by Lily Black
Drew rubbed a hand on her back, bringing her a bit of calm. “Let’s check the library. I think he may have followed you in earlier but not back out.”
Alexa nodded and headed in that direction, carrying Oreo. It was kind of Drew to not mention her having run out of there, but it was still embarrassing to walk back in, given that she’d completely flipped just because he made her a delicious eggs dish.
She stopped at the entrance to the library. The candles had been snuffed out, and the romantic atmosphere had evaporated. The eggs were congealed in their sauce. However, Ragbag was curled up in front of the mostly dead fire.
“There you are.” Alexa smiled at Drew in her relief. She passed him Oreo then picked up Ragbag, and they both headed upstairs.
They’d just stepped inside the bedroom when the lights went out.
In the sudden darkness, the flash of lightning and the boom of thunder that followed felt loud enough to wake the dead.
Chapter Nineteen
Drew heard Alexa gasp, and his own gut clenched with fear. The two minutes it took until the automatic generator kicked in seemed to drag. Even after the lights flickered and came back on, Drew couldn’t relax. Had the storm knocked out the power, or had that been Stuart’s doing?
He set the cat down and quickly bolted the doors behind Alexa and him. Then he double-checked that all the rooms—master bath, bedroom, and closets—were clear of intruders and secure.
Alexa didn’t say anything, just clutched her phone and her cat. So Drew tried to help her relax a bit. “There’s a whole-house generator outside in a locked cabinet, so we have power. We’ll be safe in here.” He double-checked the bedroom door leading to the hall as he continued. “See the bolts at the top and bottom of this door? They slide deep into a reinforced solid wood frame, and the flimsy original door has been exchanged for a solid outer door. As an added bonus, all the windows are reasonably shatterproof.” He chuckled, the sound coming out mostly normal. “I’m glad, now, that I decided to try out this plan so I could recommend it to students. I never thought then that I’d need to use it.”
He looked at Alexa, hoping she would find that amusing, but she was sitting on the chair Drew had used when he watched over her, staring straight ahead.
“Alexa?” Had Drew’s idle comments about security worried her?
“Why would he put Keri on the list?” Alexa asked, as if Drew hadn’t spoken. Her face was pale. “He must have known I wasn’t staying with her. She lives in town, so he could easily watch to see if I was going in and out. Why would he go after her?”
Her voice caught on the last word. That plus the pale color of her skin and the way she’d tugged her sleeves down to keep her hands warm told him one thing—in the face of the emotional shock and physical stress she’d been under, her body was struggling to keep all functions going.
He went to the bed and snagged a blanket off it then tucked it around her. Alexa clung to his hands as he smoothed the folds out of the blanket, so he sat down across from her on the bed, where he could warm her fingers with his.
“My guess is he was acting out a need to control you,” Drew said, thinking it through as he spoke. “He may have planned to use an attack on Keri to get to you, draw you out. Or use the threat of hurting her to make you do what he asked.”
“It would have worked too.” Alexa shivered and lowered her head to his hands. “I just can’t believe this—and yet I do believe it. It’s real. And it’s all my fault.”
“What?” Drew pulled Alexa’s chin up so he could look in her eyes. “This is not your fault, not in any way. Why would you believe that?”
Alexa shook her head, and tears welled in her eyes. “I remembered something from the day a couple weeks ago when Stuart had his argument with Master Hays. I watched the whole thing ’cause Master Hays and I had been going over preparations for the next day’s classes when it started. Stuart was pushing the master to let him test on the next exam date, but Master Hays said he wasn’t ready. Told him he hadn’t mastered the control needed for an advanced belt. After the argument, Master Hays went into the office, and Stuart went to get his stuff. On the way out the door, he passed me, and I put my hand out to touch his arm. Stuart’s not all bad, and I just wanted him to know he was still welcome in the dojo. I said something like ‘see you next time,’ and he went out the door.”
“But how does that—” Drew started.
“Just listen!” Alexa gulped in a breath and brushed angrily at the tears on her cheeks. “The next time he came in was for sparring class, and I was on the floor, fighting as team captain. He was on the other team, but he came to stand by my group. He kept kind of jostling them, egging them on, as if he thought he was in charge of them and it was his job to razz them. I tried to keep my cool and tell him off politely, but he responded to my comments as if I were just some twit and he didn’t have to listen to me. He was really rude and even crude but did it in a way that made the offense mostly inflection. Clever and sneaky.”
Alexa looked up, and Drew could see the gleam of anger in her eyes. “Quite frankly, it pissed me off. Especially when he then turned around and gave Brianna a bad time when she made a mistake that cost her the match. So I paired myself against Stuart and quite literally knocked him on his butt. I usually hold back against lower belts. There’s no point in showing off, you know? But I just let him have it. I don’t think he scored a single point, and the fight was over in less than three minutes.”
“Must have been quite the sight,” Drew said. “I wish I could have seen it.” He meant it too. Watching Alexa clean up on a bully like Stuart would have been worth any admission price.
“But don’t you see?” Alexa cried. “That’s probably why he came after me—where this obsession and need to control me came from. I sent him confusing signals, and he lost it.”
“No, you’ve got it all wrong.” Somehow Drew had to convince her that shouldering a burden of guilt wouldn’t make the situation any better. “You showed compassion for him and acted the part of the good instructor when he got reamed out and wasn’t allowed to test. Then when he acted like a jerk, you took him down a peg. The only way this is your fault is if it’s the job of the whole world to walk softly around bullies and pacify them every time they throw a tantrum.”
Alexa looked down, her hands clenching and unclenching the blanket. “What if I took out my anger at Jason Stone on him? I’ve had that problem before when guys acted like jerks. Kind of made them pay a little extra, because Jason hurt my friend and scared me so bad. As if kicking them extra hard will prevent them from hurting anyone in the future.”
Drew shook his head. “No way could you have created this whole scale. The Stuart I know was already capable of being an extreme jerk. You didn’t cause this.”
Alexa nodded, but her face remained troubled. “But if I had kept my temper, gone a little easier on him in the fight—”
“Odds are he would have acted exactly the same way.” Drew brought his hand up to cup Alexa’s cheek. “Regardless of what mistakes you may have made, you couldn’t know he was a psycho, and you couldn’t anticipate how exactly he was going to go crazy. Nor was it your job to smooth his path and keep him from jumping over that edge. Stuart made his own choices, and you are not in any way responsible for his actions.”
Alexa nodded, but Drew wasn’t sure if she actually understood and agreed with him or if she was just letting it go. He would’ve liked to have pressed the issue, but just then, the phone rang.
Alexa held up the phone so he could see the screen. It was Detective Rawlings. The gut-clenching nerves he felt were reflected in Alexa’s eyes as she swiped the screen and put the call on speaker before she answered. “Hello?”
“The two of you need to move somewhere else.” Detective Rawlings’s tone was urgent, and she spoke over the sound of a siren. “Watch your back but get out. Stuart’s at your house, and he’s
going to burn it down with you inside.”
A jolt of adrenaline slammed through Drew, bringing his senses to high alert and his mind into sharp focus. He could feel himself switch into Ranger mode, and his voice came out clipped and nearly emotionless. “What’s the situation?” he asked Detective Rawlings. “How long until backup arrives?”
“It’ll be at least twenty minutes.” Detective Rawlings’s voice was charged with frustrated tension. “Stuart felled trees across the only road in to your place. They’re just this side of the bridge and completely blocking the road. We’ve got some guys gearing up to walk in, but we figure it will be twenty minutes before anyone reaches the house. Longer if the guys on foot take any fire—we believe Stuart to be armed.”
Alexa sucked in a breath, and Drew gave her hand a squeeze before answering. “My truck’s not four-wheel drive. If Stuart’s here, why wouldn’t he try to negotiate? We have the safe room. We can wait it out.” The police were just assuming Stuart was there to burn the house. He could have just as easily downed the trees in order to scare them out of the house and ambush them while they were out in the open.
“No, his tactic has changed. He’s not here to negotiate, and the accelerant he’s using burns fast,” Detective Rawlings said. “We lost Alexa’s house. The fire was out of control before the fire department got there. It looks like they’ll save Crouching Tiger, but damages will be heavy. If he gets a fire started on your house, you’ll be gone before we can get the road cleared and a fire truck through.”
Drew looked quickly at Alexa. She’d sucked in a breath, her eyes glazing as if she could see the fires burning. The bandage on her head stood out against her pale skin.
Drew lifted a hand to cup her cheek comfortingly before taking the phone and turning off speaker. He spoke grimly. “Then I’d better make sure he doesn’t get a fire going.” Detective Rawlings tried to protest, but he cut her off. “See you in twenty minutes.” He hung up the phone and put his arms around Alexa in a hug because she looked as though she would fall over without one, then reached down and pulled out his Glock from his ankle holster. “Do you know how to use a gun?”
Alexa shook her head and raised her hands in a gesture of refusal. “I shot skeet a couple times as a kid, but the only time I tried to use a handgun, I nearly shot the instructor. And doesn’t that kind kick? You should keep it.”
“A shotgun would be a good idea.” Drew worked the slide on the Glock and checked the magazine. “I’ll look into getting one after this is over. For now, take this and just remember to hold it firmly with both hands. Point directly at the target, fire two shots at a time, and keep your thumb out of the way of the slide.”
“No, Drew, I’m not taking it,” Alexa said with a hard shake of her head. She stood. “You’re not giving me your backup. Not when you’re going out there to… to face a psychotic madman. Besides, it won’t do me any good.”
“I’ll make do, Alexa.” Drew stood as well, anxious to go find Stuart. He was tempted to just leave it on the bed, where she would have to take it. “That’s what a Ranger does. You need to be armed.”
“I don’t want it,” Alexa insisted, her voice wobbling a bit as it rose. “I know enough about guns to know I’m better off without one than trying to use something I don’t understand. What if Stuart took it away from me while I was fumbling around and used it on me?” When Drew still hesitated, she pushed him away. “Go. At this rate, Stuart will have the house on fire before you’ve left the bedroom.”
Drew nodded. Maybe she was right. The first rule was to never hold a gun unless you were prepared to use it, and this wasn’t the time for a crash course with the Glock. If he did his job properly, Stuart would never get the fire started, and Alexa would be safe in the bedroom until the police arrived.
“Stay inside and don’t open the door unless you’re absolutely sure it’s me. Remember, a safe room is only as secure as its weakest point, and in this room, that’s the door.” Drew allowed himself one moment to cup Alexa’s cheek, then he strode to the door. “I’ll wait right outside until you tell me you have the locks secure.” He slipped out the bedroom door. It was time to stop Stuart once and for all.
Chapter Twenty
Alexa closed the door behind Drew and pushed the deadbolts in place. She slapped the door twice. “All set.”
Drew slapped the door back once. A minute or two later, she heard the front door open and close downstairs.
Suddenly feeling very alone, Alexa went to the bed and climbed up to reach the crossed bo staffs that were resting on hooks in the wall. Drew may have considered them to be a kind of warrior design statement, but to her practiced eye, they looked like serviceable weapons. If Stuart poked his head in the door, she would bash it in.
A rattle of pounding rain hit the windows, and Alexa jumped. The storm that had been rising all night was finally letting loose the full torrent of its fury.
She went to the window and looked out. There was no sign of the sun rising. She should have reminded Drew to take a jacket. He was going to get soaked. On the other hand, the lashing rain ought to make it harder for Stuart to get a fire going. At least, she hoped it would. She didn’t know how his fire accelerant worked.
An image of Stuart in the rain, his long, stringy moustache flying, while he tried over and over to strike a match came to mind. A bubble of hilarity rose inside Alexa, and a fit of insane giggles cramped her stomach. Fighting them had her almost doubled in half.
Alexa dropped down on the bed until the urge to laugh passed and found herself sobbing in its wake. Oh, this was bad. She really was losing it. There she was, trapped in Drew’s bedroom behind barred doors, while he tromped around in the freezing rain and tried to watch all four sides of the house at once. Meanwhile, a twisted madman was doing everything he could to put them both in an early grave.
The rain rattled against the window again, and Alexa shivered. She pulled the throw off the bed and wrapped it around her shoulders. It smelled like Drew, and for just a split second, she felt a glow of warmth and safety in its embrace. That glow faded as she thought of the worry in Drew’s eyes as he’d listened to Detective Rawlings tell them they had to leave. If something happened to him out there, she wasn’t sure she could survive it. How could it be that she’d run away from him when she’d thought he was asking her to marry him, but ever since then, she’d felt disappointed that he wasn’t?
She didn’t understand how that was possible when earlier tonight she’d been ready to walk away from him for good. What was wrong with her, really? Was she broken in some way? Maybe that was why Stuart had been attracted to her. He’d seen that she wasn’t capable of a real relationship and offered her the only alternative he could.
She shook her head, trying to toss that thought aside. No. Drew was right. It wasn’t her fault that Stuart had become obsessed. That was what they taught women in their self-defense classes. A person was responsible for her own actions and their direct consequences but not another’s choices. For example, if there really wasn’t any way to know a guy was a psycho, then a woman couldn’t be blamed for dating him. She would only be to blame if she went back to him—like Sierra had when she went back to Jason Stone. Except…
Alexa rubbed her hand across the bandage on her head, fighting a headache that wanted to blur her thoughts. Sierra hadn’t known what Jason was capable of. Sure, they’d had a tumultuous relationship, but he’d never been violent, and he’d kept his past episodes of spiraling depression a secret. Had Alexa been blaming Sierra all these years for what happened in the bookstore that day? Just like she blamed herself for what Stuart was doing?
Alexa rose and paced the length of Drew’s room then back again. She thought back over all her issues since that day in the bookstore. The inner turmoil had plagued her for months, if not years, afterward. Maybe she hadn’t exactly been blaming Sierra, but she’d definitely tried to explain to herself what had happen
ed to her friend in terms she could understand and, therefore, take steps to prevent anything like it from happening to her. She stopped in the middle of the room, her brain nearly exploding with the weight of her epiphany.
That was the reason she’d been so set against “reunion” relationships, against ever going back to a guy once things hadn’t worked out the first time. She thought by avoiding the actions Sierra had taken, she could protect herself from the pain and helplessness she’d felt when her friend was attacked. Except the only thing her little safety rule had done was deny her the happiness of giving Drew a second chance. It had done nothing to protect her from Stuart’s craziness.
Her rule was stupid. Alexa slashed the bo staff through the air then doubled it back in a move that would have cracked her opponent on the head and knocked him flat. Life couldn’t be defined by a narrow set of rules, any more than someone could win a sparring match with a set combination of kicks and punches. Sure, there were guidelines—don’t go home with strange guys, and don’t trust a guy who’s lied to you. But the big deciding moves required a willingness to trust your gut and take a leap of faith.
If Alexa stopped running from herself and faced her core feelings, she had to admit that if Drew were ever to ask her in the future if she would marry him, she would say yes. He’d proven himself trustworthy, and he’d apologized for any wrongdoing five years ago. She knew he was honorable. Moreover, she liked and trusted him… loved him, even.
Her heart leapt as those words entered her mind. A happy glow swelled inside her and made her want to hug herself or squee for joy!
Without thinking, she started toward the bedroom door. But Drew was long gone, out in the storm and darkness, hoping to catch Stuart before Stuart got to him.
Alexa swung back to face the windows, trying and failing to see anything in the blackness outside. It was as though all the light had been sucked out of the night, leaving only random flashes of lightning to tear the sky.
