“No. Just be careful. Can you do that for me?”
She agreed. We said our goodbyes, and I ended the call feeling worse than before. If anything happened to Mom or Stephie, I wouldn’t be okay.
Should I have told her about the broken window and the page from the yearbook? But I didn’t want to scare her even more.
Stephie’s best friend Vivian had been through some terrible things before Trace and Scarlett adopted her. Stephie knew some of those details, and years ago, I’d been there when my sister woke up sobbing from a nightmare about evil men grabbing her.
I wouldn’t let anything happen to Stephie, and that included living in fear.
Dean came back outside. “Hey. How’s your sister?”
“Full of attitude, as usual.”
He smiled. “That’s good.”
“It is.” I jammed my phone in my pocket. “See anything else inside?”
“No. Rest of the house is clear.” It seemed like he had more to say, but he gave me a meaningful stare and nodded at his truck.
We got in. Immediately, he turned up the radio and touched his mouth as he spoke to obscure the words. “It’s possible they’re watching us right now.”
“Hold on,what?”
I glanced around at my driveway, the trees, my neighbors’ houses. It was bizarre to consider we were under surveillance, but considering everything that had already happened?
Dean reached over and put his hand on my thigh like he was trying to calm me down. “Relax. I don’t have anything specific, but the thought occurred to me while I was inside. They might’ve positioned someone nearby to see how we react to the broken window. The implicit threat.”
“Do you think they’re following us too?”
“I’m sure they’ll try. I doubt they know the location of my property, so I’ll have to make sure I don’t lead them there.”
I’d thought at first this was all about some vendetta Phelan had against me for embarrassing him. But it had to be more. Really, we had nocluewhat was going on.
“Whoever this is, they’re sending us a message,” Dean said.
“And I got it, loud and clear. If we don’t stop, they’ll go after Stephie and my mom.” I took a stuttering breath, fear seizing my lungs again.
“We won’t let that happen.”
“Because you’re going to tell me to give up? Stop pursuing this?”
“That’s one option. You could forget about Phelan and let me deal with this.”
Which would probably be the smartest choice. Just try toget back to my life. Heal from my injuries and go back on duty in another couple of months.
But how could I face myself knowing I’d let those bastards terrify me into submission? Let them win?
Could I allow Dean to fight the entire war for me, while I hid away to keep myself and my family safe? No. It wasn’t right to put the burden all on him, even if he seemed determined to take it.
And honestly, the more these people tried to silence me, terrify me, the more I wantedblood.
“We’re supposed to be in this together,” I said. “Just last night, you were talking about how we’re a good team. I was the one who saw the guy wearing that ring and made the connection to the night I was shot. It’s my lead. Now you’re trying to force me out.”
“Actually, I’m not.”
“Then what? I would love to hear more ideas. I’m not the former assassin with eagle-eye vision and ghost ops experience. I’m just a sheriff’s deputy.”
“Don’t talk down about yourself. You strolled into enemy territory just yesterday, while injured, and refused to be intimidated. You’re amazing.”
