by Dale Mayer
She looked at him in surprise and then said, “Yeah, I’ll go get my laptop. I should have some on that.”
“You want me to come up with you?”
She stared at the stairway, and, with a flick of her hair, she said, “No. I need to do this.”
He nodded and watched, and as soon as she hit the third step, Kona was right at her side. She chuckled, leaned down a hand, and gently scratched Kona behind the ear. “You, I will take though,” and the two of them ran lightly upstairs. She went up to her bedroom, used the bathroom real quick, then washed up, snatched her laptop off the bed, and headed downstairs again. She showed him a picture of George. “This is from about three years ago now.”
Greyson memorized that face, so he would recognize George if he ever saw him.
Jessica quickly shut down the photo album on her laptop.
“Glad to see there was no problem upstairs,” he said.
“I half expected you to do a sweep of the house when we got back,” she joked.
“I set all kinds of traps,” he said, “ones that you wouldn’t have seen, but I checked the main floor and none of them had been disturbed.”
She looked at him in surprise. “What kind of traps?”
“Just things that would tell me if somebody had come into the house.”
She didn’t really want to know, but, at the same time, she did. “And there was nobody?”
“Nobody.” He walked over to the counter and started prepping the potatoes. “Do you mind if I roast them?”
“You do whatever you like,” she said with a laugh. “It’s a novelty to have anybody cook for me,” she said. “So I’m happy to eat whatever you prepare.”
He started whistling in a low tone, searching cupboards to find the pans he wanted, then filling a roasting pan full of the sausages and a mix of veggies all the way around. When he had it full, he stopped, then looked at her. “What about Danny? Will he eat any of this?”
“He’ll eat some of it, yes,” she said, “and we’ll cut up some sausages for him.”
He nodded, turned on the oven, and put the pan inside.
“How long will that take to cook?” she asked curiously. “I don’t normally roast my vegetables.”
“I love roasted vegetables,” he said. “There’s nothing quite so sweet as vegetables cooked this way. I cut the potatoes in big chunks, so they’ll need maybe an hour, since the sausages are fairly big too.”
She nodded, and, with Danny now sitting on the kitchen floor, wanting to be with them too, the little boy was happiest with Kona beside him. She helped put away the rest of the groceries and cleaned up Greyson’s food prep. As soon as that was all done, she said, “I think I’d like a cup of tea and then may go collapse on my bed again for a power nap,” she said with a half laugh.
“Will you sleep?” he asked.
She shook her head. “No, not likely.”
“Because, if you can, just let me know,” he said.
She shook her head. “I’d much rather hold off and get an early bedtime and sleep through the night.”
“Understood,” he said. He pulled out his phone, and she watched while he seemed to send a bunch of messages.
“Anybody have any updates?”
“I checked before we left,” he said, “and there was no news at all from any quarter.”
She winced at that. “God, this will go on for a long time, won’t it?” She almost whimpered.
“Well, I hope not,” he said, “but unfortunately it’s a possibility.”
She played with Danny, reading him a story, and just generally lazing about the house, enjoying the peace and quiet, knowing she was safe right now with both Kona and Greyson here, even as he worked on his phone the whole time. “Do you have to be at work somewhere?”
“No. I’m doing this Kona mission on a volunteer basis. Right now, I’m just checking in with my grandparents, letting them know where I am,” he said with a smile.
She looked surprised at that, but it added a human element she had forgotten about. He wasn’t just superhuman, superefficient, and superskilled. He was somebody who had parents and grandparents. She smiled, loving that notion. “I would ask you about that small truck you drive,” she said. “It doesn’t seem like your kind of vehicle.”
“It’s my granddad’s,” he said with a laugh. “If I don’t use it, I’ll be insulting them.”
“I understand that,” she said, “and I think it’s very sweet.”
“Well, it’s pretty necessary, and my grandmother is berating me now because I helped Grandpa get a basset hound, and apparently now the two are inseparable. She wanted him to take her shopping, but he doesn’t want to leave Leo.”
Jessica chuckled. “I can see that happening too,” she said. “I think pets are good for older people.”
“Pets are good for all people,” he said.
“So, you are only here temporarily then, right?”
He looked up at her with that piercing blue gaze and shrugged. “Nothing in my life is permanent right now, and what that means is that all options are on the table.”
“Wow,” she said, “that’s a unique way to live.”
“Not necessarily. I have military benefits, so I have money coming in,” he said. “I just haven’t figured out what I want to do on a full-time basis now.”
“Well, you’re great with the dog,” she said, “so you can do any kind of training with animals.”
“Maybe,” he said. “Sometimes I think about going into law enforcement, but just watching these guys at work reminds me why I don’t want to get involved with that.”
“I don’t think you handle authority all that well, do you?”
“Wow,” he said, looking at her in surprise. “When I was in the military, I did very well, thank you very much.”
She chuckled. “That’s not what I mean. What I really meant was that you don’t suffer fools gladly. You don’t, do you?”
“No, that I do not,” he said, his smile widening. He got up to check the food in the oven. “Dinner’s almost ready,” he said, “maybe another fifteen or twenty minutes.”
“Sounds good,” she said. “I didn’t think I’d be hungry, but it smells delicious.” She got up to set the table, and, before long, they were eating. “It seems like all I’ve done is eat today,” she remarked, after finishing a plateful.
“When we’re tired and stressed, sometimes we need extra just to keep going.”
“So says you,” she said. “I’m just eating extra because it tastes so good.”
He burst out laughing. “And nothing is wrong with that either.” He reached out and snagged another sausage and put it on his plate. As he went to grab a few more vegetables, the lights in the dining room went out. She gasped and stared at him. He looked around slowly. “It’s not just the dining room light,” he said in a hard voice. “All the power’s out.”
“Just my house though, right?”
As she went to get up, he said, “Stay seated. Don’t move.” He got up and walked over to the kitchen, then checked out the window and nodded. “Just your house.”
“And that means what?” she asked, her voice turning faint.
“It means we’ve got company,” he said. “I want you to take Danny and Kona up to your room. Now.”
Immediately she snatched up Danny, and Kona, already knowing something was wrong, was right on her heels. Jessica went up the stairs to her bedroom, then sat on her bed, clutching Danny, completely terrorized, but knew that, with Kona and Greyson, they were in the best position possible to survive this. She just hoped it was enough.
“Only a couple reasons why the power would be out,” he muttered to himself. “One is an accident, but then it should be more than just this house.” As far as he could see, the outage was isolated here.
That meant somebody had interrupted the service to the main part of the house. Which would be foolish because there was no need for it, and it just alerted everyone that the guy had returned. And, if the ki
dnapper was back and didn’t know Greyson was here, the guy would find out now.
Greyson pulled out his pocketknife from his back pocket and shifted it to his front pocket, where it was a little more accessible. And then, with the rope in his hand that he’d used for Kona earlier, he slowly moved through the downstairs, looking out each of the windows to see who and what might be moving outside. But, of course, nobody was moving. It was quiet as a mouse out there.
But somebody had done this.
He quickly sent out a message to Badger and then to the cops that Greyson was checking the grounds for an intruder. He didn’t think anybody at the police station would care because it wouldn’t be enough of an issue yet. But he didn’t want to see this go down with nobody knowing they had a problem.
Badger immediately called. “Watch your back.”
“Already in progress,” he said, “just not terribly comfortable right now.”
“Did you contact the police?”
“I did,” he said. “Not sure they give a shit though. I’m pretty sure they think we are nothing but problems.”
“I’ll contact them,” Badger said. “Keep that little boy safe.”
“I plan to keep all of us safe,” he said, “and, if Kona wants a fresh leg bone to chew on, I’m okay with that too.” And he meant it. He’d about had enough of this asshole tormenting Jessica and Danny. He hung up with Badger and crept upstairs to tell Jessica. “Stay here with Kona and Danny. I’m gonna sneak out and do a sweep of the property. Be right back.”
“How soon?” Jessica asked, the fear evident in her gaze and her tone.
“Give me fifteen minutes.” He nodded, patting her shoulder. “I’ll be back.”
Jessica did as instructed and waited. What a long time fifteen minutes became in this situation. Finally, just as the lights turned back on, Greyson texted to say he was at the French doors. She slipped downstairs let him in. “Nothing?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. I also checked the utility pole and your outside meter. The meter had been turned off. I flipped a switch, so obviously you have power again.”
“But you didn’t see Frank or evidence that he had been here?”
“No.”
“You should have taken Kona with you,” Jessica said, yet the fear remained in her gaze.
“Not leaving you and Danny without a guard.”
“So what do we do now?”
“We wait for him to return.”
Greyson figured Frank had doused the lights to confirm where Greyson was. So now Frank was well aware that Greyson was in the house. And Frank should know that meant Kona was here as well. So Greyson expected a full assault the next time Frank appeared. Greyson had been on the couch for hours after dinner but didn’t dare sleep. Frank was hanging around outside, waiting for just that scenario to take advantage of.
Then Greyson heard it.
The snap of a twig.
He waited for the second sound of Frank’s approach before Greyson sent off two texts, one to the local cops and one to Badger. Again.
He pocketed his phone and headed toward the noise on the other side of the house. At the top of the stairs, Kona was at the ready, the hair on her back and neck all ruffled up. She stared at him, waiting for him to give the command. He held his finger to his lips and said, “Quiet.”
He did a sweep through the first floor of the house, and, as he reached the glass doors at the rear of the house, he looked out and saw a shadow moving across the backyard. He watched as the shadow faded into the greenery along the left side.
Even as he watched it, he could see the movement of the trees as the person edged closer to the house. He shook his head at that. “That’s just stupid. And that mistake will be his undoing.” Just as the guy reached the spot where no trees were up against the house for several feet, Greyson slipped over to the laundry room door, where he expected the intruder to make an entrance. As he watched, the knob turn under the intruder’s hand, yet Greyson had locked this door earlier. He stepped up and behind the door. Somehow this guy had managed to unlock it from the other side. Frowning, he waited. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched something dark and low approach. It was Kona. He immediately held up a hand, giving her a hand signal, telling her to wait.
And that’s just what they did. They waited.
Chapter 13
Jessica jerked awake. She hadn’t meant to nod off, but, after Danny had gone to sleep, she’d had a hard time staying awake.
From the “wrong” empty feel to the house, she listened intently. Danny was still curled up in front of her. She reached an arm around him and held him close; she dropped a tender kiss on his forehead and whispered, “It’ll be fine sweetheart, just fine.” At least she hoped so.
Just then she heard the softness of a growl. Instantly the alarms in her head went off. She sat up in bed and slipped her legs over the side and stood. She walked over to the window and looked out, keeping behind the blinds. She couldn’t see anything, but she guessed it was well after midnight. A quick glance at her bedside table confirmed it was 2:35 a.m.
She walked out of her bedroom, keeping Danny in view. And there at the top of the stairs she could see Kona, the ruff of her neck up and full. The dog was tense and waiting. Jessica peered around the corner to see Greyson. He looked up and held a finger to his lips. “Quiet.”
She immediately nodded. He pointed outside, and she realized they had a visitor. Another one.
Terrified, she headed back to Danny, wondering if she should pick him up and hide with him in the closet. She didn’t want to wake him. A sleeping Danny was one thing, but a cranky awake Danny could be a whole different story. But she needed to keep him safe, and how the hell was she supposed to do that?
Of course she had two watchdogs at the moment—Kona and Greyson. And she had to smile at that. Something was just so wonderful about knowing that others were looking out for her. She had felt so alone for so long, and she hadn’t even realized it until Greyson came into her life. She hadn’t even known him more than a few days, but he had changed her perspective completely.
She shook her head at that because, inside, it felt like she’d known him forever. He was a born protector, one of those guys you could count on in a pinch, as he had proven over and over again. Something she hadn’t had a chance to ever see in her ex-husband. That brought her back around to who was doing this. It made no sense that George had paid Frank to do all this.
Tensely she waited to see if anything happened downstairs. Unable to help herself, she got up and went from window to window, looking out, but she couldn’t see anything. When Kona padded back into the bedroom and laid down at the foot of the bed, she realized that whatever danger had alerted her had now passed. She walked over to Kona, bent down, and gently stroked the back of her head. When she rolled over, Jessica gave her a really good belly rub too.
Hearing footsteps, she froze, but Kona was completely unconcerned, so when Greyson appeared at the top of the stairs, he took one look at Kona and smiled.
“Who was out there?” she whispered.
“A man,” he said, his voice hard. “Probably Frank. I saw him coming down from the trees toward the house. It looked like he was coming inside but then he disappeared. Something scared him off.”
“Or he’s out there waiting.”
He nodded. “That’s very possible, but things feel completely different now. And look at Kona.”
“Like he’s gone?”
“Gone at least for the moment anyway. It’s possible he caught sight of one of us,” he said. “Were you at the window?”
She looked over at the window and then nodded, wincing. “Yes. I was trying to see what was outside.”
“That might have been enough to chase him away.”
Her shoulders sagged at the thought. “Can we set a trap for him or something? Somehow get him for good this time?”
“That’s the hope,” he said. He had his phone out and was busy sending messages.
&n
bsp; “Who are you contacting now?” she asked.
“Badger and the detective here.”
“Does the detective even care?” she asked with a note of bitterness in her tone, as she sat gingerly on the bed again, trying not to wake Danny. “It’s not like we even had cops doing a drive by or anything here, even after all that’s happened in the last forty-eight hours.”
“Wouldn’t have helped if they had,” he said. “Think about it. This guy would have just timed it so he came when the cops left. Then he’d know he’d have at least an hour before they came back again.”
She nodded slowly. “I guess the only way to really stop him is to have somebody inside the house waiting for him, isn’t it?”
He looked up briefly, then smiled and said, “That’s exactly what I’m doing.”
“I was hoping to keep it away from Danny,” she said, looking back at the sleeping boy on her bed.
“The other option,” he said, “is to remove you from this place without this guy knowing, and then have a setup inside to trap him.”
“I like that idea,” she said, “but I don’t know where I’d go. And, if it didn’t work, he’d already know that we were waiting for him.”
“He knows that already,” he said. “He didn’t try to hide his tracks outside either,” he said, “so I was thinking originally he didn’t have much in the way of skills,” he said, “but now I think that was wrong. I think he didn’t care. I think he knew that we were here, and, if we knew he was there, he just upped the ante of the game.”
“What game?” she said, bewildered. “How can anybody play games with my life like that, or the life of my son?”
“So that brings us back to who’s doing this,” he said. “Was there anybody else in your life in the last couple years, since you separated from George?”
She stared at him in surprise. “You mean, relationship-wise?”
“Yes. Or even somebody who was a close friend but might have wanted to be more.”
“Oh,” she said, deep in thought.
“What is it?”
Hesitating, she finally spoke. “My brother-in-law,” she said slowly. “He was a big help in getting me away from my ex-husband.”