17. Vanessa
17
VANESSA
Leaning in the doorway, I chew on my lip as I scan the trail ahead of me. I know Jake said they likely wouldn’t be back until this evening, but I can’t help but worry that something might have happened to them out there.
Mason headed off about an hour ago—after we spent most of the afternoon in bed together. And yeah, I know that’s probably only going to make things a million times more complicated than they need to be, but there was something about the way he looked at me when the two of us were lying on that blanket together that made it impossible to resist. Besides, I got pretty much everything I wanted from the interview—I just managed to get a few orgasms out of it too, and I don’t see anything wrong with that.
But now that I’m alone again, and waiting for Callie to get back, I can’t shake the feeling that I’m being watched. It’s just like it was the evening we had our movie night together. I can’t stop thinking about how certain I was then that there was someone keeping an eye on me, someone trying to catch me out. And if they do…what will they want with me? With my daughter…?
I already know the answer to that. I just don’t want to contend with it. Because if I have to face up to the fact that there are people out there who want me dead, I’m going to lose my shit. Being out here, I’ve been cut off from the heaviness of that knowledge, but I don’t know how much longer I can keep up the pretense now that I’m starting to look over my shoulder again.
I’ve fired off a few messages to Lara, making sure that nothing has been going on in the city that I should know about, and she’s always been quick to assure me I have nothing to worry about—that nothing’s been happening that should bring me any reason to concern myself.
But in my overthinking mind, I’ve just managed to turn that into proof that there is something going on. And they’ve managed to find out where I am. That’s why there’s been no talk of them in the city, because they’re out here in the woods now, and they’re closing in on my daughter and me, once and for all.
Finally, I spot them appearing over the crest of the hill—Jake and Callie. I raise my hand and my heart leaps in relief. Callie comes bounding over to me and gives me a huge hug, and I lift her up into my arms, even though she’s getting way too big for that now.
“You have a nice time, sweetheart?” I ask her, pressing a kiss against her forehead.
She nods. “Yeah, we went to the pond and we saw the frog spawn!” she exclaims. I can tell it’s going to be hell on earth trying to get her to settle down tonight, given all that she has to tell me, but it’s hard to care much. I’m just glad she had a good time.
“I can’t wait to hear about it,” I tell her, and I plant her on the ground again. “You go in and get washed up, and then you can come down for dinner, okay?”
She takes off without saying another word, leaving Jake and me alone together again. I feel as though a wall has come down between us, after our conversation on the trail the other day. Understanding where he’s coming from with all of this cast it all into a much more understandable light, and I get why he’s so protective of this place, why he went off on me as hard as he did when he thought I was a threat to it.
“Was she okay?” I ask him, raising my eyebrows.
He chuckles and nods. “More than okay. She was great. We had a lot of fun.”
“Killian…?”
“Headed home to get started on work for the night,” he replies. “And I guess Mason is already there?”
The mention of the man I spent the day tangled up with brings a slight flush of heat to my neck, but I do my best to brush it off. I nod.
“Yeah, he headed off about an hour ago,” I reply, shifting my weight from one foot to another. Ever since then, I’ve had this sick feeling that someone is watching me, and I can’t shake it—can’t shake the certainty that they might have been spying when we were together too. The thought makes my stomach turn, and I guess Jake must notice it.
“You okay?” he asks softly, lowering his voice and shifting slightly toward me. I nod—then shake my head.
“No,” I confess. “I…I can’t help but feel like…”
I glance around. This is going to sound crazy to him. He has no idea what I’ve been through, everything that’s brought me to this point. But after what he shared with me, I guess I have a duty to be honest with him.
“Feel like I’m being watched.”
He frowns. “You’ve got reason to think someone might be watching you?”
I nod again. “Yeah, I—I was working on this story, back in the city,” I admit. “Helping to expose this cartel who were trafficking people. I knew it was a risk taking it on in the first place, but I couldn’t just stand by and let it happen. And when the story came out, there were some…threats. To me, to the newspaper. That’s why I came out here for the summer. Let the heat die down and get them to lose interest in me so I can get on with my life.”
He stares at me, taking it in. I can’t tell if he’s pissed that this is the first he’s hearing of it, or concerned that I might be in more danger than I know.
“Shit, Vanessa,” he mutters, shaking his head. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because I didn’t want to worry you when I felt like there was nothing to worry about.”
“And you felt like a cartel on your ass wasn’t enough for you to worry about?”
He sounds incredulous, almost angry. I retreat into myself, shaking my head.
“I thought they would just lose interest in me,” I protest. “I thought—fuck, I don’t know what I thought. I just thought that I would be safe out here, that Callie and I both would be, but these last few days…”
I peer around. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m just paranoid.”
“Better safe than sorry,” he replies, snapping into action mode at once. “We should put up some cameras around the property. Make sure we catch anyone who might be lurking around and taking the place in.”
My heart flips. I don’t like that idea, not one bit. Partly because I know they’ll be able to see me whenever they want, and I don’t like the thought of them catching me when I’m looking my worst—but partly because I’m worried that they might actually find something I need to be worried about.
“I don’t know about that…”
“Not inside the house,” he assures me. “We’re not trying to spy on you or Callie. Around the edges of the property, looking out into the woods. We have a few spares that we can rig up that lead to a feed in the house that’s triggered by movement. We won’t see anything unless there’s something there to see, okay?”
I stare back at him, chewing my lip. I guess he has a point, but I can’t shake the feeling that this is too much—too much for me to ask of them, and too much for me to go through with, especially with Callie around. This place was meant to be a safe haven for us, a sanctuary, and the thought of dotting it with security cameras doesn’t really feel like the best way to go about that.
“Vanessa, please,” he murmurs to me. “I want to do this. To help you.”
And I can see in his eyes that he’s not going to back down on this. Something in me shifts. He just doesn’t want us to get hurt. This isn’t about spying on us, this is about making certain that we’re both okay—protecting us, in a way he didn’t get to protect his foster parents before.
And when I frame it like that, I guess it doesn’t seem quite so bad. If I can make this about soothing his fears rather than mine, I can handle that.
After a long pause, I nod. “Yeah, I suppose it’s not a bad idea,” I agree. “Keep an eye on things…”
“Exactly,” he murmurs, and before I can say another word, he leans forward and draws me into a tight hug. There’s something about the grip around my shoulders that draws tears to my eyes, out of nowhere. Someone caring about me this much, it’s not something I’m used to. But when I pull back, I swiftly blink them away, and smile.
“Anyway, I should get in and make Callie some dinner,” I reply. “You want to come around and visit later this week…?”
“Tomorrow night,” he replies. “I’ll bring the guys with me. We’ll get the cameras rigged up.”
“And maybe stay for something to eat too?”
I don’t like the thought of them being here just for the sake of putting up the cameras—it seems like something Callie would clock on to way too easily, and I don’t need her worrying about everything that’s going on.
“Sure,” he agrees, and he leans in to drop a kiss on my cheek. “See you then, Vanessa.”
And with that, he turns on his heel and starts the trek back to his cabin—leaving me alone once more, and inescapably consumed by the feeling that someone is watching me.
My eyes scan the forest, each and every tree, trying to find something that explains the strange prickling sensation at the back of my neck. But there’s nothing. Which should be a good sign, right? A sign that there’s nothing actually going on here. A sign that it was all in my head…
Or a sign that whoever is stalking me is so damn good at it that they don’t have to worry about getting caught.
I duck inside the cabin, pull the door shut behind me, and lock it tight. Tomorrow, we’ll have the cameras rigged, and at least then I’ll know that the guys can see if anything happens here.
And I just have to pray that all of this is nothing more than my paranoia getting the best of me.