The Closer He Gets

There might have been whispers about Dad and other young girls. Would Bran have told him? Zach wondered. Or would people have whispered out of his hearing?

He and his brother could team up and make this go faster...but he found himself speculating on why Bran had never opened a serious investigation, despite being right here in town.

He’d been damn defensive about their father. Because he had a niggling—or even a solidly based—suspicion he’d rather not acknowledge, even to himself?

It was possible.

That meant Zach would go it alone, at least until he felt more trust than he did yet in his brother, the stranger.

* * *

FOR ONCE, IT wasn’t the sound of her phone ringing that awakened Tess. Straining to hear the faintest sound, she lay utterly still. The drumming of her own heartbeat filled her ears. She was afraid an intruder could hear it from across the room.

Oh, God. What if someone was in the house?

Nobody was in her bedroom, she knew that much. What little light leaked through the blinds was enough for her to make out the chair still braced under the doorknob.

Tap, tap, tap.

Fear felt like an electric shock. She rolled to stare at her window. That had sounded like...fingers tapping.

A hard knock, knock, knock followed against the glass.

She jackknifed to a sitting position, her hand pressed to her mouth to stifle a scream.

Her telephone rang and she couldn’t help crying out.

She snatched up the phone, never taking her eyes off the window. She absolutely did not want to answer.

The closet. She could wedge herself into the corner...

And what? Attack whoever found her there with the highest, sharpest heel she had? Why hadn’t she been smart enough to bring something to bed with her that would serve as a weapon?

Ring.

Tap, tap, tap.

Tess sucked in a deep breath. She pressed the screen of her phone. It took every ounce of willpower she possessed to say, with some facsimile of coolness, “This is really tiresome, you know.”

“You’re meeting with the new cops tomorrow. You’re going to be confused. You were so shaken up, you don’t remember what you said that first day. This time, you won’t lie. You understand, bitch? You better, because we can get to you anytime.”

She heard another tap, tap, tap on the window. The scratching sound of something scraping across the glass made her shudder. Her teeth chattered.

Finally, a hard wham made the window vibrate.

She found herself on her feet beside the bed. On the far side of the bed from the window, for what that was worth. She didn’t dare open her bedroom door. If one of them was at her window, only a few feet away from her, what if someone else stood, even now, in her hall, waiting for her to burst out?

Despite her promise to Zach, Tess had made the sensible decision not to call him just because there was another threat. The worst that had happened was the slashed tires. She really believed what she’d told him: an assault on her wouldn’t achieve anything.

But quaking in the dark of her bedroom, waiting for the glass to shatter, being sensible quit seeming smart.

With her hand shaking, it wasn’t easy to find Zach’s number, but she managed.

Please answer, please answer. Please, please, please.

“Tess?” He said her name, hard and urgent.

“Somebody is right outside,” she whispered. “Rapping on my window. I’m scared.”

“Jesus. I’m on my way. Stay on the line with me.” Rustling sounds made her think he was throwing on some clothes. A door slammed. Then he asked, “Did you call 911?”

“No.” Oh, God. He could probably hear her teeth chattering. “I will.”

“Forget it. I’m faster.”

* * *

“THERE ARE FOOTPRINTS outside your bedroom window, Tess. Broken branches on that shrub, too.”

“It’s a viburnum carlesii.”

No big surprise that Zach looked at her as though she was nuts. Who cared what shrub grew beneath her bedroom window?

“It’s probably too much to hope he was stupid enough to have had bare hands when he tapped on your window.”

“You think it was Andrew Hayes.”

He was pacing the length of her living room, his long strides eating up the distance in seconds. Tess had never seen him anything but athletically graceful. Tonight, the way he swung around was jerky. Fury showed in every line of his body.