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Lexi drove straight home. She craved a cuddle with Nahla. The thought lasted her as far as her street before evaporating in a puff of realism. The cat detested unsolicited manhandling. It would more likely lead to deep scratches and ill feeling.
Lexi waited for the automatic gate to slide aside. But a movement in her rear-view mirror caught her eye. A motorcyclist made the turn from the main road. His lazy movements appeared casual and unassuming. He cruised past the SUV, muscles rippling through the skin-tight sleeves of his black leather jacket. Strong thighs controlled the powerful bike with effortless grace. His face remained hidden by his tinted visor, but he turned his head towards her as he cruised past. Lexi’s chest tightened. She could no longer blame coincidence.
After closing the gate and locking the front door behind her, Lexi surveyed her empty hallway. Silence rang in her ears. “Nahla?” She kicked off her boots and left them on the door mat. Her socks pattered against the floorboards. She searched each room with growing trepidation. A rigorous beat in her temple signified her heart rate hiking. “Nahla?”
The four-bedroom house seemed smaller than usual as Lexi searched it again. Scenarios raced through her mind in unhelpful loops. She hadn’t intended to gather enemies when she woke that morning. But she’d re-engaged Rojas by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her father had lured her into his lair. And she’d also acquired an unwelcome and unidentified tail.
“Nahla!” Lexi released the security bolt on the rear door and hauled it open. The garden stretched out before her like a blank canvas. Neat flower borders met a sunburnt lawn, a narrow path meandering through it to a dilapidated potting shed at its end. Blood stains streaked the wooden deck beneath the covered porch. A line of sticky entrails finished beside Lexi’s sock. She clapped a hand over her mouth, nausea rising into her chest. Her lungs locked on an inward pull and she bent double to ease the pressure.
The ginger cat jerked awake with an indignant yowl. A frantic tensing of sleek muscle rippled her orange coat. Nahla sunned herself on the barbeque beneath the kitchen window. The black cover superheated the sun’s rays and fed her need for warmth long after dusk. Her angular head rose at the neck as though only half interested, and Nahla shot Lexi a glare of annoyance. A decapitated mouse head plunged to the paving slabs with a splat.
Lexi collapsed onto a nearby bench and forced her head between her knees. “I feel sick.” The cat ignored her. Her regal head relaxed against the barbeque and she closed her eyes to narrow slits.
Unable to face the blood bath on the porch, Lexi struggled indoors and closed the door behind her. When her phone buzzed, she answered without checking the number first. Gratitude surged through her for the distraction. “Gari?” she hissed. “What happened?”
The connection ceased without the caller speaking. Lexi stared at the screen. She dug into her phone’s log, disappointed to discover an unregistered private number with a call lasting ten wordless seconds.
Lexi disgorged the cash from her bra. She hid it with the threatening note in a shoe box in her wardrobe. She took a shower, fighting the urge to call Tarant Leon for comfort. But her resolve didn’t last. He picked up on the first ring, his voice a husky drawl. “Lexi? Are you okay?” His concern held a genuine note.
She gulped and considered her response. “No, I’m not okay,” she admitted. “A guy on a motorbike is following me.”
“Where are you?” Alertness clipped the ends of his words. The glass bottom of a beer bottle clanked against a wooden table.
“At home.” Lexi swallowed. Droplets from her wet hair slid down her spine as though in warning. “I’ve seen him three times today.” She coughed, the question difficult to ask. “Did you set him on me? It’s something you’d do.”
Tarant snorted. “Not to you, babe. Car and phone trackers are cheaper than personnel. Besides, why would I need to investigate my own staff? If I want to know something, I’ll ask you.” He waited a beat. “If you are still working for me?”
Lexi sank into a kitchen chair. Nahla pushed through the cat flap like a kitten greeting the world at birth. With her eyes screwed shut and her whiskers flattened against her face, she eased her way through the plastic door. She trotted to Lexi, winding her smooth body around her damp calves. Ginger fluff stuck to Lexi’s shins. “I’m a mess,” she admitted. Her shoulders rounded with the effort of the confession. “A body showed up in the skip behind Gari’s church. Rojas arrived and tried to cart me off to the station.” She shuddered, the ripple moving through her muscles like a tide. “I can’t give him another excuse,” she whispered. “He broke my arm last time.”
Tarant exhaled. “I’m sorry, Lex. He’s a psychopath. So is his sister. I worry about Delray, but if I make a fuss, I lose access to her.” For the first time in more than two years, he didn’t deny Lexi’s accusation about his brother-in-law. But his corroboration of the man’s twisted nature didn’t ease her familiar pain.
“Do you think your wife hired someone to follow me?” Lexi closed her eyes and pictured the motorbike rider. “I just took a crank call from a private number. It looks like coincidence until you put the two things together.”
“A hate campaign?” Tarant tutted. Silence crackled from the phone as he shifted on his sofa. Lexi pictured his long legs stretched out before him. Crossed at the ankles, his heels resting on his coffee table. “I don’t think so. Lynn’s busy with her new guy. She wants half of everything in the divorce to set up with him. She also knows she’s not entitled to it. I doubt she’d waste cash paying someone to hassle you.”
“Well, Rojas looked like all his dreams came true when he spotted me with blood on my hands.”
“You touched the dead body?”
“Of course not! The woman who found it fainted and banged her head. I didn’t see the corpse. Don’t even know who died. Or how?”
“Maybe a vagrant.” Tarant sighed. “The police might never find out.”
“Not with Senior Sergeant Rojas involved. He can’t even string together a coherent sentence, let alone a set of clues. It’s still possible Lynn hired a family thug to rattle me.” Lexi pursed her lips. “That bothers me less than the sparkle in Rojas’ eyes. I know he attacked me two years ago, Tarant. You didn’t want to hear it back then, but he lured me to that fake job and jumped me.”
“I’m sorry, Lex.” His apology sounded genuine. “Lynn did a number on me with the pregnancy and everything.”
Lexi gritted her teeth. To be fair, she didn’t share her most damaging piece of evidence at the time. The hidden safe beneath her bedroom floorboards kept the secret. Her attacker warned her what he’d do if she went to the police. She’d recognised his voice and knew he meant it. Lexi hugged the knowledge to herself. She’d play the long game. The opportune moment would arise to produce her ace. And finish Harvey Rojas.
“Are you still there?” Tarant sounded wistful. He didn’t like his own company. Lexi cleared her throat, resisting the pull to fill the emptiness in his soul. She deserved better than to serve as a human sacrifice for a second time.
“Yeah,” she sighed. “But I’m tired. I’ll call Gari to see what happened. Then, I’ll get some sleep.”
“You want company?” His question hovered in Lexi’s mind. She’d loved Tarant Leon. Still did. She’d spent the last two years and eight months filling her thoughts with ‘what if’ questions.
What if Lynn hadn’t returned?
What if they’d had time to push their fledgling relationship to its natural boundaries?
What if?
“No.” She spat the answer into the ether. It arched and twisted before landing with full force. “Night, Tarant.”
Lexi groaned when her phone vibrated in her hand. She checked the screen and saw ‘Private Number’ flashing in place of the caller. She activated the phone’s integral audio recorder before answering. “Hello?”
Silence. Breathing. Distant traffic sounds.
She held her nerve, hoping the recorder captured everything she needed to at least identify the caller’s location. A freight train squealed in the background, loud and jarring. Lexi glanced at the wall clock. Just before seven.
A click. Then, nothing. They hung up.
With shaking fingers, Lexi stopped the recording. It hadn’t revealed enough to bother analysing later. But the crank calls hadn’t achieved their desired effect either. Instead, Lexi’s curiosity burned. She’d recognised a woman’s low breathing. With her hunter’s instinct activated, she promised herself she’d find her.
