She felt a flash of remorse, but her rage had consumed her. She kept going, moving closer to him as she landed more verbal assaults. “You don’t get to waltz back into my life and suddenly act like you have some claim on me.” Her chest heaved as she continued. “I’m my own person, Dylan, and I’ve been taking careof myself just fine the past four years without you.Idecide what is and isn’t a risk to me, and whether to ignore it. Not you.”
He stared at her, blinking as if he had no clue who she was anymore. “How about us learning that McGuinness might have psychopathic tendencies and tortured and killed animals as a child? How about that I’m your partner on this case? How about that this person could consider me a threat because I’m also on this case, and they don’t actually care whether you keep their secret or not? Did you ever think about that?”
Her anger left her body, leaving her with a sick feeling in her gut.No.She hadn’t thought about that at all. She’d considered how this guy might target him as well, but only if she said anything. It hadn’t crossed her mind that he may already be in danger. Even when that first note told her to keep it from everyone, including him, she’d assumed she was the only target of the stalker. Her stomach heaved as her mind ran through possibilities of Dylan being hurt all because she’d never warned him somebody was threatening the case. Would they have even bothered sending him notes? Or just attacked without warning? And because she’d never told him about the notes, he never would have known to keep his defenses up.
She reached for him, desperate for his comfort, for his forgiveness. He stepped back, out of her reach, and she flinched at his rejection.
“Look”—he sounded tired now, rather than angry—“I don’t want to fight, Kelsi. But this could have been really bad. We need to be honest with each other going forward, okay? I’m going to head home. Let’s sleep on it. If I don’t get space now, I’ll say something I’ll regret.” He turned from her and made it a few steps toward his car before he turned around and asked, “Are you safe at home? Abby’s staying with you, right?”
She wasn’t sure if she was actually safe anymore, but she hated the idea of him only staying with her because he felt obligated to. So Kelsi nodded. She couldn’t find any words to give him. She couldn’t think of anything except how this, right here, the two of them fighting, was already the worst pain she had felt in years—even worse than finding out that Tom had cheated on her. It was second only to how she’d felt when he’d enlisted and left without saying goodbye.
Dylan nodded back. “Okay, I’ll see you in Virginia Beach on Tuesday.” With that, he left the note with the flowers and climbed in his car. He started the engine and drove away.
Kelsi stood rooted in place as the taillights disappeared, splintering her heart in the process. Her eyes burned with tears she wouldn’t let fall.
She didn’t understand how the night could have started so high and ended so low. She didn’t know how to begin to fix it, but he had to forgive her. If he didn’t, she’d be irreparably broken.
She picked up the note where Dylan had left it and unfolded it, wanting to see for herself what the stalker had to say that ruined so much. Her face, which had been flushed from their fight, drained of all color.
Time’s almost up. Remember, McGuinness walks Tuesday, or you never will again.
CHAPTER 33
Kelsi
2 Days to Trial
The next morning,Kelsi felt like an empty shell of herself. Her eyes were swollen and red from crying herself to sleep the night before. She’d barely had the wherewithal to lock and dead bolt the doors and do a brief sweep of the house with her taser held in front of her before the tears came.
Luckily, Abby had already been asleep in the guest bedroom, so she was able to avoid the conversation for now, but it would only be a matter of time before she walked into the kitchen for coffee and found Kelsi.
She knew she’d made a mistake, that she should have told Dylan earlier about the threats. He was right—it didn’t affect just her own safety, but his and the integrity of their case together. He was right to be angry, but it didn’t make her feel any better.
She sighed and moved slowly to brew a pot of coffee. What else was there to do? She had to figure out how to keep everyone safe while the trial happened, because it would be going forward. McGuinness and his errand boy couldn’t get away with ruining everything in Kelsi’s life as well as a murder.
Footsteps in the hall had Kelsi’s shoulders stiffening, hands gripping the counter in front of her tightly.
“Is that coffee I smell? Give me. I have something I need to tell you, but I need caffeine first.” Abby’s sleep-thick voice echoed loudly in the quiet kitchen, and Kelsi silently grabbed a mug and filled it for her. Abby’s gasp when Kelsi turned and she saw her face told her exactly how rough she looked. She rushed to Kelsi’s side and wrapped her in a hug. “What happened?” she murmured into Kelsi’s hair.
“Dylan ...” was all Kelsi could manage to say before her throat closed and she couldn’t say any more. Plus, she wasn’t sure exactly what to tell Abby. She didn’t want to lie to her best friend, but she couldn’t tell her everything that happened between them without also telling her about the stalker, and she couldn’t do that yet. Knowing Abby, she’d charge headfirst at the unknown stalker without a second thought. Kelsi still hoped she could resolve this on her own and not bring anyone else into her mess. Well, anyone else aside from Dylan now.
Abby held her tightly, letting her fall apart in her arms. Once Kelsi had calmed down enough, Abby leaned back to look into her face, wiping her friend’s tears with a sad smile. “If you can’t talk about what happened last night, want to finally tell me exactly what happened between you and Dylan all those years ago? I know you only ever gave me the bare minimum, and I never pushed you for more than you were ready to share, but I want to know everything.”
Kelsi took a deep breath, steadying herself before she began to explain how Dylan had broken her heart the first time. “I’ve told you before that I loved him for a while, but I didn’t truly realize how much until we were in law school together. College apart made it easier with the distance between us, but being in law school together, I couldn’t escape it. He had a girlfriend in law school, do you remember?” She cut a glance at Abby, who nodded.
“She was in our year with us, and he started seeing her our first year. They were on-again, off-again every other month it felt like, and stupid me thought every time they broke up that he would finally be done with her and see me. That he’d finally notice me as something more than the girl he’d made mud pies with. But he didn’t. That night before graduation, they’d been broken up for three months, which was the longest they’d gone without getting back together. I decided that was the time to make my move.” Kelsi grabbed her coffee mug and took a big sip, waiting for the caffeine to hit her system and give her a much-needed serotonin boost. “I had liquid courage on my side, so when he and I found ourselves alone outside the bar, I kissed him. I kissed him, then I told him I loved him. We were interrupted before he could say anything back, and he asked me to meet him the next day in the library after the ceremony. When I found him, though ...” Kelsi’s voice trailed off and she gripped her mug tightly.
When she didn’t continue immediately, Abby softly prompted, “When you found him?”
“He was kissing her. His ex. He must have felt bad for me, poor little Red, thinking her best friend loved her too. He didn’t have to say anything, that kiss said it all. So I ran. He tried to talk to me after, but I couldn’t face him.”
“Oh, Kelsi. Was that the last time you saw him before your first day?”
“No.” Kelsi sighed, remembering the next time they were in the same place, a couple months later. “The last time I saw him was at the bar exam, that July. He wouldn’t even look at me during the test.”
It had taken everything in Kelsi to focus on the exam in front of her and not the man two rows to her right who wouldn’tacknowledge her at all. She thought he’d hurt her enough already, but him pretending she didn’t exist? That had been the last straw.
“It wasn’t so bad though. At least Tom was there to study with. We stayed up way too late in my hotel room that night running through our property-law flashcards.”
