His voice. The same smooth, controlled tone I recognize immediately.
"Derek."
"You sound surprised." That slight amusement in his voice, like this is a game and he's already won. "You shouldn't be. Did you really think you could just disappear?"
My hand tightens on the phone. Patty has turned from the sink, reading my face, her expression hardening.
"What do you want," I say.
"To talk. Just talk." The concern in his voice is perfectly calibrated, the same tone he used when he'd apologize after, when he'd make it sound like I was the one who'd misunderstood, who'd overreacted. "I'm worried about you, Harper. Running off to some mountain town, all alone—"
"I'm not alone."
A pause. I hear the shift in it, the thing underneath the smooth surface.
"No," he says slowly. "I suppose you're not. I've heard you've made... friends."
The way he says friends makes my skin crawl.
"Stay away from me, Derek."
"I'm staying at the Pinecrest Lodge." He says it casually. Like he's commenting on the weather. "Room 212. Beautiful view of the mountains. You should come by. We can talk properly. Clear this all up."
"There's nothing to clear up. We're done. We've been done."
"Harper." The smooth tone cracks slightly. Just slightly. "You don't get to decide that on your own. Four years doesn't just end because you got scared."
"I got smart," I say. "There's a difference."
The silence that follows is different. Colder.
"I'm here for three days," he says. "I suggest you think carefully about how this goes. Because I can make things very easy for you, or I can make them very difficult. Your choice."
He hangs up.
I sit there with the phone in my hand and my heart beating too fast and Patty watching me with the expression of a womanwho's raised three sons and knows exactly what a threat sounds like.
"That him?" she asks.
"Yeah."
"He here? In town?"
"Pinecrest Lodge."
She crosses her arms. "Ronan know?"
"Not yet."
"He's going to."
I look at her. "I'm not his responsibility, Patty."
"No," she agrees. "But you're his choice. And that man doesn't choose things lightly." She picks up her phone. "I'm calling Judge."
"Patty—"
"Harper." She looks at me with something between sympathy and steel. "You're in my house. That makes you mine to protect until Ronan gets back. And Judge needs to know if that man is in town making phone calls."
