“I don’t know. Would you have heard if the man talking to you on the phone was right outside your bedroom window?”
Tess clutched her completely unsexy fleece bathrobe tightly around her. She had settled in a glider, out of Zach’s path. She kept it in motion with one foot on the floor but the rocking was jerkier than normal for her, too. So much adrenaline.
“I think I would have. I mean—” she couldn’t help shuddering again “—he couldn’t have been ten feet away from me. I’ve been in my bedroom and heard neighbors talking on the other side of the fence even though my window was closed.”
He had paused briefly, his jaw clenching as he noticed her distress. “Then there are at least two of them.”
“I told you I’m pretty sure the voices on the phone haven’t all been the same.”
“Yeah. Shit, Tess. They took a big risk tonight.”
“You mean, if I’d called 911 right away and a patrol car happened to be close by.” She bent her head. “That’s what I should have done, isn’t it?”
“Maybe.”
He came to crouch in front of her, bracing his forearms on his thighs. He wasn’t wearing socks, she saw in some weirdly disconnected part of her brain. He probably hadn’t bothered with underwear, either, unless he wore it to bed. She had a feeling he didn’t.
“It’s a waste of time to ask yourself what you should have done.” His blue eyes compelled her. “It all happened fast, didn’t it? Maybe took no more than a minute? What are the chances a Clear Creek officer would have arrived that quickly? And, if he had, that he’d have caught anyone?”
“He might have taken off if he’d heard me talking loudly to a 911 dispatcher.” Another thought occurred to her. “If I’d already been on the phone, I wouldn’t have answered the call.”
“I’m not sure that would have been a good idea, Tess.” Lines deepened on Zach’s forehead. “I’ve said that before. If they can’t terrorize you with a phone call, they’ll find another way.”
She shivered. “They did.”
“Damn it!” He rose fluidly to his feet, pulling her up with him. For the second time tonight she found herself securely enclosed in his arms. For the second time tonight she succumbed to temptation.
When she’d first let him in the door, he’d yanked her into his arms after saying only one word: her name. She had held on for all she was worth. He’d been breathing hard, his heart racing.
This felt just as good. Just as safe. It was spoiled only because Tess hated being the little woman clinging to the manly guy who had come to her rescue.
Until the past couple of weeks, her greatest fear had been of her father having that second stroke she knew was inevitable.
She was the one to hear a car pulling up outside. When she stirred, Zach let her go with what felt like reluctance.
“It might be better if you weren’t here,” she suggested for a second time.
“You don’t think they’ll notice the pickup in your driveway?”
“It could be mine,” she pointed out.
“They can check DMV records easily enough. No, Tess. We have no reason to hide the fact that you contacted me when the threats started.”
She nodded because it was too late anyway. She could hear a heavy tread on her front steps and porch just before the doorbell rang.
Still clutching the robe close, she let the police officer in.
Balding, probably in his early fifties, he wasn’t even her height, but was so solidly built Tess guessed he’d be very hard to bring down.
“I’m Officer Parish.” His brown eyes took in first Tess then Zach standing protectively behind her.
She held out a hand. “Thank you for coming so quickly. I’m Tess Granath.”
Zach was a little slower to offer his hand. “Sheriff’s Deputy Zach Carter.”
They all went into the living room, where Tess asked if he knew about her previous calls to the Clear Creek PD.
“I’ve heard. You believe this is connected to the fact that you’re a witness to the death of the illegal Mexican.”
She bristled. “I fail to see how Antonio Alvarez’s country of origin or his lack of paperwork has any relevance to his murder.”