Page 23 of Stormswept Colorado (Hart County #3)

TWENTY-ONE

Teller

An hour later, Ayla met me in that same hallway. I whistled quietly. “You were pretty earlier, but you’ve left pretty behind in the dust. Wow.”

Ayla wore a long-sleeved emerald-green dress. The wide neckline swooped to reveal a hint of enticing cleavage, and the skirt flared out at the waist, showing off the curves of her hips and ending just below her knees.

She touched the lapel of my sport coat. “You clean up well.” Beneath the coat, I’d worn a striped button-down tucked into dark gray slacks. It was nothing special. Not in comparison to her.

“You nervous?” I asked.

“You can tell?”

“When I’m paying attention.” Now that I was getting to know her better, it was impossible to do otherwise. I linked our fingers. “It’ll be okay. We’ll get through this, and then we can focus on the wedding again.”

She nodded. I started to let go of her hand, and was surprised when her fingers tightened on mine. “You’ll stay with me the whole time?” she asked.

“Of course.” Again, I marveled at the shift between us. But at the same time, it felt natural to be this close to her. Even if it was just a temporary thing.

We went to the end of the hall to the door marked Office . I knocked. It opened right away. Jessi Shelborne, half of the duo that owned the inn, stood there with a curly haired toddler on her hip. “Ayla! It’s wonderful to see you again. And you too, Chief Landry.”

Ayla gave her a hug, then patted the toddler on the head. “And who’s this munchkin? You were in your mama’s belly last time I was here.”

“This is Zoe. She was just giving her dad a goodbye kiss because it’s naptime.

Thank goodness we hired an event coordinator.

Otherwise I’d be running around with my hair on fire.

” Jessi glanced down, noting our linked hands, but there was nothing more than fondness in her gaze when she smiled. “I’ll see you both at the ceremony.”

Aiden gave his wife and daughter another kiss before they left. A pang of something bittersweet hit me. But I brushed that aside as we stepped into the office and shut the door.

Aiden nodded a greeting at me, then held out his hand to Ayla. “It’s been a minute,” he said.

Ayla laughed. “It has. Your daughter is adorable.”

“Not going to argue with you there.” He hooked a thumb at the other man in the room, who’d been leaning casually against a wall and watching us with a lopsided smirk. “You remember River Kwon? Chief Landry mentioned you had an issue involving computers, and River’s our computer guy.”

“Yeah. Hi, River.”

“Ayla. Lovely to see you again.”

I bristled at his familiar tone. Which was ridiculous, because both Aiden and River were happily married. River’s wife was the Colorado lieutenant governor.

But Ayla was the most beautiful woman in existence. I mean, they had to have noticed. She was exquisite, and as far as my possessive instincts were concerned, she was mine .

At least for today.

Ayla’s fingers squeezed my hand. “It’s possible I have a stalker. Teller offered to help, and he knows how important privacy is to me. I…” She swallowed, and I rubbed my thumb over her skin. “I want to keep this quiet.”

“Quiet is my specialty.” River gestured at a leather couch set against the wall. “Grab a seat and tell us what’s been going on.”

Ayla glanced at me like she was seeking reassurance. Given how brash and gutsy she could be, that just showed how uncomfortable she felt, even though she knew these men. And, truth be told, that soothed my flare of possessiveness. No matter how ridiculous it had been in the first place.

Aiden’s network of friends had some next-level skills, and it was a long story how they’d all ended up in Hart County. Their group provided security for Last Refuge, but they were hardly your run-of-the-mill security guards. River had been a Navy SEAL and then CIA.

They handled delicate situations, and not always with entirely legal means. But that was all unconfirmed rumor, and it was better for us law-enforcement types not to know any specifics.

I knew we could count on Aiden and his friends, though. I would never have brought Ayla’s problem to them otherwise. Dane Knightly had talked up his New York investigator, but we had assets of our own here in Hart County.

We both sat on the couch, and I let go of Ayla’s hand, moving to wrap my arm around her shoulder instead. “Start at the beginning,” I said softly. “Yesterday wasn’t the first concerning message you’ve received, was it?”

Ayla leaned into me. “The first time was last September. I was in Toronto for a show. My team vets gifts and flowers that fans send. Same with letters and cards. I get my share of hate mail about how I’m corrupting the youth.

” She rolled her eyes. “I had never received anything dangerous or really concerning, as far as I know, anyway, and my manager Cheryl would tell me. But then in Toronto, I received a flower arrangement with a card.”

She closed her eyes. I rubbed her shoulder.

Then she recited, “ You don’t even know how beautiful you really are. I’ve always been your biggest fan .”

A thread of uneasiness worked its way down my neck like a cold drop of water.

“Gives me the creeps,” River said. “That’s for sure.”

“Fans say those kinds of things to me all the time. My team must’ve thought it was innocent. But there was a photo tucked inside. A photo of me at fifteen or sixteen, in front of the house on the Army base where I lived then. I think my sister Lori took it.”

“A private photo?” Aiden rubbed a hand over his beard. “Something that wasn’t publicly available?”

“That’s right. It seemed… dark , like the message had something to do with my past. My childhood was not good. That’s not something I talk about publicly. Ever .”

Shit, no wonder it had been upsetting. Now I knew exactly how awful Ayla’s life had been before she got away from her father. I exchanged a look with Aiden, and his brow knitted sympathetically.

“I asked my manager to find out who sent it. But according to the florist, the person paid over the phone with a cash gift card that was untraceable.”

River perched on the edge of the desk across from us, hands clasped in his lap. Trying to make himself less intimidating. I’d used similar techniques plenty of times when interviewing crime victims. “Did your team contact law enforcement? Or a private investigator?”

“No. I’ve worked with investigators before, like after Lori died, but not this time. I didn’t want to, even though I was still pretty shaken up. Didn’t want to invite interest in my childhood for…reasons.”

River nodded along like this didn’t surprise him in the least.

“I didn’t receive anything else suspicious in the months after. I thought it was a one-off. I hoped it didn’t mean anything at all.” She took a heavy breath. “Until the email yesterday. Another message, another photo.”

Ayla took her phone from her pocket, unlocked it, and handed the device to River. He studied the screen. I hadn’t forgotten what it said, and fury rose in my throat as I recalled how frightened she’d been.

Someday you’ll smile like that for me. And only me. Until then, I’ll be watching.

Love, your Biggest Fan

River held the phone to show Aiden. “It’s more threatening,” River said. “Suggests an escalation.

Exactly my thought. “We have no idea how long this person has been trying to contact Ayla,” I added, “or how long he’s been watching her, planning his next move.”

She shuddered. The last thing I wanted was to add to her fear, yet I also had to stress how serious this was. She couldn’t just ignore it and hope it went away.

We didn’t have a ton of stalking incidents in Silver Ridge, but it happened. I knew the progression. An obsession could start slow. Develop gradually inside the stalker’s head. But once things escalated, it could get very bad, very fast.

“Was this photo taken recently?” River asked.

“Two days ago in Silver Ridge. I was in a store on Main. There was a crowd outside, watching me. Maybe someone from the crowd posted it online, and this creep downloaded it?” She shrugged. “I have no idea.”

“Unless your stalker himself was in Silver Ridge that day,” Aiden said.

“I considered that too,” she whispered.

She seemed to fold into me, her head dropping to my shoulder.

As if she wanted to disappear. The vulnerability of that gesture plucked every last one of my heart strings.

I kissed her temple, knowing Aiden and River were right there, but at the current moment?

I didn’t care. They could think what they wanted.

Maybe she wasn’t mine to keep. But right now, I was going to take care of her.

“I’ll start with a reverse image search,” River said.

“If that photo was already posted online, I’ll find it.

See whether or not I can trace it back to the stalker.

” He held up Ayla’s phone. “Mind if I keep this a few hours? I want to pull what I can from your email account. I’ll return the phone later and go from there. ”

Ayla nodded, and her hair brushed my neck. “You really think you can trace the message to who sent it?”

“That’s complicated. If this is the same guy who sent you the flowers in Toronto, he’s got some idea of how to cover his tracks. But I’m pretty good at what I do.” River winked. Which seemed unnecessarily flirty to me, but Ayla relaxed. “We’ll help you through this. I’ll go get started.”

River stood up, and he left the office.

“I’m sure it wasn’t easy to tell us that, so thank you,” Aiden said to Ayla. “Take as long in here as you need. See you at the ceremony.” He stepped out and shut the door.

“How you doing?” I asked.

“I’m trying not to smush my face against you, because my makeup will ruin your shirt.”

Chuckling, I kissed her head again. “I can find another shirt.”

She snuggled in closer, mouth curving. “I already said this. But I’m really glad you’re here. Thanks for making me do that.”

My arms closed around her. “We need to take this seriously, but you’re not dealing with it alone. You are not alone.”

Ayla lifted her head. “I didn’t know they made men like you in real life.”

“I’m just me.”

“You’re not just anything.”

At this moment, I’m just yours , I thought.

“Kiss me?” she asked .

I dipped to press my lips to hers. My tongue slicked inside her mouth, and she answered with a moan, somehow fitting herself even tighter against me.

And my heart kept spinning in my chest, wondering when I was going to come to my senses.