awhile longer, feeling as if the weight of his field equipment were settling onto his shoulders, familiar with its weight, straps, pockets and tools. He had the worst wish that it was really there with him.
Then he felt the prickle again. This time he didn’t bother to look around.
“Stare you, SOB,” he muttered. “Stare all you want. Because if you try anything, you’re biting off more than you can chew.”
*
Todd wished he could have heard that conversation, but since Connie and Coop were cousins it had probably been about her kids. Then he picked up the bouquet from the back of his car, and once Coop disappeared inside, he headed for the door.
He’d been too abrupt in his visit when Kylie got home. Time to make amends. Time to make her feel he wasn’t a threat.
But after only five steps, he stopped. Something was wrong. He could feel it.
Not tonight, he decided. He’d pay his visit tomorrow, in the daylight when it wouldn’t seem as unusual, an easy-to-explain drop-in and an apology for turning up so unexpectedly the night she arrived home. He looked at the bouquet in his hand and decided it would survive overnight.
Yeah, tomorrow, under better circumstances, he’d work on persuading her he was just a friend, not a threat.
Because he wasn’t. Yet.
*
When Coop returned inside, he found Kylie and Glenda had moved to the living room. When Glenda beckoned him with a nod of her head, he joined them, taking the remaining end of the couch.
“That was a nice visit from Connie,” Kylie remarked. “I’m glad I’ll see the kids in the morning. With three years missing...I can’t imagine how they’ve changed.”
“They change fast at that age,” Glenda agreed. “But you’ll still recognize them. Taller, mouthier and looking like clones of their mom and dad.”