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A flash of adrenaline surged through Aaron. It was the stalker. His gut instincts had been right. Damn, if only he’d asked Jake to put a tracer on this phone already. But they sometimes took time to arrange, there was paperwork and permissions that needed to be sorted first.
“Do you know who this is?” the man asked, voice low and conspiratorial. He had a strange accent, with an unusual English twang, but for some reason Aaron decided it was fake.
“Yes, I know. You’re the sick bastard who needs to be locked up,” Julie retorted. “How did you get this number? You need to leave me the hell alone.” Julie sounded mad, and rightfully so. But a slight wobble in her tone gave her away. She was also scared. He didn’t like to see Julie scared. It sparked off a deep, ingrained emotion within him. A caveman-like sentiment to protect her.
The man on the other end of the phone gave a curious giggle, as if this was somehow all amusing to him.
“Try and keep him talking,” Aaron mouthed. Any information they could garner from this guy might help solve the riddle as to who he was. “But don’t mention that I’m here,” he added.
They hadn’t discussed how Julie might handle this sort of situation yet. If they had, he would’ve warned her not to mention anything about Shield Solutions or himself. They needed to keep the element of surprise, at least for a while longer, until they understood what kind of threat they were dealing with.
“The thing is, Julie, I don’t want to leave you alone. You need to be saved. And I’m the only one who can do that.”
Julie looked up at Aaron, a small shudder running through her. It made Aaron curiously incensed that this dickhead had the nerve to try to intimidate her like that. This guy meant her harm. Aaron could hear it in the slightly insane edge to his voice. The spark of protective instinct flared in his chest to a full-on bonfire.
She’s just a client, he reminded himself. He never reacted like this. He needed to stay detached, otherwise his work might be compromised. He couldn’t let emotion get in the way of doing his job; of being able to react with cool vigilance. But right now, all he wanted to do was rip this guy’s voice box out, for daring to utter those threatening words. This was crazy, he needed to get a hold of himself.
Julie was so shocked, she was lost for words, she glared at the screen, and her mouth opened and closed, but nothing intelligent came out. “You…you…you fucking creep,” she finally uttered.
“Now, you’re just being rude,” the man replied, lightly. “But that’s okay, I’ll let your insults slide this one time. Because I know the pathway to forgiveness.” He gave a heartfelt sigh down the phone line. “And I have to say that I’m feeling magnanimous today. Because I’m getting closer. This time, you won’t get away from me. Soon you’ll have no choice but to learn the way of the Lord. Because I’ll be right there by your side to teach you.”
A thrill of unease shot down Aaron’s spine. What did the stalker mean by that?
“And soon you’ll have no need for those blue jeans and that white T-shirt, either. You’ll be wearing the robes of a sacrificial lamb.”
Holy shit. Before Julie even had time to react, Aaron had picked her up and thrown her over his shoulder, the cell phone tumbling from her fingers and landing in the grass.
The bastard knew what she was wearing.
It meant he was possibly close by.
He was an idiot. He’d let his guard drop. Had been swayed by Julie’s adamant comments that there was no way the guy would bother to come here. But she’d been wrong. How stupid had he been to leave his gun inside? From now on, he’d be carrying at all times.
Aaron turned and ran up the slope, Julie pounding her fists on his back and yelling at him to put her down. No way in hell was he letting her go until he had her safely back inside.
