Harlequin Intrigue March 2021--Box Set 2 of 2

by Nichole Severn

  “Thanks, Juanita. I couldn’t do a good job for Ed right now no matter how much I wanted to,” Ainsley replied.

  “With that in mind, why don’t you let Melinda stay here with us for a week or two? I can get her to school in the mornings, and you know she’s always good for me.”

  “Oh no, that’s asking too much,” Ainsley protested.

  “Nonsense. We’d love to have her. Let me take care of her while you take care of yourself,” Juanita replied.

  “Are you sure you wouldn’t mind?” Ainsley felt the hot press of tears of gratitude. This was why she loved this town...because of people like Juanita and Ed. For all of Ed’s blustering, he had a heart of gold.

  “If I minded, I wouldn’t have brought it up,” Juanita replied. “My friend, please, let me do this for you.”

  Ainsley looked at Hunter and then back at Juanita. “Okay, but I’ll need to take her home now so she can pick out some clothes to pack and then we’ll bring her back here.”

  “I’ll go get her.” Juanita got up from the table and disappeared from the room.

  “Are you okay with this?” Hunter asked her softly.

  “Actually, I’m a little bit relieved. Melinda will stay in school and Juanita will keep her on a regular routine. I won’t worry about her if she’s here.”

  Melinda and Juanita’s daughter Bonnie came running into the room. “Is it true, Mom? I get to stay here for a whole week or maybe more?”

  “Would you like that?” Ainsley asked.

  Melinda and Bonnie hugged each other and bounced up and down with excitement. “Yes, I would like it,” Melinda exclaimed.

  “Then you need to come with us right now so you can pack a bag and then we’ll bring you back here,” Ainsley said.

  “Awesome,” Melinda replied and then frowned. “What happened to your chin?”

  “I...uh...I took a nasty fall last night. I hit my chin and hurt my ribs,” Ainsley said. The last thing she wanted was for her daughter to be afraid.

  Melinda’s features softened, and she released her hold on Bonnie and sidled up next to Ainsley. “Do you want me to come home and take care of you?”

  Ainsley wrapped an arm around her daughter. “No, honey. I’ll be fine. I’m going to stay at Hunter’s house while you stay here.”

  “Are you sure?” Melinda asked. “Will he take good care of you?”

  “I promise I will,” Hunter said.

  Ainsley smiled. “Okay then, let’s get going so we can get your clothes for a week.”

  Within minutes the three of them were headed back to the apartment. When they arrived, Ainsley stared at the door, replaying what had happened the last time she’d stood at that door.

  Icy chills raced up and down her spine, and her ribs hurt even more as she remembered the kicks she’d received. “Okay?” Hunter asked softly, as if he knew how hard it was for her to come back here.

  She straightened her back and reached for the inner strength that had gotten her through hell in the past. “I’m fine,” she replied. “Let’s just get this done.”

  They entered the apartment, and Hunter headed for the sofa. “Melinda, get out your pink suitcase and pack it with school and play clothes. I’ll be in to check it in just a few minutes,” Ainsley said.

  Hunter sat on the sofa while Ainsley went into her bedroom and Melinda went into hers. From the closet Ainsley pulled out a suitcase and opened it on the floor. There was no way with her screaming ribs she could lift it onto the bed.

  She paused for a moment, trying to decide what she should take with her for being gone for a week or two. With her ribs hurting like they did, all she wanted was loose-fitting pants and T-shirts.

  She quickly packed up what she thought she would need and grabbed her bag of toiletries off the back of the stool in the bathroom. Before going back to her room, she decided to check in on Melinda.

  She was about to enter her daughter’s bedroom when she heard it...the unmistakable deep voice of her ex-husband coming from someplace inside the room.

  Shock and then a wild terror froze her in place. The toiletry bag fell from her hand, and a scream lodged in the back of her throat.

  “I’m coming soon for you, baby girl,” the disembodied voice said.

  Peter...he was here.

  Oh God, he’d found them again.

  He was not only someplace in Dusty Gulch, he was in their apartment. She backed away from Melinda’s bedroom, a scream begging to be released.

  After all this time, when she was sure she was safe, she wasn’t. He’d found her, and it was only a matter of time before he’d kill her.

  * * *

  HUNTER KNEW THE minute Ainsley came into the living room that something had happened. Her face was white, and her entire body was visibly trembling.

  “Honey, what’s wrong?” he asked. He jumped up off the sofa.

  She motioned for him to step outside the door. When they stood on the stoop, she stared at him for a long moment. “I need to go. I really care about you, but I need to pack up everything in my car and get out of town as fast as I can,” she whispered.

  He frowned. “Ainsley, what are you talking about?”

  “Melinda hasn’t been lying. Her father has been talking to her. I heard him just now. Peter is here and I’ve got to leave town.”

  The words flew out of her in a rush. Hunter could feel her desperate urgency, an urgency he didn’t understand. “You heard him? What do you mean? Where?”

  “Just now in Melinda’s room.” Her voice rose with hysteria. “I’ve got to go.”

  What the hell was going on? “I thought your ex-husband didn’t care about you or Melinda.”

  “I lied, and now I’ve got to leave. I...I’ve got to take Melinda and run.” She whirled around to go back inside, but he caught her by the arm to stop her.

  “Ainsley, listen to me. I don’t know what’s going on right now, but we have a plan. Just get your things to go to my place, and Melinda will be safe with Ed and Juanita.”

  “You don’t understand, but I need to run. It’s...it’s what we do. I...I need to find a place where he can’t find us. He’s going to take Melinda and he’s going to...to kill me.” Her eyes were huge pools of abject terror as she clutched at the front of his shirt.

  “Ainsley, try to calm down. You don’t have to run. We now know who the bad guy is. We’ll get him. We’re going to find him and get him behind bars. I just need for you to give me some time and some more information. Can you do that, baby?” He took her by the shoulders. “Can you trust me?”

  She held his gaze for several long minutes, and he could feel some of the sick energy inside her ease away. “Okay, I’ll try things your way for now.”

  “Let’s go back inside.” He pushed his car keys into her hand. “Get you and Melinda packed up and leave the suitcases in your rooms. Then go lock yourselves in my truck. Is there attic access in your apartment?”

  Once again she clutched at the front of his shirt. “Don’t go up there. He’ll...he’ll kill you, Hunter. He’s a very sick, dangerous man.”

  Hunter touched the handle of his gun in his holster. “You don’t understand. When somebody threatens somebody I love, I become a dangerous man. Now, where’s the attic access?”

  “In the bathroom,” she finally said.

  “Thank you.” He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. “Get packed and get in the truck, okay? You have a flashlight?”

  “Under the kitchen sink.” Her fingers tightened on the front of his shirt. “Please, Hunter. Don’t let him kill you.”

  “I won’t,” he replied firmly.

  They went back inside, and within minutes Melinda and Ainsley were packed and locked inside the truck. The moment they left the apartment, Hunter grabbed the flashlight beneath her kitchen sink and then hurried into the bathr
oom.

  He stepped up on the toilet lid and then onto the edge of the sink, where he had to crouch. He reached up to move the piece of ceiling that gave access to the attic. Once it was dislodged, he pulled his gun. He wasn’t about to stand all the way up not knowing if he’d catch a bullet in the head.

  “Dusty Gulch Sheriff’s Department. Come down with your hands up.” He waited and listened. Nothing. He repeated the command and again waited to hear something...anything that would let him know where the man was in what he assumed was a very large attic.

  Still he heard nothing. Not a rustle, not any movement that would indicate anyone in the immediate space.

  His heart pounded fast and furiously. Adrenaline poured through his veins. He finally straightened up, leading the way with his gun and the flashlight.

  He pointed the light to the left and then slowly panned to the right. He didn’t see anyone. He stuck the light and his gun in his waistband and then pulled himself up and into the attic. He quickly grabbed the light and his gun once again.

  Once again he scanned the area with his light. There didn’t appear to be another person up here. Had the perp already escaped through another access?

  He was about to take a couple of careful steps forward when he saw them...a tangle of wires that he knew didn’t belong up there.

  Realization struck him. Ainsley and her daughter had been spied on, and there had to be speakers involved so that the man could talk to his daughter. How long had these things been up here? Who in the hell was Ainsley’s ex-husband?

  He got down from the attic and went into Melinda’s room. He spied the camera in the ceiling, along with a tiny little speaker, and he knew there were others located around the apartment.

  He immediately called Nick. “Hey, man, I was going to catch up with you and Ainsley later today. How’s she doing?”

  “She’s sore, but doing okay. I’m moving her into my house right now. You need to get to the café and check out the attic above her rooms. There are cameras and I don’t know what else up here to spy on her.”

  “What?” Nick’s voice was filled with stunned surprise.

  “Yeah, and we now know who the bad guy is. It’s Ainsley’s ex-husband. I’m hoping she has a picture of him on her phone or someplace so we can find him and get him in jail.” Hunter spoke fast, aware of the two waiting in the car. “I’m leaving her apartment right now. We’ll be at my place in just a little while.”

  “Okay, I’ll head to the café right now and touch base with you later.”

  The two men hung up, and Hunter hurried into Melinda’s room and grabbed her small, pink-flowered suitcase and then went into Ainsley’s bedroom and picked up her black suitcase. He carried them outside and loaded them into the truck, then got behind the steering wheel with a reassuring smile at Ainsley.

  She didn’t smile back. She stared out the passenger window and her trembling fingers twisted into knots in her lap. Once they were alone, he had a lot of questions for her.

  She’d already confessed she’d lied to him about her ex-husband. What else might she have lied about? He definitely needed some answers from her.

  He also needed any information she had about her ex-husband. If he was the person who had attacked her the night before, then he was in town and hopefully Nick and the other law enforcement officials could find him and get him in jail so that Ainsley and Melinda would be safe.

  They took Melinda back to Juanita’s, and during the ride to his house Ainsley remained silent and withdrawn. He was completely and totally in love with her. The utter depth of his love for her hit him out of left field.

  He’d known he enjoyed spending time with her. He knew that he liked everything about her. He’d realized he’d been working toward a future with her. He’d told Nick he was thinking about proposing to her. He was definitely in love with her, but he wondered what kind of secrets she was keeping.

  He’d been open and honest with her about everything in his life, and he’d believed she was open and honest with him. Now doubts twisted his gut. Why hadn’t she told him her ex-husband was a dangerous man before now?

  They arrived at his place, and he carried her suitcase through his front door. “Come on into the bedroom.” He led her into the room and placed her suitcase next to the bed. “You can unpack later. Right now we need to talk.”

  She gave a curt nod and then followed him into the living room. She sat on the sofa, her arms wrapped around her middle. She looked so beautiful and yet so small and vulnerable.

  He wanted to sit next to her and draw her into his arms. He wanted to tell her how much he loved her and that he wanted a forever future with her, but he didn’t. He had more important things to do.

  He got a small notebook and a pen from his kitchen desk drawer and then joined her on the sofa. “What’s your ex-husband’s name?”

  “Peter Waverly.” She didn’t meet his gaze.

  “Do you have a picture of him?” If they had a photo of him, then they could immediately show it around town. Somewhere somebody had to have seen the guy.

  “In my phone,” she replied. “It’s in my purse in the bedroom. I’ll go get it.” She got up and left the living room.

  This was the break they had needed. Why hadn’t she told him more about this man before now? If she knew her ex was dangerous, then why hadn’t she shared with him more about the man when inexplicable things had started to happen to her?

  She came back in and resumed her position on the sofa next to him. She turned on her phone and flipped through a dozen photos and then stopped.

  When she gave him the phone, her hand trembled. “He’s going to kill me. He tried to kill me before.”

  Hunter looked at the photo. There was nothing distinctive about the man. His blond hair was cut short and his blue eyes stared straight into the camera. His front teeth overlapped each other, giving him a slightly crooked smile. Hunter didn’t remember seeing the man anywhere around, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t here.

  He grabbed his cell phone and once again called Nick. “I’ve got a picture of our perp. It’s on Ainsley’s cell phone. I’m going to send it to you right now,” he said when Nick answered.

  “I’ve got it,” Nick said after a moment. “I’ll get copies printed off and we’ll get it circulating. Tell Ainsley we’re going to get him behind bars.”

  “I’ll tell her.” Hunter hung up the phone and handed hers back to her. For several long moments, they sat in silence. So many questions whirled around in his head, he didn’t even know where to begin.

  “How long have you known it was your ex-husband behind everything?” he finally asked.

  “When I heard his voice in Melinda’s room. Before that I just assumed it was somebody here in town who was tormenting me.” Her voice was a dull monotone. “I should have known he would find us. He’s found us no matter where we’ve been. He won’t stop until he kills me.”

  She raised her gaze and looked at him, and in the depths of her eyes he saw more secrets—dark secrets he feared might destroy everything they had built between them.

  “Why does he want you dead?” he asked.

  “Because I left him. I belonged to Peter and he’s a narcissistic psychopath. He tried to kill me before I left him, and he’s been hunting me ever since.”

  “So, he was abusive in the marriage?” Anger rose up inside him. He’d never been able to understand how a man could put his hands on a woman...especially a woman he professed to love.

  “The physical abuse didn’t really start until the last two years of our marriage. Before that there was definitely mental and emotional abuse.”

  She shook her head and once again looked down at her hands in her lap. “It’s a typical story of domestic abuse. First he began to isolate me from my friends and family. I was rarely allowed to go anywhere on my own. I didn’t have a car or a bank account.�
��

  She sighed, sounding impatient. “And then one day he thought I flirted with a stock boy in the grocery store. That night was the first time he beat the hell out of me. I should have left then, but he was so contrite afterward, and I was desperate to stay together for Melinda’s sake.”

  “And then he kept beating you,” he said. When he thought of what she’d apparently gone through, he wanted to find her ex and beat him to a bloody pulp.

  “He did. When he beat me the last time, I was sure he was going to kill me. There was no car accident to make the scar on my stomach. He stabbed me there and would have stabbed me to death if the neighbors hadn’t heard me screaming and called the police.”

  She released a sigh that sounded bone-weary. “He was arrested that night and I packed up what I could, used his bank card, which he’d left behind, to withdraw as much money as I could, and I took Melinda and we left.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me all this before now?” He felt lied to—granted, it was a lie by omission, but he didn’t understand why she hadn’t shared this with him before now.

  “Oh, Hunter, I didn’t want anyone to know where I’d come from. I have been so afraid for so long, and I’ve told you so many lies I don’t even know where to begin to tell you the truth.”

  He stared at her. A woman’s lies had destroyed his life before. He now had a dreadful sense of déjà vu. Was it about to happen all over again?

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Ainsley had been terrified since she’d heard Peter’s voice in Melinda’s room. She’d hoped Peter had given up on looking for her and moved on. She’d desperately hoped she and her daughter were finally free of him.

  She should have known better. He was totally obsessed. He was a sick man who wanted her dead. She should have known when strange things had begun to happen to her that he was behind it all.

  She felt Hunter’s stare on her, and even though this wasn’t the way she’d wanted to come clean to him, she owed him the whole, unvarnished truth.