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The only thing she could grasp on to was the truck description. Luke had mentioned that it was an older blue pickup. If she could point the police in Randy’s direction, and it turned out that he owned a truck matching that description, then she would be doing everyone a favor. In her experience, however, the police didn’t usually take the worrywart of a wife very seriously and, with the exception of the last time, Randy never got more than a slap on the wrist. He could be very slippery when it came to the law.
Maybe she could ask her lawyer instead. He might be willing to check into it. She didn’t have much confidence in the man after that stunt he pulled, but with the threat of taking her business elsewhere, she might be able to set a fire under him long enough to get some answers.
The door to Luke’s office opened and Terri lifted her head to find Luke drawing up a chair beside her, a look of concern pinching his brows together.
“You okay, Terri?”
Sitting back, Terri sighed, knowing what she must have looked like to him. Her eyes felt tired, her body fatigued, and her heart heavy. She was a mess.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” she offered as an explanation. Gathering her garbage, she was prepared to head back to work when Luke stopped her.
“Is there anything you want to talk about? You look…I don’t know…troubled.” He frowned, as if those weren’t his first choice of words, but he didn’t know how else to explain himself.
Terri rolled her lips in a barely there smile. “I just have some things I need to work out right now, but thanks for the offer.”
The silence stretched between them as Luke regarded her a moment longer. Finally, he nodded, seeming to accept her words. “All right, but you come to me if you need anything, okay?”
“Sure, Luke.” Pulling the door open, Terri strode off, eager to get back to work.
She wasn’t on the floor for more than five minutes when Cathie called her behind the bar.
“You have a phone call, doll.” Passing off the receiver, she flashed a quick grin over her shoulder and said, “It’s a guy.”
Not knowing anyone who would possibly be calling her, let alone a man, not to mention at work, puzzled Terri. With a dark frown, she lifted the receiver and pressed it to her ear.
“Hello?”
At first she didn’t hear a thing, the noise in the bar drowning everything out. Turning her back to the room, she cupped her hand over the phone and repeated the greeting.
At first, she didn’t trust what her ears were hearing. The voice was too distinct, too familiar to be real. Her first inclination was to throw out the most obvious explanation and come up with something that she was better equipped to handle mentally. However, when his voice came down the line again, rough and laced with menace, reality slammed into her like a freight train.
“Hi there, sweets,” Randy said smoothly. “Miss me?”
Terri’s voice seemed to be caught in her throat, a lump that she had difficulty even getting her short breaths past.
“Judging by your silence, I’ll take that as a yes. Don’t try to deny it,” he snapped, then quickly reigned in his temper.
Terri didn’t realize she had been shaking her head. In that instant, she knew he was watching her. Immediately, she spun on her heel and scanned the crowd. There were so many people tonight, she could barely make out their faces, let alone single one out. As he continued to talk, she slowed her visual inspection, breaking the room down into square foot sections, taking in every face methodically. Randy had distinct, pale blonde hair, and anyone who didn't fit that description, she tossed out of the equation, and those with similarly blonde hair she subjected to intense scrutiny.
“You’re looking good, sweets,” he complimented her from his hidden vantage point. “Always knew you would live up to your full potential one day.”
She could almost feel him moving through the room, his eyes pinned to her every step of the way. It made her skin crawl.
“From housewife to barmaid,” he continued. “Wouldn’t your mother be proud.”
“My mother was always proud of me,” she sneered into the phone. Bringing up her deceased mother had always been a sore spot for her, and he well knew it. She would not allow him to sully her memory any longer.
Randy snickered, loving that he had managed a reaction out of her. “You always were easy to rile up, sweets.”
“Don’t call me that,” she nearly shouted in return, but managed to lower her voice at the last minute to avoid attracting any unnecessary attention.
“Not so fond of that nickname anymore?” He clicked his tongue thoughtfully. “How about love bug? Does that suit you better?”
“I hate it,” Terri growled, hoping to sound as angry as she felt.
“Good, love bug it is. Now,” he went on, uncaring of her growing temper. “I must be going, but before you beg me to stay, I want to assure you that I won’t be far.” Suddenly it was as if the sound coming through the other end of the phone had entered a vacuum.
Eyes darting frantically across the sea of dancers, Terri honed in on a set of familiar wide shoulders set against a tall frame and a head of pale blonde hair cut short in an almost military fashion, exiting the club. It had to be Randy, she thought, but he was gone from view so quickly, she couldn’t be sure.
