Risky Return

“I did. I even became an army ranger.”

That was impressive.

“But I left the service three years ago. I’ve been working private security ever since.”

“Like being a bodyguard?”

“Sort of, but on a global scale. I was overseas when Mom passed away. Fortunately, her sister was with her when she died.”

How terrible that he hadn’t been able to be there with his mother. However, she knew his mom had suffered from dementia and hadn’t known anyone for several years. Still, she couldn’t imagine not being home when her own mother had died of cancer five years earlier.

“What about you? What are you doing these days?”

“I work for the court system. I’m a psychologist specializing in child welfare. I act as a representative for children who come through the courts, usually those who’ve been removed from their homes and gone into the foster care system.” It wasn’t the career her parents had hoped for her, but she enjoyed her work and the kids she helped. Only now, helping one of them had placed her life in danger.

She glanced out the window again and still saw no one behind them, but would she even know how to recognize a tail if she had one?

Collin reached over and covered her hands with his right hand again. “No one is following us,” he assured her. “I’ve been watching. Whoever it was that attacked you is gone.”

She gave him a warm smile. He always could reassure her.

“I knew you would do good things,” he told her. “You always had a good heart.”

But not good enough to keep him around. She grimaced at that thought as their past and present collided. She had to keep her focus on today and what was happening now. “I enjoy my work. I’ve gotten quite close to some of the kids I work with.”

“No kids of your own?”

She stared at him. How could he even ask that when they were still technically married? The day he’d left, her dreams of family and children were placed permanently on hold. “No, of course not.”

She pointed out her driveway and Collin pulled into it and got out. She got out, too, her balance steadier but still off-kilter. He held on to her arm as he walked her toward the front door.

“Are you sure you’re okay to be alone? You don’t want to go to the hospital?”

“No. I’ll be fine. It’s only a cut. I’m more shaken up than anything.” She pulled out her keys. There were so many things she wanted to say to him, to ask him, but none of them would come out. He’d come back to town not to see her, but to clean up his mother’s house and finally sever his last connection to her and this town. She wouldn’t intrude on his life. And she wouldn’t drag him into her mess. She forced herself to move away from him.

“Thank you for your help, Collin. It was good to see you again.” It didn’t sound like enough after all they’d been through. They’d never even talked about their marriage or the baby they’d lost. It had all just seemed to fade away in the years they’d been apart.

She glanced up at him and thought she saw something more in his eyes, something he wanted to say. He stepped closer and her knees weakened, and it wasn’t from the bash on her head. He still had that power over her. But he didn’t say whatever was on his mind. Instead, he stepped back away from her. “It was good to see you, too, Rebecca.” Such simple words and yet they stung her. It was really true. Everything they’d ever had was over. She turned, her hands shaking as she pushed the key into the door and stepped inside. She leaned against the door as she closed it, heaving a sigh as she closed the door on her life with Collin as well.

She opened her eyes and a scream escaped her lips.

* * *

He turned and ran back toward the house at the sound of Rebecca’s scream. Pushing open the door, he saw her huddled in the corner. Written in paint on the opposite wall were the threatening words Today was only the beginning. Someone had been here, inside her home.

“Stay here,” he warned her. “I’m going to check the house to make sure he’s not still here.”

Again, he wished for his gun, but he was ready if he saw anyone hiding. He checked room by room but saw no evidence that anyone was still here. He did find broken glass by her living room window. That must have been how the intruder got inside.

“No one is here,” he said, returning to the front hall, where she was still crouched, her face pale and her eyes wide with fright.

Rebecca was small and frail in his arms as he helped her to the couch and his instinct was to pull her to him for comfort. But he checked that feeling, since they weren’t in a relationship any longer.

Tears rolled down her cheeks. “They were in my house.”

“I know, but we’ll find them.” He took out his phone and called Kent, explaining the situation. He promised to come by as soon as he wrapped up the scene at the parking lot.

Collin hurried into the kitchen and returned with a glass of water for her. Her hands were shaking as she held it and took a sip.

He cringed as he thought about the man who had attacked her earlier. Had he been the one inside her home as well? Someone was after her and they knew where she lived. “You said you had threatening letters? Can I see them?”

She nodded then got up and walked on shaky legs into the kitchen. She opened a drawer and pulled out a plastic bag. Inside were several pieces of paper with letters cut out of magazines and glued onto them to form words of warnings. They were old-school and that was notable, but it was also harder to trace than emails or text messages. The notes were chillingly to-the-point.

Mind your own business.

Stay out of our way.

Stop investigating or you will die.

He shuddered at the threat. She’d stumbled across a serious and potentially dangerous person. And they’d already tried to make good on their threats. Fear crept up his neck—fear for her and her safety. “We should get these to Kent. When did they start coming?”

“I found the first one on my car windshield eight days ago. The next two were here at my house.”

He didn’t like the fact that whoever was after her knew where she lived and had been inside her house. “Do you live alone?”

“Yes.”

“Any pets?”

“No. Why?”

“Dogs are the best alarm system you can have.” He slid into the chair opposite her.

“Do you have a dog?”

It struck him as an oddly personal question that had nothing to do with keeping her safe. “No, I don’t.” He wasn’t generally home enough to take on the commitment of a pet. That might be changing soon however, after his team’s actions in Libya. They’d been working security for a covert CIA base when an attack on an American embassy occurred only a few miles away. Collin recalled seeing the smoke from intentionally set fires even from their base, but they’d been told to stand down, as the government had decided its CIA interests were more important than the Americans dying nearly in front of them. His team had defied those orders and gone in, anyway. Assuming the CIA continued to utilize Security Operations Abroad operatives, Collin doubted his contract, and those of the others on his team, would be extended.

It looked like he was back on American soil for good.

He heard a car pulling into her driveway and walked to the window. “It’s Kent. How did that guy get to be a cop?”

“He’s worked his way up the ranks. He says it’s all he’s ever wanted to be.”

Kent entered the house, glanced at the threat painted on the wall and whistled. “You have angered someone, haven’t you, Rebecca?”

Collin pointed to the window that had been shattered. “That’s how he got inside. And the threatening letters she told you about are on the table. They’re pretty intense.”

He walked over and glanced at the letters then took out his phone. “I’ll have Forensics come by and process this scene.”

“How long will that take?” Collin asked.

Kent shrugged. “A couple of hours. We’ll try to pull prints off the windowsill and the wall.”

“Good. I’ll take Rebecca and go to the hardware store for something to board up the window and some paint to cover that.”

“We should be done by the time you get back. I’ll also have these letters sent to the lab for examination. Maybe we can pull some prints off them.”

Collin glanced at Rebecca. Even though she’d stopped shaking, she still looked so fragile sitting in that chair. He wanted to get her out of here, fix everything and make it like it was before to make her feel better, but he knew paint and boards couldn’t fix this.

She was in danger and he couldn’t make that go away with only a trip to the hardware store.

* * *

Collin did his best to keep Rebecca’s mind off what was going on at her house and, for the most part, he succeeded. Except she knew very well what the lumber and paint were for.

Rebecca stole a moment at the hardware store to slip into the bathroom and phone Missy to let her know she’d been held up and wouldn’t be returning to the motel tonight. She didn’t tell Missy about the attack in the parking lot or the threatening message on her wall. The girl didn’t need the added worry and Rebecca wasn’t entirely sure she could make it through that conversation without breaking down herself. She touched the tender spot on her forehead where her attacker had slammed her head against the car and knew Missy would find out about it tomorrow, anyway. She certainly couldn’t hide the bruises from her.

“I’m fine,” Missy assured her. “I’m going to try to sleep.”

“Good. Be sure to keep the door locked and don’t answer it for anyone. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Rebecca ended the call then rejoined Collin at the cash register.

A text message from Kent alerted them that it was safe to return to the house. When Rebecca reentered her home, she flinched at the threatening message still there, but then she saw fingerprint dust everywhere. Kent’s people had left a mess but at least they were gone.

Collin got to work boarding up the window that had been broken. “Tomorrow, I’ll have someone come out and replace the glass.”

“Thank you,” Rebecca said, grateful to have someone else handling these things. She was still shaking inside from knowing someone had not only attacked her, but had also been inside her house. It felt different now, like a sacred trust had been broken. Having Collin with her eased that feeling, but how comfortable would she feel once he was gone?

He opened the can of paint he’d purchased and began covering up the threatening words, but after one coat, it still seeped through. Evil always did.

He shook his head. “Guess it’s going to take another coat. I’ll let this one dry then start on another.”

She heated up the takeout containers of ribs they’d picked up and they sat down to eat. It was surreal sitting across from Collin eating a meal. He was so different yet so much the same. He didn’t have to be here with her, yet he’d chosen to stay and help without being asked. She wasn’t surprised he’d made a good soldier; he’d always had a heart to help others.

She had to stop thinking so fondly of him. This was the man who’d promised to love her for all time then abandoned her with no word after she lost the baby. No amount of boarding up windows or painting a wall could change that. He’d left her and no matter how nice he was being today, she couldn’t let herself trust him or she’d be devastated again when he left.

They ate in silence; the awkwardness between them filled the air. Despite the pain of their past relationship, he’d shown up today and she’d once known everything about him. She knew very little about him now except the basics he’d shared—he’d been an army ranger, now worked private security and was back in town to deal with his late mother’s estate.

“So tell me something about you,” she said.

He shrugged. “There’s not much to tell. My work keeps me traveling. Or at least, it used to.”

“You’re not working overseas anymore?”

He shrugged. “That’s something that is still up in the air. What about you, Rebecca? How is your life?”

“It’s good. I’m happy.”

“You never remarried?”

She looked at him, confused. “How could I when I’m still married to you?”

He choked on his food then dropped it, looking dismayed as he stared at her. “What do you mean? You never got a divorce?”

She was surprised by his shock. Of course, he’d assumed she had taken care of it. She should have, instead of letting this joke of a marriage continue, yet she’d never been able to bring herself to file the papers. “At first, I was too heartbroken to even think about it. Then I was just too ashamed. I never told anyone that we got married. My father would have been so angry and at the time, I just couldn’t deal with it. My family still doesn’t know. After a while, it seemed easier to keep it a secret. I never told them about the baby, either.”

He leaned back in his seat and sighed. “No one knows?”

She shook her head. It seemed wrong to never mention their child and she often felt guilty for keeping it a secret, but whenever she tried to think about it or mention it to someone, it brought back all the pain and heartache of that day. “Sometimes it feels like it never happened, but I know it did.”

She stood and cleared away the containers, hoping activity would ease the tension between them. She picked up a towel and started wiping down the counters, vaguely aware of him standing behind her.

“Rebecca, I—I’m sorry.”

“Don’t.” She turned around to face him. “This day has been too much for me, Collin. I can’t deal with you, too. I just want to go to bed and forget this day ever happened.”

He backed away from her, digging his hands into his pockets in a way she remembered he did whenever he’d been rebuked. “I’ll finish up that second coat then I’ll be out of your way.”

She gave a sigh of relief and thanked him when the second coat of paint covered the ugly marks. Collin cleaned up then made certain the house was secure before he left. The place felt empty with him gone, but she knew it was for the best. It felt good to finally tell someone else what she’d been struggling with. It was like a burden lifted from her shoulders. She wasn’t alone in this. But despite how grateful she was that he’d been here today, she couldn’t risk her heart by having him around long-term. It stunned her that she still had such strong feelings for him even after all this time. It had to be because of the stress of the day’s events.

She got ready for bed then slipped between the blankets, her body screaming for rest but her mind still wide-awake and the pounding in her head unimaginable. How would she ever sleep with all that had happened to her today? And she still had to decide what to do with Missy. The girl had shown up on her doorstep two nights ago, frightened and claiming she’d been abducted by people who’d wanted her baby. The timing was right. Missy had been six months pregnant when she’d vanished, she’d been missing for months, and she was certainly now not pregnant. But who were these people after her and how was Rebecca going to protect her if she wouldn’t go to the police?

Her mind turned back to Collin despite the fact that she was trying not to think about him. Seeing him again today evoked so many emotions she’d spent years trying to manage. Grief for the loss of her child. Heartbreak over the way he’d abandoned her. She should hate him. Why, then, was falling into his arms all she wanted to do?

She finally drifted off but her sleep was fitful and restless, her dreams wrought with all the pain and fear that had rocked her day. She jerked awake but was certain it hadn’t been the dream that woke her.

Panic filled her as she realized a figure was standing over her bed.

Rebecca scrambled up but the man’s hands grabbed her and wrapped around her neck. He pinned her down, choking her. She gasped for breath, fear rising in her. She kicked and clawed at him, struggling to get free, and felt her nails digging into flesh through the dark mask he wore.

God, help me.

She couldn’t go out like this. She couldn’t leave Missy to fight these people alone. She wasn’t going to let them win! One of her kicks landed, sending the man rolling off her. She reached for her bedside lamp and crashed it over his head. He hit the floor, groaning in pain as Rebecca ran. She hurried through the house to the front door and ran outside, not stopping to look back to see if her attacker was following. She crossed the lawn to her next-door neighbor’s house and knocked until he answered. He was groggy after being pulled from sleep.

“Rebecca, what’s wrong?”

Only then did she allow herself to fall apart. “He attacked me!”

TWO

The call from Kent had Collin dressed and heading toward Rebecca’s house in mere moments. He saw her when he pulled up and parked. She was sitting in the ambulance as a forensics team cleaned beneath her nails. As he neared her, the ugly bruises around her neck were just starting to form, to go along with the ones on her face. She looked pale and weak, but he knew she wasn’t. She’d survived this attack by fighting back and that took courage and strength. She’d always been strong—the strongest woman he’d ever known. She’d defied her father to be with him and that had taken real courage.

She glanced up and saw him and tears sprang to her eyes. His own rush of emotion nearly toppled him and an anger flashed through him that he hadn’t felt in a long, long time. Then the guilt washed over him. He should have stayed, offered to sleep on the couch, and if she’d refused his offer, he should have slept in his car outside. He would have been there to protect her, to see when some nutjob broke in and tried to harm her.

Kent approached him and Collin shook his hand. “Thanks for calling me.”

“I figured you would want to know. She’s okay, not seriously hurt. She put up a good fight, even got us some possible DNA by scratching his face.”

“Do you know who did this?”

“No, he wore a mask and was gone when the first car responded. We’re canvassing the neighborhood to see if anyone saw anything suspicious and Forensics is back inside processing the house. We’ll find something.”

He spotted them closing the ambulance doors and after a moment the vehicle drove away with her inside. Collin walked into the house and followed Kent into the bedroom, where a team was already working. There was clear evidence of a struggle—the lamp broken on the floor and blood on the carpet, blankets in disarray. She’d fought for her life in this room. Three attacks in less than twelve hours. He shuddered at the thought.

He’d seen evil before, more times than he could count, but this was personal. This was his Rebecca who had been attacked. He turned and walked from the scene, his stomach roiling with anger and guilt.

Kent followed him. “You okay, Collin?”

He wasn’t, but he would be once he tracked down whoever was after her. “I’m going to the hospital to make certain Rebecca is okay.”

He couldn’t even allow himself to think about what could have happened here tonight. He’d failed her years ago when she’d needed him most. He’d promised to provide for her and for the baby, but he hadn’t been able to. He’d struggled as a young man fresh out of high school to find work that would support a wife and a child. He still recalled the feeling of helplessness knowing that he couldn’t even keep the lights on regularly. And when she’d lost the baby, he’d lost her. She’d closed up and he was certain she knew the mistake she’d made in marrying him.

He could never recover from those failures of his youth, but he couldn’t just walk away knowing she was in danger. She was in trouble and he now had the skills to keep her safe.

He turned back to Kent. “Can you place a deputy at the hospital for her safety?”

“We’re short-staffed,” Kent told him. “I’ll never get the sheriff to authorize around-the-clock protection, especially when he knows her father has the money to hire someone.”

Her father. Collin hadn’t considered that. He was surprised Bob Mason hadn’t already hired someone to protect her if he knew she was in danger. But as he looked at Rebecca’s house, he had to wonder what he knew. It was a modest home, a surprise to him. She’d grown up in opulence, living in one of the biggest homes in town. Her parents had always had money and she’d been denied very little in her life. He was one of only a few things they’d tried to deny her. He’d expected her to at least live in a fashionable condo or a higher-class neighborhood. Even the car he’d seen her getting into, a simple Toyota Camry, seemed modest. It was a far cry from the BMW convertible she’d gotten for her sixteenth birthday. Was it possible she was estranged from her dad? Had he cut her off? Because of him and the six months they’d spent together after running off to get married? No, from what he gathered from Rebecca today, if she and her father were no longer close, it was because she was the one who’d done it.

All he knew was that it couldn’t be a coincidence he was in town at the same time Rebecca was in trouble. Collin hadn’t always put much faith in God, but He had to be the reason for this reconnection with Rebecca. Collin couldn’t leave town until he knew she was safe.

He followed the ambulance to the ER and sat in the waiting room while the doctors examined her. A nurse approached him. “Sir, are you here with Rebecca Mason?”

He stood. “I am. How is she?”

“She has a mild concussion and some bruising but she’s fortunate there were no greater injuries. You can go back to see her for a few minutes.”

He followed the nurse to a room, then pushed open the door. Rebecca was sitting up in a hospital bed, but her skin was pale and dark circles had formed around her eyes. It pained him to see how small and frail she looked and his first instinct was to pull her into his arms and hold on to her. He shoved away that thought and slid a chair to her bedside.

“How are you feeling?” he asked her, unable to stop the impulse to reach for her hand.

She didn’t pull it away. In fact, she clasped his, her long fingers cool to the touch. “I’m okay. Just shaken up.”

“That’s twice today someone has tried to hurt you, Rebecca. Three, if you count the threatening message. I’m sorry. I should have stayed with you.”

“This is not your fault, Collin. You had no idea this would happen.”

“I should have suspected something.”

“You can’t blame yourself for everything, Collin. Not everything in life is your fault.”

He looked up at her and they both seemed to realize how easily they’d slipped into matters of the past. She knew him so well, but this time, he was certainly at fault for not protecting her.

Suddenly, he felt awkward being there with her. She needed rest and time to recover from the attacks. “I’ll go now and let you get some sleep.” He stood but she didn’t release his hand. He glanced back at her.

Tears filled her eyes. “I’m glad you’re here,” she told him.

He was confused. Should he leave or stay? His heart urged him to remain by her side, but he wasn’t sure that was for the best. She was injured and concussed, wasn’t thinking properly, and he didn’t want to take advantage of that. And she’d been clear earlier at the house that she didn’t want him around.

Thankfully he didn’t have to choose. The door to her room opened and a nurse walked in. “That’s long enough. The patient needs her rest.”

Their moment was broken and their time together over. “I should go. I hope you feel better soon, Rebecca,” he said as he headed for the door.

He shouldn’t have remained so long and he never should have gone back there to see how she was. He should have gotten into his car and gone about his business once the ambulance had taken her away. Only, she was his business—at least she had been—and even though he knew they could never be together again, he didn’t want to live in a world without Rebecca Mason in it.

* * *

Rebecca pushed back the blanket and got up, intending to get her clothes and get out of here. She wasn’t safe and she had to let Missy know what was happening, but she had to be smart. She couldn’t lead these people to Missy or they would both be in danger.