“You can take one of my cars to work tomorrow.”
“I want to go home. Mabel's waiting.” He'd brought her home from doggie daycare this afternoon, but no way was he leaving her alone at the house overnight.
Once they arrived at the cabin and he finally got Jeremiah to leave—why had he thought it was a good idea to invite him in the first place?—Jude stepped into the shower.
Weaving a little, he scrubbed shampoo into his hair and congratulated himself on his decision to go to the bar. He felt great.
Nothingbothered him. Definitely not Gemma.
Once he was dry and he'd let Mabel out for the final time and given her bedtime treats, he fell heavily onto his mattress.
He dreamed of Gemma.
He was holding her hand. Her red hair fanned out as she swung her head to smile at him tenderly. They were walking across a field at the time of day when the sun was dying and darkness rising. She was relaxed and he could feel the glow of her happiness. But when he looked forward, he saw a group of men walking toward them. He knew they were coming to take her from him.
Fear pierced him deep. He and Gemma began running toward where he'd parked his car.
The men sprang into motion, chasing. He and Gemma sprinted as fast as they could go but the men were faster. One of them lunged and caught her wrist. She cried out as she jerked to a stop. Jude fought them with all the strength and fury he had, but they yanked her away.
She screamed. Some of them were pulling her from him. Some of them were holding him in place. He couldn't get free. “Gemma!”
Hopeless. There were too many of them. His heart was shattering, his horror rising—
Gasping, he woke. Then struggled to differentiate what was dream and what was reality.
His dark bedroom was reality.
The field, Gemma looking at him with love, the attack, the struggle. That was dream.
Gemma was safe tonight. At her house. With her boyfriend.
Mabel snored softly from her dog bed. He was under a down comforter, the sheets around him soft. Yet he feltrotten. His pulse pounded sickly. He was hot, sweaty, nauseous.
He had family and he had friends and he had his dog. He had the privacy from the media he wanted. He had a job he loved. A house he loved. Money. He'd made his work the biggest part of his life, yes. But he still had time to be as social as he wanted to be.
So why did he feel as profoundly lonely now as he had lying in his high school bedroom back when he'd been in charge of his mother and terrified that he'd lose his battle for her mental health? The loneliness then had been aching—a physical thing that had stalked him like a predator, caught him, and gnawed on him.
It was stalking him like a predator again.
* * *
The following morning, Gemma checked her phone upon waking and found a text from Cedric.
Cedric
I don't plan to change my mind, but I want you to know that I liked Jude. It was nice to see you with a good guy.
Heavy-hearted, she took a screenshot of Cedric's text and sent it to Jude.
* * *
Jude updated Shannon, Scent-sible's case agent, on Cedric's text to Gemma, then hesitated before leaving her office.
“Is there something else?” Shannon shot him a quizzical look from where she sat behind her highly organized desk.
“Gemma kissed me last night.”
Her lips flattened but she did not appear surprised.
