Redwood

by Janie Crouch

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” Wavy asked.

  Lexi shook her head. “You’re so easygoing about the whole thing. Usually the first thing people ask me was why I did it. How could I be so selfish?”

  They weren’t unreasonable questions. People rightfully wanted to know how she could’ve been so self-absorbed that she would trick security teams and police officers into thinking she was in danger when that wasn’t the case. She’d trashed her own studio trailer and left false death threats for herself.

  Why had she done it?

  There was no good reason or excuse she could give. There wasn’t one now, and there hadn’t been one when the judge had asked her the same question before sentencing her to her year in jail.

  Why had she done it?

  She’d just wanted someone to be concerned about her the way the new security specialist, Shane Westman, had been concerned about the producer of the show, Chloe Jeffries.

  Lexi had been immature, selfish, and reckless. She’d cried wolf, gotten everyone to surround her, and other people—the real people in danger—had almost died because of it.

  Lexi had been tried and found guilty in the press every bit as much as she had in court. She had deserved to go to jail. Maybe she’d also deserved everything that had come after.

  But Wavy was not demanding the answers that everyone else immediately wanted. Wavy wasn’t looking at her like she was the biggest bitch on the planet. She wasn’t looking at her any differently than she had when she’d helped out that night at the Eagle’s Nest.

  “I don’t understand why I don’t disgust you,” she finally whispered.

  Wavy walked over and poured herself a glass of wine. “You’ve been here two months now. I’ve seen how you interact with Mac, making sure he gets off his feet as much as possible and takes his medicine. I’ve seen you give Quinn a chance at waitressing when she was unbelievably bad at it. Hell, I’ve seen you give Gavin shit for being a suspicious, overzealous ass.”

  Lexi let out a small huff. “He is an overzealous ass.”

  “Those things are proof enough you’re a decent person. I guess my only question is if you did what you did to try to get your coworkers hurt.”

  “No, I am—”

  Wavy held up a hand. “But I already know the answer to that, so I don’t really have to ask. You made a shitty judgment call. I daresay we’ve all made them once or twice.”

  Lexi had to swallow the well of emotion that threatened to swamp her. How could the words of one woman she hardly knew mean so much to her?

  “Thank you,” she managed to get out.

  Wavy set down her wine and grabbed the canvas she’d just completed. She took it to the far wall, turning it around so it couldn’t be seen. “Nobody ever really comes in here, but we’ll keep this out of sight just in case.”

  “I don’t know if anyone would recognize me if I was standing right next to it.”

  Wavy studied her some more. “Your hair is much shorter, and blonde rather than the brown. You also have some pretty impressive makeup skills. Now that I’m looking at you I can see the contouring more closely. But that’s not all, is it?”

  Lexi reached up and touched her face. “Broken nose and cheek bone on my third day in prison. Someone decided they didn’t like rich girls and gave me a shove into a wall. Since there were no reconstructive surgeons on hand in the correctional facility, the entire shape of my face was changed. Cheekbones no longer symmetrical.”

  “Jesus. Ouch.”

  “Yeah. Would’ve definitely ended my acting career even if I hadn’t already successfully done that for myself. Makeup takes care of the rest—makes my cheeks look fuller, my jawline less pronounced.”

  “I’m surprised you don’t wear contacts. Your green eyes are pretty noticeable.”

  “I tried, but I have some sort of reaction to them. They make my eyes water, and I look like I’m crying all the time. That drew more attention than the green.”

  Wavy was studying her, looking at her with an artist’s eye. “Even with the eyes, it’s a solid disguise. I don’t think anyone would recognize you under most circumstances.”

  “That’s what I’m counting on.”

  “Are you here in Oak Creek because of the press? Did they make your life hell?”

  She gave a one-shouldered shrug. “The press and the public haven’t been very quick to forgive, not that I can blame them.”

  That seemed as good a reason to give as any. She definitely wasn’t about to bring up the stalker who’d been hunting her, who’d found her and almost killed her.

  It was one thing for Wavy to believe that she hadn’t meant any harm when she’d cried wolf before. It was quite another to expect anyone to believe her if she said she had a stalker again.

  The police certainly hadn’t. She’d very quickly learned that her word meant nothing. It hadn’t mattered when she’d shown them the bruises from where the stalker had caught her in an alley not long after she’d gotten out of prison. It hadn’t mattered when she’d shown them the concussion diagnosis from the emergency room.

  They’d called her a method actor and insinuated that a real stalker was no less than she deserved.

  So she’d moved. When the stalker had found her the second time in a different city, sending her letters this time, she’d gone to the police again. They hadn’t been as rude but had pointed out that the letters didn’t actually contain any threats, so they couldn’t help her.

  They’d suggested she hire her own security. That hadn’t been an option since she was broke.

  When the stalker had found her a third time in a new city, she realized he’d been finding her by checking for mentions of her on social media. That happened everywhere she went. So she’d taken matters into her own hands and gotten a false ID and changed her appearance.

  And come to Oak Creek.

  “But why here?” Wavy asked. “There have got to be places you could go to, private islands or something, where you wouldn’t have to work so hard but could also avoid the press.”

  Lexi very much wanted to rub her tired eyes but had trained herself not to in order to preserve her makeup. “I’m broke. And stupid. My aunt and uncle were my business managers, and they had full, unfettered access to my accounts since they’d been my guardians when I was younger. They took it all, then got in some trouble with some gambling mafia-type people and basically fled the country.”

  Lexi had no doubt Nicholas and Cheryl were, in fact, lying on a beach somewhere enjoying themselves.

  Actually, the best thing to come out of all of this was not having her aunt and uncle in her life anymore. She didn’t have any income, so they had no interest in being anywhere around her. They had their own problems with the mob, and Lexi was glad to be rid of them.

  “Wow, that totally sucks,” Wavy said.

  Lexi shrugged. “A complete overhaul was probably what was best for me anyway. I’m not interested in going back into the limelight.”

  Especially with somebody out there waiting for her to do exactly that and then make her pay for it. If she could spend the rest of her life safe here in Oak Creek, even if she was alone, she would take it.

  But that was up to Wavy now, wasn’t it?

  “But how did you end up here specifically in Oak Creek?”

  “Mac’s nephew, or actually his grandnephew, was a personal bodyguard of mine before everything went down. Markus arranged it with Mac.”

  Actually, Markus had been who the police had called when the stalker had found her the second time. They hadn’t believed her but had at least put effort into it and called Markus as her previous head of security.

  Markus probably hadn’t believed her either, but he’d seen she was in trouble. He’d already known she was broke because she hadn’t been able to pay him his last week’s salary or the release bonus that had been a part of his contract. But he’d still helped her by asking Mac, a relative he hadn’t really had much contact with, to give her a job and arra
nge for a cheap place to live.

  It was a kindness undeserved, but it might’ve saved her life.

  “And are you going to stay, or are you just passing through?”

  “I’d like to stay, but if the press discovers I’m here—if anybody starts posting about me on social media or whatever, I’ll have to leave.”

  She didn’t know where she would go, but she knew the man hunting her would find her if anyone so much as mentioned her presence on social media.

  Hadn’t Cheryl and Nicholas been obsessed with that? Always looking up who had mentioned her and how to spin it to make more press and more money?

  The internet made it very easy to hunt someone. All her stalker had to do was a focused Google search on her name and any mention of her, sightings listed by random townspeople, would lead him right to her.

  Or if he really wanted to get more technical, he could do an image search for her face. That was why she hadn’t wanted to be in the picture last week during Quinn’s girls’ night out.

  There were too many ways she could be found if someone knew how to look—patience and persistence were all it would take. She couldn’t even do a search on herself because there were ways to track those also. The fake-ID guy had told her that. So basically, she had to stay hidden and hope not to be blindsided.

  But she knew the truth: he would eventually find her here. All she could do was hope it was later rather than sooner.

  “Hey, don’t look like that.” Wavy rushed over and grabbed her hands. “I’m not going to tell anyone who you are or that you’re here. The last thing anyone wants around here is a bunch of press, believe me.”

  Lexi wasn’t a hundred percent sure she could trust Wavy, but what choice did she have? She had to stay here at least until she’d finished her payments on the ID and saved up some money.

  Then she could start over. Again. Alone.

  “Yes, I’m going to stay.”

  And pray it wasn’t a decision that would cost her her life.

  12

  Thanksgiving weekend was generally a time to relax, eat, and be thankful, but Gavin would be thankful if he survived all the paperwork. It was his last few days as a full-time member of the sheriff’s department, and all hell had broken loose.

  Thanksgiving itself had gone pretty normally—football, food, sangria—but then Friday, Baby’s girlfriend, Quinn, had been kidnapped by a psychopath. It’d all happened so quickly, there hadn’t been time for law enforcement to help. If the Linear Tactical team didn’t remain in a pretty constant state of readiness, it would have been too late for anyone to help Quinn at all.

  But they’d almost been too late, and both she and Baby had sustained significant injuries.

  They would be fine, thank God. But the amount of paperwork involved since Gavin had been the only official law enforcement officer on the scene was pretty staggering. Arrest reports. Injury reports. Damage to state property since this entire thing had gone down at the local community college. There hadn’t been much sitting around eating leftovers for him this weekend.

  And no chance to see Lexi like he’d hoped.

  After taking her glass, he’d run her prints, schooling himself for what he might find. When he’d gotten the report, he’d stared at it for a long time.

  Everything was completely normal and matched his original search of her name. Lexi—not short for anything—Johnson. Twenty-eight years old, no arrest record or warrants. Prints were only in the system because she’d gotten her driver’s license in California where they took a print as part of the driver’s licensing process.

  She was clean. Completely.

  Between that, not finding anything in her apartment, and finally acknowledging that his friends were right about him being a suspicious bastard, here he was sitting in front of Lexi’s apartment in his car first thing on a Monday morning. He was trying to get up enough nerve to admit that he’d taken her glass to run her prints. To knock on her door and tell her he was ready to trust her now.

  Shit. That wouldn’t sound good, would it?

  I’m ready to trust you now that multiple avenues of investigation have proved that you are in fact Lexi Johnson, you have no criminal background, and you don’t intend any harm to anyone.

  When had he stopped giving people the benefit of the doubt? Quinn’s kidnapping this past weekend might have been avoided if Gavin had been more willing to give her the benefit of the doubt over the past few weeks.

  It was time for him to start trusting again.

  He was going to explain all of this to Lexi and hope that it would make a difference when he came clean about running her prints. He was hoping the bag full of groceries, complete with everything he would need to make her a nice breakfast to start her day, including mimosas, would also ease the way.

  Then he could ask her out for real. Because he might be a suspicious bastard, but he always tried to be honest with others and himself.

  He wanted Lexi. He wanted to ask her out on a date. He wanted to kiss her without either of them worried about his intentions.

  He wanted to get her into his bed and not let her out until neither of them could walk.

  But first, honesty.

  Just go in there and apologize like a real man, jackass, and admit what you did.

  He was reaching for the door handle when Lexi came rushing out of her apartment door. She walked right by his SUV. If her head hadn’t been tucked down inside the hood of her jacket, she would’ve seen him.

  Shit, he was too late. She must already be on her way to work, although it was way too early for that.

  But instead of turning toward the Eagle’s Nest, she walked a little farther down the street to where her car was parked.

  He’d never seen her drive her car. Hell, he’d never seen her go anywhere but work and back to her apartment.

  When she started the car and headed south out of town, he slammed his hand down on the steering wheel and let out a blistering curse.

  Then started his own vehicle to follow her.

  He ignored all the voices of his friends screaming in his head that once again he was being a suspicious bastard. Lexi had the right to go wherever she wanted to, and just because she rarely drove anywhere didn’t mean she was doing anything dubious.

  But he followed her anyway, calling himself every name he could think of and a few more that had never before occurred to him.

  She ended up driving all the way to Reddington City. He was going to feel like a complete asshole if she went to some sort of clothing shop or shoe store not readily available in Oak Creek.

  Maybe she was finally buying an actual winter coat. That would be a perfectly logical reason to be going to a larger city before work on a Monday.

  He honest to God hoped that was it. Hoped maybe she had a doctor’s appointment or root canal scheduled. But as she passed through town and ended up out by the cargo section of the airport—nothing around but warehouses and shipping businesses—his gut sank.

  “Oh no. Why are you here, Green Eyes?”

  He slowed down, staying close enough to keep her in sight but not close enough for her to notice him. Not that she seemed to be actively looking for a tail. She wasn’t making sudden turns or doubling back. Wasn’t waiting for a light to almost turn red before barreling through it. All of those would be classic signs that she was trying to lose anyone following her. It gave him a little bit of hope.

  When she turned into a narrow road barely bigger than an alley, he kept going straight past. There was no way he could follow her there without being seen. At least in his car. A few yards down, he parked on the side of the road and jumped out.

  Where the hell was she going?

  When he got back to the alley, she had parked her car and gotten out. A car couldn’t get much farther with the crates and boxes stacked along most of the alley. She was hurrying away from the main road, once again not looking over her shoulder to see if she was being followed.

  He followed, unable to think of ma
ny good reasons why she’d be doing this. But able to think of a lot of bad ones.

  When she stopped at a corner where two of the alleys intersected, he ducked behind a stacked pile of wooden crates.

  He watched through the cracks as she paced back and forth at the intersection, obviously waiting for someone. Goddammit. He had really convinced himself that she was innocent. It certainly didn’t look like that now.

  Finally, some guy who looked barely more than a teenager stepped around from the other corner.

  This was who she was meeting? Gavin was once again back to the drug theory. Especially when Lexi handed the guy some cash and the kid started counting it.

  Neither of them was watching very carefully, so he snuck a few steps closer, behind a small dumpster. He lost the ability to see them, but he would take the tradeoff to hear them.

  “Given his line of work, I would think your boss would take electronic payments,” Lexi said.

  “D is too aware of the pitfalls of all things electronic, I’m sure you understand. That’s why he sends people like me to collect,” the guy answered.

  Who the hell was D?

  “It’s all there.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s my ass if it’s not, so I’ll just double-check.” After a few more seconds the guy spoke up again. “Okay, you’re good.”

  “Then I’ll see you next time.”

  “Boss wanted me to let you know that you were pinged.”

  “Shit.” Lexi’s voice rose in pitch. “By whom? How deep?”

  Gavin had no idea what in the world they were talking about. What did pinged mean? And why did it have Lexi sounding so terrified?

  “Boss said everything held like it was supposed to. He just wanted you to be aware.”

  “Does he know who it was? Where it came from? I need to know who exactly.” The panic in Lexi’s voice rose.

  “I’m sure finding that out would cost you extra. Do you want me to ask the boss about it?”

  Lexi hesitated so long Gavin thought she wasn’t going to answer. “No. I can’t afford any more.”