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She let him hold her hand. Fin fought every instinct telling her to jump into his arms and just hide. “I’m a big wimp. It’s just a rose.”
“Then why does it frighten you so much?” He led her to the driver-side door. He reached over and grabbed the letter. “Although why someone would leave a letter out like this in the rain is a bit confusing.”
“It’s not the first one.”
He shot her a look. “What do you mean?”
“I...” She shouldn’t have said anything. The words had just slipped out.
He opened the letter and read it. She watched his face as it tightened. As the words sank in. When he was finished reading, he looked up at her. “How many of these have you gotten?”
“This will be the fourth.” In a month. Each one had creeped her out more than the last.
His expression darkened, and his hand crushed the letter. “They all been on your car? Here?”
She nodded. “So far.”
“So far. Have you told anyone?”
“I took the first one to the TSP. And I call whenever I get another one. They’re dusting them for prints, I think. But they’ve not been overtly threatening.” Just terrifying.
“Has anything else happened?”
She shook her head. “I just...”
“Tell me.”
He was the first person she worked with to know. She felt like she’d been keeping it in for the last month. Keeping a horrible secret from the friends who were all still inside right now.
“Sometimes I feel like he’s watching me.” It came out in a whisper. Fin looked into his dark eyes as the tears shocked the heck out of her. She thought she had better control of herself than this. “And I don’t know what to do.”
He leaned closer, the letter still clutched in his hand. “We’ll call the TSP now. Then I will follow you home. Make sure you get there ok. And if you need me at any time, you’re to call. I don’t think we live that far apart. Maybe three or four blocks. I’m in the Finley Heights complex.”
She nodded. Finley Heights was part of her estate; she’d inherited the complex from her mother, who had inherited it from her grandfather. But she had a trust that ran most of the businesses included in her inheritance.
It was four blocks from the home she’d grown up in, that she now occupied alone. “Thanks. I’m sorry. I’m being a big wimp. I just—”
“There’s nothing wimpy about it. This bastard doesn’t have a right to make you afraid like this. You didn’t ask for it. You don’t welcome or want it. It’s wrong.” And there was heat in his tone that had her nerves returning.
“It is. And I don’t know how to stop it.”
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m sorry. I’m making things worse, aren’t I? My youngest sister was stalked when she was seventeen, Fin. I was away at med school. I didn’t learn about until I went home on spring break. For months, she lived terrified of going outside where he could see her. He was a neighbor.”
“What happened?”
“I happened. I learned about it, and a friend and I took care of the problem. My friend eventually married Adhira. They have a toddler now. The stalker moved away after that.”
“She’s lucky to have you.” At times, Fin didn’t feel like she had anyone anymore. Just the people she worked with. Annie, Izzie, and Nikkie Jean, mostly.
And Margo.
She would always have Margo.
But her best friend was no longer in Finley Creek on a regular basis; W4HAV, the women’s charity Margo had assisted the governor’s wife in creating now, needed her in the Austin branch more time than not.
It was the first time she and Margo had been separated for sometimes weeks at a time.
No wonder she was feeling a bit...alone.
He pulled his phone out, and she listened as he called the TSP. But he didn’t call the patrolman who’d been assigned to handle her case. He called another man, directly.
When he disconnected, he smiled at her again. “I called Dom. He’s a friend of mine. Vince’s son. Have you met him?”
She nodded. “He was here with Vince one day. You don’t have to do that. Detective Kimball is handling the case.”
“Maybe so, but Dom owes me a favor. Let me cash it in.”
He was used to taking charge. That was obvious. Most surgeons were. For a moment, Fin wanted to let him. But she’d made herself a vow thirteen years ago to stand on her own two feet. No matter what. “Then I’ll owe you one.”
Dom Acardi arrived a few minutes later. Virat had led her to his own car, and they’d waited out of the rain. He’d sat in the driver’s seat and quietly talked to her. She’d known what he was doing—he was trying to keep her mind off what had happened.
This was the first time there had ever been a gift along with the note.
She knew enough about stalkers to see the escalation. To be even more terrified than she was to begin with.
Virat came around the front of his car and pulled the door open for her.
He stayed at her side, all strong and protective.
Dom Acardi was a few inches shorter than Virat, but built just as strong. He shook Virat’s hand and then looked at her.
There was compassion in his brown eyes.
More so than had been Det. Kimball’s the first time she’d taken the letter to the TSP.
He’d smirked when she’d taken the second to him.
And been impatient with the third.
“Can you tell me what’s happened?” Detective Acardi asked.
“This was on my windshield, along with the rose. We left the rose after Virat read the letter.” She outlined all the details, and he took notes. The questions he asked were a lot different than the ones Detective Kimball had asked. Insinuated.
When he left, she felt reasonably reassured that someone would actually do something about the man doing this. Maybe.
There wasn’t much he could do until the stalker did something physical to reveal himself.
Not something she wanted to think about.