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“Don’t bother because I won’t take it.”
“Of course you will.”
He gave her a look that said to drop it. Then he helped her shut everything down and started toward his truck, only to turn back at the last second. “Hey, you haven’t heard anything from that dentist guy you had trouble with last Friday, have you?”
She hesitated as though she wasn’t sure how to respond.
“Have you?” he pressed.
She cleared her throat. “Everything’s...fine.”
He could tell everything wasn’t fine—or, at a minimum, she wasn’t sure if it was fine. “It was a simple question. You wouldn’t give me a yes or a no. What happened? Did you report him to the police?”
“No. I didn’t want to risk getting you in trouble.”
“So...”
“I just... I reported him to the dating site. I felt I had to alert other women, at least on the site where he’s actively trying to date, that there’s something wrong with him.”
“And? How’d that go?”
“They must’ve contacted him about it, because he texted me to say I’d better retract my complaint.”
“Did you retract it?” he asked, slightly apprehensive that she might’ve just picked another fight with Jordan.
“No.”
Of course not. Ellen wasn’t someone who was easy to intimidate. “And did he let it go?”
“So far,” she said.
He walked back to her. He was getting to know her well enough to be able to pick up on various nonverbal clues. “Why do I get the impression there’s something you’re not sharing with me?”
She waved a dismissive hand. “Because it’s probably nothing. I mean...he said I’d be sorry, but... I think he was just talking. What can he do?”
Depending on how far he was willing to go, he could do a lot. Hendrix didn’t like that he’d even made the threat. “You don’t think he’ll come back here...”
“No,” she said. “But I do wish he didn’t know where I live.”
“You need to listen to your intuition and keep an eye out. If he shows up, call the police immediately.”
She shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans. “It’s a long drive from Libby. I can’t believe he’d come all the way down here just to harass me.”
Unless getting back at her would give him some kind of pleasure. Maybe he’d connected with other women on the site and was furious they’d be given negative information about him.
Hendrix opened his mouth to say she needed to be cautious regardless of the illusion of safety a five-hour drive might create, but before he could get the words out, the sound of a motor drew their attention. A red truck had turned onto the property. Jay. Hendrix had waited too long to leave. “Damn it,” he cursed.
“Do you want to go?” Ellen asked. “I can handle this.”
Maybe he should. There was no reason he needed to stay and field Jay’s questions. Jay hadn’t hiredhim. “I think I will,” he said. “What’re you going to tell him?”
She blinked several times. “Are you saying...you don’t want him to know you helped?”
“I don’t see why that would be necessary. As far as I’m concerned, no one needs to know. Just say I stopped by to tell you off for undercutting my bid. He’ll believe that.”
“You’re not going to take any of the creditorany money?” she asked.
“Nope. But Iwilllet you make me dinner this weekend,” he said with a wink and hurried back to his truck so he could take off before he had to face Jay.
