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“I’m worried about her,” Luke exhales sharply. “She’s erratic, on edge. I just stopped by the Masons’ house, and she was literally shaking while painting one of the kitchen walls.”
“What can we do?”
“I don’t know. But I’m starting to think she might take matters into her own hands,” Luke replies. “She might be planning to take the girls and run off. Avery thinks it’s no longer safe despite our many reassurances. If Daniel truly found her in North Platte, she might feel that she has to change towns again, if only to put some distance between him and the little ones.”
“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that possibility, too,” I concede, leaning back into my swivel chair. “It’s not like we can stop her though.”
“Shouldn’t we try? Maybe formulate some sort of plan to convince her to stay?”
I give him a hard look. “We can’t keep her here against her will, Luke. She’s not ours to keep.”
Who am I kidding? I’m past the point of no return here, and so are Luke and Fallon. We’re head over heels with this woman, and we’re working overtime to put her frayed mind at ease. As much as I try to keep a clear head and a clean rationale over the whole situation, I might as well admit to myself that I have fallen for Avery—deeply and irreversibly. Judging by the look on Luke’s face and knowing my twin brother as well as I do, at least I can take comfort in knowing that I am definitely not the only one in this predicament.
“Kellan, it’s not just about how we feel about her,” Luke says. “It’s about doing what’s right. I’ve seen what a terrified woman can do, her first instinct would be to run away and inadvertently put herself in more danger. You heard Avery yesterday—she already feels like she’s a ‘burden’. If she thinks that Daniel could get closer, she will most likely flee. And we will never forgive ourselves if we just let her run away. Especially if something happens to her or the girls.”
“Once she’s out of our care, Avery will be a target,” I mutter. “Yeah, you make a valid point.”
“Valid point aside, come on, man, how much longer are we gonna keep lying to ourselves?”
“Let’s not talk feelings here. Not now,” I say.
Luke raises an eyebrow. “Oh, but I think that now is precisely the time to address this. I’m definitely falling for her. Fallon, too. You? I’m not so sure, you’re always so righteous and stoic. You’re hard to read, sometimes.”
“I’m not indifferent,” I choose to concede this time around. “But I need to be focused and sharp, especially if Daniel really is here.”
“What do you mean? Avery saw him.”
“Are we completely sure about that? Helen didn’t see him. He’s not on any of the cameras.”
Luke clears his throat, looking for an appropriate response, but I can tell that this angle doesn’t sit well with him. “There weren’t any cameras pointed at the café where Daniel was supposedly standing. We don’t have CCTV to neither confirm nor deny.”
“We only have Avery’s word,” I insist. “Think about it for a moment. What if the stress of the situation is making her—”
“See things? Are you saying Avery is losing her mind?”
“I’m not saying that. No, she’s not losing her mind, dammit, Luke,” I pinch the bridge of my nose, unable to process my own frustration. “It’s just that she could’ve thought she saw him. A hallucination, perhaps, brought upon by the sheer stress of the situation. She could’ve thought it was real, that’s all. I’m just considering the possibility here, especially since there isn’t anything popping up on any cameras. The man isn’t a ghost. We should’ve seen him by now.”
“But the café didn’t have cameras. Neither did the shop across the street. We all saw that footage, Kellan. Every other CCTV unit was too far from that spot. The images were too grainy to make anything out,” Luke insists.
“I know.”
Luke takes another deep breath and closes his eyes for a moment. I guess he knows me well enough not to let his own defensive instincts get in the way. He believes Avery. I only wish I could do the same, but my position as sheriff forces me to consider every possibility—there are no coincidences and I need palpable proof.
“Listen, let’s keep monitoring the CCTV feeds,” he says after a short but heavy silence. “I’ve got agents posted on the school for Annie and Miley, and two more watching the Masons’ house while Avery is there. She is under constant surveillance, and she knows it.”
“Yet she’s still jittery.”
“Yeah. We need to find this fucker before he scares her away. Honestly, Kellan, I don’t want to lose this woman, or her girls. Not after everything we’ve done together. You can’t lie to me, and you can’t lie to yourself, either. We said we wouldn’t catch feelings but that is exactly what happened. We might as well face it and figure out a way to work with it in the long term. But Avery needs to be free from Daniel, first.”
I nod slowly. “What did your lawyers say?”
“Not what I had hoped. They know the county court judges fairly well, and they worry we may not have enough for such a wide-range protective order for Avery against Daniel. There needs to be evidence of egregious violence.”
“Egregious.”
The mere word sends shivers down my spine.
“Yeah. We can’t let Daniel get too close to her. It’d only take seconds to kill her. We can’t risk it. The only thing we can do is grab him, have you arrest him attempting to harm Avery or the girls, and then try and push for the case to go over to one of the circuit courts, instead. If we’re lucky enough to land a sympathetic judge there, we might have a better shot at keeping Daniel one state over from Avery even after he is released from prison.”
