Everywhere She Goes

She still didn’t seem to want to look at him. “An ex-boyfriend has been stalking me. It’s one of the reasons I didn’t want to stay in Seattle to finish my dissertation.”

Anger balled in his gut. “Define stalking.”

“Mostly following me. Popping up everywhere I went. I changed health clubs. He’d show up at my new one. Trail me through the grocery store. That kind of thing.”

Mostly following? The tension in her voice told him there was substantially more.

She turned her head, her eyes still dark with unhappiness. “I could tell he was getting mad. The last time I was coming out of my health club after an evening class and he was waiting at my car.”

“Tell me you hadn’t gone out alone.” His voice sounded like the crunch of gravel.

“Well, I did,” she said with a spark of defiance. “Until then, he really was just a nuisance.”

He gripped the steering wheel hard. “Until then.”

Her eyes shied from his. “When I said no again, that I didn’t love him and he needed to accept that, he, well, sort of threw a temper tantrum.” She paused. “Did throw a temper tantrum. He was wearing heavy boots, and he kicked my car, over and over. He did a lot of damage to the body.”

Goddamn. The thought of those boots slamming into her little car had Noah’s whole body rigid with the need to do battle. Useless, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. He didn’t have to be a psychologist to know the ex-boyfriend had wanted to hurt her, not the car.

“And while he was doing this?”

“I dialed 911, of course! What do you think, I’m stupid?”

“Was he arrested?”

“Some people were coming out of the health club, and he took off. The police did charge him later and he did some kind of plea deal. But, um, the last thing he said was that he’d never accept losing me.”

“And that’s when you decided coming home to your cop brother was a good idea.”

“Well...yes.”

“Does Colin know about this creep?”

She visibly winced. “Um...no. I really did hope Blake wouldn’t follow me. He has a job. I can’t imagine what he’s thinking!”

“How long had this been going on?”

“Like...six months?”

He swore under his breath and reached for the gearshift. Having backed out, he then punched in the code to open the iron grill of the gate, closed at night. Within moments, he was driving through downtown, which had gone pretty well dead except for a few places like Chandler’s that stayed open until eleven on weeknights.

Cait was quiet for close to five minutes. Then, “Do you know where Colin lives?”

“Someone pointed his place out to me.”

Another couple of minutes passed. “Will you say something?” she burst out.

“Better if I don’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’d give you hell for not taking precautions!” Despite his best intentions, his voice had risen. “What were you thinking, going down to your car all by yourself tonight?”

“I was thinking he was in Seattle!” she yelled back. “And...and I did look around the garage before I got out of the elevator.” That part came out more subdued. “I’m not stupid,” she said again but softly, as if she was trying to convince herself.

Feeling like he had grit in his chest that scraped when he breathed, Noah grasped her fine-boned hand in his. Cait gave a little jerk, as if he’d startled her, but after a very still moment, she squeezed back. Holding on, he thought.

“Your hand is cold,” he said quietly.

“My hands are always cold.” It was a poor excuse for a laugh, but Noah admired the effort. “My feet, too. Lousy circulation, I guess.”

He was betrayed into imagining himself sandwiching her cold feet between his shins at night, warming them.

No. Don’t go there.

Neither of them said another word until he had to take his hand back to steer into the dark driveway leading through a tall stand of pines to her brother’s house. He was glad to see that the front porch lights were on. A floodlight over the detached garage lit up, too, presumably motion-sensitive. He drove as close as he could get to the front steps and then braked.

“Thank you for the lift,” she said, already releasing her seat belt and reaching for her purse. “And for listening.”

“I’m coming in with you.”

Door halfway open, she swiveled back to look at him. “What?”

“You heard me.”

By the time he turned off the engine and walked around, her brother stood on the porch looking down at them. “Cait.” His eyes narrowed. “Chandler.”

“You really don’t have to...” she tried.

Noah gripped her elbow and started her up the porch steps.

“Your car break down?” Colin asked.

At the top of the steps, she shook free of Noah’s hold and glared at him. “No. I’m going to have to get someone to clean it in the morning. It suffered from...I guess you could call it graffiti.”

“Shall I tell him about it?” Noah asked.

She’d gotten over being scared and was mad. “This is none of your business!”

“It happened in the city hall parking garage. While you were attending a city council meeting.” He put some extra weight on the word city. “You work for me. That makes it my business.”

Her brother’s narrow-eyed gaze moved back to his sister. “Cait?”

“Oh, fine.” She stomped past him into the house.

Colin glanced back. “You coming in?”

Surprised at the invitation, he said a firm, “Yes.” He was damned if he’d leave her alone to make light of the whole story to her brother.