by Taylor Hart
“This isn’t about the money,” he said roughly.
She felt like crying, but she bit down on her lip.
“What happened?”
There it was, the source of all the questions she’d gone over in her mind a hundred times and hadn’t been able to answer. She shook her head, unable to answer without breaking down. “My parents died in a car wreck when I was seventeen. I went and lived in North Carolina with my aunt. I went to college at North Carolina State and met Hal. Got married my third year in and never finished. We moved to his hometown in Georgia. I became the perfect wife. But things weren’t perfect.” Shadows of the past darkened her memory. “After the first year, I asked for a divorce and I got it, but he never meant it. My aunt passed that year too, and I was alone.”
Frank clenched his hand into a fist and shook his head.
“He only gave me the divorce on the condition I would keep silent about the abuse.” Her shoulders jerked in an attempt at a shrug. “He was an attorney and his parents were ultra rich; they made me sign a contract. So I went back to school and finished my nursing degree and thought I could have a normal life. But he’s never left me alone.”
“What does that mean?”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “At first I would feel people watching me, I would hear people behind me. Then, the notes would come. Unmarked envelopes to the house with stupid stuff. ‘I saw you.’ But then it was like I would see him, Hal, randomly. In restaurants, in the store. He would act like it was a coincidence, but he lived a town over. Then my aunt passed away, and … I just started to feel like I was going crazy. She always believed me, but after that it was like there was no one.” She sighed. “It finally calmed down, but when the anniversary of our divorce came, a dead animal showed up on my porch. Our dog.” Tears stung her eyes as she thought of poor Max. “He killed our dog to prove to me that he had something of mine he could take away. He … he’s sick.”
Frank handed her a napkin from the glove compartment, and she used it to clean up her face a bit.
“I went to the cops, but he denied it, even told the cops the dog lived with me.” She hesitated, wondering if she really had gone crazy. “This past year it seems to ebb and flow, but I started running into him again. I was on a date a month ago with a doctor who works with me, and there he was, just staring at me across the restaurant. And when I went to the bathroom, he followed me and told me I would never be rid of him. The other day I got another note that said, ‘If you liked your present last year, you’re really going to enjoy your present this year.’ When I went to the cops, I had nothing for them except these notes. They don’t believe me, like I’m just wanting attention.” She saw her hand start to shake. “The anniversary of the divorce is only five days away and I’m scared of what he’ll do.”
Frank absorbed all of this. Letting out a long breath, he said, “Well, we’ll figure it out together.”
She didn’t know if she wanted to tell him this, but the words tumbled out. “I called you because I had a dream, too. Katie told me to come to you. She said you would help me find the help I needed.”
Frank’s expression was unreadable. After a moment’s hesitation, he flung open the door. “Go ahead and stay in your old room tonight. I’ll grill something up for dinner.”
Ava got to her “old room” and was mystified at how it looked the same as ten years ago. It had an American theme to it with a flag on the wall and a red, white, and blue bedspread with several animals.
Ava knew Katie’s mom had decorated this whole house. It was beautiful. Even if the décor was older, it had held up. Ava remembered when her mom had passed. They’d been fourteen and the cancer had gotten her. Katie’s father had stopped doing the summer camp, but he’d allowed Ava to come and be with Katie in the summer.
Going into the Jack and Jill bathroom that the room had shared with Katie’s, she almost opened Katie’s door, wondering if it was the same, but she hesitated. Of course it would be the same.
Sometime later, after taking a shower, getting into clean, fresh clothes, and running a brush through her hair, she stared at herself in the foggy mirror. “What am I doing here, Katie?”
Chapter 3
After going to his house, Nick unpacked his bag and checked in at work, noting he started his round of shifts the next day. It’d be good for him, get back in the thick of it.
At least, he hoped it would.
Part of the reason he’d decided to go on “vacation” was he needed space from the job. The undercover part of the operation had involved befriending a man who the cops were convinced was trafficking women and children through the greater Salt Lake area. The guy had a home in Park City he’d just bought and wanted “construction” on. Nick had been called in to play the part of foreman.
Honestly, he hadn’t really believed the guy could be doing what they suspected, until they caught him. The faces of the teenage girls from various parts of the world still tormented his mind: starved, hollow, sad. The unspeakable things he’d found out the guy had been doing to them still haunted him … He shuddered and pushed the thoughts out of his head. Nick had almost gotten himself killed getting the girls out. It’d been dicey and had taken a bigger toll on him than any case in his ten-year career.
Walking around the house he’d bought only six months ago, he made a list of all the things he needed to continue fixing. Annoyed, he ran his hand along the walls Luke had had the crew fix, noting the quality of the work. True to Luke’s word, he had only fixed a couple of weak spots, but it still bothered Nick.
His brothers had known the last case had gotten to him, and they’d let him have space. But this was Luke’s way of helping. Coddling. Nick didn’t appreciate it. He didn’t want his brothers to think he needed coddling.
Now, standing on his back porch, staring at the property that spanned as far as he could see, he thought of the girl again and remembered the hollowness in her eyes that he’d seen in those victims. Unlike those victims, she had Frank, which made him feel better.
Refocusing, he scanned his property. The piece of land he’d bought had lush, green grass. It had once been a ranch, complete with a worn-out barn in the back where he planned on having animals one day. He loved living out in the country, working to fix up this house, building things with his two hands. His other brother, Damon, had bought property a couple miles down the hill and would start on his house soon.
Now, he just needed to get Luke and Savannah out here. Luke swore he wouldn’t leave his view of Park City, but Savannah had told Nick he might change his mind.
Nick could picture it now: all of them living out here, their kids riding motorcycles or four-wheelers or horses between properties. Lots of kids, lots of family barbecues. Lots of …
But he didn’t have that. A family. A wife. The dull thud of it hit him like a ton of bricks weighing on his chest. Maybe that was another reason he’d gotten away.
Luke and Savannah had married quickly, only having a private ceremony in Luke’s backyard with close family and friends, and now they had Lincoln. Nick warmed, thinking of the sweet boy. His recovery from cancer had been complete and now he toddled around like any two-year-old. Although Nick got a lot of pleasure in seeing his brother so happy and his heart ached for the same.
He flung open the fridge door, knowing there wouldn’t be anything there. Picking up the milk, he smelled it, then gagged and dumped it down the sink, going instead for a protein bar and a bottle of water.
He turned again and stared off his porch, thinking about the woman from earlier. About the way she’d felt pressed against him. How she’d clung to him. The smell of her.
It’d never been his style to have a one-night kind of a thing, or anything fast with women. No, he’d only had one girlfriend since high school, and she’d left him before he’d started working with his brothers on renovating properties. Truthfully, the lack of love life didn’t really bother him much … until he had a kiss like he’d had today. Whew.
The woman’s face flashed into his mind again, so he did what he had to do: he headed to the Kantrell ranch to figure out who the girl was and what was going on.
When Nick pulled up to the Triple K Ranch, he turned off his car, but hesitated. Frank wasn’t a guy you messed with. Growing up, Nick had run-ins with the Sheriff that finally led to a couple weeks in juvie and a job on the Sheriff’s ranch. Even retired, the man could look at you and make you feel two inches tall.
Nick had worked three summers for Sheriff Kantrell, helping with ranch chores, helping bale hay. The sheriff had a crew of guys who worked with the horses and managed the camp he put on. Of course, when his daughter passed, he’d stopped the camps, but there had still been plenty of work to do around the ranch for Nick.
Frank had lost a bit of his vigor. In fact, if Nick remembered right, it was within five years after his daughter passed and his wife had died of cancer that he’d retired, taking a chance to become one of the best criminal consultants for high-profile cases.
Nick had grown closer to him during the past year when he’d bought property next to him. Frank would stop by and they’d fall into easy cop talk, or Frank would share stories about one of the cases he was working on.
Before Nick could get out, he saw Frank on his large deck at the back of the house . Smoke billowed from the grill next to him. He waved the spatula at him, signaling him to come over.
Nick got out of the car and realized he was nervous, which was stupid. He deserved to know what was going on, after all. The woman had kissed him, obviously hiding from someone, then gotten into Frank’s truck. It was suspicious to say the least.
When he approached the deck, Frank dropped the lid on the grill and turned to him. “Nick, I’m glad you’re here.”
“You are?” He climbed up the steps and onto the spacious deck, which held a table and chairs that overlooked the yard.
Frank was a big man, maybe even a bit taller than Nick, plus he always wore the cowboy hat and looked like he could eat nails for breakfast. “I knew you’d come when I saw you today at the gas station. It seems we’ve got a situation.”
Nick paused, sizing him up. His eyes were raw and bloodshot, and he looked tired. “We do?”
“You know as well as I do that there are no coincidences in life. I knew this girl when you all were young. She would come and stay summers at the camp and she and Katie were pretty close. She was there when Katie … when it all happened.”
Nick didn’t know what to say. Honestly, he didn’t even know if he was glad he had come over just to find himself in the middle of something. “Who is she?”
Frank frowned. “Her name is Ava Livingston. She’s running from a stalker ex-husband. She reached out to me a couple of days ago, asked if she could stay the night and if I could give her some money.”
Nick’s nervous mood turned darker. The worst part of his job was when he saw a husband mistreat his wife; it always felt personal to Nick. But his police mind took over. “How long?”
“She said she was married to him a year, and now she’s been divorced almost two. Apparently, he shows up where she is, leaves notes, and harasses her. Last year, on the anniversary of their marriage, he left their dead dog on her porch. A couple of days ago he told her he had another surprise for her. She’s afraid. It’s five days from that anniversary and he’s been acting up. She’s ready to go live in California, join a hippie commune, and go off the grid.”
“O-kay.” Nick hadn’t really thought they still existed.
“I think I told you a couple of weeks ago I’ve been working on that case, the one with the terrorists? It’s come time to testify and I have to go to Washington tomorrow for a couple of days and be part of the hearings. It’s all confidential.” He sighed. “The girl’s in trouble, and I need someone I can trust to help her.”
Nick didn’t want to commit to anything. “Me?”
“Well, you were the one kissing her when I showed up, correct?” He said it like a cop.
“She kissed me. I had a gut feeling she needed help. She acted like she was hiding from those two guys in the black car. And after you left,” he said as if reporting the scene of a crime to his captain, “they were looking for her. Plates were from Georgia.”
Frank paled, then gritted his teeth. “Hmm.” He pulled three steaks off of the grill. “Ya hungry?”
The smell made him salivate. “Yeah.”
Frank shoved the plate of steaks at him. “You’ll stay, then. I have a salad and she’s getting out of the shower now. We’ll figure this out.”
“What are we figuring out?”
“How to keep this girl protected, dummy. It’s five days until her divorce anniversary. That’s what she’s most worried about. I told you he’s threatened her.”
“And what do I have to do with it?”
The Sheriff grunted and pointed the spatula at him. “Since you’re already playing loverboy, you’re going to be her undercover fiancé, I reckon.”
“What?”
Sheriff Kantrell ignored him and went into the house.
Heart pounding, Nick put the steaks down on the table, then stared out at the view of Frank’s property. There was a nervous feeling in his gut, the kind he got when he started a new case.
He couldn’t stop thinking of the girl—the way she smelled, the way she’d kissed him. Maybe it had just been desperation, but he could have sworn he’d felt something. Which was ridiculous, because if she was in trouble, this wasn’t the time for that.
Shaking his head to try to clear it, he sucked in a breath. Thoughts of his last case exploded into his mind. Was this really a good time for him to get involved in something like this? Whether he did or not, he had the feeling that nothing good was about to happen.
Chapter 4
Ava scrunched her wet hair with her hand and ventured through the house toward the kitchen. It was an open layout. Beyond the front room was a large driveway and the big trees that huddled over it protectively. She turned toward the kitchen and could smell something wonderful on the smoking grill.
Memories rushed over her from all the summers she’d spent here with Katie. By the third summer she no longer stayed out in the “camper cabins,” but in the main house. Frank had told her they had enough rooms for her to have her own since she was like family.
She thought of spending so many summer nights sleeping on the trampoline in the backyard or out in sleeping bags with the rest of the campers. She thought of the horse rides, of the fun when they would see each other and tell each other for hours about their lives. She thought of the kinship she’d felt with Katie.
A picture on the mantel caught her eye. It’d been taken when the two of them were fourteen, before Katie’s mom had passed and before Katie had died. It had all of them, the whole family. She and Katie had made silly faces. Frank and his wife were smiling.
She heard Frank clear his throat and swiveled around, shocked back into the now. If he’d seen her examining the picture, he didn’t comment on it. “Dinner’s ready.”
Following Frank, she noticed again how much older he looked. Yes, he was still the rustic cowboy, down to the boots, but he seemed less steady than he used to be.
Frank had just gotten to the screen door. The grill was still smoking and the smell of meat was in the air. She passed through the kitchen, then saw him and froze. He wasn’t facing her, instead sitting in a chair and looking out over the yard, but he still wore the same clothes.
She marched through the door and met his eyes. Melted chocolate was what they reminded her of, the kind you dip strawberries in at a wedding or party. Dark brown hair and a tanned face. Broad shoulders. Her mind flashed to when she’d grabbed him for a kiss, and butterflies thrummed through the pit of her stomach.
The guy stared up at her and a smile played at his lips, like he was remembering a private joke. “Hey.”
Frank sat at the head of the table, then motioned for her to sit on the opposite side of Nick, facing him. “Take a seat
, let’s say grace.”
She did so, but averted her eyes to her plate and wished she could stop the questions from swirling in her mind. Did Frank know him? Did he follow them? He hadn’t seemed like a threat at the gas station. She wouldn’t have kissed him if she would have thought he was hired by Hal.
No, no, no. She tried to focus on the prayer.
“We thank thee for this food. We thank thee for bringing Ava back to the Triple K, and we thank thee for Nick being here to help out. Amen.”
Nick, she assumed, did a grand “Amen.” He stared at her, making her stomach twist.
Frank had already hacked away a bite of steak and was noisily chewing it. “Get some food in you and I’ll introduce the two of you.”
Nick held her eyes for another moment before picking up his utensils and cutting into his steak, but the compassion lingered. It was strange to her, to sense that in a man’s eyes. Or maybe it was because she hadn’t really evaluated a man’s eyes since Hal, whose eyes never had anything but anger in them.
Frank met her eyes and pointed to her food with his fork. “Eat. You need food. You’re too dang skinny, girl.” He picked up his glass of water and took a sip.
More because he ordered her than because of the nagging ache in her stomach, she picked up her silverware and cut up the steak. She slipped a piece into her mouth, and relished it. It had been a long time since she’d had a steak, and even longer since she’d eaten for more than just to put something in her so she wouldn’t pass out.
Truth be told, since she’d divorced Hal almost two years ago, she had lost ten pounds she probably didn’t need to lose. When she looked in the mirror, she saw a too-thin person staring back at her. Her cheekbones jutted from her face and she could see her ribs. Granted, there was nothing to do about it. She’d been too stressed to care.
In the now, though, the food tasted good. Of course, the stranger sitting across from her made her too nervous to really relax. It did comfort her Frank obviously knew him, or he didn’t see him as a threat. That’s what Frank was: the kind of man who made a girl feel safe.