Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
WOLFE
Iwatch her sleep.
Not in a creepy way. At least, I tell myself it's not creepy.
I'm sitting in my chair by the fire, and she's on the couch because she fell asleep there after dinner and I didn't have the heart to wake her.
The quilt is pulled up to her chin, her dark hair fanned across the pillow I brought her, her face soft and unguarded in a way it never is when she's awake.
She talks in her sleep. Of course she does. Mumbled words I can't quite make out, little sighs and shifts, her brow furrowing at whatever dreams are playing behind her eyes.
My hand itches to smooth that furrow away. I keep it locked on the arm of my chair.
Three days. She's been in my cabin for three days, and I'm already in trouble. The kind of trouble I swore I'd never let myself get into again.
Her phone sits on the side table where she left it. I pick it up, entering the passcode she gave me when I charged it that first night. I scroll to her camera roll, to the screenshots she showed me earlier.
SunriseWatcher_23.
The comments are worse when I read them again. More possessive. More knowing. Whoever this is has been watching her for months, tracking her movements, building a picture of her life. The kind of obsessive attention that doesn't just fade away.
I pull out my satellite phone and dial Mace. Guardian Peak's communication systems work independent of cell towers. One of the benefits of being a security outfit that operates off-grid.
He answers on the second ring. "Hendrix. It's past midnight."
"Need you to run a trace. Social media account, username SunriseWatcher_23. Cross-reference with Derek Whitmore, San Diego area. Her ex-boyfriend."
A pause. I hear him moving, probably heading to his computer. "You think the ex is stalking her?"
"There are comments. All with a pattern too specific to be coincidence. He knew her locations before she posted them. Knew details he shouldn't know."
"Give me an hour."
I end the call and sit in the dark, watching Sadie sleep, running through scenarios in my head. If Derek is behind the account, what's his endgame? Surveillance? Intimidation? Or something worse?
The satellite phone buzzes forty-three minutes later.
"Got your intel." Mace sounds more alert now, focused.
"SunriseWatcher_23 is registered to a burner email, but we tracked the IP through a VPN bounce.
Took some doing, but Sully's good at his job.
" A pause. "The account was created three days after your guest's breakup.
Every login originates from the San Diego area.
And here's the kicker: the access patterns match up with the schedule of one Derek Whitmore. "
The confirmation settles in my gut like a stone.
"Former tech startup guy, currently working in venture capital," Mace continues.
"On paper, he's clean. No record, no restraining orders, nothing official.
But I dug deeper. He's been engaged three times before this.
All three engagements ended after the women filed harassment complaints that were later dropped. "
My grip tightens on the phone. "Dropped why?"
"Settlements. NDAs. His family has money. The kind of money that makes problems disappear."
I process this. The picture forming in my head is uglier than I expected. Not just a jealous ex. A predator with resources and a pattern.
"There's more." Mace's voice drops. "Sheriff Parker got a call yesterday from a guy matching Whitmore's description. Said he was looking for his girlfriend, showed her picture around at Darlene's Diner. Claimed she went hiking and never came back, asked if anyone had seen her."
"He's in Whisper Vale?"
"Was. Storm drove everyone indoors before we could get eyes on him. He's probably holed up at the inn or one of the rental cabins, waiting it out." A beat. "Wolfe, this guy drove through a blizzard warning to get here. That's not casual concern. That's obsession."
I look through the doorway at Sadie, still sleeping on my couch. Peaceful. Unaware that the man who spent three months stalking her online is now fifteen miles away, waiting for the storm to clear.
"What's our play?"
"For now, nothing. He can't get to your position in this weather, and we've got people watching the roads. Soon as he moves, we'll know." Mace pauses. "But you need to tell her, Wolfe. She deserves to know what she's dealing with."
"I know."
"And you need to figure out what you're doing with her."
I stiffen. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means I've known you for three years, and you've never called in a favor for a civilian before. You've never asked me to run a trace at midnight. And you sure as hell have never sounded like this."
"Like what?"
"Like you give a damn."
I don't answer. Can't. Because he's right, and we both know it.
"Storm should clear by tomorrow evening." Mace's tone shifts back to business. "Valentine's Day. Once it does, we'll move on Whitmore. I'll keep you updated."
"Copy that."
"Be careful Wolfe. Not just with the tactical situation."
He signs off before I can respond. I set the phone down and stand in my kitchen, staring at nothing, trying to sort through the mess of information and emotion tangled in my chest.
Derek Whitmore. Stalker. Obsessive. Dangerous.
Here. In my territory. Hunting the woman asleep on my couch.
The rage that floods through me is sharp and clean, nothing like the muddy grief I've been drowning in for three years. This I know how to handle. This I was built for.
I move back into the main room and lower myself into my chair. Sadie shifts in her sleep, murmuring something that sounds like my name. Probably isn't. Probably just wishful thinking on my part.
Wishful thinking. Christ. When did I start having those?
She wakes slowly, blinking against the firelight, her eyes finding me in the darkness.
"Hey." Her voice is rough with sleep. "What time is it?"
"Late. Go back to sleep."
"Were you watching me?"
"No."
"Liar." She smiles, soft and teasing, and sits up against the pillows. "It's okay. I talk in my sleep. I know it's weird. Derek used to complain about it constantly."
The name hits different now. I keep my expression neutral.
"Sadie. We need to talk."
Her smile fades. She reads something in my face, in my voice, and the sleepy warmth drains out of her.
"The trace. Mace found something."
"Yeah."
She pulls the quilt tighter, a defensive gesture. "Tell me."
So I tell her. All of it. The account traced to San Diego, the pattern matching Derek's schedule, the three previous engagements that ended with harassment complaints and payoffs. And then the worst part, that he's here, in Whisper Vale, asking about her.
She doesn't interrupt. Doesn't cry. Just sits there absorbing it, her face going pale in the firelight, her hands gripping the quilt so hard her knuckles turn white.
"He followed me." Her voice is flat. "He drove through a blizzard to find me."
"Yes."
"I thought I was being paranoid. All those months, feeling like someone was watching, telling myself I was crazy." A harsh laugh escapes her. "I wasn't crazy. I was right."
"You were right."
"And now he's here. Fifteen miles away. Waiting."
I lean forward in my chair. "He's not getting to you. The storm has him pinned, and Guardian Peak has eyes on every road. The second he moves, we'll know."
"And then what? You arrest him? He has money, Wolfe. He has lawyers. He's made three harassment complaints disappear. What makes you think this time will be different?"
"Because this time he's not dealing with scared women who can be bought off." I hold her gaze. "He's dealing with me."
She stares at me for a long moment. I watch the fear in her eyes shift into something else. Not hope, exactly. Something harder. More determined.
"I'm tired of being afraid of him." The words come out quiet but steady.
"I've spent three months looking over my shoulder, second-guessing every comment, every shadow.
I left my life behind and drove to Nevada because I thought I could outrun the feeling of being watched. " Her jaw tightens. "I'm done running."
"You don't have to run. You just have to let me handle it."
"No."
The word surprises me. "No?"
"I'm not going to hide in your cabin while you deal with my problem. Derek is my ex. My stalker. My responsibility."
"Sadie."
"I mean it." She throws off the quilt and stands, swaying slightly on her healing ankle. "I've spent two years letting Derek make me feel small, weak and helpless. I'm not doing it anymore. Whatever happens next, I want to be part of it."
I stand too, closing the distance between us. She has to crane her neck to meet my eyes, but she doesn't back down. Doesn't flinch.
"This isn't a game. Derek is dangerous. He's obsessed with you, and obsessed people do unpredictable things."
"I know."
"If he gets to you, if something happens because you insisted on being involved—"
"Then it's on me. My choice. My consequences." She takes a step closer, and now we're inches apart, close enough that I can see the firelight reflected in her eyes. "I'm not asking for permission, Wolfe. I'm telling you. I'm done being a victim."
The defiance in her voice does something to me. Cracks through the professional distance I've been trying to maintain.
She's not a client. Not a mission. She's a woman who crashed into my life and refused to be small and quiet and easy to manage.
And God help me, I don't want her to be any of those things.
"Okay." The word comes out rough.
"Okay?"
"Okay. We do this together. But you follow my lead. If I tell you to stay back, you stay back. If I tell you to run, you run. No arguments."
"I can do that."
"I mean it, Sadie. This isn't negotiable."
"I said I can do it." She's smiling now, just slightly, and the sight of it makes my chest ache. "See? I'm very agreeable when people treat me like an adult."
"You're a pain in the ass."