Risky Return Page 2

  “My mom passed away a few months ago. She’d been in a nursing home for years. I thought it was time to clean out her house and put it on the market.”

  His mother. Of course. Rebecca had visited with her often, keeping tabs on Collin and his jaunts around the world in the army, reading the letters he’d sent home to his mom until her health forced her to be moved. “I’m sorry about your mother. I always liked her.”

  He gave a slight smile and glanced at her. “Thank you. She always liked you, too.”

  If only her parents had been as easygoing as his mother, things might have ended differently between them. They had never liked Collin, even going so far as to forbid Rebecca from seeing him. That hadn’t stopped her. Nothing could have stopped her from marrying Collin Walsh back then...and nothing had.

  And she’d paid a big price for doing so. She’d lost her husband, her baby and her happy future.

  “I couldn’t believe it when I saw you in the store,” he said. “Honestly, I was trying to decide if I should say hi or not when I saw that man grab you.”

  So he’d considered not even speaking to her? It stung her to know she meant so little to him when she’d once loved him so much. But she was grateful he’d been there. She didn’t know what her attacker would have done if Collin hadn’t intervened. Would he have used that knife he’d flashed at her? Or had this attack only been a warning? She wrung her hands and looked out the window. Was he out there somewhere following them? She was suddenly very glad Collin had offered to take her home.

  “Thank you for helping me.” A thousand questions popped into her mind that she wanted to ask him. She’d thought about him often throughout the years, and wondered where he was and what he was doing. “Did I hear you joined the army?”

  “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.