“Want me to drive you home?You’re safer there.”
“No, Ben will pick me up when he’s ready.I need to stay here.With you.”
“Oh, I’m not going anywhere until he gets here.”His brow furrowed, he cast another suspicious glance around the diner.“I just wish the jackass threatening you would make a move when I’m there.”
“I don’t want him to make any moves at all.”She folded her arms tight about her body.
“We’ve got Ben now,” Jim said.“He’ll get to the bottom of this crap.Rio sent the best.”
Milly came out of the kitchen carrying loaded plates of food.When she saw that Sarah was still there, she delivered the plates and came over.“What’s got you both frowning so hard?”
Quickly, Sarah filled her in.
Appalled, Milly gave her a tight hug.
****
An hour and a halflater, Ben finished dealing with the Chief of Police, had new tires put on Sarah’s truck, and pulled up to the diner to collect her.
Fortunately, this time she’d obeyed orders and was still inside, accompanied by her father, who came out with her.
“I don’t like this,” Big Jim growled to Ben.When Sarah jumped into the passenger seat, Jim leaned in her open window.
“Me, either,” Ben said.“This guy, whoever he is, is escalating.”He ticked off the transgressions.“First emails, then phone hang ups, then a note.Now he’s cut her tires.Next will be physical violence.”
Sarah shuddered.
“He’s getting bolder,” Jim said.“I’ll see you back at the ranch.I’m heading over to pick up a tractor part, and then I’ll be there.”
Jim strode away and Ben scowled grimly.He turned to Sarah.“This means that from now on, I’m stuck to your side.Wherever you go, I’m with you.I’m talking about on the ranch, too.You don’t even go to the barn without me.When you’re in the kitchen, I’m in the kitchen.When you go to the restroom, I’m outside the door.”
She looked surprised.“You don’t think the ranch is safe?”
“There’s a lot of open space there.A lot of places to hide.”He pulled out and started down the highway.“This guy is ramping up.We can’t take chances.”
“I just wish I knew who was doing this.And why.”
“If it’s Ridley Kemper, we know why.He’s bat shit crazy.Insane people do insane things.”
She chewed a finger.“I’ll never forget that day he attacked me.It’s branded in my brain, every second, like a movie I’ve seen a thousand times.In slow motion, it scrolls past my mind, frame-by-frame, in awful detail.”
“You experienced trauma.Your mind won’t let you forget.”As they drove, some of the fog lifted and a few spears of sunlight slanted through the mists.“But in time, the memory should start to fade.”He hesitated.“He didn’t actually injure you that day, did he?”
“Just some pretty bad bruising, nothing serious.I was so lucky the neighbor guys were there to stop him.I can’t help thinking about what might have happened if they hadn’t been home.”
Ben’s hands tightened on the wheel so hard his knuckles turned white.“Wish I’d been there.”
****
When Ben pulled upto the ranch gate, Sarah gasped.
Ben swore out loud.“Goddammit to hell!”
As one, they stared ahead.Instead of closed and locked in place as it should have been, the automatic gate gaped wide open.
“Your dad is running an errand, so this wasn’t left open by him.”Ben leaned out his window to inspect the security panel.“Doesn’t look broken.Looks like somebody opened it on purpose.”His features hardened.“Where’s Willie?”
Sarah felt the blood drain from her face.“He’s supposed to be building the new chicken coop.At the barn.”
