It was something. I just don’t know what.
The baby, maybe? But if she was worried about something, we were still across the street from the doctor’s office. It would have been a simple thing to return and ask him to check up on something again. This is something else. Something she saw or heard. I rack my brain, trying to think of what, and then reach over and grab my phone from the bedside. Lexi sleeps on, drooling on my chest. I don’t even mind that. It’s cute. I touch her hair and make sure she’s covered in blankets, and then decide to text Clay. For once I’m glad I can text, because it’ll allow me to chat with him without waking Lexi up.
KNOX: Hey, are you busy?
CLAY: What’s up.
KNOX: Can you ask Natalie something for me? About Lexi?
CLAY: She says go ahead and ask.
CLAY: I hope it’s important for this time of night, I’m just saying
KNOX: It’s important.
KNOX: Is there something going on with Lexi that would make her scared?
KNOX: We were shopping earlier and she panicked and went and hid in the car.
KNOX: It wasn’t her being funny, either, she was genuinely worried. Kept looking around like she was being watched.
CLAY: Let me ask.
I stare impatiently at the phone as three dots show up in the corner, indicating there’s an incoming text. This seems to go on for an eternity and I remember why I hate text messages so much. Finally, when I’m about to throw my phone across the room in frustration, the text message shows up.
CLAY: So she says that Lexi isn’t afraid of anything she knows of, but she said she did have a problem with a guy a while back that wouldn’t leave her alone. Nat says Lexi doesn’t like to talk about it, but she dated him once and then he kept bothering her. She moved apartments to get away from him. Nat says she hasn’t heard anything about it in a while.
CLAY: Says he was a fireman or a policeman or something.
CLAY: She says it’s old news, though, and he wouldn’t be in San Antonio so that can’t be it.
CLAY: She’ll think some more on it and let you know.
KNOX: Thank you.
I toss my phone aside, bothered. A stalker? Lexi? Is that why she was so quick to move to Natalie’s guesthouse? I think back to some of our conversations. How I kept thinkin’ she was married because she insisted on me not comin’ ’round without warning her. Then I think of the hole in her wall.
It was just about the size of a fist.
I think about how pale she was that day, and how she was wearin’ a dark T-shirt and sweatpants instead of her usual sleek workout clothes. Did some bastard say somethin’ to her? I’m filled with so much rage my entire body tenses. Has she felt unsafe?
Has someone threatened my woman? My Lexi? The mother of my child?
My head feels as if it’s about to explode. Lexi murmurs and stirs against me, and I realize my entire body is clenched up tight, my hands in fists as if I’m about to punch something. I force myself to relax, to calm the fuck down. I stroke her hair and press a kiss to her head. “Go back to sleep.”
She does, her fingers curling against my skin.
I’m filled with an overwhelming sense of protectiveness. Lexi is mine. I’ll do anything to protect her. If she doesn’t feel safe, then it’s my job to make sure she does. I think for a moment and then pick up my phone again. With one hand on her back, I text with my other, typing to Boone.
KNOX: Hey, give me the # for the private investigator u used.
BOONE: It’s midnight . . . this important?
KNOX: Yes.
BOONE: Fair enough.
BOONE: I just emailed you his contact info. Let me know if you need me to get involved.
KNOX: Got it handled.
KNOX : Thanks bro.
If Lexi doesn’t want to tell me what’s going on, I’m just going to have to find out on my own.
Chapter 18
Knox
Two days pass while I’m waiting to hear details from the private investigator. I need to know if that fucker is connected to my woman, and I need to know everything about him if he is so I can destroy him. In that time, Lexi’s been content to stay at my trailer with me. I haven’t let on that I’m worried about her, just made sure she knew I wanted her at my side at all times. She hasn’t put up a fuss, either. She’s slept in my bed, let me cook breakfast for her, and basically worked remotely using my laptop to talk videos with her PR team. I keep waitin’ for her to protest that she needs some time alone, that we’re in each other’s space too much, but Lexi seems happy.
And that just makes me even more suspicious that somethin’s up. There’s something she ain’t telling me.
Then I finally get the email that tells me everything I need to know.
The pile of shit’s name is Keith Lawrence. He’s a firefighter down in Luka. Lived in the same building Lexi did. Twice. Seems he moved to the same building she was in about a week after she moved in, which pisses me off. I think about what Nat said about her moving to get away from him, and to think that he followed her makes me furious. I keep reading the private investigator’s reports. Seemed that people around town thought he was Lexi’s boyfriend and she was mean to him. Cryin’ wolf and all that. There were hints that she tried to file police reports against him, but the locals thought she was just being “difficult.”
Makes me want to put a torch to that entire fucking town. I can’t, though. But I do have enough ammunition to stop Keith Lawrence the cocksucker in his tracks.
It seems that Keith has a prior record of stalking in a different city.
* * *
* * *
“You sure I can’t come with you?” Lexi asks me again, frowning. She’s curled up on my sofa with her feet tucked under her, wearin’ nothing but one of my shirts. Damn, she looks pretty, and it’s tempting to say fuck it to my plans and just keep her company all day.
But I’ve got important shit that needs taking care of. “It’s just business, sweetheart. Gonna chat with investors and show them around the rig sites.”
“I can go do that with you. I’m great with people.” When I meet her gaze, we both start to laugh. “Okay, I might scare them off,” she admits. “But I promise to be on my best behavior. I won’t even try to creep them out. I’ll wear something in neutrals instead of all black. Whatever you want.”
“Tempting, but no. It ain’t you, Lexi, it’s that I don’t like takin’ my pregnant girlfriend to a work site. They can be dangerous.”
After a moment, she nods and picks up one of my couch cushions, hugging it to her chest. “Okay if I stay here, then? I’ll hang out in your bed and collect your stray hairs to make a voodoo doll.”
“Give it my winning smile,” I tell her, pretending to stroke my beard. “And, sweetheart, you know you can stay here for as long as you like.” I’d be perfectly happy if Lexi never went home, but I don’t say that. I don’t want her feelin’ trapped.
“I think I can do that,” she tells me playfully, and tilts her face up for a kiss. I lean over the sofa and give her one, wishin’ I didn’t have to go.
But I ain’t puttin’ off taking care of my woman.
I leave, and immediately head over to the arranged meeting site with my men. I’ve got two bodyguards with me—big, muscular brutes that look intimidating. I’ve got my private investigator. And I’ve got my lawyer. “You have the paperwork?” I ask him, and he nods and hands me a folder.
Good. “My jacket?”
He pulls out a freshly cleaned fancy suit jacket, and I shrug it on. “Let’s get us out to Luka, then.”
* * *
* * *
When we stroll into the firehouse of the tiny town, everyone turns to see us. That’s no surprise, considering that I want to be seen. I want everyone here to be talking about this for days. All heads are turned in our direction as me and my posse of suits enter the firehouse, and someone immediately comes out to greet us.
“Can I help you, sir?” It’s an older man with glasses, dressed in a gray T-shirt and suspendered jeans.
I shake his hand. “I’m lookin’ for a man named Keith Lawrence. I’m told that he’s a firefighter in this town. Is that correct?”
He nods and turns his head, calling out. “Keith! Got company!”
Keith musta been nearby, because he immediately appears, a sweat towel around his neck and the collar of his shirt wet with perspiration. He’s a big guy, about the same height as me and probably about ten years older than I am. Got beady blue eyes, too, and a smarmy smile. I don’t like his face.
That’s all right, though, because he’s about to hate mine.
“I’m Keith,” he says, strolling forward, a confident look on his face, shoulders back. He slaps his car keys down on the counter and then gets right in my face. “Who’re you?”
I think he knows exactly who I am. I smile, doin’ my best to be charming. “I’m Lexi’s boyfriend. And I’m here to tell you to leave her alone. I know you’ve been stalking her in the past, and I’m gonna tell you right now that it stops today. This instant. She doesn’t exist to you anymore.”
He stares at me with narrowed eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, you do.” I give him a smug look. “You see, I got a lot of money. And I’m perfectly willin’ to spend all of it if that’s what it takes to keep Lexi safe from you. So I thought I’d buy myself an apartment building. Yours, in fact.” I hold a hand out, and my lawyer slaps a folder into it, just like we talked about. “Which means I have all the surveillance footage of you goin’ in and out of her apartment without her knowledge. We could talk about that, if you like.”
He scowls. “I was just helping out with maintenance. That isn’t a crime.”
“It is if Lexi presses charges. I know your buddies at the police station have continued to talk her out of filing against you because everyone in this town thinks they know you. They think you’re a good man. Ex-military, hometown boy. Just one of the guys. But she lives in San Antonio now, and the police force there don’t know you. I’d hate to have to get them involved. Lexi will win any case she brings against you, because I’m gonna throw so many damned lawyers at it that you won’t stand a chance. We can keep you in discovery and in preliminary investigations for so long that you’ll go broke just tryin’ to keep up with everything we throw your way. My pockets are endless, friend.” I give him a cold smile and lean up against the counter, near his keys. I ain’t leaving here without them.