by Marla Monroe
She knew she couldn’t stay there forever, but for now, she felt semisafe and didn’t want to move. Once she’d calmed down some, maybe she would pack a bag and go to a hotel. If she paid cash, no one would know where she was.
Crap! My car. He can find me if I take my car. I could take a taxi, but couldn’t he find out from them where I went? I’m dead. I’m dead.
Once again, her anxiety level inched up, sending another jolt of fear to her heart. This wasn’t working. She needed to calm down and get her thoughts under control. Maybe she should call the Sheriff’s Department. They could keep her safe, couldn’t they? Maybe not. They weren’t going to babysit her for the next week. There weren’t enough of them to go around as it was now.
Think, think, Kayley.
If she stayed with Bea and Sam, it would put them in danger. She wasn’t about to drag someone else into her mess, especially her best friend. If she decided not to testify, she could go to Scottsdale, where her parents lived. They’d retired there three years ago, loving the relaxed atmosphere. She’d been out there several times to visit. But could she skip out and let them walk away to prey on someone else? There might not be someone close by to save them.
Kayley couldn’t stop the choices and consequences from circling in her head. She felt as if she would explode with the pressure that seemed to build with each minute that passed.
Finally, she decided that she couldn’t just sit there waiting for whoever it was to come and get her. She needed to make a plan, and the first step of that plan was to contact the Sheriff’s Department and tell them about the note. Maybe they had an idea of what she could do.
Calmer with a plan firmly in her mind, Kayley started to get out of the tub, but a noise stopped her in mid motion. She could hear someone banging on her door. Then everything got quiet. Less than a minute later, she heard the sounds of glass breaking. Her heart stuttered as if fighting to keep beating. She could hear voices but couldn’t make out what they were saying.
Kayley got her can of hairspray ready and held the tiny scissors at the ready for whoever might come through the door. Loud footsteps, then someone pounded on the door. She struggled to keep from making a sound.
“Kayley!” The muffled sound of her name had her heart thumping hard enough now that she thought it would come out of her chest.
Then the door burst open, and Kayley screamed.
Chapter Ten
Billy stopped just inside the bathroom as a completely freaked out Kayley screamed bloody murder. Armed with a pair of nothing scissors and a can of hairspray held out in front of her, eyes wide and fear plastered on her face, she looked like something out of a horror film. Craig crowded in behind him and cursed.
“Kayley! Easy, baby girl. It’s Billy and Craig. You’re safe.” He eased forward with his hands out to try and calm her.
She stood in the tub, feet braced apart, panting and shaking all over. If he didn’t get her calmed down, she was going to hyperventilate. He took another step closer, talking softly to her as he moved.
“Shhh, baby. You’re fine. No one is going to hurt you.” He reached out and managed to pry the scissors and hairspray from her stiff grasp.
As he set the items on the counter by the sink, Craig surged forward and pulled her into his arms. Her muffled voice had him straining to hear what she was trying to say, but it turned out to be a chant.
“Oh God, oh God, oh God.”
“Calm down, Kay. Everything is fine. We’re going to take care of you, sweet girl,” Craig said over and over.
“Get her out of here, Craig. I’m calling the Sheriff’s Department about that fucking note. Damn, she scared the life out of me!” Billy pulled out his phone and punched in the number to the Sheriff’s Office. At this rate, he needed to put them on speed dial.
When he finished talking to the dispatcher, he leaned his hands against the counter and tried to calm down. His heart was still pumping like a freight train, and the adrenaline that had raced through his bloodstream when they saw the overturned chair through the window had yet to dissipate. At the sight of the note threatening her, Billy had lost it.
Looking in the mirror, he still had wild eyes. If he didn’t calm down, he’d scared Kayley to death. He drew in one deep breath after another until, finally, he felt relaxed enough that he could see her. It was the best he could do at the moment anyway. Nothing was going to calm him down until she was safe again.
He found Craig holding her on his lap in the living room. He had her facing away from the little area where her table was located. Good move. If she didn’t see the table, maybe she would remain calm for a while. They needed her coherent enough to answer questions. Not to mention seeing her upset sent his blood pressure sky high.
Craig nodded at him when he walked into his line of vision. Good. She was better. He walked around to where she could see him if she looked up and crouched by the chair.
“Hey, baby girl. How are you doing?” he asked with a forced smile.
“I’m okay. I’m sorry I screamed at you.” Her voice came out in a soft whisper, the finest of quivers in it.
“That’s okay, Kay-Kay. I scared you crashing through the door like that. I’m sorry, but we saw the chair turned over through the glass and were scared you’d hurt yourself. Guess we have a window and a door to fix, don’t we.” He tried to make a joke out of it in hopes it would earn him a smile or something snarky out of her mouth.
“It’s okay,” was all she said.
Billy leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the cheek before standing back up. He kept a hand on the back of her head while he and Craig exchanged meaningful glances. They were going to move her to their place as soon as the deputies got there and finished their business. She wasn’t spending another night under that roof.
Just as he dropped his hand from Kayley’s head, the sound of a car driving up outside and a door slamming alerted him that the deputy had arrived. He walked over to the door and unlocked it. When he opened it wide, Cletus stood on the porch with his hand raised.
“Hi, Billy.”
“Hi, Cletus. Thanks for coming so quick. The note is over on the table,” Billy said, indicating the table in the other room.
“Looks like someone broke in the window. Would that have been you two?” he asked with a smile.
“Yep. She didn’t answer the door and her car was here, so we looked in the window and could see the overturned chair. Thought something had happened to her and broke in to see,” he said.
“I read the note on the table and lost it,” Craig said. “We thought they’d taken her, but Billy found the bathroom door locked. When she didn’t answer us, he broke the lock to get to her.”
“She was standing in the bathtub with a pair of nail scissors and a can of hairspray,” Billy finished.
Cletus picked up the note by the corner and read it then set it back down and looked at the envelope it came in.
“No address at all. Blank envelope, which means they hand delivered it or had someone else leave it. Did she say where she found it?” the deputy asked.
“She hasn’t spoken about it, and we haven’t asked,” Billy said.
Billy walked back over and knelt in front of the chair where Kayley sat holding on to Craig. He looked back up at Billy then cleared his throat.
“Kayley. I need to ask you some questions. Okay?” he asked.
She nodded and tried to sit up a little straighter with Craig’s help.
“Good girl.” Billy ran his hand down her hair, petting her, letting her know he was there.
“Where did you find the envelope, Kayley?”
She visibly swallowed. “I heard something on the front porch. I was just about to eat. I had been working in the office, and sometimes I forget what time it is.”
She looked up at Billy, then back at the deputy. “I had already gotten my mail. The carrier actually delivered it to my door so I didn’t have to walk out to the street. I guess she heard about…” she broke off, lo
oking down at her hands.
“Go on. You heard something on your front porch,” Cletus started for her.
“So I got up and looked through the peephole, but I didn’t see anyone. I–I was a little spooked, so I looked through the window to be sure there wasn’t anyone around. I guess that’s when the curtain got pulled aside. But there wasn’t anyone around. I could see something on the porch next to the door, though.”
She drew in a deep breath and settled her hands in her lap. She’d been squeezing them tight enough that Billy almost reached down to untangle them for her. He hated seeing her so agitated, but Cletus needed to hear this.
“I opened the door with the chain still on it and reached out and grabbed the envelope. Then I closed the door and relocked it. When I saw that there wasn’t anything written on it, I honestly thought it might be from Larry Hinkle over at the drugstore. I did some work for him about four months ago, and he hasn’t paid me for it. I figured he’d be one to drop it off to save a stamp. I mean it was too oddly shaped for a card and all.” She looked up at Billy and quickly back down again.
Billy immediately wondered who she had expected a card from. It rankled that she might think it came from some guy she liked or had dated.
“So you opened it and read the note that was inside. Then what?” the deputy asked.
“I–I guess I panicked and ran to the bathroom thinking that was the safest place in my house. I grabbed some scissors and a can of hairspray. I’d heard that you could spray it in someone’s eyes and blind them. It was all I could find.” She looked down again.
Billy wanted to pick her up and hold her, wrap her in his arms, and promise she would always be safe with them. Instead, he settled for cupping her cheek and nodded at her, letting her know she’d done well.
“I’m going to take the note and the envelope in and see if we can lift some fingerprints.” The deputy stood up, pulling out a pair of gloves and a plastic bag from his pocket. He’d come prepared. “Kayley, do you have somewhere you can stay? It isn’t safe for you to stay here alone.”
She started to shake again. Billy hated that she didn’t feel safe even with them there. It rankled, but he understood.
“She’s staying with us,” he said. “We aren’t leaving her side.”
“I can’t stay with you. I mean, I have work and…”
He interrupted her. “We’ll take everything you need, Kayley, but you are coming home with us. Deal with it.”
She opened then closed her mouth, looking like a goldfish for a few seconds. Looking up at the deputy, she closed her mouth and leaned back against Craig. Evidently she thought better of arguing with Cletus. Good. He didn’t want to say anything personal in front of the man.
The deputy walked over to the table, pulling on the gloves as he did. Then he picked up the note by the corner and carefully folded it before easing it into the bag. He did the same thing to the envelope but used a separate bag for it. Walking back to the door, he turned.
“Keep her safe, guys. If you need us, you know how to get us.” Then he opened the door and left, closing the door quietly behind him.
“Billy, I can’t stay with you two. It’s not right,” Kayley said, crossing her arms with a belligerent expression on her face.
“Don’t push me on this, Kayley. Where your safety is concerned, what we say is law. Understand?” Billy asked.
“I’d back off this if I were you. You can’t win this argument.” Craig eased her out of his lap then stood up. “Let’s go pack your stuff, kitten.”
“I’m not your kitten,” she crossed her arms and glared from Craig to him.
“Oh, you are much more than his kitten. You’re my baby girl, and you’re going to do as we say and start packing. If you don’t, I’m going to turn you over my knee and spank that delectable ass of yours.”
“Oh, hell no!” she said. “I know you didn’t just threaten to spank me.”
“Funny, ’cause that’s what it sounded like to me,” Craig said with a smile. “I think I’d be marching my cute ass into the bedroom and filling my suitcase with what I wanted to take with me. You really don’t want us packing for you, hon.”
Kayley all but snarled but stomped toward the bedroom, muttering about overbearing men the entire way. Billy couldn’t help but smile at her sassiness. It was much preferred over the fearful, defeated look of earlier. This was his Kayley in all of her glory.
Looking over at Craig, Billy nodded. “She doesn’t go anywhere without one of us with her.”
“Agreed. I’ll dog her steps everywhere. She’s going to get sick of us, you know,” he said.
Billy laughed. “I’m expecting it, but she’s going to get used to us, too. It will be easier to convince her she belongs with us once this is all over. We have our chance. Let’s not blow it.”
“As if. I’ve got it covered. You, on the other hand, have a lot of sucking up and easing off of her if we want her to relax around us.” Craig crossed his arms and stared at him.
Billy sighed. He knew exactly what his friend meant. He’d have to rein in his tendency to lose his temper and kick things. He’d have to watch his mouth around her. She’d take it the wrong way. Craig was used to his outbursts, but Kayley had never really been around him when he got grumpy. He harrumphed. Maybe grumpy wasn’t quite the right word, but Billy would make the effort. She was worth it, every fucking bit of the trouble it would be.
They walked down the hall to her bedroom, finding their woman standing over an opened suitcase on the bed. She was busy filling it with underwear and fussing under her breath. If Billy had his way, she wouldn’t need underwear, but he wasn’t about to suggest she save the space for other things. She’d accused him of being a pervert, and she’d be right. He was a twisted man who liked sex and liked it down and dirty. He wouldn’t apologize for that.
“Kayley, I’m going to go pack your office. You can check and see if I got everything you need.”
She immediately straightened up with a panicked expression on her face. Billy would have laughed if the situation hadn’t been so serious. She looked as if the idea of Craig touching her stuff was the ultimate invasion.
“No! I’ll do it. You can pack the rest of my clothes. You can’t touch my computers.” She raced out of the room, bumping into them on the way past.
Craig gave Billy a puzzled expression. “You’d think I was threatening to kill her dog or something.”
“Did she say computers, as in more than one?” Billy asked.
“Yeah, she did. I guess she’s serious about this computer thing she does. I thought she just typed up stuff for people on them,” Craig said.
“Looks like we have a lot to learn about our woman.” Billy shook his head and started digging through her dresser. “Pull out some of her underwear. She doesn’t need all of those.”
They quickly raided her closet and had her packed in no time. Craig grabbed bottles and girly stuff out of the bathroom, packing it in a separate bag he found in the closet. Billy remembered shoes at the last minute and chose a pair of loafers and a sexy pair of black high heels he stuffed in a bag. She was wearing tennis shoes, so she had that covered. No doubt she’d wear them most of the time anyway, although he had packed a couple of dresses for her.
“Okay, that gets it,” Craig said. “I’ll take all of this out to the truck while you check on her progress in the office.”
Billy nodded and walked over to the office where a frantic looking Kayley was busy stuffing things into a case. On the floor next to her were two more cases. On one of the two desks in the room were two more computers. Papers and parts he had no idea what they were littered the two desks. A file tote sat on the floor by the two cases.
“Uh, you need all of this?” he asked, stunned.
“Yes. I can’t do my job without it, and I have to work. I have commitments, and I need the money to pay my bills.” Kayley continued adding things to the bag.
“Can I help?” he asked, positive he had no idea
what to do with the stuff.
“No! Um, I can get it. If you want to, though, you can go ahead and carry those out.” She pointed to the two cases and file tote.
As he picked up the two cases and started for the door she yelled, “And they can’t go in the bed of the truck! They have to go in the back seat. Be careful with them.”
He grunted something noncommittal and walked down the hall, meeting Craig on his way back.
“I hope you saved some room in the back seat. She isn’t going to let us put all this stuff in the bed of the truck,” he said with a frown.
Craig chuckled. “Yeah. I figured that by the way she acted when I offered to touch her precious computers. There’s plenty of room.”
Billy sighed and continued out to the truck. True to his word, Billy had left the back pretty much free. Evidently, the suitcases had ended up in the back, with only the bag and small case in the back seat. Then it occurred to him that this meant she would have to ride up front with them with the back seat taken up with her valuable computer crap.
Somewhat mollified, Billy returned to the house to find a laughing Craig carrying out the file tote. He scowled at the other man. What did he find funny about any of this?
“Are you having fun?” he asked.
“For what it’s worth, yeah. Look at it this way, there will be less to have to move later.” Craig continued out the door.
Billy stalked to the office intent on telling Kayley that enough was enough. She couldn’t possibly need all this stuff right away. Instead, he walked in to find her bent over looking under the desk with her sassy ass high in the air. The sight of her did something to his insides. His cock hardened, and his balls grew heavy in their sac. Fuck! He was going to die if he didn’t get inside of her soon. The woman drove him crazy with desire. Always had, except he hadn’t let himself think about it—much.
