Stepping out of her favorite boutique, Sherri slung her shopping bag over her good shoulder and gave her new cousin-in-law a sideways hug. “I needed this. Thanks for dragging me out.” Being cooped up in her apartment for the past week had been pure torture.
Well, except for the morning jogs with Cole.
Kara returned her hug. “Anytime. Besides—” Kara’s voice dropped conspiratorially “—you weren’t the only one who needed new clothes.”
Sherri laughed. “But your reason is so much better!” Kara had confided that she and Jake were expecting. Buying new clothes to accommodate an expanding waistline beat opting for loose-fitting blouses over tank tops to hide an ugly dog bite any day.
Kara frowned. “Does the wound still hurt?”
“No.” She quickly dropped her hand, realizing she’d self-consciously palmed her shoulder. “I’m back to work tomorrow.” Thank goodness. She missed the distraction of work. Her nightmares had taken on a whole new level of horror, with savage dogs and drug-house booby traps added to her desperate efforts to save Luke.
Her heart stuttered. Yes, she wanted to be working, but what if the attacks started again?
Cole hadn’t found anything that linked their suspect dispatcher to any of her disgruntled patients or to Joe. And Joe’s employer wouldn’t share Joe’s schedule, so Cole hadn’t been able to compare it to the times of the various incidents. She hoped Joe’s boss could be trusted to keep the request confidential.
Gulping, she glanced over her shoulder and then scanned the cars parked along the curb and the shoppers strolling the street.
“Don’t push yourself too hard, Sherri. You don’t have to prove yourself to anyone.”
Maybe not. But none of the guys wanted her back at work. And what little satisfaction she’d gotten from refusing to bend to their pressure tactics had withered with Cole’s doubts that they were behind the incidents.
Kara stopped in front of the bakery window and inhaled. “The baby thinks it’s time to eat.”
Sherri burst into a much-needed giggle. “Oh, you’re going to love using that excuse on Jake, aren’t you?” She peered in at the tempting treats and noticed a reflection of someone watching her. She whirled around.
The man slipped into the hardware store across the street.
“What’s wrong?” Kara tracked the direction of her gaze and Sherri suddenly felt foolish.
“Uh, nothing. I just thought I saw someone I knew.” Except it wasn’t Cole. The build had been too slight. “Let’s go in and treat ourselves to a doughnut.”
“Yes, my treat.”
As Kara labored over her choice of flavors, Sherri edged to the front window and scanned the other side of the street again. When she’d told Cole about her Main Street shopping trip with Kara, he’d said he’d make extra patrols in the area. He’d sounded so concerned. Maybe he’d sent out an undercover guy. After all, any guy who’d change his morning routine and meet her at the river trailhead at seven sharp every morning to ensure she didn’t jog alone wasn’t likely to rest easy over her going shopping. Only, no one seemed to be paying particular attention to the bakery shop. She peered up and down the street. Maybe all this talk about the attacks just had her spooked.
“What kind do you want?” Kara called over to her.
“Apple fritter.”
“You always get that. You should try something new.”
Sherri shook her head and accepted the fritter from the clerk. “I like to stick to what I know.” An image of Cole inexplicably flashed through her mind. Hiding a secret smile, she sank her teeth into the confectionery. Yeah, she knew Cole. It may have taken him seven years to get his feet squarely underneath him, but he’d grown into a caring, protective man. The kind of man who could sweep her off her feet if she wasn’t careful.
Except when she saw how deliriously happy Kara looked with her hand straying to her scarcely bulging tummy every few minutes, Sherri didn’t want to be careful. She wanted to let herself fall in love. Get married. Have a family.
Kara nudged her arm. “You know, with all this time you’ve had off, we should have gone on a double date. Maybe with that deputy whose been joining you on your morning jogs?” Her voice rose suggestively.
Sherri rolled her eyes. “He’s investigating my case, not dating me.” Cole had kept his professional distance since comforting her in the cemetery, but from the softness in his gaze when he looked at her, she liked to think his caution had more to do with not wanting to get kicked off the case. And that she hadn’t exactly invited any more hugs.
Kara laughed. “But you wish he would.” She drew out the last word in a lyrical tease.
Sherri’s face heated. Was she that easy to read? She’d had a crush on Cole forever and the man version was a hundred times more attractive, from his chiseled good looks to his strong arms to his fierce protectiveness.
She turned to the door. She’d been operating on the premise that if she hid her emotions, no one could use them against her. Except Cole hadn’t used her breakdown at the cemetery against her. Maybe she could open up a little more. What was the worst that could happen?
The fritter turned to dust in her mouth. He’d find out she was an emotional wreck. And get her kicked out of her job and then leave her again.
Sherri yanked open the bakery door, feeling suddenly claustrophobic. Except would he leave again?
The man who had held her in the cemetery and asked about Luke, hadn’t seemed like the kind of man who’d walk away. A chill shivered down her spine and she instinctively backed up, bumping Kara’s arm.
Kara fumbled her doughnut, nearly losing it. “What’s wrong?”
“Uh—” Sherri scanned the street and shop windows she couldn’t see through. “Nothing. It was nothing.”
Cole cruised slowly past in his patrol car and waved.
Smiling giddily, she waved back, taking more pleasure than she should in her apparent sixth sense of his nearness.
“Hey!” A man called from across the street. It was the guy who’d tried to save her from the dog. He dodged traffic to get to her. “How’s the shoulder?”
“Better. Thanks to you.” She turned to Kara. “This is the guy I was telling you about, who pulled the rodeo-clown routine on that dog.”
He extended his hand to Kara. “Hi, the name’s Ted.” His warm gaze returned to Sherri as he released Kara’s hand and touched Sherri’s arm. “I’m just glad I was there. When are you back to work?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Well, you take care.” He dipped his chin to Kara. “Nice meeting you.”
“Wow, he seems nice.” Kara waggled her eyebrows. “If I wasn’t already married to the best guy in town, I wouldn’t mind being rescued by a guy like him.”
Sherri scratched at her scar. “Trust me. It’s not worth it.”
Kara shrugged, a twinkle in her eye. “You’re forgetting that I married the man who rescued me.” She led the way down the street and motioned to the fire station. “Mind if we stop in and say hi to Jake?”
“No problem. You go ahead. I wouldn’t mind dropping by the ambulance base.” Sherri skirted the fire station and headed for the ambulance bays in the lot behind.
“Hey,” Dan said as she stuck her head into the lounge. He slanted a guilty glance at Joe, and then headed her off, steering her back into the hall. “I thought you weren’t due back until tomorrow.”
“I’m not.” She held up her bag, wondering if Cole knew Joe was here again. “I was out shopping and thought I’d say hi.”
“I guess you heard that they confirmed the bogus 9-1-1 call came from that cell phone Cole found?”
“No, I didn’t hear anything about a phone.” Her hopes rose. “Do they know who it belongs to?”
Dan snickered. “Yeah, I should’ve figured he wouldn’t tell you. The guy shouldn’t be on the case. He’s been grilling the rest of us as if we’d pull these stunts. Or Luke’s father. Can you believe the nerve?”
Her pulse quickened. If not for Cole’s tenacity, there wouldn’t be a case. “Who made the call?”
Compassion filled Dan’s eyes, quickly replaced by irritation as he raked his hand over his whiskers, looking like he didn’t want to be the one to tell her. “That punk brother of his.”
“What?” The image flashed through her mind of Eddie hunched outside the ambulance after he caught sight of her wound. Looking guilty?
Dan squeezed her arm. “I’m sorry. I know you didn’t want it to be him.”
She sloughed off his touch. “Excuse me. I have to go.” She stormed out the door and veered across the parking lot toward the sheriff’s office. No wonder their leads had dried up. Even Cole’s supposed suspicions of Joe. He’d just been pretending to investigate. Probably just pretending to care about her, too, to dupe her into trusting him.
“Hey, wait up.” Kara hurried out the side door of the fire station.
Sherri pressed her shopping bag into Kara’s hand. “Take this and go visit longer with Jake. I need to talk to Cole. Alone.”
Kara took the bag, looking worried. “Want to talk about it first?”
“No. This is between me and Cole.”
He was stepping out of a cruiser when she stalked up to the station. He took one glance at her and said to his partner, “Go on in. I’ll catch up with you in a minute.”
She closed the distance between them in three long strides and didn’t bother waiting until Zeke was out of earshot before she drilled a finger into Cole’s chest. “What are you playing at, Cole Andrew Donovan?” Thinking, for the first time in her life, that his initials suited him all too well. He was a cad, with a capital C.
The light blinked out of his eyes. “You heard about the cell phone.” He sounded disappointed or maybe resigned.
“Yes, and I’m wondering why I didn’t hear about it from you.” She poked his chest. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out?” Thank goodness she hadn’t actually started opening up to him. Clearly she couldn’t be open and honest with a man hiding facts from her.
He enclosed her hand in his and drew closer. “I was going to tell you.”
She wavered, foolishly wanting to believe him. No, she’d already made that mistake. She snapped her hand from his grasp. “Sure you were. Right after you helped your brother skip town. Or clouded the case with so many suspects he’d never be convicted.” And to think she’d helped by dreaming up other potential suspects for him to harass.
And that he’d blatantly carried on the ruse by insisting on joining her on her jogs every morning. Keeping her running scared when all he had to do was watch his brother.
“My brother didn’t make the call. Yes, it was his phone. But he had lost it over a week before. I swear to you he was with me when that call came through. He didn’t make it.”
She shook her head, her gaze fixed on his moving lips, but scarcely registering his words. Not that it mattered. She couldn’t trust what came out of his mouth. “Why did you take this case?” She hated how her voice cracked.
“Because it kills me to see someone trying to hurt you. Sherri, I promise you, I—”
She sliced her hand through the air. “Stop! I don’t want to hear your promises.” She yanked her shirt collar sideways to expose her shoulder. “Did you get a good look at what that dog did to me? What kind of sick loyalty lets—?”
She stopped as his face turned pasty, his gaze fixed on the jagged scar, his throat convulsing as if he might throw up. Yeah, nice to know that was the kind of reaction she could look forward to from here on out if she ever decided to flash her shoulder at a guy.
“I’d never hurt you,” he whispered, his gaze lifting to meet hers. “You’ve got to know that.”
“Right, because your leaving seven years ago never hurt. Never mind that you never called. Never wrote.” She clamped her mouth shut. He’d never given her any reason to think he would, not really, unless you counted his innocent kiss or the way he’d hugged her afterward or the gift he’d given her when he left.
Pain shadowed his eyes. Eyes she’d once believed she’d never tire of gazing into, of tracing the dark blue and white rays that burst from his huge pupils like rays of sunshine. “Please, you’ve got to trust me.”
She broke the hypnotic grip of his gaze and turned on her heel. “No, I don’t.”
* * *
Cole braced for round two as Sherri whirled straight into her firefighter cousin’s chest.
“Whoa, you okay?” Jake caught her by the elbows and searched her face.
She blinked rapidly and let out a lousy impersonation of a laugh. “Of course, why wouldn’t I be? Excuse me.” She strode across the street toward the woman Cole had seen her shopping with earlier, who’d apparently also been watching the spectacle.
Cole cringed to see that the woman hadn’t been the only one. A couple of paramedics outside the ambulance bay were gawking, and Zeke had parked himself on a bench outside the sheriff’s office.
Cole returned his attention to Jake, who’d leaned back against Cole’s truck and perched his elbows on the hood, stretching his long legs in front of him as if he were there to shoot the breeze, not read him the riot act.
Yeah, fat chance. Cole remembered Sherri telling him once that she’d never been lonely having no brothers and sisters, because she had so many cousins. And Jake was clearly playing the big-brother role today.
“What did you say to her?”
“Not enough.” Not that pointing out he’d thrown his brother under the bus by turning in that phone would’ve made any difference.
Jake chuckled. “Oh, I don’t know.”
“Pardon me?” Cole squinted at him. What kind of big-brother cousin was he?
“I saw the blowup from across the street.”
Him and everyone else. “Don’t worry, I have no intention of—”
“Whoa, stop right there. I didn’t come over here to tell you to stay away from her.” He slanted a glance her way. “Just the opposite.” His palm circled over his clenched fist. “She’d pummel me if she knew I was asking. But I was hoping you could help her.”
Still a little stunned that Jake wasn’t there to pummel him, Cole plunged his hands into his pockets. “Trust me. I’ve been following every lead I can muster. That’s why I turned in Eddie’s phone. And now neither of them trusts me. The only reason the sheriff hasn’t kicked me off the case is because he’s short-handed with guys on vacation and he probably knows Zeke’ll nail me to the wall if I show any favoritism to my brother.”
“I meant help her personally.”
Cole’s heart hammered. Personally?
“I don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see you care about her.” Jake went on as if his request hadn’t dropped a twenty-story elevator out from under Cole.
Sherri deserved a lot better than him. Frankly, he was surprised Jake hadn’t already figured that out. As attracted as Cole was to Sherri, in addition to his inexplicable, soul-deep need to comfort and protect her, he couldn’t mislead her. He’d seen firsthand how his dad had crushed Mom. And he never wanted to be responsible for inflicting that kind of pain. He’d clearly already given her false hope seven years ago without even realizing it.
“You know Sherri,” Jake went on. “She’s never been the emotional type. On the job, she’s been an Ice Queen since day one. You know how it goes. We have to compartmentalize our emotions to survive the work.”
Cole’s thoughts flashed to the night at the drug house. Fire—not ice—had flared in Sherri’s eyes when she’d treated him.
“Whenever anyone in the family tries to talk to her about what’s going on, she sloughs off our concerns. She doesn’t have a healthy enough fear of this crackpot making the crank 9-1-1 calls on her watch. And if she’s convinced herself it was your brother, she’ll have even less.”
“But how am I supposed to talk any sense into her? She doesn’t believe I’m telling the truth about my brother.”
“If anyone can, you can. You’re the first person I’ve seen get a rise out of her in months.”
Cole’s heart pitch-poled over a full three beats. “In months?” His mind flashed to the nightmare he’d witnessed her having at the hospital—the one he’d assumed was a reaction to the dog attack, until she’d cried Luke’s name. The same as his mom used to do. His mother had shut down emotionally after Dad had cheated on her. She’d boxed up her feelings so tightly that Cole hadn’t had a clue to how traumatized she’d been until the nightmares had started. “You mean months, as in since her partner died?” he asked pointedly.
Jake gaped at him for an unbearably long second, then groaned, a look of total self-recrimination sweeping over his face. “How did I miss that? Of all people? With what I went through after losing my first wife the way I did, I should’ve...” He shook his head. “Yeah, it has been since she lost Luke.”
Cole winced at how intimate that sounded. Not “since she lost her partner” or “after Luke died,” but “since she lost Luke,” as if Luke definitely had been more than a partner.
* * *
Lost Luke. Cole jammed his time card into the slot, annoyed that three hours later Jake’s words still grated against his emotions. What difference was it to him if she’d been in love with her partner? He’d already thought as much when she’d cried in his arms at the cemetery.
Cole grabbed his jacket and plodded to his truck. It wasn’t as if he had any hope of winning Sherri’s heart. Or should have.
She didn’t even trust him. Not anymore. He rammed the stick shift into Reverse and squealed out of the parking lot. Okay, considering his brother had held a knife to her throat, who could blame her?
But her cousin had been right about one thing. If she convinced herself that he and Eddie were the bad guys, she might stop taking extra precautions, and the real stalker could blindside her in a heartbeat.
And he couldn’t let that happen.
He turned toward her apartment. Zeke’s jeep slithered around the corner behind him. Cole wasn’t sure where his partner lived, but somehow he doubted this was his usual route home. As Cole parked in front of Sherri’s redbrick building, the man drove by with a wave.
What were the chances he didn’t know this was Sherri’s place? If he’d heard half of what Jake had said, then chances were next to none. Zeke was bound to manufacture implications of Cole’s after-hours visit to suit his own agenda.
Yanking the keys from his ignition, Cole jumped from the truck. Let Zeke say what he liked. Sherri’s safety was all that mattered.
Movement snapped his attention to the far front corner of the four-unit building. A medium-build male skirted through the flowerbeds and disappeared behind the building.
Cole darted after him and at the corner, plunged through the flowers himself to peer down the adjoining wall undetected.
The guy had his face pressed to a window. One of Sherri’s windows.
Cole stormed around the corner and caught the Peeping Tom by the shoulder. “What do you think you’re doing?” Cole hauled him back and spun him around. “Ted? What are you doing here?”
The man whipped his arms in a circle, breaking Cole’s hold and lunged for the next window. This one with only a screen between him and the inside. “I’ve got to get in there. She needs help.”
A shriek came from inside her apartment. “No, stop!”