Chapter Nineteen

 

 

Emma heard the door shut behind her father, and then it was just her and J.T. When he entered the kitchen area where she was pacing around the island, she stopped and just looked at him. “Well. Now what?”

“Now…we wait. We let your dad and the people who are good at this do what they do.”

“You’ve done this for other people. How do they deal with the fear?”

“By not letting it guide their lives. I’m not saying they do something stupid, like try to confront the guy themselves, but they can’t live their lives afraid.” He looked at her with blue eyes that were so serious. “The fear eats at some. And I can’t blame them. Stalkers affect one in six women, and one in nineteen men. That isn’t right. Ever.”

Emma shivered, thinking about the victims out there who didn’t have people like J.T. or her dad to help them. “No, it’s not.”

He stepped closer and Emma slipped into his arms.

He held her, feeling perfect and right and safe. “I just want this to end.”

“And it will. Promise you that.”

***

 

J.T. kissed her hair. She clung to him, making feel like a hero—and an ass. He should have found this guy by now. Given her the real reassurance that the guy wouldn’t bother her again.

But he couldn’t do that. All he could offer her was the reassurance that he was there for her, and that the best of the FBI was working the case. It wasn’t technically a PAVAD case, but the director could call it as he saw it.

And Ed Dennis owed both Dan and J.T. some serious favors.

Some of the information J.T. had been tasked with ferreting out for the director over the years had been questionable in legality. Had J.T. not liked, trusted, and respected the director, he wouldn’t have felt so comfortable going out on that extra limb.

But he had, and the director had pulled him aside to make it known that the director had J.T.’s back on this matter.

As did Dan.

“Hey, we’ve got the best of the FBI on this. It’s just a matter of time. Then you can go home, and we can redo the whole movie thing, this time with me aware of the way things are supposed to be.”

“I went home convinced there was no way we’d end up like this that day. Glad to see I was wrong.”

She gave a watery smile, one that had him melting again.

Damn. He had it bad for this woman, didn’t he?

He probably always would.