"He's not going to stop," she whispered against his shirt. "Did you see his eyes? He's not going to stop until he gets whatever he thinks he deserves."
"Then we make him stop." Brian's voice was hard with certainty. "We call Diaz. We tell her exactly what he said. That was a threat, Tessa. The restraining order, the interstate stalking, and now direct confrontation with implied violence. That's enough for an arrest."
She wanted to believe him. She wanted to believe that the system would work, that the police could protect her, that this nightmare would end with handcuffs and a jail cell.
But she'd seen Webb's eyes. She'd seen the patience there, the calculated calm of a man who had been planning this for months. Maybe years. He wasn't going to make it easy. He was too smart for that.
"He's a psychologist," she said. "He knows exactly how to stay just inside the line. Everything he said could be interpreted as grief, as curiosity, as a man trying to understand his brother's death. A good lawyer would tear the case apart."
"Then we get a better lawyer."
She pulled back to look at him, at the determination in his jaw, the fury banked behind his pale blue eyes. He meant it. He would fight for her, spend whatever it took, do whatever was necessary to keep her safe.
It should have made her feel protected. Instead, it made her afraid.
"Brian." She touched his face, her palm against his cheek. "I don't want you to get hurt because of me. Webb is dangerous. Not in the way you're used to, not the kind of danger you can fight with your fists. He's dangerous in his head, in his planning, in his patience."
"I'm not going anywhere."
"I know. That's what scares me."
He covered her hand with his, pressing it harder against his face. "I spent fifteen years running into burning buildings. I watched my friends get hurt, watched strangers die, and carried bodies out of wreckage that shouldn't have been survivable. And the one time I couldn't save someone, the one time it mattered most, I walked away. I ran. I came here and hid from everything I used to be."
His eyes held hers, fierce and unwavering. "I'm done running. I'm done hiding. Whatever Webb throws at us, we face it together. That's not negotiable."
She kissed him, right there on Main Street, with tourists walking past and shopkeepers watching from their windows. She kissed him because she didn't have words for what she was feeling, because the fear and the gratitude and the love were all tangled together in her chest, and this was the only way to let them out.
When they broke apart, he was smiling. Just slightly, the corner of his mouth lifted in that way that made her heart flip.
"Was that a, yes?" he asked.
"That was a, we're in this together," she said. "Now call Diaz. Let's make this official."
He pulled out his phone, but before he could dial, it buzzed in his hand. A text from Hank: Saw the whole thing from the shop window. Colby and I are coming. Don't do anything stupid until we get there.
Brian showed her the screen, and despite everything, Tessa laughed. It came out watery, tinged with the residue of tears, but it was real.
"Copper Moon looks out for its own," she said, remembering what Colby had told her at Lila's that first week.
"Yeah." Brian's arm came around her shoulders, solid and warm. "It does."
They waited on the corner, watching the direction Webb had gone, watching the street for any sign of his return. The morning sun was bright overhead, the sky achingly blue, the kind of perfect beach day that drew tourists from miles around.
Somewhere out there, a man was walking free who believed she owed him something. Who believed that grief entitled him to make her life a living nightmare.
But she wasn't alone anymore. She had Brian beside her, Hank and Colby on their way, a sergeant who answered her calls, and a town that had decided she belonged.
It wasn't safety, not exactly. But it was something close.
It was a fighting chance.
Chapter Sixteen
Sergeant Diaz arrived twelve minutes after Brian's call. He'd been counting.
Hank and Colby had gotten there first, materializing from the direction of the motorcycle shop like they'd been shot from a cannon. Colby had taken one look at Tessa's pale face and positioned himself on her other side, creating a wall of muscle and solidarity that made Brian's chest tight with something that felt uncomfortably like gratitude.
"Tell me everything," Hank said quietly, his eyes scanning the street in both directions. "Don't leave anything out."
