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She stilled when a familiar hand settled on her shoulder.
Joe didn’t have to say anything. Hell, he didn’t even need to breathe for her to know it was him.
He was the one she’d wanted comfort from, but now that the comfort was being offered, she needed to put the kibosh on it. Just like she’d needed to put the kibosh on their fling. For her own sanity, she’d had to. It was the smartest choice. As much as their romantic end hurt now, the reality was they’d been together for less than a week.Oneweek. She couldn’t risk getting in deeper with him, couldn’t risk falling completely in love. Because when it ended weeks or months down the road? It would have been even more devastating.
“Don’t worry about the mess, Roxanne,” Joe said softly. “I’ll take care of it.”
“That’s okay. My place, my mess.” She averted her gaze and tried to walk past him.
“Hey.” His grip tightened on her arm. “We’re friends. That’s what you said earlier, right?”
She nodded, blinking furiously as her eyes watered.
“Then let me be your friend and clean this up for you. Stay with Alex. Check on June and Nina. Let me and Quinn take care of this.”
Her gaze stayed locked on her toes, but she nodded.
As he walked away, a fist gripped her heart and squeezed.We’re friends. Let me be your friend and clean this up for you. Those words had slayed her. They’d shown how quickly, how easily, Joe was able to fall back into being friends. Like what they’d shared this last week meant nothing to him.
Roxie gasped for breath.Dammit. The pain proved how far she’d already fallen for him.
She wanted to scream,Erase! Erase!and tell him she’d made a horrible mistake. That she wanted to go back to how it had been before she’d opened her stupid mouth, to go back to him holding her in his arms and making all the bad things go away.
Instead, she straightened her spine. Shewouldget through this. She’d had an entire childhood—an entire lifetime, really—of doing things on her own. This was no different.
“Roxie?”
Glancing up, she spotted Quinn standing in the entryway of her café, motioning for her to join him. She was at his side in a few strides. His demeanor put her on edge. Her friend was fully in cop mode.
“What’s wrong?” She cringed. “Aside from the obvious.”
“I’m going to have Deputy Chase and a couple of my other guys clean up here and board up the front window. I want to talk to you at the station.” He nodded at Joe, who stood close by. “You too.”
“I take it this wasn’t some punk kids throwing rocks?” she asked, attempting humor.
“No, Roxie.” Quinn’s gaze was steady, but the crinkle between his brows had dread swirling in her belly. “You’ve got a big problem.”
* * *
“He’s escalating,” Joe said, leaning against the closed office door. He glanced at Quinn, who gave a slight nod of confirmation from his seat at his desk.
Groaning, Roxie dropped onto the guest chair and rubbed her temples. “You think this was the stalker’s doing?”
Quinn placed a clear evidence bag on the desk and pushed it in her direction. “That’s what broke your window.”
“It’s a brick.” She shook her head, confusion and exhaustion written on her face. “The cylinders aren’t all firing right now, Quinn. I don’t understand what you’re getting at.”
Quinn turned the bag over, and the bang it made on the desk sounded like a hammer knocking the proverbial final nail into a coffin. A single word was painted on the brick.
WHORE.
Joe bit back a growl as he watched the blood drain from Roxie’s face. Quinn had told him about the brick before they’d arrived, but seeing it for himself was different. And seeing how it affected Roxie—how it sparked fear in her beautiful green eyes—had him wanting to put his fist through a wall. Better yet, he wanted to put his fist through the asshole responsible for this.
Tears shimmered in Roxie’s eyes when she looked over at Quinn. She took a deep breath in and lifted her chin. When her lips wobbled, she pursed them into a firm line. She was desperately trying to put on her brave face. The fact that she was failing cut him to the fucking core. It made him want to howl.
“But I haven’t done anything,” she whispered. Her eyes locked on his, and her voice shook as she added, “I swear to you both, I haven’t.”
His heart ached. It killed him that Roxie thought she deserved any of this. And dammit, it destroyed him that her self-doubt was his fault.
