Chapter 36 #2
He flopped into her bed and tucked her under his arm.
“I thought Wolf had broken in. I never imagined it was Dory. But she was outside, watching us the whole time. When we were in the pool, the hot tub. She spied through the windows when we were on the couch and set off the lights. She must’ve sneaked in through the gym door before I locked it. ”
Still wearing his shirt, Sarah snaked her arm around him and nuzzled his shoulder, soothing him. A shiver ran through her body. “I saw her out there, not a cat. And she must have shredded my robe.”
The cops had found his robe, intact, stashed in some bushes.
“She threw the rock,” he said.
“How? I thought she was with Wyatt.”
“I don’t know how she did it, but she did.
” He shuddered with the recollection of his shredded mattress and how close Dory had come to burying the knife in him.
And if she’d immobilized him? He had no doubt she’d have gone after Sarah.
“Jesus, Sunshine. What the fuck is wrong with people? We know how to pick the crazies, don’t we? ”
She parked her chin on his chest. “I guess that’s one more thing we have in common.”
He tweaked her nose. “How about we just stick with each other from now on?”
Her eyebrow dipped. “Except we’re crazy too.”
He ran his fingers through her hair. “A good kind of crazy. And your crazy matches mine perfectly. I think we make a good team.”
“You think?”
“I know.”
The next day, Quinn called Wyatt, keeping the shit-shooting to a bare minimum before he launched into the reason for his call. “So I wanted to ask you about Dory.”
On the other end, Wyatt was uncharacteristically quiet.
“It’s not like that, man,” Quinn explained. “I wanted to know if you’re still seeing her.”
A throat clear. “Haven’t seen much of her. She’s been acting strange lately, and last week she went dark. I’m guessing I pissed her off, but I’m not sure why. Or maybe … Is she, ah, back with you?”
Quinn kept himself from barking, Hell no!
“No, she’s not, and when I tell you what went down last night, I’m betting you’ll be relieved she’s not with you either.
” Quinn filled Wyatt in, leaving Sarah’s name out of the narrative.
He referred to her simply as “a lady friend I’ve been spending time with. ”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Wyatt spluttered. “This is a joke, right? You’re making this up.”
“Wish that was the case, buddy. But don’t take my word for it. Her arrest should be public record, so check for yourself.”
Quinn lost count of how many times Wyatt muttered, “My fucking God!”
“Do you remember when you first told me you were seeing her? You said you’d been at your place in the mountains?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m just trying to wrap my head around some of the dates.” Quinn told Wyatt which dates.
“No, man. She was here the whole time. She drove up separately, but she didn’t go anywhere.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive. In fact, McMurphy, his date, and a few other friends joined us. They saw her here too.” Wyatt laughed. “Though one of them wishes they hadn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know what set it off, but McMurphy’s date got into it with Dory one night when we were all pretty wasted.
What a shit-show! Told Dory she was nuts.
There was no shortage of claws. Dory got so pissed, she …
Oh shit! I totally forgot she did leave.
But it was only for a few hours, I think. Not the whole night.”
When Quinn pressed him, Wyatt said, “Shit, Hads. I don’t know how long she was gone.
I was hammered. I just know she showed back up, and everything was cool again.
But—here’s something else I totally spaced—I found out later two of Hunts’s tires were slashed.
He had a hell of a time getting new ones, and his date ended up missing some important work thing. He told me all about it afterward.”
“Which night, Wyatt?” This is really important.
“Let me think. Had to be the last night we were there.”
The same night the rock sailed through Quinn’s window. By the time he hung up, Quinn was slicked in a fine sheen of sweat.
Over the coming weeks, Quinn and Sarah learned far more about the woman who’d attacked them from Officer Easton, the policewoman who’d been at the scene that night.
“You were lucky,” she told them over coffee at Quinn’s one morning. Liz and Mike were there, and Archer pranced around Officer Easton as if she were feeding him Beggin’ Strips.
In between stroking his head, she ruffled his neck and crooned that he was a good dog. “Good thing this handsome boy wasn’t around that night.”
“He was with us,” Liz blurted.
The officer gave her a nod. “That saved him. We investigated a similar case about eight months back. One of our pro basketball players was being stalked by a woman who tried breaking into his house. There are lots of similarities between the two cases. Unfortunately, in the basketball player’s case, the gentleman had a dog.
That dog was fed a poisoned meatball right before the attempted break-in.
The suspect in your case is facing animal cruelty charges in addition to everything else. ”
Sarah gasped. “What happened to the dog?”
The officer just shook her head, and something pointy dug into Sarah’s heart.
Quinn put his arm around her shoulders and squeezed, and she dropped her head against his chest, drawing comfort from his warm strength. “How do you know it’s the same person?”
“The evidence lines up,” Officer Easton answered.
Sarah looked up at Quinn. The blood had drained from his face, and his mouth hung open. “Thank you for being here that night, Officer,” he finally croaked.
She stood to leave and sent him a wink. “Couldn’t let anything happen to my favorite left-winger.”
That night in bed, Sarah shivered as she snuggled close to Quinn. “Thank God Archer was with your mom and dad. Who could do something like that to a defenseless animal?”
“A wacko named Dory, apparently. Hopefully they lock her up for the rest of her life,” he replied.
“Amen to that.” Sarah rolled over and rested her chin on his chest. His fingers tunneled through her hair, and she relished the feel on her scalp. “Gotta hand it to you, though, Sparky.”
“Hmm?”
“Yet one more woman falls under the Hadley spell. I think you have a new admirer in Officer Easton.”
He flashed his full-dimpled smile. “I promised her some tickets. And speaking of the Hadley spell, how come you’re immune?”
She grinned. “Who says I am? Those impressive hockey reflexes of yours kept me safe—twice—and kept you from getting stabbed.” She tried not to gush, she really did, but it was hard not to.
Truth be told, she went a little weak-kneed every time she thought about how he’d dropped Wolf and how he’d shoved her out of harm’s way while twisting his own big body away from Dory’s lethal knife.
Power, action, speed—heady attributes that drew her like metal to a magnet.
“Speaking of impressive, your quick thinking saved our asses. You knocked her down before she could carve me up, you’re the one who called nine-one-one, and you thought of tying her up.
And you held it together under a shit ton of stress.
Courage and grace under fire, Sunshine. I’m awed by you.
” He picked up her hand and kissed every finger.
His unabashed admiration heated her neck and face. “But I fell apart afterward.”
“So what? So did I,” he laughed. “As I recall, we both had a serious case of the shakes after the police left. What matters is you were sharp when it counted.”
“Like you said, we’re a good team.” She kissed him long and deep.