Page 96 of Reckoning

“Love you forever,” Briar said, and then they were gone.

He led her to the dorm parking lot, watched her park and get out, then watched her enter the building.

It was his cue to move on.

* * *

Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, but there were enough times in the shadow to strengthen their bond. Every night when Briar crawled into bed with her Star Wish Bear, she pressed the shiny pad on its paw to hear Tate’s recorded message. Love you forever.

Her roommate asked her whose voice that was, and who gave her the bear, but she didn’t say, and she finally quit asking.

Sometimes when Briar was walking to class or back to the dorm, or when she’d gone into town to do some shopping, she would see Tate walking on a street ahead, or going into a shop, always from a distance, and often as he was walking away. It was his signal to her that she was always on his radar. Always in his mind. Always in his heart. And there if she needed him.

Months turned into years, and the world in which Tate was now existing kept expanding as he traveled to other states working nonstop at home for weeks at a time, while her college days were coming to an end.

* * *

Tate had been in the Florida Keys for the past three days, and by the time his plane landed, it was after dark. The first thing he did when he got home was call Briar, but she didn’t answer. He closed his eyes to focus and saw her inside a big building, walking through corridors toward an exit.

At the same time that he saw her, he also saw a man hiding within shrubbery near the sidewalk Briar would take to get to her housing. He knew instantly that the man had targeted her in some way, and that she was in danger. He grabbed the car keys and ran.

Speeding through the streets of New Orleans was highly frowned upon. But tonight, he was speeding. He had to get to the A-Quad before Briar. The man in the shadows was dangerous. He kept calling her as he drove, but she still didn’t pick up. It was the worst panic he’d been in since driving through the tornado to get her.

* * *

Briar didn’t realize her phone was still on mute, and she was irked with herself for not driving to the meeting, but parking on campus wasn’t the simplest task. And, because the weather was perfect, she’d gone on foot. She had a long walk back to her dorm, but the thought of stretching out in bed was the impetus she needed to hurry. The parklike features that were so enchanting by day now seemed foreboding tonight.

Her thoughts were on Tate, wondering if his flight had landed yet, and would she get to see him this weekend before he was gone again? She didn’t see the shadowy figure in the trees or know that he emerged after she passed and had moved into step behind her.

Briar was about to cross a path onto another when she heard hurried footsteps and turned to look behind her.

The guy was wearing a dark hoodie pulled low over his face, and the moment he knew he’d been made, he started running toward her.

Briar bolted. She was running for her life.

It was too far for her to beat him to her dorm, and she was looking for a campus police patrol car as she ran, trying to figure out what to do next, when all of a sudden, the sound of his footsteps stopped. She did a three-sixty spin to look for him, but he was nowhere in sight. She didn’t question the reason and took off running again, desperate to get to her dorm.

* * *

Dallas Jones was a predator. College campuses were prime hunting grounds, but one too many nonconsensual sexual encounter at LSU had made him a target for campus police. So tonight, he’d driven up from Baton Rouge and gone straight to Tulane, then found himself the perfect spot to lie in wait.

He had chosen the building with the most lights still on, which meant there would be more people in there to choose from, and he was scoping out every woman who came and went. He was still there when he saw a pretty girl with long brown hair go into the building. He never knew their names, but liked the way this one looked, and waited.

About an hour later, she emerged. He was hard and ready and, at first, kept his distance, moving through the park instead of on the path. Usually, the girls he picked were listening to music and had earbuds in their ears. But this one didn’t, and it soon became obvious that it was going to cause a problem, because when he moved onto the sidewalk in a hasty stride, she heard his footsteps and turned to look. He’d been made! And then she took off running.

“Damn it,” Dallas muttered, and kicked into high gear. She was faster than he expected, but he was gaining on her, already anticipating what came next, when he suddenly went airborne. Someone grabbed him by the back of his hoodie, yanking him backward into the bushes and slamming him so hard against the trunk of a tree that he lost his breath.

A huge, muscular arm snaked around his neck from behind, choking off enough of his air that he thought he was being murdered, and then there was a deep, raspy whisper in his ear.

“You have one choice before I break your damn neck. You get in your car and don’t set foot in New Orleans again. You go anywhere near that woman for the rest of your life, and I will know it. I will find you, beat you within an inch of your life, and feed what’s left to the gators. Do you understand?”

Dallas saw his life flashing before his eyes. “Understood,” he squeaked.

Suddenly Dallas was alone. He never saw the man and didn’t hear him leave. He dropped to his knees, gasping for air. His throat was burning. His eyes felt like they were about to pop out of his head, and he realized he’d just peed himself.

He laid belly down until he quit shaking, then dragged himself to his feet. He didn’t stop to look for the man, he just turned and ran to the parking lot where he’d left his car. He was fumbling for his keys when he saw his tires. All four were flat, slashed. The man had fired a warning shot he could not ignore.

In a panic, he got in the car and drove off with sparks flying from the wheel rims and the rubber flapping on all four tires. It cost him over a thousand dollars to get new tires and get home that night. When morning dawned, he packed up everything he owned and left Baton Rouge heading west. He’d always wanted to see New Mexico.