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“Evelyn?”
She sat there frozen, not fidgeting, not moving at all. Given that she had just gotten a death threat, I didn’t blame her. Finally, she looked up at me, but she wasn’t there. Not fully in her body. Her spirit had gone.
“Hi,” she finally said.
I crouched in front of her, holding myself back from begging her to tell me who it was so I could kill him. Later, I would get to the gym and beat the hell out of a bag with a phantom face on it until I was too exhausted for the dreams to come.
“I didn’t know he was coming after you.”
“Yeah.”
“He’s why you’re running,” I said again, because I needed the confirmation. “He gave you the scars?”
She nodded.
I stood and turned away, pushing down the fury that wasn’t directed at her. Yes, I was angry that she hadn’t told me, didn’t trust me, but that was a different conversation. “Do you know how he found you?”
“I have an idea. Not for sure.”
What next? If she was in danger, we needed to establish security and boundaries. Quickly. I wasn’t about to lock her up, but I wanted to put her inside the ranch where we had cameras.
“I need to know something, Ev,” I said. “Please.”
She looked at me again, waiting. I hated the deadness in her eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me he was still coming after you?”
“Because you’d want to help me,” she said. “You would go after him, and I can’t put you—or anyone else here—on his radar. You don’t know what he’ll do.”
Frustration scraped my insides like sandpaper. He’d made her feel powerless. So powerless that she’d had to leave her life and thirteen others besides, and through all that, she was still trying to protect people.
“I can take care of myself, Ev,” I said softly. “I need you to hear that and believe it.”
“I do. But you don’t know him.”
“Then tell me.”
There was a soft knock on the door, and Lena opened it. “Lucas, let me grab you for a second.”
“Okay.”
Evelyn was coming back. I could see it in her face and body, but she didn’t look like she was about to tell me shit.
“I just thought of something,” Lena said after I pulled the door closed. “The package with the ring. It didn’t have a return address on it. And the flowers weren’t delivered during business hours. They were waiting when she got here this morning. Does that mean he’s here?”
I clenched my jaw and focused on keeping my body still. “I don’t know.” As soon as Ev was home and safe, I needed to call Jerry again. This time, there had to be something.
“Keep her safe, Lucas,” Lena said. “I don’t give a shit if that means I’m working alone. Don’t let this asshole—whoever he is—get to her.”
“Not planning on it. Thank you, Lena.”
In the shop proper, Grace and Harlan were facing off like they were about to have an old-fashioned shootout.
“I’m going to take Evelyn home,” I told him. “Can you call Jerry and get the footage that covers the front of the store this morning?”
“Sure thing.” He never took his eyes off Grace.
“You okay to get home?”
