Page 130 of Tattered (Lark Cove 1)

The board had agreed to try this new structure temporarily and see if it worked. They weren’t crazy about the CEO not being in the office from nine to five, or the chairman living in Montana, but we’d somehow managed to convince them that there were more benefits than costs on this one.

“I knew they’d go for it!” Piper hadn’t stopped smiling since the board meeting had adjourned. “And I bet it will be less than two months and they’ll vote to make this permanent.”

I chuckled. “You realize this means you’re going to have to deal with me a lot more frequently now.”

“I’ll adjust.” She winked. “Besides, this means I get to take regular ‘work trips’ to Montana. Didn’t you say you bought a boat?”

Nolan laughed. “We’re just pawns, Logan. Little pieces on her chessboard.”

Piper gave us both a diabolical smile.

“What’s Thea going to think about all this?” Nolan asked.

I ran a hand through my hair and sighed. “I haven’t told her anything yet.”

“What!” Piper shrieked as she punched me in the arm. “You haven’t told her what you’re doing? Oh my god, why not? What is wrong with you?”

“Ouch.” I rubbed my bicep. “I didn’t want to get her hopes up if something came up. There was no guarantee the firm would let me out of my partnership. And I wasn’t going to make her a promise that I wasn’t one hundred percent sure I could keep. She’s had enough people let her down. I won’t be one of them.”

“Oh.” Piper relaxed. “Well, everything is all set here. What are you waiting for?”

I grinned and checked my watch. “My flight.”

“Hi,” I answered Sean’s call as I beeped the locks on the rental car waiting for me outside the airport.

“Did you make it?”

“Yeah. I just got in.” The six-hour flight from New York to Kalispell had put me back in Montana right before dark, thanks to the favorable time change and tailwind. I’d landed with just enough time to call Charlie and say goodnight, then talk to Thea while the plane had taxied off the runway.

“Good.” Except he didn’t sound good. “I’ve got some news.”

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I opened the door and slid into the driver’s seat, tossing my bag in the back. “Did you find him?”

Sean had been trying to track down Thea’s email harasser for two weeks without luck. And since the emails to Thea had stopped, it had made his hunt that much harder. But I’d told him to keep digging, no matter the cost. So after hitting one dead end after another, Sean had called in one of his underground hacker friends to help.

“We found him. Does the name Ronny Berkowitz ring any bells?”

Ronny Berkowitz. I replayed it a few times as I turned on the ignition. “No.”

“He’s a local, but from what we can tell, he lies low. He works from his house, building cyber security systems.”

Which explained why Sean had such a hard time tracing his identity. “What else?”

“He’s originally from Dallas but moved to Lark Cove about five years ago. Ronny’s not someone you want around Thea, Logan.”

“Fuck.” I shoved the SUV into drive and floored it out of the parking lot. “Why?”

“He was arrested about seven years ago for stalking a bartender in Texas. Things got fairly intense. He ended up breaking into her house and scaring her pretty bad. Luckily, her boyfriend got home early before Ronny could hurt her.”

My jaw clenched as I swerved around a semi-trailer to get on the highway. Its horn blared as I zoomed past, gunning the engine faster.

“I’ve got a picture of that bartender. Her name is Angela Peters. And she looks a lot like Thea.”

“Call the cops. Now. Send them everything you’ve found, plus the emails you pulled from Thea’s account.”

“I already did. The sheriff is fully briefed.”

“Call them back. I’ll be at Thea’s in thirty minutes, maybe less if I hurry. Until I get there, I want someone outside her house.”