Authors: Wild Horses
****
Adam paced in the hallway of the main house, his steps heavy and floorboards creaking. Dani’s door was closed, the light shone under it, and he couldn’t hear a damn word anyone was saying.
Dewey was out surveying the damage around the property and Carlee had already turned the horses out. Someone would call Angela and the parents of the kids for camp and make different arrangements, but not until around eight—it wasn’t yet six-thirty, too early to be making calls. Gus had locked himself and Dani in her room for the past twenty minutes and no one would tell Adam what in the hell was going on.
At last the door creaked. He ceased his steps to see Gus step out, leaning on his cane, eyes grave. He closed the door and hobbled forward.
“What’s happening?” Adam asked immediately.
Gus shook his head. “Not my place.”
Shit
. Adam gestured to her door. “Can I?”
“That’s up to her—”
Gus barely got the words out when Adam brushed past him to knock on Dani’s door.
She didn’t answer. He pressed his ear to the door and vaguely heard sniffling.
His heart contracted. “Dani? Please let me in?”
Her voice was broken when at last she said, “It’s open.”
Adam threw open the door and stepped inside, pushing it closed behind him. “What’s going on?”
She sat cross-legged in the middle of her bed, Gus’s cordless phone beside her. Luggage was out and by the dresser, clothes thrust in and the lids still open.
Adam hung back, not entirely certain what to say or do. Her eyes were cast down, tears streaking her cheeks, and fingertips trembled as she fidgeted.
“Dani?”
She wiped at her face. “I have a stalker.”
He processed. “So that’s who vandalized things?”
A bitter laugh left her lips. “I sure as hell hope so—I’d rather there not be a second one.”
“That’s why you’re here.”
She nodded. “Dr. Van Ike—he’s a ‘threat assessment expert’, supposedly—thought I needed to close down contact with everyone and disappear. They’ve been intercepting my email, phone calls, blog comments, instant messages, blah blah. I think they were hoping he’d slip up or come out of hiding, maybe start hanging around my apartment.”
“Instead he came...”
“Here. Apparently.”
At last he gave up hanging back—if she’d wanted him to leave, she would’ve told him to already. He eased forward with cautious steps and when she didn’t protest, he sat next to her on the bed.
A vise gripped his chest, squeezing, and he found it hard to speak. “So are you leaving?”
“I don’t know.” She gestured to the phone. “Probably. Just talked to the good doctor and he was all, ‘Oh, we didn’t anticipate
this
,’ and I said, ‘No shit, thanks for all your help,’ and hung up on him.”
He gave her a half smile. “Of course you did.”
A ghost of a grin touched her lips. “So yeah, that’s why I’m here, and that’s what’s going on, and no, I’m not planning to blog about anything, except maybe your really hot bod—not including a name, of course.”
Jesus, she’d been keeping quiet about this for a week and a half and he’d had no idea—he felt like an ass. “I’m sorry.”
She reached for him, tentatively it seemed; he met her halfway and folded her into his arms, sighing deeply as she hugged him.
“Did Gus call the police?” he asked.
“No.” Her voice was partially muffled by his chest but he made it out. “Doc has said not to.”
That seemed like bullshit. Okay, granted, he’d heard that a few times—that getting a restraining order or whatever was just a piece of paper and could trigger some psycho, but at the very least she needed proper protection. “And what do you say?”
She shifted so she could look up at him, and he brushed curls of dark hair back from her eyes, his fingertip tracing the delicate outline of her face. “I think up until this point he was right—the reason was that this guy hasn’t overtly threatened me, just been...creepy. Creepier than usual creepy anonymous internet people.
But
this is vandalism. Aggression. Escalation.” When she looked away, he tightened his embrace, he hoped reassuringly. “So...I don’t know.”
Thoughts circled his mind for a moment, scanning possibilities. “What if we got someone to investigate the area
without
involving the police? See if they can’t track down who it is?”
“You have an idea?”
“There’s a private investigator in town—old friend of Gus’s. He can check around for new people in the area while keeping a low profile. If you know who it is, they can at least be charged with vandalism and you can decide what else to do.”
“I don’t know what good it’ll do. He’s...called me.”
Adam tensed. “When?”
“Few days ago. When Carlee’s horse got sick. And he emailed Friday night, before that.”
He bit back a comment about how she should’ve told him. Of course, why
would she
have told him? He was already busy flipping out on her about shit. And Friday night—Saturday morning was when they found the downstairs trashed. No wonder she’d been so bewildered and horrified at the sight.
“The thing is,” she continued, “he isn’t stupid. Disposable cell. Throwaway email. He’s not going to room at the nearby Holiday Inn under Stalky McStalkerpants or anything.”
“Sweetheart, this town isn’t big enough for a Holiday Inn. And we have to try, right?”
“I guess.”
He hated how small her voice sounded. How...defeated.
“I really think I should go, though,” she said softly.
His heart sped. “I won’t let anything—”
But she pulled back, out of his arms, and shifted to sit against the headboard, crossing her arms at her chest and facing him. “He called me a
whore
, Adam. He knows I slept at your place. He collected my fucking
panties
from outside the restaurant—he’s here, he’s watching me, and he’s a lunatic who thinks we have some sort of relationship!”
“If he was going to hurt you—”
“He would’ve already?” Her eyes shone with fresh tears brimming. “What if it’s not me he decides to hurt—what if it’s you? What if he, I don’t know, burns the fucking farm down? What if you’re strolling off the porch one morning and he shoots you or something?” She glanced away, rubbing furiously at her eyes, sniffling and shaking her head. “I won’t do it. I won’t stay here and...”
Maybe she had a point, but what the hell was he supposed to do? Just watch her leave, not knowing...?
He swallowed a lump in his throat, looking away as well, that vise in his chest tightening, tightening. He had no right to expect otherwise. It wasn’t like her life was supposed to be here, with him, doing fucking farm chores all day.
“Once they figured it out,” he said carefully, “you were going to go back home anyway?” He cut her a sideways look and glimpsed her nodding.
That’s that, then
.
“Let’s call the P.I. when they open at nine,” he offered. “It won’t hurt to get someone on it—someone who’s here and knows the area, unlike your expert. Stay one more night and have your friends pick you up first thing in the morning.”
“Okay,” she said softly.
His heart hurt but he didn’t comment further. Twenty-four hours with her was better than nothing and, like she said, she hadn’t been planning on staying anyway.
Chapter Seventeen
Danyiah was sitting on the couch with Jenny sprawled out beside her when a car door opened and closed out front. The Doberman tensed but didn’t growl, settling her head like she knew things were fine. Dani straightened her back, alert but not rising—she didn’t need to because Adam was already on his way to greet the P.I. at the door.
His reactions and behavior after she told him the truth that morning warmed her even more to him. He hadn’t left her side, made her breakfast, reassured her. She almost didn’t want to leave him the next day.
Not almost, Dani Girl—you
definitely
don’t want to leave him
.
But it wasn’t fair to anyone there to put them in danger. The creep bothering her, whoever he was, certainly didn’t like her with another guy. Someone would pay for it, she knew. She’d heard all the stories from the doc, read up about women in similar situations—even if she initially thought it wasn’t really that bad, she wanted to know what she
could
expect. With things escalating, someone would be targeted for violence. Either her or Adam, and she couldn’t bear the idea of him being hurt.
No, leaving was definitely the right thing to do. So why was her stomach turning at the thought?
Gus sat in the chair across from the couch, silent, brows pulled into a frown of concern that basically hadn’t left his face all morning. She offered him a smile when he met her gaze. He’d been worried about her—they all had—and she was both grateful for the concern and burdened with trying to relieve it. She honestly didn’t want to cause any more problems than she already had, what with being the worst ranch hand
ever
and bringing some psycho to damage their property.
The urge to blog about everything had left her, strangely—definitely a first. But she’d reached a point where people might think she was making everything up; it was too weird, even for her.
The front door opened and Dani glanced up. It wasn’t the older gentleman she’d been expecting but a young woman, maybe her age or a bit younger. Black jeans, white tank top, and a black shrug made her casual and not the business-y person Dani was expecting. Her hair hung in loose black curls to her shoulders and her skin was a lighter brown. Pretty and naturally so with no makeup on.
Pretty and
armed, Dani amended when she saw the gun holstered at her hip.
“Hi Gus!” the woman called cheerily, once again reminding Dani that everyone knew
everyone
in a small town like Stirling Falls. She took a seat on the loveseat across from Dani while Adam followed and came to lean against the arm of the chair, constantly tense like he was waiting for something to do.
“Leo off today?” Gus asked.
“Doing paperwork. He’s retiring this year, you know.”
Gus waved her off. “Bah, he says that every year.”
“Insists he means it this time.” She turned her gaze to Dani at last. “You’re Danyiah?”
“Yeah.”
She rose for a moment, leaned over and offered her hand. “Natasha Whitaker.”
Dani accepted the gesture. “You’re the P.I.?”
Natasha sent Gus a sidelong glance as she sat. “Probably not the one you were expecting, but yes. I’ve been taking over most cases for my boss right now. Why don’t you tell me what’s been going on and we’ll set up a plan of attack.”
Dani immediately liked her. She got that glint in her eye, a mix of excitement and devotion—something Dani recognized and sought in people. Most of the guests she had on her blog were widely varied but all had that in common: passion for what they did, be it raise kids, sing, or write comedy like she did.
She launched into a summary of what had occurred thus far, concentrating on recent events because she didn’t have documentation with her on the previous issues. Of course, the bit about sex beside the restaurant seemed slightly scandalous with Gus—old enough to be her father—sitting right there, so she was vague about that and just implied she must’ve been seen eating out with Adam. Natasha didn’t stop her, just continued jotting things down in her notebook.
Adam brought them out a few cups of coffee while Natasha sat back, tapping the end of her pen against her notes. She accepted the drink and sipped it, frowning as she thought.
“So he’s at least been in town the past few days,” she said at last.
“Presumably,” Dani replied.
“Or since Friday,” Adam said. “The room was trashed before the party, remember.”
Of course, how could I forget.
Dani shivered. “And we changed that lock. Still don’t know how he got in the first time, of course but presumably if he could’ve gotten in last night, he would’ve...”
I don’t want to finish that thought
.
“At least since Monday, possibly Friday—okay. Unfortunately, this time of year we have a chunk of vacationers here—there are campgrounds about five miles outside of town, a trailer park, and tons of people with boats by the marina. There are a handful of regulars who might notice new people in town, but it’s not like winter where that’s a rare occurrence.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“I’ll start by asking around for who might’ve been seen lurking around town Monday night when you were there, and for anyone who might’ve been asking questions about the farm.” She slipped her pen into the notebook’s spiral binding and stood. “I’ll be in touch tomorrow with an update, whether it leads to anything or not.”
Dani, Adam, and Gus stood as well. Her throat tightened. “I...won’t be here after tomorrow morning. It seemed safer for everyone...”
Natasha nodded. “I understand. I’ll touch base with Gus and call to fill you in as well.”
“I appreciate it. I’ll be in the city with friends and can leave the number.”
“No problem.” Natasha backed up, rounding the loveseat, and gave a little wave as she headed toward the door. “By the way, I loved your mashup video of
Friday the 13th
to ‘Bring me to Life.’”
Dani grinned. She respected a woman who did her homework.