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“You ready to tell me the whole story?” he asks, his elbows leaning against his knees while his serious gaze is trained on me. Despite the underlying anger, his golden eyes are shining with worry and affection. I know he’s in police chief mode, but he’s always going to be my friend first.
Ben’s hand runs across my shoulders as he sits in the chair on the other side of me. His silent support is overwhelming, but so needed.
“I started getting gifts at the end of May. The first two were flowers: a single rose and a daisy. I honestly thought they were sent to me by accident, and I just moved on. Then I started getting notes. None of them were addressed to me, and they were all signed with the letter ‘G’. They all said a variation of the same thing: I miss you; I love you; you’re mine forever.”
If I think back to when I got those notes, there was a part of me that knew they were for me. That someone had been watching me, stalking me. I just didn’t want it to be real, so I pretended like they were for someone else. That it was a mistake.
“I’m guessing you don’t have them anymore,” Cooper says.
I shake my head. “I threw them away under the pretense that I couldn’t give them to the person they were meant for without a name. I think, in all actuality, they scared me, and I didn’t want the reminder of them sitting on my counter.”
“Did anything else happen after the notes?”
I glance at Ben, his face serious as he nods his head. I can see how worried he is about me. This, on top of the attempted kidnapping,doesn’t bode well for my safety.
“Someone tried to kidnap me.”
“Excuse me?” Cooper stands and begins to pace. “What the fuck, Sara?”
I cringe. “I know. I should have told you. I should have called it in the night it happened. After Ben saved me, we heard shouts and found Dan Beckett’s dog, Archie, had gotten hit by a car. We immediately went into surgery, so by the time my adrenaline had come down, I was too shell-shocked to think straight. Then I was too traumatized to tell anyone what happened.”
“You saved her?” Cooper asks Ben.
“Yeah.” He looks at me, eyes shining from the memory of that night. “I’d walked out of La Mensa and saw her fighting some guy in the back of the parking lot. I didn’t think; I just reacted.”
“Jesus.” Cooper runs his hands across his face. “You know this is all connected, right? The notes, the abduction, the break-in tonight. It’s all the same guy who won’t take no for an answer.” He sighs, then sits back down in the chair. “Any chance you got a look at him?”
I can only shake my head. My memories from that night are fuzzy at best, blank at worst.
“He was big, like bigger than me big, and was wearing overalls, but I don’t remember what he looked like,” Ben says, reaching out for my hand, squeezing it as if he needs to be reminded that I’m okay.
“Okay. I’ll check with Tammy at La Mensa about cameras, but I doubt she set any up in the parking lot when she took over management.”
“Thanks, Cooper.”
“What can we do in the meantime? We need to protect her somehow,” Ben asks.
“Could you stay with your parents in Westlake for a few days? Give my guys some time to run DNA on the note.”
I turn up my nose. I really don’t want to go to my parents’ house, but I guess I will if I have to. “Probably. Too bad your house isn’t done yet,” I say to Ben.
His lips quirk up. “No kidding. We’ll figure something out.”
As Ben’s hands massage my neck, easing the tension there, Cooper gets his guys rounded up and leaves my house. It took them about three hours to catalog everything they thought could be important, and while I appreciated the thoroughness, it made the creepy crawlies worse knowing they’d be going through my stuff. At least this time, I gave them permission to do it.
The image of someone pawing at my underwear and playing with my dirty clothes sends a shiver down my spine. Why is this happening to me?
“Do you want me to tell my parents to reschedule dinner tonight?”
I stand from my chair, letting the dogs off their leashes now that the police are gone. They sprint across the backyard, goofing around, happy they no longer have to be tied down.
Sitting back down in my chair, I sigh as I try to decide how I feel about going to dinner. “No, I think it could be good for me to get out of the house, away from the idea of me having a”—I swallow—“stalker. Plus, your dad would be sad if he didn’t get his steak tonight.”
“Okay, why don’t we pack a bag for you and the dogs, then we can fulfill one of my long-time fantasies. Having a hot girl in my bedroom.” He grins at me, turning his face adorably boyish.
“Deal.” I grin back.
* * *
