Tess laughed and kissed his stubbly cheek. “You’re more worked up than I am.”
His scowl returned. “Why weren’t you scared?”
“I got mad,” she said. “Only after he left did I realize I was scared, too. But... I don’t know.” She took a moment to analyze her reaction. “His voice wasn’t familiar. Plus, this didn’t feel like the other threats. I could be wrong, but my guess is this guy was just expressing his support for a fellow deputy. I don’t think he was part of the earlier threats or slashing my tires. I mean, if he was, would he really show his face? And go with such a weak threat? ‘If you get in an accident on a county road, you can’t count on us.’ That’s kind of underwhelming.”
“Also an offense that could get him fired if Stokes identifies him.” Zach sounded a lot more grim than she felt. He went into the kitchen with the dirty dishes.
She trailed him as far as the doorway. “Will you report it?”
He swung to face her. “Hell, yes!”
She might have objected, except she couldn’t forget the way the deputy had checked out every corner of the store to be sure she was alone. He’d used her vulnerability because she’d been alone as an implied threat.
She retreated from the doorway as Zach went back to the dining room to finish clearing the table, then decided to take him up on his offer. She’d done more than her share of meals and dishes this week.
Not in the mood to work, she took her book from her purse and went to the living room, turning on the lamp beside the sofa. Dusk purpled the sky. Comfortably ensconced, she thought about getting up and closing the blinds, but she’d been enjoying looking out at her garden earlier. The roses needed deadheading—
Out of the corner of her eye she caught movement outside. She turned her head sharply. A big, dark shape stood on her small front lawn.
Instinct brought her to her feet. “Zach?”
Oh, God—it was a man. She was sure it was—only he didn’t have a face. And he was swinging something. What—?
The window shattered and something shot past her, close enough she felt the wind. It smacked into a framed watercolor on the far wall, making glass explode again.
Screaming, she dropped to the floor and covered her head.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
IT WAS DAMN near killing Zach to see the stress on Tess’s face. Although if she tried to hide it, that might be worse.
Detective Easley had come to talk to them, as had Detectives MacLachlan and Clayton from the SIU.
They’d found a softball on her living room floor. A piece of paper bearing another threat had been wrapped around it with rubber bands. Zach still shuddered, knowing how close it had come to Tess’s head. He had a feeling it had been intended to hit her.
God help him, when he’d heard the window break—
He inhaled a ragged breath. Tess could have been shot. He’d had a brief vision of a Molotov cocktail exploding at her feet.
Instead it had been one more effort to terrify her.
He’d taken a moment to be sure she was okay then torn out the front door, running full-out. Unfortunately he’d been close to a block behind the man by the time he made it out to the street. The man had leaped into a dark SUV; tires had squealed as it accelerated. The light had been too dim for Zach to make out the license plate number.
The first responder had taken the softball and the note wrapped around it into custody. Within twenty-four hours Easley reported the lack of any useable fingerprints.
The surveillance cameras? Useless because he hadn’t put one on the front of the house. He’d been so damn sure they wouldn’t risk being seen by a neighbor.
He’d have felt worse, except Tess insisted the guy had worn a dark ski mask or had pulled a shirt up over his lower face and a hood down over his forehead. Something to disguise his face.
The couple days since then had sucked, in Zach’s view. He didn’t like leaving Tess potentially unprotected because he had to go to work every day. He did his job, but worried he might be distracted and screw up. The two of them had made love every night with a kind of ferocity, stunning in its intensity, but he didn’t like knowing what was behind her desperation and the way she clung to him afterward.