Chapter Forty-Four
Liv
At this point, I don’t know how this day could get any worse.
I still have a stalker. My intern quit on me.
I almost fainted in the courtroom. I lost my star witness before he could finish his entire impact statement.
And, even though my best friend gave me the best news earlier, making me a godmother for the second time, it’s left a hollow feeling in my gut.
I thought by the time she had another baby, I’d be closer to that phase of my life, too.
“What can I help with?” Hayes asks, watching me shove my papers into my briefcase.
“I don’t know. I need a minute,” I tell him coldly. I don’t mean to, but I don’t have any energy left after this crap day.
I don’t look up, and I don’t need to. I feel his body leave my atmosphere. He’s been nothing but great to me, and I’m awful.
I’m a terrible person. I suck at my job.
Tears prickle at the back of my eyes, and I have to inhale deeply to fight them off.
Everyone is counting on me to put Jeremiah away for the rest of his life… I’ll be lucky to get him eight years now, and that is a hard pill to swallow.
When I turn to leave the courtroom, my friends are huddled around each other talking, and Hayes is in the corner talking to Nathan. All in their own worlds, and I can’t bear to pretend that I’m optimistic about today’s outcome.
I slink out the side door and immediately run into Curtis and Sienna.
“I’m sorry, Miss Greenwood. I thought I could do it.”
“It’s okay, Curtis. I asked too much of you. It’s on me. It’ll be fine,” I assure him with a weak smile. “I’m sorry, I need to run. Thank you for coming, and thank you, Sienna.”
She looks at me closely. “Are you okay? You look a little pale?”
“I’m fine. It’s been a long day.” I dismiss myself with a wave, rushing away and begging for the elevator doors to close so they don’t see me fall apart. As the doors slide shut, I see Hayes exit the courtroom, and his eyes connect with mine just before I lose sight of him.
He’s going to change his mind about me. I’m not the strong woman he thinks that I am. The one I swore I was.
I’m still the weak girl he met as a teenager.
Another deep inhale enters my lungs, and I blow it out slowly as the doors open on my office floor.
It’s dark, everyone is busy with their own cases downstairs, or have left for the day. My office light is on, though, shining through my door.
I shove through my door, flinging my briefcase on my desk, and my spine stiffens. I sense immediately that I’m not alone.
The floorboard behind me creaks, and ice trickles down my spine. I don’t move, I hardly breathe.
“Did you come up here to see me, Livvy?” His voice is low and gravelly. I don’t recognize it, but something about it feels familiar.
Something presses against my lower back gently, and my body bows away from it. He scoffs at my reaction. “Bitch.”
The pressure on my back turns forceful, shoving me face-first into my desk, but my palms smack the wood surface before my face does.
I gasp, breathing against my desk for several agonizing seconds before I shoot back up.
I’m alone.
He’s gone.
I know I didn’t imagine that.
He was here.
I’m standing frozen next to my desk when the elevator dings and I hear a triage of voices filter through.
“What happened?” Jensen asks first, looking at my face closely. “You’re white as a sheet.”
“My stalker was in here.”
“Did he leave something?” He asks, looking around, but I still haven’t blinked.
“He touched me,” I whisper, finally looking at him.
He’s gasoline, and I just flicked a match at him. The anger ignites behind his eyes, and it’s exactly what I need to snap out of my stupor.
“What?” The heavy timber of his voice melts over me. It would scare anyone else, but not me.
“I’ll call Malec.” I glance over to see who spoke. And everyone is here. Thea and Nathan are standing in the doorway, but when Nathan turns to make his phone call, I see Callie and Jesse.
“Are you okay?” Thea asks.
When she moves towards me, Lochlan and Jo shift into focus. She’s looking at me with concern, but Lochlan is focused on Hayes.
“He was in here, and he touched my back.” All these people here, and no one saw him. “He got away,” I mumble to myself.
“Is that all? Did he speak? Did you see his face?” Thea asks, assessing me for the same invisible injuries that Hayes did. Her hand brushes over my forehead, and I lean into her palm.
“He was behind me. He shoved me into my desk before he took off. I didn’t have time to turn around or to look at him.”
“Dammit. Dammit!” Hayes yells, throwing something from my desk across the room. It breaks as it hits the wall, and Lochlan steps into the room, but Hayes holds his hand up without looking, warning him off.
Jesse has already pulled Thea behind his back, planting her next to Callie and Jo outside my office door. He holds his hand out to me, urging me to move away from Hayes, but I don’t take it.
I don’t need to.
“I’m fine,” Hayes barks at Lochlan as his friend steps closer still.
“Give us the room,” I demand, watching everyone’s eyes ping back and forth with worry. Lochlan doesn’t move.
“Lochlan, I need a minute with Hayes, please,” I tell him softly. If he makes me ask again, I’m siccing his wife on him.
He glances at me quickly, then longer at his friend before nodding.
“We’ll be right outside,” he grunts, closing the door behind him, shutting Hayes and me in alone.
I take one full deep breath before turning to Hayes, and as soon as our eyes lock, my knees buckle. He catches me before I can fall, wrapping me in his arms to keep me from breaking apart.
“He touched me,” I cry.
“I know. I’m so sorry, baby. I shouldn’t have let you come up here alone. Fuck, I knew better.”
“I was mad about the trial. I was pouting.”
“I wanted to help. I brought your friends up here to help,” he sighs, stroking my back. “But I let that fucker have access to you.”
“He spoke to me.”
“What did he say?” He growls.
“He asked if I came up here to see him… As if I knew he’d be here.”
“Did you recognize his voice?”
I shake my head against his chest. “I have no idea.”
“It’s okay. I’m going to fix this. I’ll keep you safe.”
“Don’t leave my side anymore. Okay? Even if I’m mean and you change your mind about me.”
“What? Why would I change my mind?”
“I was awful today. I made you feel like crap this morning. I sucked at my job. I left the courtroom alone when I knew you wouldn’t want me to.”
“It’s okay, Liv. You’re human. You needed a minute.”
“I froze. Again. I’m a grown-ass woman now, and I still froze when a man put his hands on me. I didn’t even see his face. I could have ended this whole thing.”
“This is not your fault. Some fucker came into your space and touched you without your consent. Your reaction kept you safe. If you fought or ran, he might have hurt you.”
“I let my guard down because I was drowning in self-pity.” I sniff some of my tears away. “I’m pathetic. Now, getting Jeremiah on attempted murder is up in the air. The jury won’t be able to decide on a verdict without reasonable doubt. I’m such a failure.”
“You’re not a failure, and I have a plan.”
“What plan?” I ask in disbelief.
“It’ll be easier to explain once we talk to Malec and everything here settles. Just trust me, okay?” He looks at me deeply.
I gaze into his eyes as he strokes my cheek, and I know without a doubt that I trust him. With every fiber of my being, I trust him.
“Okay.”
* * *
“I got him on camera entering the building and exiting. He used Miley’s employee I.D. She failed to mention that she lost it, but I don’t think she’s in on it… I think she’s just kind of…” Jackson trails off.
“Spacey?” I finish his train of thought because he’s too nice to say what he really wants to. He nods in agreement.
We all congregated back at Second Chance Sanctuary because it was decided it would be the safest and most guarded place now that my stalker has been bold enough to make physical contact.
I’ve had too bad a day to resist. I’ll hold onto my arguments until tomorrow.
Someone picked up pizzas on the way up the mountain, and now there are ten half-eaten pizza boxes scattered about, and what feels like twenty people piled into the main area of the bunkhouse, though the parolees are attempting to make themselves scarce per Lochlan’s orders.
“I lifted fingerprints from the doors to compare to the ones from the past incidents, and we have a better picture of this guy’s identity now from the cameras. He definitely had dark hair, but he might be dyeing it. If I had to guess, he’s around 5’11. Slim build. Ring any bells?”
“No. That could be a million people, but no one comes to mind.”
“How about you guys?” He asks Hayes and Thea. They are the two people who have known me the longest.
“I know you said he isn’t a suspect, but Arkett had dark hair. He was shorter than me. It still sounds like him,” Hayes says.
“I’ll keep him on my radar, but he hasn’t traveled to this part of the country in years.”
Hayes nods unsatisfied.
“I swear I’ve been cataloging every new face I see in town or at the library. I’m always looking for someone who doesn’t belong. I don’t know who would do this… Everyone always loved Liv, but in a normal way. She was practically Miss Congeniality our senior year of college,” Thea adds.
“Any bad attention in college?”
“No, not really. I had friends, and I dated. I flirted with everyone because it was easy and I–” I glance at Hayes. “I wasn’t ready to get hurt again.”
He hangs his head in guilt, but I keep going.
“Anyone want more than you wanted to give?”
“Not really. It was college. Everyone was flaky. They’d move on to the next hook-up within a couple of days.”
“What about grad school?”
“I went into law school right after undergrad. Thea started her master’s program. We kind of hunkered down the first year.” I don’t continue explaining, and he doesn’t seek clarification. He knows about Thea’s past.
“Did you ever go back home?”
“To the trailer park? Never. We got an off-campus apartment. I stayed there year-round. Worked for a catering company.”
“Any high school reunions?”
“Definitely not. I didn’t have friends in high school, especially not after… You know.” I glance at Hayes again, and Jackson nods.
Hayes gets up and starts pacing the open room.
“Well, if anything comes to mind, let me know right away. From here on out, you’re not to be alone. My deputies will take shifts sitting at your office and in the courtroom.” He stands. “If you’re not here at the sanctuary, one of these guys needs to be with you.”
I look around the room and realize that they’re all looking back at me. Nathan, Jesse, Lochlan, and Hayes. Thea, Callie, Natalie, and Jo. Tears sting my nose, and I have to glance away to keep them at bay.
“I don’t want to disrupt anyone’s life.”
“It’s not disrupting if we’re all choosing to help,” Callie says, sitting next to me. “It’s a terrible feeling to be targeted. Unfortunately for your stalker, you happen to be surrounded by a lot of qualified men who can and will protect you. I will protect you. Thea and Jo will.”
“I will literally fight anyone, Liv. Just give me a chance,” Natalie adds, and it makes me laugh.
“Jesus Christ,” Jackson mumbles, and it makes me laugh harder. “Come on, fireball, we need to go pick up Dec.”
“I’m serious, Liv.” She motions as if she’s cutting someone’s throat as she backs away, and it’s exactly what I needed to feel better.
“She scares me. I love her,” Jo says, sitting on the other side of me. “I know you’ll want to stay in Hayes’s room tonight, but come up to the house in the morning so you can get ready. I have anything and everything you’ll need.”
“Thank you, I will.”
She squeezes my arm, and Lochlan takes her hand, pulling her up from the couch. “We’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
She starts to walk away, but Lochlan doesn’t move yet, turning to look at me.
“You’re safe here, Liv. We take care of our own,” he says, gruffly. He nods at Hayes, standing behind me, and when I look back, his face is hard with an emotion I can’t quite read.