Chapter 2
TWO
Della had finally reached out for help, and this was what she got. She marched out of the room before she said something else she’d regret. They’d sent Anthony Thomas to protect her? The man spent more time flirting than doing his actual job! Well, flirting with everyone except her.
Not that it mattered at all what he thought about her.
But if the department had sent the officer who looked more like a cover model of a men’s fashion magazine than a bodyguard, were they really taking her seriously?
Her conscience pricked. And why should they? She was a liar, after all.
The notes showing up in her mailbox, and even in her locker, said so. Which gave more credence to the threats they contained than she could ignore. Because only one other person alive knew about her lie. And if he found her?
No. She couldn’t go there.
Della walked into the break room and grabbed a sponge. She scrubbed a spot of dried coffee off the counter.
With the first few anonymous letters, she’d been able to hold it together. Jason Vaynes had been safely locked away in prison, where he couldn’t hurt her anymore.
Then he’d escaped.
So she’d swallowed her pride and called on the police. She was scared, and she was big enough to admit it. She would not be his victim again.
And here she’d laid it all out to the nice officer on the phone, only to be mocked now with the arrival of Officer Thomas.
The same Officer Thomas now standing in the doorway.
“Ms. Nixon, I don’t think we’ve officially met before, and yet I get the distinct impression that I’ve offended you somehow. I assure you, I’m here to help.”
Oh, he was handsome and suave all right.
He filled out the dark-blue uniform to perfection.
Capable, strong shoulders and a trim but solid figure.
The dark hair he kept neatly styled contrasted with the most startling shade of blue eyes.
Eyes that seemed to laugh and shine too bright to take life seriously.
She’d heard more than her fair share of his serial dating escapades from some of the others. She refused to fall for his flattery.
She dropped the sponge and looked at him. “You’re right. We haven’t met before, but I’ve heard about you.”
A tic in his jaw and the slight tightening of his smiling lips were the only hints that her implied barb had hit its intended target.
She wasn’t usually this forthright, like ever, but she was barely holding on here.
She didn’t have time to tiptoe around anyone’s ego. Not when her life was on the line.
“I don’t know what you heard, but I take my job incredibly seriously. I’m here to help keep you safe.” He stepped into the room.
“Hmph. The precinct’s poster boy?” She focused on another spot on the counter and attacked it with her sponge. “I have a serious threat on my hands.”
“Who said a person can’t be attractive and capable at the same time?” He gave a nonchalant shrug, but the challenging spark in his gaze tripped her up a second. “You pull it off. Heard you rescued an octogenarian from a house fire last week.”
He was good. She’d give him that. But that blue-eyed gaze bored right into her, setting off a warm swirling she felt all the way down to her toes.
She struggled for words. Sheesh! A few pretty compliments and she was falling apart.
He could pounce, finish her off with a well-placed placating remark, but instead, he leaned in. “Give me a chance before you write me off completely. I want to help.”
At least he wasn’t easily scared off. She needed someone to watch her back. Someone who wouldn’t scatter at the first sign of trouble. His persistence could be an asset.
If she could trust him.
“Fine.” She grabbed the coffee mugs from the drying rack and stacked them in the open cupboard. Anything to hide the shakiness in her hands.
“I know you talked to someone at the precinct, and my sergeant said you were the one who helped put Vaynes behind bars, but it would help me know what we’re working with if you can walk me through this from the beginning. Do you mind telling me what happened?”
Of course she minded. But he was right. It was only fair she give him a chance.
And maybe she was coming down too hard on him simply because he was sophisticated and happened to be one of the few men in Last Chance that had a good sense of style.
Even if he did date a lot, she never heard anything bad about his police work. And he did seem genuinely concerned.
Who was she to turn down any kind of aid? She needed all the help she could get.
And she had to admit, desperate times, desperate measures and all that meant she couldn’t be picky.
She folded her arms across her chest. “Can I trust you?”
He held her stare and gave her a small nod. He didn’t flinch, didn’t look away. “I’m here to help. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
A hint of peace settled in her soul. Like a starving person, she would take the tiniest morsel offered.
Okay, Lord, I’m going out on a limb here.
She grabbed a water bottle, and they sat at the small round table, off to the side. “What do you need to know?”
“Start at the beginning. You were captured by Vaynes. Along with your friend, right?”
“Yeah. Lily.”
“And how did you two know each other?”
She slowly traced the top of her cap. “I met Lily in college. She didn’t have any family, and we got really close. So that summer, when I came back here to stay with my grandma, she came with me. We worked a day job at the grocery store and then at a bar in the evenings.”
“What bar?”
“The Black Barrel”
“The one downtown?”
Della nodded before continuing. “Jason Vaynes was a regular there. He was there every shift Lily and I worked. I knew he liked her. He was always staring at her. But she didn’t think much about it.
She had a boyfriend back at school, and Jason never did anything.
Just always ordered a beer and nursed it until closing, when he’d pay his bill and leave a big tip. ”
“Then what?”
She swallowed hard and gathered enough gumption to get the rest of the story out.
“One night when Lily and I had the closing shift, we had car trouble. It was after two a.m. I should’ve noticed the lights were out in the parking lot, but…
I didn’t. Everything after that gets hazy—” Della closed her eyes, willing back the stinging tears that wanted to escape.
She didn’t want to relive the horror. But she needed Officer Thomas to understand the danger here.
“I woke up and had no clue where we were. Lily was sobbing, saying we had to escape. But he kept drugging me. When I was awake, I was chained to a bed, and Lily would be passed out. I don’t remember how long we were there.
His prisoners. But I know the last shift I worked was July twenty-ninth, and the day I escaped and woke up in a hospital was August twenty-ninth. A month to the day.”
“And Lily?”
The name still brought a shaft of pain through her chest. Her friend had sacrificed everything for her.
“He’d broken her legs. She knew she wasn’t going to make it.
She was so adamant that I get away.” Della paused to take a sip.
“She used the drug that he’d given me on him.
It knocked him out. I didn’t want to go, but I promised her I’d get help and come back for her.
I couldn’t let her sacrifice be for nothing.
So I left. But whatever it was that he put in me messed me up.
I ran from the cabin where he held us and found the highway, but I was so malnourished and dehydrated that I passed out.
By the time I came to and was able to direct the FBI to where he’d kept us, Lily was already dead. ”
“I’m sorry.” His voice was gentle. Sincere.
Della looked up. His eyes weren’t glinting or mocking. They stayed steady and true as he held her gaze.
“That took a lot of guts to get away and go for help. They caught him, right?”
“They did. And I testified. He was sent to prison, and I’ve been trying to move on and not let him take anything else away from me. But now he’s out there, free, and he’s coming after me.”
“If he’s smart, he’ll get as far away from Last Chance County as he can. His face is all over the news and social media, so he’s more likely to be caught here, where everyone is on the lookout. What makes you think he’ll come after you now?”
There it was. The doubt. It would come out sooner or later.
Maybe it was an innocent question, one he thought was simply procedure.
Or did he think she was paranoid? That was a possibility too.
Guilt ate away at her and messed with her head more than she liked to admit.
But reality was, she’d gotten away while Lily had perished, and every single day, she had to live with that.
And it couldn’t completely be paranoia. She had proof that Vaynes was after her.
“I know because he told me so. He’s been leaving me threatening letters for the last month.”
Officer Thomas frowned. “But he was in prison until the escape.”
“I don’t know how he was getting them out, but I know they’re from him.
The first one showed up on my doorstep. So I got a security camera.
Then they showed up on my car, left on my windshield when I was out at the store or at church.
One was left in my locker, here at work.
He said he won’t leave until he finishes what he set out to do. ”
“How do you know it’s him and not someone trying to play a sick joke or bully you? Not that it’s okay for anyone to do that, but how can we be sure it’s really Vaynes?”
“Because there’s things he says that only he would know.”
Officer Thomas seemed to consider her words, studying her from across the table. “All right, then. Will you show me the letters?”
Finally, they were getting somewhere.