“Oh? You’re not angry?” I glance to make sure the guy is still out cold. Just in case, I guide Mira toward the front of the house. I’d feel better waiting for the police out in the open.
“I’m not angry,” she says as she walks beside me, her body tucked up close to mine. “You were being thoughtful. And to tell the truth, I’m tired of owing that money. I’ll pay you back, of course, but it’s nice to not owe that man anymore. Though in a roundabout way, he brought you to me.”
Is she referring to the forest? When I found her passed out?
“Yeahhh, how’s about we not attract hitmen from now on?”
She huffs out a feisty sigh, her color returning to normal. “Of course not.”
I groan. Why do I think this won’t be the last time Mira puts herself in the line of fire?
I have my hands full. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Mira
Tyler and I never made it to Jaeger’s. We spent the afternoon at the police station, where I finally told them about Denim Jacket.
“Ms. Frasier.” Sergeant Billings, the officer I spoke to after my attack in the woods, taps his pen on the desk. “You’re certain this Ronald Devans is the same man who attacked you weeks ago?”
“Yes. One of them.”
“And you’ve seen him since then? Why didn’t you come forward earlier with this information?”
I’d intended to tell the police about Denim Jacket after Lewis and Tyler continued to hound me about it, but apparently not soon enough. I can’t believe he staked out my house. All those times I thought I saw him I was probably correct.
I hadn’t time to be as terrified as I could have been this afternoon. Because as soon as the man grabbed me, Tyler was there.
“I owed money to a man Ronald Devans worked for. In the beginning, I was worried that telling you I knew who my attacker was would cause me more trouble, but I’d reconsidered. I planned to come in, then this happened.”
The officer scribbles down the name of my loan shark.
“And you said Devans was with Drake Peterson at the casino?”
I nod.
“Mr. Peterson is awaiting trial. I don’t know what his connection is to Devans, but Devans has a long rap sheet, including drug possession and assault and battery. He’s not walking away from this. I’m confident we’ll get Devans to give up the name of the other man who attacked you as well. I’ll follow up with the loan shark. It sounds like he may be involved.”
Once Tyler and I return from the police station, a week passes before he lets me leave the house (i.e., our bed) for anything other than work. The attack freaked him out. It freaked me out. Yes, we had sex. Okay, a lot of sex, but we also spent hours just holding each other, thankful our story ended well.
Because that’s what it’s been. A long love story involving the boy who caught my eye in junior high and never left my thoughts and heart. I will forever be grateful Tyler found me.
And maybe, just a little, I found him too. The real Tyler, the one he buried all those years ago, but who came back to me.
Again.
Epilogue
Mira
Two months later
Tyler and I stand on the cement stoop of a single-story house in a middle-income Carson City neighborhood.
I am so nervous, I might hyperventilate.
The door creaks open and a pretty, middle-aged woman with bright red hair stands on the other side.
Tyler rests his hand on my lower back. “Hey, Mom.” He leans forward and kisses her cheek. “This is Mira.”
