Chapter 20
Kelsi
After sitting through her misdemeanor-appeals docket for the past three hours, Kelsi desperately wanted to relax. It was nice that the prosecutors rotated the duty, but she still hated getting stuck with that docket.
Today had been especially annoying. She could normally plead the cases out and avoid going to trial, but that morning she’d had to put on four bench trials.
One for a DUI that she’d been planning on presenting evidence for anyway.
Luckily, the defendant and all the witnesses had been present, so that was an easy win.
The other three had been reckless-driving cases.
Normally they accepted her offer to plead guilty to a lesser charge of speeding and the court ordered them to pay a fine.
Today? They’d all wanted to go to trial and represent themselves.
One man even argued with the trooper on the stand about his speed.
They were all wins for Kelsi, who had the evidence and testimony on her side, but it always wore her out, feeling like she spent the entire morning talking in circles.
Now all she wanted was to take her lunch hour at her desk and decompress. She waved her ID badge to unlock the door to the commonwealth’s attorney’s office and walked in to find Cat beaming from her perch behind the front desk.
“Kelsi!” she squealed, hopping out of her seat and walking toward her, stomach jutted out and a hand on her back.
Cat stopped to grab a vase off the desk, and Kelsi’s blood froze.
In Cat’s hands was a bouquet of pink flowers inside a clear glass vase.
She didn’t appear to see Kelsi’s expression at all, as she chattered excitedly over the flowers.
It was only once she moved close enough to see that they were pink roses, not begonias, that the tension leaked from her shoulders.
“Aren’t they gorgeous? The pink is such a lovely color.”
Cat thrust the vase into Kelsi’s arms and she grabbed it reflexively, even though all she wanted to do was hurl it at the wall.
“Oh, I almost forgot!” Cat slapped her forehead with a palm and walked back to the desk, where she grabbed two envelopes from the surface. She held both out to Kelsi, who reluctantly accepted them from her, letting her drop them on top of the case files in her other arm.
At that moment, Dylan stepped out of his office, coffee cup in hand, on the way to the break room.
He smiled when he saw Kelsi, but she saw the moment his eyes dropped and he noticed the flowers.
They narrowed slightly and his lips thinned.
His feet shifted direction so he stopped in front of them rather than continuing to the break room.
“Flowers, Red?” He flicked his eyes to Cat. “Did Cat buy those for you?”
He was fishing, and she knew it. Her own eyes narrowed at him in turn. Cat, bless her heart, didn’t notice the tension.
“Nope! They were dropped off this morning by one of the deputies downstairs. Said someone brought them by the front desk for her. He didn’t sign anything I could see, but he did leave a card for her.” She plucked the top envelope from Kelsi’s arms, waving the florist’s stationary in his face.
“He?” Dylan’s voice was rough, coming through gritted teeth, and a vein pulsed in his forehead.
“I’m assuming it’s a he. I mean, I guess we can’t be certain until she opens that envelope, but they’re roses. The universal flower of love. It’s probably that hot cop she went out with last weekend.”
Cat giggled and flounced back over to her chair so she could recline and elevate her feet. They did look slightly swollen now that Kelsi could see them more clearly.
“Open the card and let’s see, Kelsi.”
“Right. Of course. And who can blame him for wanting to send Kelsi flowers?” Dylan said.
Kelsi’s cheeks heated under his gaze.
He leaned closer to her, lowering his voice so that Cat couldn’t hear it, and whispered in her ear, “If he really wanted to impress you, he would send you hydrangeas.” He walked into the break room, leaving Kelsi gaping after him, floored by his intensity.
A moment later the coffee pot whirled to life.
She didn’t know how he remembered her favorite flowers. Kelsi bit her lip, trying—and failing—to puzzle him out. She prided herself on being able to connect complicated dots, but this man made less sense to her than a Jackson Pollock painting.
While Kelsi was distracted, Cat had apparently gotten impatient and opened the envelope, because a high-pitched squeal came from her. It startled Kelsi enough that she almost dropped the case files and vase in her arms.
“I knew it!” Cat exclaimed, waving the florist’s card at Kelsi with a broad grin before dramatically clearing her throat.
“K—that’s cute, he has a nickname for you already—I had an amazing time the other night.
I’ll be patiently waiting to see you again.
Yours, Sheridan.” Cat quirked an eyebrow at her. “Patiently waiting?”
“I asked to take things slow, and he said he can be patient,” Kelsi mumbled to Cat.
Kelsi’s face was flushed, and Cat mockingly fanned her with the card as if to cool her down. She cut a glance at the break room, knowing full well that their conversation was not at all private and Dylan was able to hear every word.
“Hey, tomorrow night we’re going to the Crow’s Nest.” Cat’s voice drew her attention back to her bubbly friend.
“Tomorrow night?”
“Yes, tomorrow.” Her head bobbed up and down, setting some curls bouncing around her face. “Put on your boots—we’re going to have a fun night full of line dancing and cowboys.”
Kelsi laughed and, before she could think better of it, agreed to go.
Cat winked at her. “You should totally invite Officer Hottie to join us, too.”
A loud clunk came from the break room as the coffee pot was put back in the machine.
“Sure, I’ll text him now.”
They were friends, right? She could invite him out with them and have it be normal.
Even if he’d sent her romantic flowers. And said he would be patient.
Ugh. Why were adult relationships so hard?
Did she want to see where things could go between them?
She thought so, but her traitorous heart reminded her of the blue-eyed man she hadn’t been able to get out of her head since he’d strolled back into her life.
Kelsi had to shut that down quickly. His flirting was messing with her, but down that road was only more pain.
Mind made up, she sent the invite to Sheridan. His response chimed in her phone quickly.
Sheridan: Can’t wait. See you there. ;)
She showed her screen to Cat, who gave a saucy shimmy, saying, “It’s a date!”
At that moment, Dylan emerged from the break room. Cat stopped him quickly.
“Dylan, wanna join us? Crow’s Nest tomorrow?”
He grinned but never took his eyes off Kelsi as he said, “Sure, I’d love to. Been a while since Red and I took a turn, but I think I remember the steps.” He strode into his office, coffee in hand, without a backwards glance at them.
She felt flushed from the exchange and shook her head at Cat’s questioning expression. Kelsi headed to her own office, pouting, and set the vase down on the corner of her desk furthest from her. She opened the other envelope Cat had given her as she dropped into her seat.
When she opened the note, dozens of black-and-white pictures fluttered out, landing in an array on her desk.
Kelsi’s stomach roiled. They were all of her.
Stills of Kelsi getting into her car after work, petting Savannah and Bailey on her mom’s porch, bringing the trash out at night.
Her heart stopped beating. How had this person gotten so close to her without her knowing?
If he had meant to hurt her, he could have at any moment.
She’d never felt so vulnerable and made a mental note to ask Abby where she bought her stun gun from.
With shaking hands, she unfolded the typed note. In bold, sharp capital letters, it read:
Tick. Tock.
No other words were necessary. Once again, the message was simple but effective.
The person knew she wasn’t backing down yet, and they didn’t like that fact.
Well, too bad. She hadn’t been scared off a case yet, and this wouldn’t be the first. No matter the fear she felt at knowing someone was following her and she’d never noticed, at knowing that someone was watching her.
Kelsi had hoped after the first note that it was all a dumb prank, or that the anonymous asshole would have forgotten about her, but that had been wishful thinking.
She put the note and photos in her purse to add to the bag with the first threat when she got home.
She cut a glance to the flowers, counting the number of roses.
A chill traveled down her spine as she finished tallying them, realizing that thirteen was the exact number of days left until the jury trial.