My Best Friend's Brother: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romance

by Lauren Wood

  “That’s your gut telling you it wasn’t a neighbor looking to talk to you.”

  “So, what now?” she snapped. “I hire a fulltime bodyguard?”

  “Not a bad idea.”

  “I can’t afford it.”

  Izzy went back to working on the computer as I stood feeling angry and worried over her safety. If she hadn’t locked the door, what then? She’d have been raped? Murdered? Both? I knew that if Debbie hadn’t told me of her daughter, I realized I might not be nearly this upset.

  Wishing Debbie had told Izzy about Roger and her daughter’s situation, I wondered what to do. After last night, Izzy wouldn’t trust me if I asked her, for her safety only, to stay at my house with me. In her fierce independence, she wouldn’t want help in any form or fashion. Leaving her alone, I went into my office.

  For the rest of the day, I prepared for two closings, wrote e-mails to the local home inspector, and hoped that Izzy would start to trust me again. Promptly at six, she bade me a pleasant enough good night and left the office. I almost called her back, to try once again to talk to her. But I knew it would do no good.

  She had shut herself off from me.

  I staggered from my bed the next morning, bleary-eyed and yawning. As part of my usual morning routine, I made a pot of coffee, then went yawning into the bathroom to shower. I had no sooner started the water and waited, naked, for it to get hot when I heard my cell buzzing. I shut the faucet off and padded into my bedroom to answer the call.

  It was Izzy.

  “Izzy?”

  “Jack.” Izzy gulped, and I knew this time whatever had happened, it was bad. “There’s a dead animal outside my door. A raccoon.”

  Closing my eyes, I counted slowly to ten so that my voice didn’t come out as a shout.

  “Jack?”

  “I’m here, Izzy. Did you call Dennis?”

  “He’s on his way.” She hesitated, and I felt her trying to get her emotions under control. “Look, I’m really scared. Will you come over?”

  “You bet. I’ll just get dressed, and I’m on my way.”

  “Thanks. I just didn’t know what I should do.”

  “You did right. I can be there in ten minutes.”

  “Okay.”

  I clicked off and dressed in record speed. Turning the coffee pot off midway through its brewing, I rushed from my house and into the truck. I broke the speed limit getting to her apartment across town, but fortunately didn’t snag the attention of any cops. As I pulled up in front of her building, I saw why.

  At least three sheriff’s cruisers were already parked there, and a fourth pulled up just as I was getting out of my truck. I didn’t know this cop but joined him as he strode up the stairs to Izzy’s unit. Her door was open, and I immediately saw the corpse on her front mat.

  “It’s been dead for a while.”

  I glanced up to see Dennis watching me grimly.

  “Probably roadkill,” he continued, gazing at it, “but just the same, it’s a warning to her.”

  Past his shoulder, I saw Izzy sitting on her couch, talking to two deputies while the third stepped across the raccoon to walk inside. I waved reassuringly at her, then jerked my head for Dennis to follow me. “Why all the hardware?” I asked, my voice low.

  “This isn’t a matter of a simple cyber stalking anymore,” Dennis told me. “This is far too serious for that.”

  “Look,” I began, glancing at the open door. “My receptionist told me that Roger Andrews stalked her daughter until the daughter fled town.”

  Dennis folded his arms over his chest and nodded. “I did some checking. He was suspected of it, and the daughter was his ex girlfriend. But he was smart enough and slippery enough that we didn’t have enough proof to arrest him, then she split for Kentucky.”

  I ran my hands through my hair. “Shit. Now what?”

  “A couple of suggestions. First, install some cameras out here.” Dennis jerked his head toward the ceiling. “If he comes back, we have him dead to rights. Second, Izzy can’t stay here. Not anymore.”

  “I’d gladly have her stay with me, but I know she won’t.”

  “Who else might she stay with?”

  I shrugged, helpless. “My sister, Nell? They’re best friends.”

  “I’ll suggest it to her. And she needs a non-lethal weapon. Pepper spray, mace, maybe even a Taser. No guns, Jack.”

  “Okay. There’s a sporting goods store in Greenville. I’ll head there and get her pepper spray. Or bear spray.”

  “Bear spray will knock the will to live right out of him.” Dennis grinned, and it was not a nice thing to see. “She told me about someone trying to get into the vacant property while she was there. That could have been bad, Jack.”

  “I know.”

  “Go on back there and give her a shoulder to cry on. I’m taking our friend there to the dumpster.”

  Wearing latex gloves, Dennis picked up the dead raccoon and went downstairs as I went inside. Without a word, I sat beside her, wrapped my arm around her shoulders, and pulled her into me. Izzy came willingly enough, her arm reaching around my waist, her head on my chest. The lead deputy suggested some of the same things Dennis did – primarily how she should not live there until this was over.

  “This is my home,” Izzy protested. “Why should I leave?”

  “If it’s harder for him to find you, it’s harder for him to stalk you.”

  “Stay with Nell,” I said softly. “She’ll be glad to have your company.”

  Izzy turned her face into my shirt. “This is ridiculous,” she muttered.

  “What did she say?”

  “That it’s ridiculous.”

  “Maybe it is, ma’am,” he went on, “but we don’t know if this guy is violent or not. He may not be. But we’d rather not find out by having you hurt or killed.”

  Drawing in a deep breath, Izzy straightened from my arms and let it out in a gust. “He knows where I work, officers.”

  “You’re still better protected in public than here alone.”

  “Okay. Fine. I’ll call Nellie in a while. Hopefully, she won’t mind.”

  “She won’t,” I assured her, caressing her back over her t-shirt. “Nell doesn’t want to see you harmed. And I’ll get you bear spray to carry.”

  Izzy snorted nervous laughter. “I just hope I spray it in the right direction.”

  “I tried to have a chat with Roger Andrews,” Dennis said, entering the apartment. “He absented himself from his home. I’ll keep trying, but my guess is that he knows we’re looking for him.”

  “It’s a small fucking town,” I snapped. “How hard can it be to find one fat fucker?”

  “Cool your jets, Jack,” Dennis retorted. “He’s in the wind, but we’ll find him. I know you’re worried, but don’t take it out on us.”

  Izzy stared at me as though wondering where my show of temper had come from, and I tried to relax. “You’re right. Sorry. I’ll pick Izzy up from work and take her back each day, and if she’s with Nell, then this asshole will have a harder time getting at her.”

  “She doesn’t stay alone in the office,” Dennis said, looking at Izzy. “No more ventures to houses where you’re alone, either.”

  Izzy nodded. “All right. I just wish I knew why this yo-yo fixated on me.”

  “You might simply be his type,” Dennis replied. “No one ever knows. I think we’re all finished here. Remember, call us, we’re here.”

  11

  Izzy

  I stood up from my worn sofa as the cops filed out, and only then did I realize I still wore the old t-shirt and sweats I’d put on earlier to open the door and retrieve the paper. Crossing my arms over my stomach, closing the door behind them, I glanced at Jack. “Want some coffee?”

  “Sounds good.”

  Half expecting him to follow me into my tiny kitchen, I wasn’t certain if I was glad he’d stayed on the couch, or disappointed he didn’t follow me to put his arms around me. “Dennis said the dead coon w
as a warning,” I commented as I prepared coffee in the pot. “Warning against what?”

  “Involving the cops maybe.”

  I couldn’t keep looking at him. He looked too good, too damn sexy sitting on my couch with his tie unknotted and merely hooked around his neck, his shirt open. Focusing on the coffee making procedure, I tried not to think about how good it felt to have his cock sawing inside me. My shame rose, as did my depression.

  Not sitting on the couch again, I leaned my hip against the kitchen counter. “Do you think Roger could be violent?”

  Jack met my gaze before he nodded slowly. “Yeah. I do.”

  “Shit,” I muttered, scared. “Then I guess I’d better get something to protect myself with. Got a gun I can borrow?”

  “After I drop you at the office,” Jack replied, “I’ll run to the sporting goods store and get bear spray. Dennis said you can’t be armed with anything lethal.”

  “I guess I don’t want to kill anyone, anyway.”

  Jack grinned. “Spray him with that shit, and he’ll probably wish you had shot him.”

  “Maybe.” I hesitated. “Thanks for coming. I – I didn’t know what else to do.”

  “No matter what, kiddo,” he replied, his grin gone, “I am, and I mean it, here for you. Day or night.”

  Whatever might have passed between us before, I felt glad for his presence now. I felt better, less scared, and tons less ashamed. “Listen, I need to shower, get ready for work. Help yourself to the coffee.”

  I sensed his desire to crack wise, to offer to join me, naked and wet in the shower, for the grin started to cross his face. But he merely nodded and asked, “Can I raid your refrigerator?”

  “You can,” I replied with my own grin. “But there’s not much edible in it. Not till payday.”

  Jack lifted his hands and spread his fingers. Closing his eyes, he intoned. “I am the great spirit. I see – I see – a Denny’s in our future.”

  “I hope you’re buying.”

  I showered with enthusiasm, feeling filthy after finding a road smashed racoon on my front mat. Of course, my mind traveled to Jack sitting in my front room, handsome, sexy, and ready to come into the bathroom and join me. Thinking about him and his thick shaft, I was tempted to play with myself.

  But the image of the corpse constantly interfered, and I shut the water off with a sigh. I quickly dressed for work and brushed my wet hair, leaving it to air dry. Jack had gotten up off the couch, and now stood at the sliding glass door that led out onto my tiny patio, his coffee in his hand.

  He turned at my entrance. “Ready?”

  I nodded. “I’ll come back after work and pack a few things,” I said. “That is, if Nellie wants me at her place.” I poured coffee into a to-go mug, then shut the maker off.

  Jack opened the door for me. “She’s looking forward to having you.”

  Stopping, I eyed him. “You called her?”

  “Yep.”

  “Jack, think about this a minute. What if my being there puts her in danger?”

  “Then you both will be at my place. Let’s eat, I’m starved.”

  He did indeed foresee a Denny’s in our future, for he pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant near the interstate. After seeing Roger’s gift, I didn’t think I’d have much appetite, but I felt ravenous as we walked inside and breathed in the odors of frying bacon.

  “What is it about the scent of bacon?” I asked as the hostess seated us with a smile and left us with menus. “It makes me hungry just smelling it.”

  Jack shrugged. “Same thing with the smell of barbeque. No matter what’s on the grill, it’s always smelling delicious.”

  The restaurant was almost full, being that it attracted travelers off the highway. Even so, we received our food quickly and talked of the company and Jack’s plans as we ate. Oddly, I found him nice to be with, companionable, and for once I forgot to be mistrustful of his motives.

  “Will you call some of my early appointments?” he asked. “Reschedule them since I need to get you your weapon.”

  “Hey, you don’t need to drop everything for that,” I protested. “We’ll get it later. Or order if from online.”

  Jack rolled his eyes. “You can’t put shit like that off, Izzy. That fat prick is most likely following us now.”

  “I watched. I saw nothing of his Beemer.”

  Reaching across the table, Jack lightly touched my hand, a very brief caress that sent my nerve endings to tingling. “You can’t trust that he’s driving something you’d recognize.”

  The beat-up pickup I saw driving first one way and then the next. “Shit.”

  “What?”

  “I forgot all about it,” I admitted. “At the house yesterday, I saw an old pickup truck drive past. Twice. I thought nothing of it.”

  Jack nodded. “You noticed it. That’s more than most people do.”

  Weirdly pleased by his nonchalant praise, I followed him out of the booth and gazed out at the parking lot as he paid the check. As we crossed it to his truck, Jack put his hand on my lower back, yet not in an overt or sexual way. Almost like he was being possessive in a subtle fashion. While I liked it, I also wondered if it was a demonstration to Roger, if he was there watching.

  “What if he comes after you, Jack?” I asked as he remotely unlocked the truck, then held the passenger door open for me.

  He smiled, and the warm expression sent a shiver up my spine. A crocodile’s smile. “I hope he does.”

  “Get some bear spray for yourself, too,” I said as I got in.

  Debbie looked at us with evident relief as we walked in at nine thirty. “I was beginning to worry,” she said.

  I clocked in, then eyed Jack with my brows lifted. “Being as you insisted we eat out, you gonna be mad that I’m late?”

  “Aren’t you funny, ha ha.”

  He went into his office while I winked at Debbie and went into mine. Turning on my computer, I pulled up Jack’s schedule for the day. “What time will you be back?”

  “By eleven, I should think.”

  That left two appointments to reschedule for him. As I picked up the phone to make my first call, he said through the open window, “The office door stays locked when I’m not here. We don’t have much walk-in business right now anyway.”

  I shrugged, and, as the phone rang on the other end, Jack departed.

  Perhaps around ten thirty, Debbie put a call through to me. “Customer wants to talk about a listing, Izzy.”

  “Okay, thanks.”

  I picked up the phone and punched the blinking light to open the line. “This is Isabelle.”

  “How’d you like my little friend, bitch?”

  My first instinct was to hang up the phone. I recognized Roger’s voice instantly, and my fear returned. But so did my anger. “Too bad it wasn’t your roadkill ass lying there.”

  “All you had to do was play nice for a while,” Roger snapped. “Go out with me, have a meal. But no, you have to play the high titty bitch.”

  “Is your pecker really that little, Rog?” I asked. “No wonder you have to stalk girls to get them to play with you.”

  “I’ll show you little,” he snarled.

  “Oh, please.” I laughed. “Gonna make me hunt for it? Hide and seek, maybe?”

  “You bitch!”

  “I tell you what, I’ll bring tweezers.”

  I laughed harder when he slammed the phone down, and then the line clicked. I hung up, grinning, then sobered. By insulting his precious manhood, I’m sure I just unleashed the beast. Even so, I wouldn’t have taken it back. He was the one stalking me, leaving calling cards on my front mat.

  If he can’t take the heat, then he should hit the Arctic.

  Nor was Jack pleased when I told him about it. He’d purchased four cans of bear spray, gave one to Debbie, kept one, and gave me two. “One is for Nell,” he said, then hitched his hip against my desk. His dark eyes watched me for a while until I grew slightly uncomfortable.

>   “You shouldn’t have done that,” he said quietly.

  “Now ask me if I care,” I replied, examining my new self defense weapon. “He leaves me presents, he should learn how to take some shit.”

  “I know, and I agree with you, Izzy. But sometimes, it might be best to simply hang up the phone.”

  “So I insulted his tiny cock. Big deal.”

  Jack sighed as though he had no idea what to do with me. “Don’t put that in your purse,” he said. “Keep it on your desk when here, in your hand when in the open, and beside your bed at night. Got it?”

  I offered him a mock salute. “Sir, yes, sir!”

  Shaking his head, he went into his own office, and ceased to nag me about my attitude. As I’d eaten a huge breakfast, I skipped lunch and worked through the hour, answering the phones while Debbie was out. Jack left for his appointments when Debbie got back from her break. She came back to my office with her spray can, her expression puzzled.

  “Does he think Roger will try to hurt me?” she asked.

  While I suspected Roger will lash out at anyone, I didn’t want to tell her that. “He’s just taking precautions. Besides, in this bad world, we all need to carry a weapon.”

  Debbie eyed me doubtfully. “I suppose you’re right. This says it will send a stream out twenty feet.”

  “I know.” I grinned. “I almost hope Roger gets in my face just so I can spray him.”

  “Now, Izzy, that’s not a good attitude.”

  “Maybe not, but after this morning, he has it coming.”

  Debbie went still. “What happened this morning?”

  I told her about the roadkill on my front mat, the cops, calling Jack. “Then Roger has the nerve to call me this morning and ask me how I liked it.”

  “Oh, Izzy.”

  She chewed her lip for a few moments as though undecided about something. “I have to return to the phones,” she said. “Come with me. I have to tell you something.”

  Puzzled, I followed her to her desk and waited as she answered a call. When done, she looked at me. “I didn’t want to say anything before as I didn’t want to scare you.”