Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
TEMPERANCE
The snow that had fallen the night before still blanketed the ground as I bundled up and headed out the back door toward the barn.
Cat wasn’t there to give me her usual morning attitude, but I chalked that up to her being too persnickety to waltz her butt through the snow for some kitty chow. I had no doubt I’d hear all about her displeasure as soon as the ground thawed.
“Hey, girl,” I called to Stargazer the moment I hit the barn.
She lifted her head in greeting and I moved to scoop fresh oats into her bucket when the phone in my back pocket began to vibrate, giving me a jolt. I pulled it out and frowned at the unknown number on the screen before swiping it and lifting it to my ear. “Hello?”
“Well isn’t this a pleasant surprise.”
At the sound of the voice on the other end, everything in my body froze solid. “Perry.” My voice came out in a frightened whisper.
“You know, I half expected that asshole you’ve been fucking to answer again. Gotta say, that stung a little, Temperance.”
Panic began clawing at my insides, gluing me to the spot and making it impossible to move.
“Then you go and file that goddamn restraining order,” he bit out, his voice growing angrier with every word. “Did you know the cops served me at work? Right there in front of fucking everyone. I lost my job because of you, you stupid bitch.”
The creepy feeling I had a couple weeks back finally started to make sense. And it chilled me to my core. “Perry, have you been following me?”
“I just had to see for myself,” he replied.
“After that fucker answered your phone and called you his woman, I had to see what I was up against. Didn’t picture you goin’ for an uptight suit, baby.
” My lungs began to burn and ache as all the air rushed out of them.
My mind took me back to that day in the hospital parking lot, that moment I felt like someone was watching me.
It happened again at the restaurant with Carl.
Carl. That was when I knew for certain Perry had been in Hope Valley. He was stalking me.
“If I’d known that was your type, I’d have played up to it.”
And suddenly it was like a switch had been flipped. I was no longer terrified. Oh no. I was absolutely, unequivocally pissed. “Fuck you,” I hissed, my anger washing over me and lighting a fire deep in my belly. “Fuck you, Perry!”
In the past few months I’d been on one hell of an emotional rollercoaster, some of it bad, but a lot of it good. After more than two fucking decades, I was finally happy. Finally, and there was no way in hell I was letting this asshole swoop in and ruin it.
“You got it all wrong. That guy you saw me with isn’t the man I’ve been fucking,” I spit back at him, my lips curling in disgust and fury.
“On top of being a psycho and lousy in bed, you can also add a shit stalker to your résumé. The man I’m sleeping with, the man who answered the phone when you hung up like a coward, is a police officer.
He’s also the man whose ring I’m currently wearing on my finger. ”
When he said nothing in response, I continued.
“You fucked up, Perry.” I let out a caustic laugh.
“Man, did you fuck up. See, not only is my man a cop, but he’s also incredibly protective of me.
I’ve told him all about you, Perry. And let’s just say, he’s just itching to meet you face to face.
I’m glad you lost your job, because you’re a crazy asshole!
And now I’m gonna make sure you lose everything. ”
With that, I hung up. It took all my energy not to lift my hand and launch the phone across the barn.
I was breathing so heavily that each inhale came out in a smoky, angry puff, like a dragon about to breathe fire.
And that was exactly how I felt. I wanted to know where that son of a bitch was so I could hunt him down and rip his goddamn head off.
Squeezing my eyes closed, I stood in place, working to control the fury bubbling inside me. Once I had it under control enough that I could talk without screaming a litany of curses, I lifted my phone back up and swiped the screen before bringing it to my ear.
Hayes answered halfway through the second ring. “Angel. Everything okay?”
“No,” I gritted between clenched teeth. “Everything is not fucking okay.”
There was no missing the concern in his tone when he asked, “What’s wrong?”
And that was when I lost it all over again. “Fucking Perry fucking Frasier! That’s what’s wrong. I just had a call with him. That asshole’s in Hope Valley, Hayes. He’s been following me!”
“What?” he barked so loud I had to pull the phone away from my ear. “Tempie,” he continued a second later when I didn’t say anything in reply.
“Yeah, I’m here,” I said, returning the phone to my ear.
“Tell me everything,” he commanded, his anger nearly eclipsing my own.
I told him everything, from the feeling of being watched the other week to the confrontation I’d just had with Perry.
“Jesus fuckin’ Christ,” he grunted. “Where are you right now?”
“What?”
“Right now, Tempie. Where are you?”
“I’m, well….” I dropped my head, studying the dusty ground beneath my fur-lined boots. “I’m at home.”
“You in the house?”
“No, I’m in the barn.”
“Get in the house,” he ordered with a voice so hard it sent a shiver down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold and snow.
“But I still need to muck Stargazer’s stall.”
“I want you inside with the doors locked, you hear me? I’m leavin’ the station now. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
I’d flipped from fear to anger back to fear so fast in the last few minutes that I was starting to feel dizzy. “Hayes, what’s going on?”
“Inside, Tempie. Right now.” Then he hung up, and I rushed back into the house and officially freaked the hell out.
I spent the ten minutes it took Hayes to show up pacing the entirety of the downstairs, checking and rechecking all the locks until I thought I’d come out of my skin.
The second I heard tires on the gravel, I rushed to the front window and pulled the curtains back.
Hayes’s Sequoia came whipping up the drive, followed by Lincoln’s black truck and what looked like a police-issued sedan.
By the time his feet hit the front porch, I was standing just inside the entryway, chewing my thumbnail to the quick.
He used his key and entered a moment later with Trick, Leo, Micah, and Lincoln behind him.
“What’s going on?” I demanded to know the minute the door clicked shut behind the men.
“Baby, let’s go sit.”
I let him come to me, place his palm on the center of my back, and guide me into the living room.
Lowering me to one side of the love seat, he sat beside me.
Leo and Micah sat on the couch across from us, Trick was in my comfy, overstuffed chair, and Lincoln stood a couple feet back with his feet shoulder-width apart and his arms crossed over his chest like he was standing sentry.
“Will someone tell me what’s happening?”
I had no way of knowing that question was about to open up Pandora’s box and unleash a pain like I’d never known.
Hayes
Watching the tears pour down Tempie’s cheeks as she tried to comprehend everything we’d just laid on her was a kind of torture I’d never experienced in all my life.
I wanted nothing more than to be able to take all that pain away, but I couldn’t.
I’d never felt so goddamn helpless in all my life, and I couldn’t fucking stand it.
“This… this doesn’t make any s-sense,” she sniffled, batting at the damp on her cheeks. “You’re telling me that the person who killed my parents twenty-one years ago is the same person who killed Martin and Harley?”
“We don’t know for sure,” Trick said, trying his best to placate her.
She lifted her head and looked his way. “But you think it is.” She took his non-answer as an agreement.
Raking her hands through her hair, she muttered, “Oh my god. I can’t believe this.
” Her back went straight and jerked toward me, her eyes wild and pained as she asked, “Why now? Why is all this happening now? I mean, my parents were killed years ago. Why’d this…
this psychopath start back up again now? ”
“Tempie,” Leo said in a calm, soothing voice. “If it’s okay with you, we’d like to ask you a couple questions about Lance Marcum.”
Her forehead puckered in a frown as she shook her head in confusion. “Lance? What does Lance have to do with any of this? He was killed in a bad drug deal.”
It was Lincoln who spoke then, relaying what he’d found after I’d asked him to do some digging. “We can’t know for certain because of where he was killed, but there’s reason to believe that he might also be a victim of this same guy.”
“Why do you think that?” she asked, like she was looking for any and every reason for him to be wrong.
“Well, the murder weapon was the same.”
“But—” Her gaze bounced around frantically, and I died a little inside for her. “There have to be a million knives out there like that.”
Lincoln’s face washed with sympathy. “His parents told the cops he’d been clean for over a year, darlin’.
Shortly after you ended things. He went to rehab and had just gotten his one year chip a few months before he died.
According to them, he always had that chip on him.
Carried it around like a good luck charm.
It was the only thing missin’ when they found his body. ”
I understood exactly what she was struggling with. I’d struggled too when Linc first told me earlier. I’d tried to reason that away when I heard it, but even being found in a crack house, his wallet was still in his pants pocket with cash and credit cards inside.
A bubble of manic laughter passed her lips as more tears fell free. “Someone’s killing people because of me.”
“Angel—”
“Someone killed people because of me!” She shot off the couch and across the room before I could catch her. “Martin wasn’t a bad guy! I mean, sure, he could be a jerk, but being a jerk isn’t a reason to kill someone!”
“Tempie—” I tried again, but it was no use.
“And Harley never did anything but be mean to me! And my p-parents—” She choked on that last word before her face crumbled and she broke down. Her cries were muffled by her hands, but her entire body convulsed with the strength of each sob.
I crossed the room in just a few strides, wrapping her in my arms and pulling her against my chest. Each whimper and hiccup that came from her killed me a thousand times over.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” I whispered against her hair.
Her fingers twisted in the material of my shirt, pulling it tight as she tried to burrow even closer, as if she were trying to escape into me. “I c-can’t believe this is h-happening,” she stuttered against my chest.
“I know, angel. But just stay with me a little while longer, okay? Leo and Micah just have a few more questions, then this’ll all be over. I promise.”
Her fingers squeezed harder, her back rising with deep, steadying breaths, and I knew right then that she was fighting to regain control. My woman, so goddamn strong.
A few seconds later, she finally lifted her head and stood tall. “Yeah.” She nodded with determination. “Okay. I’m okay now.”
My chest swelled with pride. Taking her hand in mine, I led her back to the couch, pulling her down right against me and winding an arm around her waist.
“All right,” she muttered, looking to Micah and Leo. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Can you tell us what you know about Perry Frasier?”
Her back went tense, but I held her close, offering her as much silent support as I could.
“Not much, really. I mean, we only went on a couple of dates. I can tell you he moved around before coming to Chicago, but I don’t know where.
I can tell you he’s been following me, and I can tell you he’s a raging asshole, but that’s about it. ”
Leo looked at her curiously before asking, “So you didn’t know he lived in Hidalgo from age five to nineteen?”
I felt the answer in the stiffness of her body before she said a word. “You’re kidding, right? That guy grew up two freaking towns over?”
“He did. And you don’t recall ever seeing him or running into him?”
“No!” She shook her head so hard her hair whipped around, hitting me in the arm. “No. I never knew. I didn’t… Holy shit.” She slapped her hands over her mouth. “Do you… do you think it’s him who’s been doing this? Why would he do this?”
“We don’t know, but you have our word that we’ll get to the bottom of it,” Leo assured her.
“In the meantime,” I started, pulling her attention back to me, “don’t answer anymore unknown calls. And you’re not to go anywhere alone. That includes the barn or out for a ride on Stargazer.”
“But—”
I lifted my hand, covering her lips with my index and middle fingers when she began to argue. “You already know Linc runs a private investigation and security firm in town, and you’re officially job number one for him and his men.”
She looked over my shoulder in Lincoln’s direction with wide, frightened eyes.
“He’s also installing a security system here at the house. He’ll teach you how to use it when he’s done, and I want that thing set morning, noon, and night, even when you’re home. Got it?”
I was geared up for a showdown, but then her crystal-clear eyes hit mine and she simply nodded in agreement. That was when I knew, despite the brave face she was putting on, she was completely and utterly terrified.
And I swore right then and there that, whoever he was, I was going to hunt the fucker down who put that fear into my woman and make him suffer so goddamn bad he’d wish he’d never been born.