Page 28

CHAPTER 27

T RINA

I freeze in place as I take in the scene before me, opening and closing my eyes several times. I’m pretty sure I’m about to vomit at what I’m seeing.

After staring for a few seconds, my common sense returns and I practically run back to my car, climb in, and lock the doors. With shaking hands, I call Ben.

“Hey? Miss me already?”

“I need you.”

“Where are you?” His voice is steady but commanding.

“My house. Someone’s been here. I’m in my car. In the driveway.”

“I’m on my way. And you mean my house, right?”

“No, mine.” He huffs in the background at my response. “I’ll leave.”

“No. I need you to stay where you are, so I know exactly where you’re at. But pull out of the driveway onto the street so no one can block you in. I’ll be there in the next four minutes. Are your doors locked?”

“Yes. Will you stay on the phone with me?”

“I wouldn’t hang up if there was a gun to my head.”

They’re the longest four minutes of my life, but he gets me through them.

When he pulls into my driveway, I wait in my car until he comes and gets me. I don’t even care that Rachel is with him. When he opens my door, I stand up and fall into him, wrapping my arms around his chest.

“It’s bad. Really bad,” I tell him, my voice trembling.

“I’m gonna go look with Rach. You don’t have to look, but stay close enough that?—”

“No. I’ll go with you.”

He pulls back from me, searches my face and nods, then grabs my hand and leads me to the front of my house. When he stops me, I look back to see him staring at my porch.

I watch his face as he first takes in the dozens of dead flowers strewn across my front porch—there are probably at least a hundred spread around. His jaw tightens. But when he turns and sees the side of my attached garage, with the words “Whores Die” in angry red letters scrawled across the surface, he tightens his grip on my hand so hard I try to pull away. It’s like he doesn’t even notice he’s doing it.

“Ben. You’re hurting me.” He startles, looks over at me and lets my hand go.

“Sorry.”

“Holy shit,” Rachel says, swiveling around to take everything in for a second time.

“Trina, did you go inside?” Ben asks.

“No,” I scoff. “I’m not like some dumb woman in a horror movie who walks into the dark basement.”

Ben’s frown tells me my attempt at using humor to deescalate the tension falls short.

After asking Rachel to wait with me for a few minutes, Ben walks across my lawn to make some phone calls.

A few minutes later, everything around us is a flurry of activity as several police department vehicles arrive to process the scene.

How did my life become a crime show?

* * *

BEN

Thinking back over yesterday, I recall how I couldn’t bring myself to let Trina leave her house without losing my mind. So, I asked her to stay until I finished working there and could go back to my house with her. When she agreed with no argument, it shocked me.Shocked and worried me, because throughout the day, I didn’t miss signs of her stress. Her shaking hands, the way she pinched the skin between her thumb and index finger on her left hand with those of her right, her pacing through the house.

All I want to do tonight is stay home with her, do the daily jumble, and hold her in my arms while she falls asleep, knowing she’s safe. But that’s not happening because tonight she was supposed to meet with Fitz and Emily so they could tell her something. Instead, we’re standing on Fitz’s porch waiting for them to answer the door so we can tell them things with Trina’s stalker have escalated.

When Fitz’s heavy wooden door swings open, Emily greets us. She pulls Trina in for a hug and looks over her shoulder at me.

“Hi, Ben. It’s good to see you. Come on in.”

After we’ve greeted Fitz, we all go out to the deck and then Fitz and Emily get us drinks. Trina and I take a seat at the table, and she stares out over Fitz’s deck into the darkness.

“You okay?” I ask Trina, squeezing her thigh.

“As okay as I can be. I just hate that I have to dump this on Emily.”

She turns and looks at me, and the dark circles beneath her eyes make me want to gather her in my arms and fix everything for her. It’s slowly killing me I haven’t found this guy yet. How can I protect her from a threat I can’t see?

“You’re not dumping it on her. You’re giving her a chance to be there for you and you’re protecting her by giving her information.”

Before Trina can respond, Fitz and Emily come out the French doors and set our drinks on the table before taking their seats.

“So…” Fitz starts, looking across the table at us. “You’re probably wondering why Emily and I asked you to come over tonight. We were hoping to talk to you about?—”

“I need to talk to you first,” Trina blurts out. “It’s important,” she softens her tone. She glances over at me, and I give her a nod of support and encouragement.

“Okay. Go ahead,” Fitz tells her. He’s rubbing his beard, blinking slowly at her. His concern is obvious.

Emily looks between Fitz and Trina, and it’s clear Fitz’s concern worries her.

Trina nods and takes a deep breath. “So, first I need to say there is no reason for you to worry.”

Emily’s gaze falls to Trina’s hands, where she’s doing the nervous pinching thing she does. Emily’s eyes widen and she quickly looks back up at Trina’s tension-filled face.

Fitz leans forward, waiting for Trina to say more.

“Well… Um, there’s been some stuff happening. Like… Uh.” It nearly breaks me how uncomfortable this strong, confident woman I love looks right now, her eyes darting everywhere but at Fitz and Emily.

“Trina and are I living together,” I blurt out.

Trina whips around to look at me and shakes her head. “Must you, Benjamin?”

I shrug at her. “It’s true.”

“No, it’s not,” she argues. Her eyes narrow at me like lasers, her lips pursed in annoyance.

“Uh, yes, it is,” I counter.

“No. It’s. Not.” She huffs and turns back to Fitz and Emily.

“What is true is that I have been staying with Ben for a few weeks because of a situation.”

“What kind of situation?” Emily asks quietly. “Are you sick?” The last words come out as a whisper.

“No. Nothing like that. I promise. Remember how I told you about my secret admirer?” Emily nods. “He’s gotten more persistent.”

Emily’s eyes grow wide as saucers and Fitz puts a fisted hand over his mouth and sits back in his chair.

“Jesus, Trina. You don’t have a secret admirer. You have a goddamn stalker. Can you please take this more seriously?” I can’t hide my irritation. Even after today, she’s downplaying this.

Trina glares at me. “I am taking this seriously. I moved into your damn house. But there’s no need to upset my?—”

“Enough.” Fitz’s voice is loud and commanding. “Trina, Emily is an adult and we both love you. We’ve noticed something is off. So, stop arguing with him for two minutes and tell us what the hell is going on.”

“Fine.” She shoots me one more dirty look and then focuses on Emily and Fitz. “It started a few months ago. When I got those flowers at work. They kept coming. Every week. I talked with Chief, and we started declining the deliveries, but that seemed to escalate the situation. I’ll spare you all the details but, eventually, I started getting hang up calls, then text messages from random phone numbers. No matter how many times I blocked them, they’d just start up again a day or so later.”

“God, Trina. Why didn’t you tell us?” Fitz asks. “Fuck, I should have asked for more details after you told Emily about it at the bachelorette party. I should have known you’d downplay it to her. Hell, I thought I was giving you space to come to me first. I’m a shit friend.” Fitz’s voice drips with guilt.

Trina tries to sound unbothered and casual, but there’s a faint quivering in her voice. “I thought it wasn’t a big deal until,”—she takes a few breaths—“until he started sending photos of me around town. Of me walking into work, leaving the gym, at the bachelorette party. And a few weeks ago, when I was at work, it appears someone tried to get in my house around three a.m. The alarm system went off, but there was a video showing the attempt. And some other… stuff I’m not ready to talk about.”

“This psycho knows where you live?” Emily whispers.

Trina nods.

“This is why we have the extra security measures at the Fire station,” Fitz states, as if it’s suddenly making sense.

“And you’re staying with Ben because he’s a detective? And it’s safer? You could stay here with me and Charlie.”

Fitz nods at Emily’s words.

“First of all, the worst place for me to be is probably on the outskirts of town where there are no neighbors close in case of… well, just in case. And it’s safer with Ben because he’s got his damn house locked down like Fort Knox. I’m surprised he doesn’t have motion sensing lasers he turns on at night.” Trina forces a smile, but it doesn’t meet her eyes. She’s trying to lighten the mood, but none of us laughs.

“It’s not our intention to frighten you, Emily, but we thought you both should know. Trina and I finally agree on something—we don’t think you should be out here alone on nights Fitz is at the station,” I say.

“There’ve been no threats to you or anything. I promise,” Trina hurries to add. “But if this person found all this out about me, I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you because of it.”

“Don’t worry about me. God. I’m fine here by myself. But you have to catch this guy, Ben.”

“No, sunshine.”

Emily glares at Fitz. “No, what?”

“No, they’re right and we’re not gonna take a chance that this lunatic comes here when you’re alone. If he’s been watching Trina, he’s probably seen you and knows you’re important to her.”

“We’ll talk about this later.” Emily’s tone is dismissive.

“We will. Because you’re not staying here alone.”

She glares at Fitz. “You’re not the boss of me, Charlie.”

“Well, I’m the boss of this house so, there’s that,” he snarls back. “And I’m not leaving you out here like some sitting duck while I’m twenty minutes away at work.”

“Fine. I’ll resume my house hunting first thing tomorrow.”

“God, you’re so fucking stubborn,” Fitz growls.

It’s like they forgot they’re not alone, so I clear my throat. When I look over at Trina, her eyes are narrowed and volleying back and forth between Emily and Fitz, her brow wrinkled. I swear she looks suspicious.

I feel a need to decrease the tension. “Geez, Trina. I bet nobody would have guessed we’d be the ones getting along tonight and these two would battle it out, huh?”

Trina ignores me.

“What did you two want to talk to me about?” she asks. She doesn’t take her eyes off of Emily and Fitz.

“Nothing. It can wait until another time,” Fitz answers.