The Protector's Promise (The Sinclair Brothers)

by Shirlee McCoy

  He was a distraction, his scent and his warmth surrounding Honor as she diced onions. “You can put the biscuits in the oven for me. They’re on the counter under that cloth. The oven is already preheated.”

  Any other day, Honor would have brushed melted butter over the biscuits before putting them in the oven, but today she didn’t care about butter. She cared about putting some distance between herself and Grayson.

  Grayson moved away, and Honor hurried to finish the onions. The sooner she finished, the sooner she could get Grayson fed and out of her kitchen. A kitchen that had seemed plenty big enough until he’d walked into it.

  “All set. How long do you want me to set the timer for?” He spoke over his shoulder, and Honor had the feeling he wasn’t nearly as affected by her as she was by him.

  And why would he be? He probably dated all the time. Saw a different woman every week. Whereas Honor hadn’t been on a date in years.

  “Ten minutes is fine.” She grabbed eggs, whisked them and poured them into a large skillet, working by rote, doing what she’d done hundreds of times over the years. It felt different, though. As if the gray world she’d been living in had bloomed into full color. Her senses were alive, her body humming with awareness.

  Had it been like this with Jay?

  She’d wondered that a lot lately, but she couldn’t remember. The hard years, the years when Jay had spent money they didn’t have on dreams that never panned out, the years when he’d made promises that he hadn’t been able to keep—those years had wiped out the sweeter things. The gentle comfort that came from being together. The soft beauty of mornings spent sharing coffee and conversation.

  Honor blinked back tears, refusing the sadness she knew she shouldn’t feel. Jay had loved her. She had loved him. If they’d had time, they might have been able to forge something strong and unbreakable. They hadn’t, and Honor couldn’t spend her life regretting the things she’d never had with him.

  “You look sad.” Grayson moved up beside her, grabbing a knife from the cutting board and chopping a green pepper. He’d taken off his coat and rolled up his sleeves, revealing forearms that were tan and muscular. His hands were broad, his fingers long, and Honor vividly remembered the feel of them on her neck—warm and gentle.

  She averted her gaze, concentrating on the mushrooms she was cleaning. “What do I have to be sad about? Any day my family is healthy and safe is a good one.”

  “Having a good day doesn’t mean that we can’t also feel sadness.” Grayson dropped peppers onto the omelet, then stepped aside while Honor added mushrooms and onions. “So, what’s on your mind that’s making your eyes so dark and shadowed?”

  “I don’t think I’d like to be on the stand with you questioning me,” Honor muttered as she folded the omelet and slid it onto a plate.

  “Why’s that?”

  “You never give up. One question is always followed by another and another and another.”

  “How else can I find the truth?”

  “It isn’t always your job to do that.” She poured more egg into the pan, starting another omelet and refusing to meet Grayson’s steady gaze. He read her too easily, saw more in her than she wanted to show.

  “Just so we’re clear—” he used his forefinger to tilt her chin, his eyes searching her face “—I don’t think of you as a job.”

  Honor’s heart stuttered as she remembered the warmth of his lips against hers. The brief, barely there contact that had left her longing for more.

  It was definitely time to feed Grayson and send him on his way.

  “Can you check on the biscuits? I think they may be done.”

  He looked as if he was going to refuse, but then he nodded, his finger dropping away from her chin as he turned and opened the oven.

  She took a deep, steadying breath, trying her best to calm her pulse and her thoughts. What was wrong with her? Why was she so affected by Grayson? Had Candace’s high school graduation and acceptance to college sparked an early mid-life crisis?

  Whatever the case, Honor needed to regain control and she needed to do it quickly.

  The phone rang, the sound so surprising that Honor jumped and swung toward it. “Now who could that be at this time of the morning?”

  “Want me to get it?” Grayson reached for the phone, but Honor shook her head.

  “No. I will. Thanks.” She lifted the receiver, half expecting to hear someone from work asking her to fill in for a shift. “Hello?”

  “Tell your friend he’d better watch it. I don’t like people moving in on my territory. If he doesn’t back off, he’s going to wind up as dead as that lying, cheating husband of yours.” The words were followed by a click, the line going silent as Honor’s heart beat louder and harder in her ears.

  “Is everything okay?” Grayson took the phone from her hand and placed it back on the receiver, studying her face as if he could read the answer to his question there.

  Was everything okay?

  No.

  No, it wasn’t okay.

  A man, someone she didn’t know, knew more about her than anyone should.

  Your lying, cheating husband?

  No one but Honor knew the truth of Jay’s infidelity. She hadn’t told her parents. Hadn’t told her friends. Finding out at his funeral had only compounded Honor’s grief, but she had felt no need to rehash the information. No desire to let other people know just how foolhardy her husband had been. And how naive she’d been.

  Lying.

  Cheating.

  Jay.

  She shook her head, trying to stop the words from echoing through her mind. But as soon as they stopped, others were there.

  Tell your friend he’d better watch it.

  He’s going to wind up as dead as your lying, cheating husband.

  Grayson. Her neighbor. Her friend.

  More?

  She reached for the phone, meeting Grayson’s eyes, seeing his strength, his determination, his integrity. All the things that had brought him into her life, and had kept him there. Had put him in danger. “No, everything isn’t okay. I need to call the sheriff.”

  SIXTEEN

  “You’re absolutely sure that you never mentioned your husband’s affair to anyone?” Jake Reed asked Honor the question for the fourth time in as many minutes, and Grayson ground his teeth to keep from telling his friend to stop beating a dead horse. “I’d think I’d remember revealing something so personal.” Honor’s gaze jumped to Grayson, then dropped away again, her cheeks deep pink with embarrassment. Though what she had to be embarrassed about, he didn’t know. Her husband had been a fool. Pure and simple. That was his sin, not Honor’s.

  Maybe she was embarrassed that Grayson had heard the truth? He was sure she would have been more comfortable if he’d left her alone while Jake questioned her.

  He’d known it, but he’d stayed anyway.

  There was something off about Honor’s stalker. Something that didn’t ring true. Grayson had been thinking about it most of the night…when he hadn’t been thinking about Honor and the soft, sweet feel of her lips against his. The whisper of her breath as she’d allowed the contact between them.

  He pulled his thoughts up short.

  That was not something he should be dwelling on. Not now, at any rate.

  What he should be concentrating on was putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Honor had lived in St. Louis for years. In all that time, she’d never had any indication that someone had taken undue interest in her. No flowers. No gifts. No notes left for her to find.

  Nothing.

  Then, in the course of a month, she’d been attacked in her apartment by a drug addict, moved to Lakeview and started receiving anonymous gifts and phone calls.

  Had her picture been in the newspaper after the attack? If so, it was possible she’d been seen by someone who had created a fantasy relationship with her and had then followed her to Lakeview.

  Stranger things had happened.

  But the information
the stalker had about Honor’s husband put a crimp in that theory, and Grayson was growing more and more uneasy with the assumptions they were making about Honor’s troubles.

  Something was definitely off.

  Honor had repeated the same information over and over again in answer to Jake’s query—she’d told no one about her husband’s affair.

  Yet someone knew.

  “What about your husband’s military friends? Would they have been privy to the information?” Jake had a small notebook and was writing in it, but as he spoke he shot a questioning look in Grayson’s direction.

  More than likely, he was wondering why Grayson hadn’t left. It was a good question, but one Grayson wouldn’t answer. Not unless Honor asked, and he knew she wouldn’t. She preferred to pretend that their relationship was as simple as two neighbors getting to know each other.

  “I’m sure they were. Jay was well liked. He had many friends. He wrote me several times after he went to Iraq, and he often included names of people he spent time with. It’s possible some of them knew he was having an affair.”

  “Would it have been in character for your husband to share something so personal with people he knew?”

  “If he thought they would keep the information from me, yes.”

  “Do you have the letters he wrote you?”

  The color in Honor’s cheeks deepened, and she shook her head. “I’m afraid I shredded them after the funeral.”

  “I can’t say I blame you, but it would sure help if any of the names came to mind.”

  “I wish I could help you, but I can’t remember much about the months before my husband died. I was quite pregnant and very caught up in getting ready for Lily’s birth. After he died, I was just trying to put my life back together.”

  “You said Jay’s girlfriend was at the funeral, and she made it very clear that she’d loved Jay and that he’d loved her.” Grayson broke into the conversation, knowing neither Jake nor Honor would appreciate it, but not caring. He had questions, and he wanted answers. Asking was the only way to get them.

  Honor glanced down the hall to the room where she’d sent Lily after the little girl had told Jake her dragon story. No doubt Honor was worried that her daughter would hear secrets that were better left hidden. “That’s right.”

  “Who was there when she confronted you?”

  “I don’t know. It’s been over four years.”

  “I know you’d rather not think about it, but any details you can give will help.” Jake spoke with quiet authority, shooting Grayson more than a questioning look. This time he was clearly saying “back off.”

  Honor didn’t seem to notice. She cocked her head to the side, her dark hair falling in a silky line over her shoulder as she stared into the past. “They’d already lowered the coffin into the ground. We’d thrown dirt on top of it. I was holding the flag I’d been given and staring down at my husband’s coffin while everyone else began to wander back to their cars. That’s when she approached me.”

  “No one else was around?”

  “A few people were. Mostly military people. And Jay’s mother and father, I think. They were there. I remember that very clearly because Candace had gotten in the car to avoid being near them, and I was relieved she hadn’t been there to hear what was said.”

  “So maybe a half-dozen people heard?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Do you have the name of the girlfriend?” Jake wrote something in his notepad, and Grayson knew he’d be contacting Honor’s in-laws before the end of the day. The answer could lie in that direction. It was possible they remembered something Honor didn’t. There was no way Jake would let that possibility go unexplored.

  “I’m afraid not. She never introduced herself, and I didn’t ask. Not her. Not any of Jay’s friends. Once the funeral was over, I tried to put it all behind me. Jay was gone. There was no sense in holding on to anger over what he’d done.”

  “You’re right about that, Ms. Malone. Although I’ve met plenty of people who don’t subscribe to the same idea.” Jake closed his notepad and tucked it in his pocket.

  “Forgiveness is something we’re told to do. For others. For ourselves. For our relationship with God. I really didn’t have a choice in the matter.” Honor smiled, but the sadness Grayson had seen her eyes earlier was still there. Only now he understood it. And understanding made it all the harder to bear seeing.

  He wanted to smooth the soft strands of her hair, wanted to tell her how much he admired what she was trying to do for her daughter and her sister-in-law. Wanted to say that protecting them by forgiving and moving on showed true courage and grace.

  And he wanted to tell her that her husband had been pond scum.

  But he didn’t think she’d want to hear any of those things, so he remained silent as Jake asked a few more questions, issued a few warnings about staying safe and then headed for the front door. “I’m putting a patrol car at the end of your street until we find the guy who is stalking you. If something happens, we’ll be close by.”

  The budget wasn’t there for that, and Grayson wondered what Jake would offer his men to get them to volunteer for twenty-four-hour guard duty. Knowing Jake, it would be something good. Maybe a week’s worth of vacation while Jake covered shifts. Grayson would ask his friend when Honor wasn’t around, and then offer to help pay for whatever it was. Honor wouldn’t be happy to know either of them had gone to the trouble, but in this case, what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.

  “I appreciate that, Sheriff.”

  “Jake. We’ve been seeing plenty of each other, so I’m thinking it may be best if we’re on a first-name basis. I’m going to check into some of the things you’ve told me. Contact your in-laws. Maybe see if I can get the name of your husband’s girlfriend. Is that okay with you?”

  “Sure, but I don’t know what good it will do.”

  “I want to find the person who’s stalking you. Any information anyone can give me about who might have known about your husband’s affair will help with that.”

  “It’s just been so long. I can’t believe it’s suddenly being dragged out and examined. If I’d known…” She paused, then shrugged. “But hindsight is always twenty-twenty, isn’t it?”

  “It is. And, for what it’s worth, I think you made the right choice. Having a name wouldn’t have changed what happened. I’m going to try to get a trace on your caller, but I’m thinking our perp made the call from a pay phone. Either that or he stole someone’s phone and used it. No way would he be stupid enough to use his own.”

  “If he did, it would make your job easier.” And make Grayson a whole lot happier.

  “So far he hasn’t done much to give himself away. But eventually he’ll slip up. That’s when we’ll get him.”

  “What about the car he was in last night?” Honor’s face was pale and tightly drawn, and Grayson briefly wondered how many more days of this she could take.

  The answer was obvious—as many as it took. That was Honor’s personality. It was her gift. To work toward a goal with determination and drive, but with her gaze always focused on others, her purpose always to serve rather than be served.

  “Nothing from CSI yet, but we’re trying to trace the car to its dealer. If we’re able to, we may find out who purchased it.” Jake stepped outside, letting bitterly cold air into the house. In the distance, dark clouds pressed low against the Blue Ridge Mountains. “On a lighter note, my wife and I are having a birthday party for my daughter next month. She’s turning four. My wife would love for you to bring Lily.”

  “That’s very sweet of her. I know Lily would love to come.”

  “You can bring your sister-in-law, too. We’ve got a dozen college students in our young-adult class at church. It might be nice for Candace to meet them. I’ll tell Tiffany to go ahead and send the invitation.” Jake paused with his hand on the cruiser’s door. “Grayson, I think we need to talk later.”

  “Do you?” Grayson leaned against the doorjam
b, not nearly as anxious to have a discussion with Jake as his friend seemed to be to have one with him.

  “Yeah. Your life has been threatened. I don’t take that lightly.”

  “Neither do I, but I think Honor is in a lot more danger than I am.”

  “How about we meet for lunch anyway? We’ll discuss measures I want you to take to stay safe.”

  “Sure, but if those measures include staying away from Honor, forget it.”

  “I’m due for some time off. I’ll drive out to your office. We can go from there.”

  “See you then.” Grayson waited until Jake pulled away before turning to Honor. She was watching him, her eyes filled with fear.

  “He’s right, you know. You are in danger. Because of me. I think it would be best if—”

  “I’m not going to stay away, Honor. Nothing you or Jake or your stalker say will convince me to do that.”

  “If something happens to you because of me…” She shook her head. “I couldn’t live with that, Grayson.”

  “You won’t have to. Your stalker isn’t the first criminal I’ve angered. He won’t be the last.”

  “Just be careful, okay?” She grabbed his hand, her touch sending heat through him.

  “You don’t need to worry about that, Honor.” He brushed hair from her cheek, his palm resting against silky flesh. “I’ll be as careful as you are going to be.”

  “Then I guess I’ll be very, very careful.” She stepped away from his touch, putting distance between them that Grayson didn’t want. “Do you think any of the information I’ve given the sheriff will help him find the stalker?”

  “If anyone can find answers, it’s Jake. He’s like a dog with a bone. He’ll never give up. Not until he gets what he wants.”

  “I hope you’re right. That phone call this morning…” She shook her head.

  “What?”

  “It was like a stranger had stepped into my life and stolen something sacred to me. The secrets closest to my heart.” She frowned, her gaze on the distant mountains and the darkening clouds.