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Leanne needs one of her fated mates with her, too.
I head back into my bedroom, where I find Leanne playing with the door.
She looks up at me with guilt in her dark eyes.
Damn. She found out about the lock.
I get ready to explain, when she blurts, “Is it okay if we lock this door?”
She winces and I process what she just said.
“I always sleep with the door locked,” I admit, closing it and locking it. “I leave the key in there so it can’t be unlocked from the outside, too.”
She gives me such an intensely relieved look that I can hardly believe I was worried it would freak her out.
“Oh, thank God,” she blurts, laughing a little. “I’ve been sleeping with door stops wedged under my bedroom door. I can’t feel safe unless I know the door can’t be opened.”
“You’re safe,” I tell her, holding her purse out to her. “The door’s locked, and I’m here.”
She nods. “I know. Being with you should be enough. I’m just … I don’t even know. It’s crazy.”
“It’s not crazy.”
It’s a valid, sane reaction to having your sense of security stripped away.
“It feels crazy,” she admits. “I mean, I was already kidnapped and almost killed. What are the chances something like that would ever happen to me again? Isn’t it kind of like lightning striking the same spot twice?”
“It’s normal, Leanne. It would be crazy if you felt safe after what happened. It’s only been a couple of months. You’re still processing what happened.”
She blinks at me. “You sound like a therapist.”
“I had one for kind of a long time,” I admit, giving her a wry smile. “After my mother was killed. I didn’t cope with it very well. Especially since my father decided she ran away to be with some random guy, and she was already dead to him before her body was found. Then I had another one for quite a while after I found out Harlan was involved in her murder. It’s hard to trust people when you discover your best friend targeted your mother like that.”
“It’s awful,” she says. “Does he know you know?”
I shake my head. “I slowly backed away from him, withdrawing from any kind of social obligation or favor. Being around other people can be draining. I don’t always cope well with it. He knew that, so he stopped calling when I stopped answering his calls.”
“That must have been hard, ignoring what he did.”
“It was torture. All I wanted to do was hurt him. I bought a revolver that weekend. I was ready to walk right into his house and blow his brains out.”
I remember the feeling like I went through it yesterday.
“What stopped you?” she asks, no judgement in her voice.
“Spencer.” I may not have fully realized it at the time, but I know now it wasn’t my own sense of right and wrong. That line was blurred. It felt easy to ignore. It was Spencer’s concern that made me cool down and see that I might be making the biggest mistake of my life. “He asked what was going on with me. We’d been working together for a little over a year at that point, and we seemed to cope well with each other’s quirks. I had the option to talk it out with someone who would understand, and I took it. He made me see there was another way. I didn’t have to tell him about the gun, and it’s been locked up in my office safe ever since I bought it. The bullets are up here, in my nightstand. I doubt I’ll ever use the gun. I just … I had to buy it at the time. Nothing could have stopped me from doing that.”
“We’re going to see Harlan West go to prison,” she says, determination in her gaze.
“Okay,” I tell her softly, “But right now we should probably get some rest.”
She smiles. “Sure. I just need to use your bathroom. That’s cool, right?”
“It’s all yours.”
Chapter Forty-Six
Leanne
