Stalker in the Shadows

“No, but I know you are.”

Shaun’s cheeks burned. “Uh… Thanks.”

She turned on the heat under a cast-iron skillet on the stove. “So are you still going to apply to the Sonoma Police Department?”

He wasn’t sure how to answer that, then decided to be honest. “Not yet.” Then he fired back at her, “Are you going to abandon your plans for the clinic?”

She hesitated before dropping a thin stream of oil on the cast-iron skillet, and her chin firmed. “No.”

He wasn’t sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, it was safer for her if she stopped her plans so that the stalker wouldn’t hurt her. On the other hand, her continuing her plans for the clinic would keep the stalker in Sonoma, would keep him near her. Would enable Shaun to catch the psycho.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“I’ve thought it over.” She lay a tortilla on the hot skillet. “I won’t back down and be a victim. I won’t let him think he can make some threats and people will obey him. This clinic is important.”

“How does your family feel about that?”

“They’re not happy. Dad’s still trying to get me to stop.” She shredded some cooked chicken breast onto the tortilla, then topped it with cheese and another tortilla.

“It’s dangerous.” He didn’t want her putting herself in danger and he couldn’t get himself to encourage her to make herself a target just so he could catch the stalker.

She gave him a significant glance. “That’s where you come in.”

“Me?”

“Since you haven’t applied to the Sonoma PD yet, how about working for me as a bodyguard?”

Shaun stared hard at her. “You want me?”

“You can’t do it?”

“Of course I can do it.”

“So what’s the problem?”

He hesitated, then finally said, “Following you day after day will take me away from my investigation into the stalker.”

“I figured you’d be doing your own investigation,” she said.

Shaun didn’t admit that another problem would be being near Monica day after day. She made him feel both comfortable to be around her, bantering like this, and yet on edge because he was so attracted to her. He didn’t want that attraction distracting him. He didn’t want any romance in his life, he didn’t want any women in his life.

Monica flipped the quesadilla with a spatula, and it sizzled on the skillet. “Did you consider that since I’m the target, you being with me would draw the stalker out?”

“You being a target isn’t something to take lightly.”

“I’m not, but I also trust you to be able to protect me.”

Her words kicked him in the gut, and he turned away from her to look out the kitchen window at the side yard.

Why did she trust him when he didn’t even trust himself? He had failed to protect his sister. He’d failed the people who died at the coyote’s hands in that accident down at the border—no, he couldn’t think about it. If he thought about it, the guilt would burn in his stomach and he’d see their faces in front of his eyes. “I can’t protect you,” he said.

Her brow wrinkled. “Why not? You’re a cop.”

“I’m—I was border patrol. I’m not anything right now.” He couldn’t take on a job of protecting someone.

Monica’s shoulders settled, but then she straightened. “Well, I guess I’ll find someone else to help me catch him.”

“What do you mean, catch him?” Shaun took a step closer.

“I don’t intend to sit around and wait for him to hurt me.” She slid the crispy quesadilla onto a plate. “I’m the perfect bait. If not you, then I’ll just find someone else to keep me safe.”

“How do you know you can trust me? What if I was a terrible cop?”

She smiled at him. “A terrible cop? You? You’re a born protector—it practically oozes out of you. It’s in the way you stand, the way you walk, the things you say. It probably runs in your family, since you were all so overprotective of Clare.”

He felt like she’d ripped away a shield. She had sharper insight into him than anyone else he’d known.

She continued, “I think you and I could find this stalker a lot faster than the overworked Sonoma PD could. We’ve both got a lot at stake—my clinic, your sister’s murder.” She paused, then added, “I’m not going to be a victim.”

There was that word again. He’d quit the border patrol because he’d seen too many victims he couldn’t save.

But Shaun couldn’t stand by and let Monica be bait. He understood how she didn’t want to be a doormat and give in to this creep, and if she was going to try to stop the stalker, he wanted to help her. “Okay, I’ll be your bodyguard.”

She smiled and held out her hand. “Great.”

He shook her hand, but the point of contact between their palms made a strange sort of energized languor move up his arm, then his shoulder, then through his torso. He felt relaxed and yet tense at the same time. He abruptly dropped her hand when he realized he’d held it for too long.

Monica blinked rapidly, as if waking up from a dream, then handed him the quesadilla. “You should eat this before it gets too cold.”

She cut herself another small slice of chocolate cake before joining him at the kitchen breakfast table under the window.

“Let’s talk about what we’re going to do,” she said. “My business proposal is almost completed and my accountant is finalizing the clinic’s financial plan.” She glanced out the window into the dark and then suddenly froze.

His skin prickled. “What is it?”

Her face had become pasty. “I…I don’t know. I thought I saw something move.”

He whipped his hand out and yanked the cord to drop the blinds. He twisted the plastic rod to lever the slats closed, then shot out of his chair and snapped the lights off.

Her face looked ghostly in the dark. He stood close behind her and peered out through the slit where the blinds didn’t quite cover the edge of the window.

He had to wait for his eyes to adjust. He saw low azalea bushes. Was one bush a bit oddly shaped or was it just his imagination?

And then the bush moved.

He hesitated a split second that seemed like forever. He hadn’t chased the stalker earlier because he hadn’t been sure if the man had a gun or not. He still didn’t know.

But the frustration of not being able to capture his sister’s killer burned in Shaun’s gut. The stalker was so close—Shaun wasn’t going to let this person get away again.