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Rage roars to life inside me. But before I can move, she shoves him back and I stop in my tracks, surprised.
“I’m not yours, Ash. Get the hell off my property before I call the cops.”
She turns to go and he grabs her arm and I growl under my breath.
She jerks out of his grasp and I watch as the Sheriff, Gage Hunter pulls up in front of the house and steps out of his car. He sees me over to the side and nods his head. Cassidy’s eyes widen and she smiles slightly at me.
Immediately this gets the asshole’s attention. His blue eyes skip over to me and he glares at me. I see him open his mouth to ask a question but Gage gets to him first.
I don’t hear what he says because it’s too quiet but it’s impossible to miss the rage of red that suffuses the guy’s face. He pauses, like he’s debating whether to argue with Gage or not.
Apparently deciding that it’s not worth it, he shoots me and Cassidy vicious glares and then stomps away to a candy-apple red mustang parked across the street.
Gage nods his head at me and then turns to Cassidy to talk to her. I sure as hell hope that he’s telling her to get a protection order against that asshole.
But I don’t wait to find out. Just step back inside and close the door.
This day has just been weird from the get-go. I can’t wait until it’s all over and hopefully things go back to normal. Quiet and uneventful. Just the way I like it.
CHAPTER2
CASSIDY
I watchFranklin walk in his house and I turn to Gage. He nods at Franklin.
“You know him?”
“Yeah.” I smile. “As much as anyone does, I guess.”
He grins. “Yeah. He’s a private guy.” We watch my ex walk away. “I think you need to do something about that guy.”
“Like what?”
“A protective order. I’m a witness and so is Franklin, if you need it. But after I put the report in, I’ll make sure that you get a copy and tell you what to do and say with the judge.”
“You really think that’s necessary.”
“I do.” He points at Ash’s rapidly-retreating figure, still vibrating with fury, his face dark with anger. “That guy over there is not going to let this go. Oh, don’t get me wrong. He’ll disappear into the woodwork for awhile until things die down but then like some kind of roach he’ll creep back out and find you again.”
I sigh and run my hands through my hair. “I guess I can do that. I don’t understand why he won’t let this go.” My lips firm and I practically snarl the last words.
“He’s a privileged idiot that doesn’t like to lose. That’s probably the extent of it. I don’t want to be mean but I don’t think he still loves you.”
“I don’t think he ever did.” And I don’t. Right from the get-go it was all about him. He never really cared what I thought or how I felt and if I tried to tell him, he just shut me down. Over and over again until I stopped trying. I just let him get away with his bad tempered blow-ups over nothing at all.
Until a month ago.
I close my eyes and that queasy feeling hits my belly again. He was at work. Or so I thought. In reality, he was apparently watching me and had been for awhile. He even quit his damn job so he could keep track of me.
But I didn’t know it at the time. All I knew was that he was at work and I was free for awhile. So I called and met a friend for lunch. A girlfriend.
And he followed me and made a huge scene at the restaurant. And that was the last straw. He embarrassed me and then he grabbed my arms. Hard. Shook the hell out of me until it felt like my head was going to snap off. The only thing that stopped him was when the restaurant called the police. They showed up and of course, he was all smiles and apologies.
“I’m so sorry, Officer. I just lost my head for a minute. You know how it is. Sometimes these women just really ask for it.” The creepy smirk he wears says that he’s not telling the cop anything that he doesn’t know.
Unfortunately for him, there was video and too many corroborating witnesses to count.
That was when I decided to get the hell out. My friend, Odette, was appalled and quickly helped me grab my things and move them to her place. She lives outside of town and runs a small health food store with natural remedies. Everyone in Wildwood calls her the town witch. Which I think is damn mean. She’s not a witch. She works very hard doing research to help people. To come up with natural stuff to help take care of people. People like her that have allergies to medications and the natural world around us. Plants, trees. You name it.
