Page 44 of Solitary Man

She came to me to escape. She moved from her old life to get away from this creep stalking her.

I know you’ll keep me safe.

She’d said that to me more than once. I’d assumed she meant while we were flying, but it was more than that, wasn’t it?

Chances were good she hadn’t been thinking clearly when she answered my ad. Fear will make a person do all sorts of things they usually wouldn’t.

Maybe even marry a man they barely knew.

A man who didn’t really exist.

And now the reason she’d come to me was gone.

There was nothing keeping her here anymore.

Riley

The thump of Cash’s boots grew louder.

I looked up from reading over the chapter I wrote yesterday to find him standing at the door. His expression was wary, his big frame held rigid.

Something was wrong. Nerves instantly fired to life in my belly. “What’s going on?”

His jaw worked, and his gaze bored into me. The nerves got worse.

“What is it?” The words came out hushed. I took in the look on his face. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, anymore.

“Keith?”

I shot out of my chair. Was he here? Had Keith somehow found me? I tried to collect myself, my mind running in circles. “No. Does he know where I am…does he…”

“No. He’s not here.” Cash crossed his arms. “But a Denver cop wanted to pass on that they have the evidence they needed. That this Keith had been charged. He was stalking you?”

The muscles in Cash’s arms bulged, the veins popping as he clenched and unclenched his massive fists.

They’d caught him?

Relief made my knees weak.

“Yes.” I couldn’t keep it from him anymore. At first, I’d been desperate to put it all behind me, and I’d continued to say nothing for the same reason. I hadn’t wanted to bring Keith here, to my new life, even if it was just to talk about him.

“He was your boyfriend?”

My heart thundered harder, faster. “When I broke it off he…didn’t want to let me go.”

“He broke into your place and…” He thrust his fingers through his hair, his eyes flashing. “Terrorized you?”

I bit my lips to stop them quivering. Even though it was months ago now, I still woke at night sometimes with a scream trying to crawl up my throat, and sometimes there was no stopping it. “Yes,” I whispered.

“What did he do?”

There was a growl to Cash’s voice that lifted the hair on the back of my neck. “He just…he said some scary things, threatened me when I wouldn’t tell him I…I loved him, when I wouldn’t take him back. He…ah…had a knife and said he was going to cut me if I didn’t do as he said. A neighbor heard me scream and called the police. He heard the sirens and took off. He’s been missing since.”

Cash stood like a statue, so still and silent it was unnerving.

“Cash?”

He spun suddenly and plowed his fist into the wall, punching a hole through it. I cried out in surprise, my hand flying to my chest. Then he stood there breathing heavily, body shaking hard.