6. 6
6
B onnie answered all Corey’s questions, even the ones she thought were nosey and personal. She didn’t want to hold anything back if it might help make sure Phillip never succeeded in what he’d tried to do tonight.
A shiver passed through her at the thought of what he might have done, should he have managed to make her go with him. What he might have done to someone else in the past.
“Are you cold?” Corey asked.
“No, just thinking.” She took another drink from the sweet coffee drink she hadn’t needed but had helped settle her nerves after the incident with Phillip.
Looking across the table where the two of them sat in the nearly deserted coffee shop, she realized that she’d told Corey about herself, but hadn’t gotten any of the same information about him.
“Where are you from?” The words seemed to fall out of her mouth before she realized she was going to say them.
“Huh?” He frowned.
“You said you were new in town, but not where you’re from or what you do.” She tilted her head as she watched him, curious.
“I grew up not too far from here, outside Billings. I’ve been here for a few months, like I said. I’m working on a ranch south of town.”
“You don’t sound thrilled about working at a ranch.” She couldn’t have said why she thought so, maybe it was something in his tone, or the look on his face.
“I’m not really. When I left home, years ago, I swore I’d never do ranch work again. Yet here I am.”
“Where did you go when you left?”
“I joined the Army. I was determined to be all I could be.” He let out a single burst of what could be laughter, but she suspected was more laughing at how naive he’d been. Still, she had to know.
“And were you? All you could be?” Bonnie found herself watching him, looking for signs he might not be being honest with her.
“Honestly? I don’t know anymore. I think I was the best I could be with the orders and skills I was given, perhaps the best soldier I could be. The best person I could be? Maybe not.” He stared sightlessly out a nearby window as he spoke, as if he wasn’t there in the room with her, at least not in his mind. But somewhere else, maybe looking at everything he’d done in his life, and finding it lacking.
She couldn’t help but wonder what he was seeing and what he could have done to see it differently or if he wished he’d done it differently.
“What brought you to Gillette?” she asked, trying to bring his mind back to the here and now.
He shook his head as if shaking something loose then turned back to watch her for several seconds before answering.
“An old friend. He called looking for some help, but he offered me something I’d been missing too.”
“What?”
One corner of Corey’s mouth quirked up as his gaze flicked across the worn surface of the table between them. He tipped his coffee back and took a drink before setting the empty cup on the table and looking back up at her.
“Brotherhood. He offered me a family, something I hadn’t realized I’d been missing until there was a chance of getting one back.”
“What happened to your family?”
He hadn’t said anything about losing his parents, only that he’d left home.
“It was just my parents. I didn’t have any siblings. Dad was killed in a ranch accident a couple years after I enlisted. Mom lasted a couple more years, but she wasn’t the same. She missed him, I think.” He shook his head slowly, as if he didn’t understand. “It was like after Dad was gone, she just gave up. She had nothing to live for anymore. I guess you could say she died of a broken heart.”
A shudder seemed to pass through his entire body and Bonnie wished she knew what had caused it. That she had some idea of how to make him feel better.
He looked up and met her gaze. “Anyway, enough about me. We need to get a plan in place for what to do about Phillip. If you want to go home, I can’t stop you. I do think you need to get your phone checked out and make sure he doesn’t have some kind of tracking app on it.”
“What if he does show up at my place? What do I do then?”
“My first instinct is to say call me. But I live half an hour from town. As much as I hate to admit it, by the time I get to you, it may be too late. You would be better off calling the cops. They’ll at least be faster to respond.”
“Even if they won’t do anything?”
“Even if they won’t do anything permanent. From what I saw today, he’s worried about how things appear. He didn’t want to cause a scene. If the police show up, he’s more likely to back down, maybe even not show up again, though I wouldn’t count on that. If you have to call the cops, call them, then call me. I’ll come if I can.”
She wondered if she should call him. What could he do that the police couldn’t? Either way, knowing that he wanted to know that someone other than her parents, who were too far away to make a difference, made her feel better.