Chapter 10 #2
“You sound like all the rest!” she snapped, cutting him off.
“So we don’t get protection from the guy until he rapes or beats her?
What about her mental health? What’s that worth?
How would you feel if someone followed you from city to city and taunted you with creepy things left at your home or endless phone calls no matter how many times you changed your number? ”
He sighed. “I get it.”
“Do you? Because for my sister, it was a living hell. It broke Abby.” She balled her hands on the tabletop and battled the bile that rose in her throat. “And no one in law enforcement did anything to stop him.”
Cal reached across the table and covered her fist with his wide, warm palm. She should have jerked her hand away, but his long fingers captured hers, and the comfort in his gesture wrapped around her like a blanket. She stared at his hand on hers, a tangle of emotions knotted in her throat.
“I’m sorry so many people in positions of authority and public service have let you down. Your story doesn’t reflect well on my profession.” He squeezed her fingers adding, “I hope you’ll give me the benefit of the doubt and let me see what, if anything, I can do to help your sister.”
She lifted her focus from their joined hands to his tender gaze.
The spark of hope he lit in her scared her.
She didn’t want to have faith in anyone again, especially not a small-town sheriff.
She refused to risk her emotions, her trust, her soul again.
She’d been disappointed, betrayed, failed too many times by too many men like Cal Colton.
So why did something in his piercing blue eyes move the needle deep in her core? She should be running from him. Raising the drawbridge and lowering the portcullis against him.
She pried her fingers from his and tucked her hands under her arms. “What could you possibly do? The damage has been done. Abby is scared to her core to live beyond the walls of the mental health hospital. She can’t sleep.
She has panic attacks. She’s deeply pessimistic about the rest of her life.
” Jules let her shoulders droop. “I don’t know how to help her anymore. ”
“It sounds like you’ve already done the best thing for her, getting her professional help.” He twisted his mouth as if weighing his next words. “Dare I ask? Do you know where her stalker is now? What he’s up to?”
She barked a scornful laugh. “I’m afraid so. He’s here. In Red Grove. He just delivered the gift shop’s supply of soda and snacks for the coming week.”
“The delivery man?” Stunned, Cal frowned. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“To him or to you?” Jules asked.
“Either. Both.”
She scoffed. “I’m telling you now. As for him…” The muscles in her lean jaw flexed as she gritted her teeth. “His name is Chase Hamilton, and I’ve been very careful not to let him know who I am. If he knows I’m watching him and that I’m Abby’s sister, I can’t monitor him.”
A prickle of alarm crawled up his spine. “Monitor him?”
“Is there an echo in here?” Jules quipped dryly, one eyebrow lifting.
Cal sighed and scratched his chin as he pondered her revelations. Wasn’t it bad enough to have a growing drug problem in the county without adding a potentially violent stalker to the local mix? What had happened to the safe and peaceful Red Grove of his youth?
“Well, that changes everything.” He leaned back in his chair, ignoring her sarcasm. “If he’s here, he’s in my jurisdiction, and I can keep a watch on him.”
“You’re going to keep a watch on him?” She pulled a face that said she was unimpressed.
He cocked his head and looked around as if curious. “You’re right. I think there is an echo in here.”
She snorted and rolled her eyes. “It’s just…
that’s what every other police department in every other city where Abby’s lived has said.
They’d watch him. All to no avail. Without proof of unlawful activity,” she said in a deep, mocking voice, “they couldn’t do more than that.
” She scowled and huffed loudly. “I call bull on that! There has to be something the police can do to stop him from harassing her!”
He rubbed his chin, feeling the beginnings of stubble scrape his palm. “Not always. We are bound by the law.” She opened her mouth to argue, and he held up a finger to stop her. “But… I will do everything in my power to put an end to his stalking, one way or another.”
“Everything within your power…” She turned her head to glare toward the window. “Another trite phrase I’ve heard too often.”
A beam of sunlight streamed through the window, catching highlights in her long chestnut hair.
Cal studied her slightly too-lean countenance and the tiny stress lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth.
Despite the signs of tension, she was beautiful.
The more he learned about her, the more fascinated he became.
She presented a hard, cold persona to the world, yet her interaction with Pilot, her concern for a stray cat, her willingness to put her life and education on hold for her sister all spoke of a tender heart and loving soul.
In his experience, this sort of prickly behavior indicated a deep pain, a wound that a person hadn’t healed from.
And if she was dissatisfied with the actions, or inaction, of law enforcement in protecting her sister, he could see why he was caught in that crossfire. Guilty by association.
A deep desire to prove her wrong ignited inside him.
He’d show her that he did understand her concern, that he wanted to help her.
“Today’s been a long and stressful day for both of us, so I won’t press you on the matter anymore now, but tonight, around seven o’clock maybe, I’d like to dig into your sister’s case with you.
I’ll need the full background on her stalker.
I definitely want to monitor his activity. ”
She turned her gaze back to him and gave him an intense green-eyed stare, clearly weighing his sincerity, his trustworthiness, his honesty. “Fine. Seven. At my motel room.”
Something stirred in his chest, a sort of anxiety or hope that she’d found enough merit in him to give him a chance. He wanted to measure up in Jules Bailey’s esteem. In more ways than one.