Chapter 3
Heather
U nsurprisingly, I slept like shit. Seeing David wreaked that much havoc on me. He’d shown up—proving that my eyes hadn’t been playing tricks on me the other day—and with mere minutes in his presence, I was a mess.
Panic didn’t cut it. Terror was the understatement of the century. I felt a sickening twist of too many ugly emotions, and I had nothing to fight it off.
While I appreciated Roarke showing up when he did and standing up for me, I knew it was ineffective. Likewise with Todd. It seemed that holding a firearm did the trick, even if it wasn’t loaded and the old man wouldn’t be likely to use it on David.
Well, maybe he would’ve fired a shot in warning...
It seemed that old age was a free pass for Todd to act as he pleased. He was generally kind and easygoing, but he sure hadn’t hesitated to step in and intervene alongside Roarke.
If I hadn’t been in the throes of a panic attack and frozen, I would’ve realized in real time how monumental of a moment that was. A local from Burton standing up for me. It was a stark contrast to my childhood here. Even though I was making friends with my coworkers at the bank, Todd stepping in like that was a clear and bold move that showed me I could be protected and included as one of the town’s own. That someone around here gave a shit to stand up for me.
Roarke cared. I saw, and felt, that he did to some degree. While that should’ve comforted me, I couldn’t shake off this need to be cautious and aware.
As I exited my cabin for work, I did so like an owl, damn near rotating my head on my neck in a swivel. David had parked in the distance. That was why I assumed it was Nevaeh walking or biking to my front door. He hadn’t driven up closer to my cabin, perhaps because he premediated that far in advance, thinking of all the variable he could control to ensure catching me off-guard. Because that was the kind of sadistic control freak he was. That was the sort of awful man he could be.
Now that I knew David was around and probably wouldn’t leave until he got what he came for, I had to be on guard even more than I had been. I had to be diligent in being aware of my surroundings.
The waiting game of suspense that came with anticipating him popping up in my life was a terrible sensation to experience. Being caught unawares was even worse.
No one lurked outside, though, but I hurried into my car regardless, eager to just get out of here and be inside a vehicle. Standing in the open made me too exposed.
On the drive to town, to the bank, I worried about what could happen next.
Specifically, with Todd.
Even Roarke.
If David tried to eliminate Roarke as an obstacle to me, he’d have a hell of a fight. As far as I could tell, and based on the gossip I got from Nance and Fergus at the bank, lots of people liked Roarke. He kept to himself mostly, and it seemed lots of ladies in Burton wanted a piece of him, but no one had anything truly bad to say about him.
Todd, though, could be a cranky man when he was in the mood.
What if he presses charges against Todd?
I could see it now. He’d claim that he aimed the gun at him. Hell, he could make up that Todd fired at him. David was too damned good at twisted stories how he needed them to go.
Would Marty stand up to David with his bullshit?
Is there someone higher up in town who’d side with David?
It shouldn’t seem possible, but I knew how these things went with him. I’d experienced firsthand how David could be slick and get away with anything.
When I pulled in at the bank, my worries and questions compounded until I felt that I was on the brink of a migraine. And that wouldn’t do. I had to be alert. On top of watching my surroundings. Bracing for another visit from David.
He found my cabin. Burton was only so large. It wouldn’t take him long to search out where I worked.
If he doesn’t know already.
“Damn, girl.” Nance furrowed her brow and raised her eyebrows. “Bad night?”
I dismissed the irony of Fergus asking me that same question just yesterday when we went to get coffee. He’d mistakenly assumed I looked so sleep deprived because I’d been up all night having a good time.
Not so.
“Yeah.” I shrugged as we walked into the rear door at the bank together.
“Wanna talk about it?”
I pressed my lips together and licked the inside of the seam. I didn’t. Since I came back to Burton, I stuck, religiously, to keeping to myself. To protecting my privacy and insisting on solitude. It seemed the safest route to getting back on my feet, both mentally and physically, but now, nothing was safe. Nothing could be close to safe when I knew David was in town.
“Just know the offer stands,” Nance said as she walked through the office spaces with me. She didn’t push. She wasn’t pestering with curiosity. For the first time, I stopped for a moment to realize I’d never had someone like her in my life. My parents had been crossed out as a support system years ago. When I was a kid, I learned the cruel lesson that I didn’t have a family to lean on. That included never having a grandmother. An aunt. Anything. Eric’s mom and dad passed long ago. Our grandparents had passed.
With Nance, I saw hope of someone older, wiser, and more patient to hear me out. It didn’t matter that she was a coworker. She was a friend. And she’d already proven as a transplant to Burton that she was immune from the biases and prejudices that the locals held against me when I grew up here.
“It’s my ex,” I said before she could take my silence as a no thank you to talking about what bothered me.
“Ex...husband?” she guessed as she tipped her head to come to her little office.
I followed her. I may as well tell her. I started this topic, and it wasn’t like David had to be some kind of secret. He was here. He’d make himself seen and known. Roarke and Todd already saw him, and I doubted they’d keep their mouths shut. Soon enough, gossip would spread and everyone in town would be aware that Heather James’s ex was in town.
“Hell no,” I said as she set her purse down on her desk. Not once did she look away, giving me her full, undivided attention.
“I’ve never been married.” I shook my head. “Or engaged,” I added quickly.
“So an ex-boyfriend.” She crossed her arms, tipping her chin up with such an automatic mama bear look that instantly started to make me feel better about talking at all. “From around here?”
“No.”
“From Chicago?”
I nodded.
“Hmm. Is he calling or something? Or is it just the memories and whatnot?” She frowned. “Or am I reading this wrong and you just miss him?”
I almost laughed. I could never, in a million years, miss David. “How are you reading this?”
She gestured at me. “You look like you’re about to go to war. Or coming back from it.”
“Sounds about right.”
She frowned harder. “Which one?”
“Both. David didn’t handle the break-up well.”
“Are you the breaker or the breakee?”
“Breaker. I didn’t actually break up.” Because he never let me say that I was leaving. “I just ran.”
“Is he abusive?” She roved her gaze over me, as if needing to see the bruises to get even more pissed off on my behalf.
“Yes, not... He didn’t beat me. It was more up here.” I pointed at my head. “A control freak.” I swallowed hard, feeling both sick and excited to get this off my chest. “I’ve never told anyone about this. About him.”
“Damn, girl.” She set her hand on my shoulder and rubbed it.
“I take that back. I tried to.” And the cops didn’t do a damn thing. They’d only facilitated spreading word to David that I was trying to press charges against him.
“But he’s here. He came here, followed me here.”
“To get you back?” she guessed.
That would be a normal, sane way of wording it. But with him, it was something far more. I nodded. “When I say he’s a control freak, think of the worst-case scenario.”
She shook her head. “Well fuck that. And fuck him. No one’s going to make you go anywhere or do anything you don’t want to do.”
I wished I could believe that, but she didn’t understand how sneaky he was. How cunning he could be.
“I’ll go tell Janelle that we need a break before opening. She can just keep the bank closed until we handle this, okay. I’ll go with you to the station and—”
“No!” I shook my head. “No. No involving the law. I’m telling you this in confidence and—”
“Okay, okay.” She tamped her hands down in the air as if trying to put out a fire. Then she shook them in a no gesture. “In confidence. Okay. I won’t say anything. This will stay between us.”
“Please.”
“But you don’t want to tell Marty or any of them at the station?” Her brow creased even more.
“No. I don’t.”
She sighed. “I won’t pressure you, Heather, but that seems like the smartest step forward.”
It would seem like the most logical step forward, but she didn’t get it. “I tried. I tried to before.”
“In Chicago?”
I nodded again, hating the doom and dread that kicked in. “He’s got connections. He’s a lawyer and he knows the cops and...” I shook my head again, hanging it as I lowered my gaze to the floor. “Going to the law enforcement will get back to him. And that’ll encourage him to pursue me even more. Like it’s some twisted game.”
“But this is Burton. He’s not gonna know Marty or any of them.”
I shook my head. “It won’t change a thing.”
She sighed, staring at me for a long moment. “I appreciate you telling me this.”
“Me too. I mean, I appreciate you hearing me out.”
At least she didn’t look at me with pity. Only worry.
“It feels good to get this off my chest.”
And I hadn’t even told her all of it. Just the tip of the iceberg that was my hell.
“But what can you do? What can we do? Because you can count on me to help however I can, however you want me to.”
She was an angel.
“I’m not sure yet. He just showed up recently, and I’m... I’m not sure.”
“Well, I’m going to keep my eyes open. I’ve got your back. Can I tell my husband? When he’s in town, he can keep a lookout too.”
“No.” I held up my hand. It had taken a lot of courage to tell her anything and I panicked at word spreading too far too soon. “Just between us for now.”
She nodded. “Okay. You have my word, but I’m worried about you.”
“Todd, um, scared him off yesterday.”
She grinned. “Good. Good on him. What about Roarke?”
I almost frowned, suspicious of why she’d think of him. No one could know that we’d...had an intimate moment.
“He’s out there in a cabin near yours,” she added.
“Oh.” Right. We were neighbors. The idea of him being mine or being in charge of me in any way rubbed me wrong. That was how deeply I had to cling to my independence after running from David.
But there’s no way I can handle this on my own, is there?
Roarke and Todd intervening yesterday proved how weak I was around David. I’d clammed up. Froze on the spot.
“What about a dog?” Nance suggested.
I smirked. “He’d charm even one of those,” I said, not joking.
He wouldn’t be above drugging it either. He’d used that tactic on me to get me back to “obedience.”
“I refuse to think this man is that untouchable.” Nance hugged me. “But until he gets what’s coming for him to ever treat you like this, know that I’ve got your back, okay?”
I exhaled, letting a little more stress seep out of me.
Someone having my back.
It was a foreign thought, but one I vowed to accept as a real one I could someday count on.
“Thanks, Nance.” I closed my eyes and hugged her back tightly.