Stalker In the Shadows

by Carla Cassidy

  He wasn’t expecting much of the date. It would be nice to find out if there could be something between them, something good and long-term. He was ready for that in his life. Of course, there was also the chance that the date could be a total bust and they would quickly realize they weren’t right for each other.

  He walked into his living room and was greeted by his black miniature schnauzer, Zeus. The little dog danced at his feet and then ran to the black recliner where Hunter usually sat and petted him.

  “Okay, okay, I’m coming.” Hunter laughed and sat. Zeus jumped up in his lap, and Hunter stroked down the dog’s back. Zeus seemed to smile with utter happiness.

  He remained there only a few minutes and then got up and opened the back door that led into the fenced backyard. Zeus darted outside.

  About a year ago when his loneliness had become too heavy to bear, he’d found Zeus at the local shelter. At that time Zeus was only three months old and had been abandoned by a transient couple when they’d passed through town.

  The dog had certainly brought Hunter a lot of joy, but there was still a core of loneliness inside him that yearned for somebody who could talk to him, somebody who might share his hopes and dreams.

  Even though he knew it wasn’t a good idea, he walked down the hallway and opened the door to the smallest bedroom. This room had once held a little boy’s laughter and a toy box full of dreams.

  It now held nothing except a photo on the wall, a crib and a teddy bear in a rocking chair to indicate that a little boy had lived two years of his life in the room.

  Danny. His heart squeezed tight as he thought of that little boy...his son, who had died of childhood leukemia four years ago.

  Hunter picked up the teddy bear and sank down in the rocking chair as memories of Danny took away all other thoughts. He’d handled his wife’s betrayals and gotten past them. But this...this absence of the child he’d loved so much was another animal altogether. There were moments when it clawed at him, when it stabbed at his heart with a real, physical pain.

  He’d grieved the loss of Danny all alone. His wife, Emily, had left him, but not before delivering one final devastation as she’d walked out of his life.

  He raised the teddy bear to his nose and took a deep breath, imagining that he could still smell Danny’s little-boy scent on the furry animal.

  He remained that way for several long minutes and then finally stood and placed the teddy bear back in the chair. Before he left the room, he stared at the framed photo on the wall.

  Danny had been a happy child, and the photo depicted a year-old Danny with Hunter. They were both laughing. Even though the disease had ravaged him, the little boy had remained a happy child who never complained.

  And it was that particular spirit of Danny that Hunter now embraced. Danny would have wanted his daddy to be happy. As he left the room and closed the door behind him, he tucked his grief away, not to be entertained again until the next time he went into that bedroom.

  He returned to the back door, where Zeus was waiting to come back inside. “Come on, boy.” He opened the door, and Zeus greeted him all over again as if he hadn’t seen Hunter a few minutes earlier.

  Zeus had been Hunter’s first step in reaching out for happiness once again. Now he was looking for more. He wanted to fall in love again, to get married and have children.

  He just wanted to find an open and honest woman to share his dreams of home and family, and he was hoping that’s what he would find with the new woman in town. He was desperately hoping Ainsley Meadows could be the new forever love in his life.

  Chapter Two

  Ainsley’s nerves sizzled in her veins as she stood in the bathroom and spritzed on her favorite perfume. In fifteen minutes Hunter should show up for their date.

  The Red Wok wasn’t a dress-up kind of place, so she had on a pair of black skinny jeans and a long pink blouse that hugged her in all the right places.

  Melinda had been picked up a few minutes before by Juanita Burwell, Big Ed’s wife. The couple had five children, including an eight-year-old named Bonnie whom Melinda considered her very best friend in the whole world. Juanita had made it clear to Ainsley that Melinda was welcome in their house anytime. It was only one more thing that made Ainsley desperate to make this place her permanent home.

  She left the bathroom and went into the small living room to await Hunter’s arrival. Although she was excited about the night to come, in the past two days she’d changed her mind a dozen times about going out with him.

  One part of her thought it was foolish to start a relationship when she didn’t know if or when she might have to pick up and run. And then she reminded herself that it was just a simple meal out and nothing more.

  It was exactly five o’clock when a knock fell on the door. A new burst of nerves shot through her as she answered. “Hi,” Hunter greeted her.

  For a brief moment she was speechless. Any time she’d ever seen him before, he had been in his khaki uniform. Now jeans hugged his long legs and a black polo shirt stretched across his broad shoulders and emphasized his slim waist and hips. He looked so handsome he nearly took her breath away.

  His smile faltered slightly. “Ainsley, are you ready to go?”

  “Yes...yes, I’m ready,” she quickly answered. “Just let me grab my purse.” Gosh, he probably thought there was something wrong with her when all she’d been doing was taking a brief moment to enjoy the view.

  She grabbed her purse from the sofa and then went back to the door. “Now I’m ready.” She closed and locked the door behind her.

  His off-duty vehicle was a king-cab pickup truck. The inside was pristine clean and smelled of leather and the faint scent of his cologne.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked once they were on their way.

  “Definitely,” she replied. “What about you?” Now that she was alone with him, she felt unaccountably shy.

  He flashed her a quick smile. “I can always eat. So, how did you spend your day off?”

  “The first thing I did was slept later than usual. It’s always a luxury when I don’t have to open the café at six in the morning.”

  “What else did you do?”

  “Mostly fairly boring things, like laundry and cleaning.” She released a small laugh. “If you’re looking for me to tell you something exciting I did today, you’re out of luck.”

  Once again he shot her one of his smiles. “Boring isn’t all bad.”

  “What about you? How was your day?” she asked.

  “Fairly boring,” he replied, and they both laughed.

  By that time they had arrived at the Red Wok. The restaurant had a cozy feel, and a pretty young waitress led them to a table for two. The air was redolent with the scents of exotic spices and simmering chicken and beef.

  They were each given a menu and drink orders were taken and then the waitress left them. “One of my favorites is crab Rangoon,” Hunter said. With the dim light in the restaurant and a candle flickering on the table, his eyes glowed with what appeared to be a preternatural light.

  “I love them, too,” Ainsley replied. “Anything deep-fried and filled with cream cheese is a winner in my book.”

  “So, besides a couple orders of crab Rangoon, what sounds good to you?”

  She closed the menu and set it on the table. “I’m in the mood for sweet-and-sour chicken.”

  “Hmm, that sounds good, but I’m partial to General Tso’s chicken. How about we make these specials so we get the soup and the appetizers with the meal?”

  “That’s fine with me.”

  The waitress served their drinks, took their orders and then left them alone once again. She returned a moment later with their soup.

  Ainsley began to relax as they ate the soup and talked about favorite foods and cooking skills.

  “I have to confess, my favorite kind of c
ooking mostly involves a microwave,” he said. “But I do some pretty good work on my grill.”

  She laughed. “So, for the most part you’re a zap-it kind of guy.”

  “For the most part, but I’ll bet you’re a good cook.”

  “I’m not a world-renowned chef, but I can hold my own,” she replied. “Although I have to admit it’s very easy to step out of the apartment and eat meals in the café. Big Ed lets me and my daughter eat for free, but the best part of that arrangement is there are never any dishes to clean up afterward.”

  “You cook but don’t like to clean up dishes afterward, and I wouldn’t mind doing dishes but don’t really enjoy cooking. It sounds like we’re a match made in heaven.” He smiled at her, that devastating smile that half took her breath away.

  Thankfully, at that moment the waitress appeared to serve their entrées and their orders of the crab Rangoon. “Tell me all about Ainsley Meadows,” he said when the waitress had left.

  “What do you want to know?” she asked. She picked up a piece of red pepper and popped it into her mouth. Now was the time she had to be on guard.

  “Dusty Gulch isn’t really a destination for anyone in the world, so what brought you here?”

  “A flat tire,” she replied with a small laugh. “After my divorce three years ago, I wanted a change of scenery, so my daughter and I were on a road trip to find a new place to live. As we were driving through Dusty Gulch I got a flat tire, and Mike, down at the garage, had to order a new tire, so we had to wait here for a couple of days. In those couple of days I realized this might be a nice place to live, and so here we are.”

  “Thank God for flat tires,” he replied with a smile. “Where were you coming from originally?”

  Let the lies begin, she thought with a touch of sadness. “A small town in Nevada.” In truth she was from Portland, Maine.

  “And your ex-husband was okay with you just taking off with his child?”

  “He was an extremely uninvolved father and didn’t really care where we went. I don’t even know where he is now.” Lie number two.

  She shoved away any thoughts of her ex-husband, Peter, that tried to enter her mind. If she got caught up with thoughts of him, this night, this time with Hunter would be completely ruined.

  “I’m sorry to hear that. I would give anything to be a husband and a father again,” he replied.

  She looked at him curiously. “Again? So you were married and have children?”

  “No children, but I was married for about four years. But we divorced a little over four years ago.” He took a bite of his dinner and then asked, “Do you want more children?”

  She laughed. “To be honest I haven’t given it much thought.” She frowned. “If I found the right man and was married, I would maybe consider having more children. It would depend.”

  “Okay, now that those questions are out of the way, why don’t you tell me what kinds of programs you like on television?”

  The conversation grew less personal as they enjoyed the meal and talked about television and movies and music. It was a light, easy conversation that once again put her at ease.

  She hoped Hunter didn’t ask her any more questions that would require more lies. She liked him, and lying to him felt all wrong. But she couldn’t tell him the truth—she couldn’t tell anyone the truth about her past and the things she had done to survive.

  If he knew the truth about her, Hunter would have to arrest her for breaking dozens of laws. But that wasn’t the worst that would happen. She fought the shiver that threatened to race up her spine as she thought of the consequences of getting found by the man she had once married with such hopes of being loved for the rest of her life.

  “Would you like something for dessert?” he asked.

  “Goodness no, I’m absolutely stuffed.” She wished she wanted dessert to prolong their time together.

  “What do you think about parking on Main Street? We could take a leisurely walk together and maybe we’d work up our appetites for a visit to the ice cream parlor.”

  “That sounds nice.” So, he wasn’t in a hurry to end their time together, either. That warmed her in a way she hadn’t been warmed in a long time.

  They left the Red Wok, and he drove to the middle of Main Street, where they got out of the truck and began to walk. Within minutes he reached for her hand.

  He had a big hand that swallowed hers in a pleasant grasp. She couldn’t remember the last time a man had held her hand. It felt good, like a promise of something nice to come.

  If he wanted to see her again, if he wanted to build something with her, could she allow it? There was a part of her that wanted it, but there was another part that told her it was foolish to continue to see him.

  It was a beautiful September night, warm enough not to need a jacket or sweater. It was just after seven, and the people on the streets were starting to thin out.

  Still, the people they passed greeted Hunter and offered friendly smiles to Ainsley. They talked about the various shops they passed, many of them Ainsley hadn’t been in yet.

  They finally came to the ice cream parlor. “Now could you eat some ice cream?” he asked.

  “Maybe a cone.”

  He smiled. “Good, let’s go inside.”

  Within minutes they were seated at one of the high round tables inside the shop. She had a chocolate ice cream cone in her hand, and he had a banana split.

  “I have to confess, ice cream is one of my weaknesses,” he said.

  She smiled at him. “My daughter and I have been in here several times since we moved here. Ice cream is one of her weaknesses, too.”

  “Maybe sometime the three of us could come here together.”

  “Maybe,” she replied. The idea that he saw them being together sometime in the future thrilled her more than it should. In fact, she liked Hunter more than she should.

  He was funny and charming, and when he looked at her there was not only an interest, but also a bit of flame in the depths of his eyes that excited her, that made her feel pretty and desirable. He felt dangerous to her in a decidedly delicious way.

  Once they’d eaten their ice cream, they headed back to her apartment. It was almost nine, and not only did she still have to go and pick up Melinda, she also had an early morning the next day in the café.

  “Thank you, Hunter, for such a nice evening,” she said once they stood in front of her apartment door at the back of the café.

  “I really enjoyed it, Ainsley.” He took a step closer to her, invading her personal space just a bit. “I’d like to see you again.”

  “I’d like that,” she replied, half breathless with his nearness.

  He smiled. “I’d also like to kiss you. May I do that?”

  She was surprised and pleased that he respected her enough to ask her permission. She did not hesitate in giving him an answer.

  “You may,” she said and raised her face to him.

  His mouth covered hers in a kiss that lasted long enough for her to know his lips were soft and warm. He didn’t wrap his arms around her or pull her into him. It was just a sweet, soft kiss that, when it ended, made her want more.

  He stepped back from her. “So, when can we do this again? Do you have any days off coming up?”

  “I’m off on Sundays, but I reserve that day for time with my daughter. Other than that, I’m always off on Thursdays.”

  “What do you think about pizza?”

  “I love pizza,” she replied.

  “Then how about next Thursday night I pick you up and we go to Antonio’s Pizza? Same time as this evening?”

  “That sounds good to me,” she replied. Once again his eyes held that glow that warmed her from her head to her toes.

  “In the meantime, I’ll see you in the café.”

  She nodded. “Good night, Hunter.”<
br />
  “Good night, Ainsley.”

  She watched as he got into his truck and then pulled away. She went inside, shut the door and then leaned against it. She raised her fingers to her lips, remembering the thrill of Hunter’s kiss.

  There was a part of her that had hoped she wouldn’t like him and the date would be a total bust. But that’s not what happened.

  She dug in her purse for her keys so she could run over to the Burwell residence to pick up Melinda. Minutes later as she drove across town, her thoughts lingered on Hunter.

  Was it wrong for her to wish for a healthy relationship with a man? Was it wrong for her to be hungry for love in her life? A love she’d once hoped for but hadn’t found in her first marriage?

  Surely it was time for her to be able to breathe, to stop her constant vigilance and relax. It had been a little over a year since he’d last found her.

  Enough time had passed that she was starting to feel safe for the first time since she’d escaped from him. But if she was wrong, if she somehow let down her guard and he found her again, she knew he would kill her and not break a sweat.

  “TELL ME WHAT’S going on today, George.” Hunter shot a quick look at Sheriff Wayne Black, who stood some distance away with his gun drawn, and then he looked back at the man who held a large butcher knife at his own throat.

  George Calvert was a big man who suffered from chronic depression. He did pretty well when he was taking his meds, but Hunter could usually figure out how long he’d been off them by how dirty and how many stains rode his T-shirt.

  They all stood in the front yard of George’s attractive ranch house that was located only a block away from Hunter’s own home.

  As Hunter studied George’s filthy shirt and greasy hair, he figured the man had been off his meds for a week to ten days. When he went off his meds, he medicated himself with booze, and it was evident now that George was drunk.

  “I got nothing to live for,” George said, tears streaming down his face.

  “Come on, George, put the knife down and let’s talk,” Hunter replied. Although the sheriff stood ready to protect his deputy, Hunter was grateful he didn’t try to interfere. Wayne didn’t have a rapport with George like Hunter did.