“You can never know everything about a person until you meet them,” Cox offered, “and even then, as you and I both know, there are always surprises.”
“Are you concerned about her?” Thor asked.
“No—no, I’m not suggesting anything apart from making the observation that paper can only tell us so much, and we fill the rest in with personal experience. I think we need to call her back in and question her, though, because she reacted strongly to the idea that she or Mackenzie could be in danger from someone following them. She was shaking. Is there anything in her personal history to suggest that she has ever been stalked or threatened?”
“Nothing that I found.”
10
TEN
Thea paced back and forth in her room. Her body was shaking all over, and try though she might, she couldn’t make it stop. She walked over to the bedside table, opened the drawer and grabbed her Bible, clutching it to her chest. Then she dropped to her knees in front of the bed, and began to pray.
Father, please help me. I’m scared—so scared. I’m scared for me and I’m scared for Mackenzie, and I can’t stop shaking, but I can’t be any help to her unless I get this under control. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this way, and I know You know that. I also know You are in control, so please, please help me to trust You. I know You promise You won’t let anything happen to us outside of Your will, and I can tell you have led me here for something important, even though I don’t know what that is just yet.
She took a deep, cleansing breath, and then another.
I trust You.
She felt the fear and shaking subside.
I love You.
She smiled.
I know You love me, and I know You love Mackenzie so much more than I could ever comprehend. I’m placing this in Your capable hands, Father. Help me to leave it there, and please help me to trust You, to trust my gut, and to be smart and wise about all of this, whatever this is. Protect that dear sweet girl, I pray, in Jesus name.
She stayed on her knees for a minute more, clinging to her Bible. Then rose, put it on top of the nightstand, squared her shoulders, and walked back downstairs. She knew she needed to tell Thor and Cox about her experiences at Penn, even though she didn’t understand why. When she got downstairs, rather than going straight to Thor’s office, she walked out to the backyard where Mackenzie and Wren were practicing.
“Okay, Mackenzie, practice that move a few more times. I’m going to talk to Athena for a minute.”
“We call her Thea,” the little girl insisted.
Wren smiled, and turned to walk over to Athena.
“Hi, I’m Wren.” She extended her hand.
“I’m Athena—they call me Thea, as it seems you’ve already been told.”
“She’s quite something isn’t she?” Wren chuckled. “How’s it going?” Thea asked, worry shining in her eyes.
“She’s doing really well,” Wren assured her. “She’ll need you to be strong, Thea. Don’t let what we’re unsure of get to you.”
“I know.” Thea took a shaky breath. “I need to talk with Thor and Cox about some things. Do you think you can keep her busy for a bit longer?”
Wren’s eyes narrowed. “Yes. If there’s something they need to know, something that could endanger Mackenzie, you’d better let them know now.”
“That’s just it—I’m not sure, but I’ll let them decide if it matters or not.”
Wren visibly relaxed. “I’ll keep her busy until I see you or Thor come out to get her.” Wren turned back and walked toward Mackenzie, who twirled as she approached.
She’s the sweetest little one, Lord. Please keep her safe. Thea breathed as she turned to walk back inside through the sliders and made her way to Thor’s office.
She heard voices murmuring through the door, and it was ajar. Thea was certain she’d closed it when she left, but maybe they’d come looking for her. She took at deep breath and pushed the door open. Both men were standing with their backs to her, the bookcase appeared to have shifted to the right and she saw a wall of screens. The security system.
Cox turned, and then Thor. Thea closed the door behind her and walked into the room. “I need to talk to you.” She clasped her hands together, her eyes moving from one man to the other.
Thor’s eyes followed her hands, and then he moved toward her, putting his hand in the small of her back and nudged her in the direction of the couch and chairs at the other end of his office. She breathed a sigh of relief, somehow that felt less threatening.
“That’s your security system?” she asked.
He nodded, and Cox moved to join them. Thea stood uncertain, but Thor and Cox simply waited. She decided to take a chair. Thor moved to the other chair, nestled close to hers, and Cox moved to the center of the couch, facing them both with a low coffee table between them. Thea grasped the arms of the chair, and then clasped her hands together. She felt the internal shaking begin again and began rubbing her arms. Under normal circumstances, you’d think one of them would try to comfort her, but these were not normal circumstances, and these were not normal men. They watched her with uncanny intensity, as though they could read her mind, and her stomach wrenched. Her hand went to her stomach and she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and pushed through it.
Thor’s eyes were cold, assessing. But Cox’s seemed neutral.
She looked down at her hands. “When I was at Penn…” She bit her lower lip. “There was a situation.” She looked up, first at Thor, whose eyes burned into hers, and then at Cox, who nodded. She gave him a small smile in thanks and took a deep breath.
“There was a guy—an annoying guy that I had no interest in—he would often come up to me at the library, and he was in one of the psych classes I took. It started with him asking me to study with him, meet him for coffee, simple things, but I always said no. He persisted. I thought it was nothing.” She stared off into space, her voice quiet.
“I started to see him at different places, and at first I thought it was simply because I knew who he was now, but then it started to get creepy, and he went out of his way to sit behind me in class, and my gut told me it wasn’t a coincidence.” She looked over at Thor, whose eyes now showed concern, and that was all she needed to continue. She couldn’t bear to think he was angry with her—or that anything she’d done could cause harm to Mackenzie.
She paused for several seconds, unsure what to say next.
“What happened, Thea?” Thor encouraged.
She crossed her arms, each hand grabbing the opposite bicep tightly, and she pushed her elbows into her core, willing it to stop shaking. “I went to the admissions office and told them what was going on. They thought nothing of it and brushed me off, so I knew I needed to take matters into my own hands.”
Cox and Thor exchanged glances.
“Go on,” Thor said quietly.
Thea stood, her arms still hugging her core tightly. She moved to the far windows in Thor’s office. “I confronted him.” The memory made her shudder. “I told him I was uncomfortable with the way he was behaving toward me, and that I didn’t appreciate him continuing to ask me out. I said the answer was no, and it would always would be no. I was focused on my studies and that was it.”
She turned back toward the men, feeling the anger all over again and took a deep breath.
“But he wouldn’t take no for an answer. He smiled at me. He was probably three or four inches taller than I am. I was holding books in my hands, and he grabbed my face and started to kiss me.”
She grimaced, closing her eyes and shook her head to push the memory away. It had been a wet, disgusting, invasive kiss. “I’m sorry—you probably don’t need all these details. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the feeling I had when he was stalking me—that’s the feeling I had on Friday afternoon. You don’t… you don’t think he could have followed me here, do you?” A feeling of desperation overcame her, and her brow creased with worry all over again as she walked back toward the men,
standing behind her chair.
Cox looked at Thor, then turned to Thea. “The details do matter, Thea, even though they may be difficult for you to recount. It helps Thor and me to understand if this person could be a threat to Mackenzie—or to you, if indeed he is here, and I’m not saying that he is. Thor is a specialist in human behavior, and every detail you remember may help immensely.”
Thor cast a grateful look toward Cox. “I do need all the details of what you went through, Thea, but I want you to be comfortable and as open as possible with us as you can.”
“Tell us what happened after you confronted him, and he kissed you,” Cox encouraged.
She shook her head, and turned back toward the windows but then abruptly spun around and grasped the back of the chair.
“Well, I brought my knee up into his crotch, where it would hurt most. He doubled over, and I turned and ran. When I got to the end of the library, I looked back, and he was just standing there staring at me—he looked furious—evil, even.” Thea shook out her hands.
“I will never forget the look in his eyes.” She paused for several seconds and began to pace.
“Later that day I decided to go for a run, like I usually did. I had this feeling I shouldn’t go.” She lifted her hands and linked them together, feeling her eyes narrow. “But it didn’t make any sense.” She lifted her eyebrows in emphasis.
“It was a beautiful day, I needed to run off some steam and stress from the encounter with him, and so I ignored my gut.” She looked pointedly at both of them. “I put on my running shoes, grabbed my iPhone, ear buds, and proceeded to my usual running route across the South Street Bridge. It was quiet, as was typical for that time of day. I always ran with only one ear bud in my ear, and I heard a car slow down behind me. I assumed they were stopping to look at something but then I realized that the car was following me. I turned to look at it, and that was when I realized it was him.”
She took a deep breath, and turned back toward the window. “I kept running, but I froze inside. I tried to quickly process the best course of action. There was no one around. So I just kept running at the same pace and ignored him. He pulled his car up just ahead of me and off to the side. His car door opened, and he walked toward me.” She turned back to the men. “I realize now he was probably a sociopath—that look in his eyes—I’ve never seen anything like it.” She felt the familiar wave of fear rush through her stomach, and shuddered. “Then a car came onto the bridge from the other direction toward us. He turned and jumped back into his car and drove off, quickly. The car coming toward me stopped and rolled down their window. It was a guy. He asked me, ‘Are you okay?’ Clearly he’d seen what just happened.
“I said, ‘I am, thanks to you.’ He asked me if I wanted a ride, and I said, ‘No offence, but I don’t know you.’ He just looked at me—he got it. He grabbed a business card from his dashboard and wrote his name and phone number down. He handed it to me and told me to call him if I needed anything. I turned around and ran back to my apartment on autopilot. I was shaking, and furiously angry, and had absolutely no idea what to do.
“I called a good friend—a guy that I’d hung out with who was in the law program at Penn. He went with me to the Dean, and they pulled this guy out of class. I never saw him again. I don’t know what happened to him—I don’t even know his name.”
Then she collapsed into the chair, and her gut filled with fear and sadness. “It would be unlikely that he could track me here, right?” she said hopefully, looking from Thor to Cox.
Cox started to speak, but Thor held up his hand. “Did you talk with anyone else about this?”
“You mean at Penn?” she asked Thor, feeling her brow knitted together.
“No, I mean did you talk with anyone personally about this experience and how it impacted you?” His eyes locked with hers.
She inclined her head toward him, and raised her eyebrows indignantly. “I did, actually. My friend in the law school—his family was from Philly and his mom was a therapist—I saw her for a few months.
So, back to my question, how do we find out if someone is following Mackenzie—or me—and what do we do once we know? And if it isn’t someone following me…” She turned to Thor. “Who would have cause from your perspective? Give that some thought,” she said as she rose. “Mackenzie has to be tired. I’m going to get a snack prepared for her, and we can continue this conversation when I’m done.”
Thea felt more like herself now it was all out in the open, and she was back in control.
“Sounds like a plan,” Thor agreed, his eyes holding hers before she broke contact and left the room.
11
ELEVEN
“I’m sad that Daddy’s gone again.”
“I know, sweetheart, but it sounds like he’ll be back very soon if they solve this case quickly.”
“He always says that, but it never comes true.” Mackenzie sat with her chin resting in her hands, and a pout on her face. “I liked it better when he didn’t work.”
“Well, I could use some help with my work. Would you like to help me with dinner?”
Mackenzie perked up at that. “Really? I can help?”
“Sure you can. If you can stir this mix for me, I’ll work on getting the bread in the oven.”
“What is this?” Mackenzie asked, her nose wrinkled as she stared at the contents of the bowl.
“It’s a secret recipe that used to be my grandmother’s, and I think you’re going to love it.”
“You have a grandmother?” Mackenzie asked with surprise.
Thea chuckled. “Yes, I had a grandmother, silly, and she was quite a lady.”
“Why?”
“Because she was a very strong and independent woman, and even though she encountered hard times in her life, she pushed through all of it and made a wonderful life for herself.”
“I don’t see my grandmother very much.”
Oops. Thea wondered if she had made a mistake by mentioning hers. She decided to see where Mackenzie would take this.
“How do you feel about that?”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Okay. What would you like to talk about?”
“Are you going to stay here with me, Thea?”
“Of course, Zee. You know I’m your nanny, and I stay here every day.”
“No, I mean are you going to live here forever with Daddy and me?”
“That’s a big question, Zee. I’m not sure I can answer it.”
Zee threw the spoon down on the kitchen island and ran from the room. Thea sighed. This was another thing she and Thor would need to talk about when he got home. How were they going to deal with Mackenzie’s questions around how long she would be here, and whether or not she would stay forever.
Her mind wandered back to just a few days ago when Thor asked if she would stay permanently with them, but they never had the chance to explore what that meant. The strange thing was, she could see herself staying here forever with Thor and Zee. She’d grown to love that little girl more than she knew was possible, especially in such a short time, and she found herself incredibly attracted to Thor—another thing she didn’t anticipate when she moved to Sweet Grove to be a nanny.
There was no doubt in her mind that God had led her here, in fact, she knew it with certainty. He’d brought her attention to the “Nanny Wanted” ad. She’d argued with herself about it—she didn’t even really enjoy being around kids all that much, so it didn’t make sense to consider it, but God kept bringing it back to her mind, and she knew enough by now not to argue for too long with God.
She chuckled as she thought about one situation where she had argued with Him in her early college years over something she wanted to do, but He clearly didn’t want her to do it. She’d tried to sleep, but He kept bringing a specific verse to her mind. It was late, and she had an exam the next day. So she argued that she would read it the next morning, but He wouldn’t let her rest until she read it, so she tur
ned on her light and read the verse. The moment she did, she realized He was telling her not to do the thing she wanted to do. She didn’t know why exactly, but once she acknowledged it, her heart flooded with peace.
Was this like that, too, God? You brought me here, and it hasn’t been easy, yet I already feel like I’ve grown into a different person, and all the reasons I came here seem so insignificant compared to what lies before me now. Do you want me to stay here…forever?
In the next instant she heard something that sounded like a whimper. She turned the stove top off and walked into the hallway. It was coming from upstairs. Taking the stairs two-by-two, she followed the sound to Mackenzie’s room. She was crying, and it broke Thea’s heart. She knocked on her door, “Zee, can I come in?”
“Go away!”
Thea sighed. This was one of those moments when she had to believe that a biological mother would know exactly what to do—but she had no idea. She decided to appeal to Zee’s softer side. “Zee, please, I would really like to come in.”
She heard a loud sniffle. “Okay, you can come in,” her dejected and sad little voice said.
Thea opened Mackenzie’s door and sat on the edge of her bed. “Zee, what’s wrong?”
“All I want is a family.” She sobbed. “All I want is for you to stay here forever and be my new mom and marry my dad and—and I want a puppy, too!” she wailed.
Thea bit her lip. She knew that to a five-year-old, all of these things probably seemed bigger than life, and it hurt to know she was so sad. Then she heard the house phone ring. “Hey Zee, I’ll bet that’s your dad. Would you like to talk with him?”
“Y—yessss!” She sobbed. “I want my daddy!”
“Okay, Zee. I’ll go get the phone and be right back.” Thea ran from Mackenzie’s room to catch the phone before it stopped ringing, and caught it just before it went to voice mail, recognizing Thor’s cell phone number.
‘Thor?” Thea said breathlessly as she put the receiver to her ear.
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