Page 45 of Stormswept Colorado (Hart County #3)

He kissed the top of my head. I glanced up and found Teller gazing down at me, so much love and hope in his eyes. My heart did somersaults in my chest.

Furious knocking pulled me from a dreamless sleep. “Ayla, you need to open up.”

It was Bryan, banging on the front door. Teller and I had dozed off on the couch in each other’s arms, books in our laps. I started to get up, but Teller held my wrist.

“I can go see what he wants.”

“It’s fine. I’ll go. It must be important.” I grabbed my cell from the coffee table and checked my notifications as I strode to the door. Whoops. Bryan had called a couple of times in the last minute, but my phone had been on silent.

I threw the door open. Bryan’s fist was raised like he’d been about to knock again. He lowered it. “Sorry to interrupt, but you weren’t picking up your phone, and I decided to skip the landline and come straight to your door.”

“Why? What’s up?”

“There’s a delivery driver here. With flowers.”

I held my breath. Teller’s warm hand rested on my back.

“At first I wondered if you sent them,” Bryan said to Teller. “Since you send Ayla presents all the time. But the sender is anonymous.”

And I’d told Bryan and the other guards about my stalker. They didn’t know many details, but they knew about the flower arrangements and the need to carefully vet deliveries.

“Is the driver still here?” I asked.

Bryan nodded. “Yeah, we stopped him. We’re keeping him at the gate. Want me to call the police?”

“Not yet. I want to see the flowers. Are there red daisies?”

Bryan frowned, clearly confused. “I don’t know. I could go look, but why?—”

Teller stepped past the threshold, putting himself in front of me. “Hold on. First, I want to talk to this delivery guy.” He glanced back. “If that’s okay with you, sweetheart. For all we know, this could be the stalker.”

I gripped Teller’s arm. “Then I don’t want him near you. What if he’s got a weapon? What if he tries to hurt you?”

“That’s something I’m trained to deal with. Bryan, are you armed?”

“No doubt. I’m fully up to date on my training. The agency requires it.”

“Good. You and I will talk to the guy. Depending on what he says, we can decide whether to call the police.”

Bryan lifted his chin. “Works for me.”

Teller went inside briefly to snag a T-shirt. He tugged it on over his sweats, not bothering with shoes, and he brought me a hoodie to cover my tank top. The hoodie said Silver Ridge PD across the front.

“Be careful,” I said.

Teller kissed me. “I will. You be careful too. Stay back and out of sight. I don’t want him seeing you.”

We’ll see about that , I thought, grumbling to myself about being left behind while Teller walked into danger. Potential danger, anyway.

No, there was no way I could just wait patiently for my man to return. That wasn’t me.

I slid into a pair of shoes. Tiptoeing across the stone pavers outside my door, I approached the long, tall hedge that hid my house from view of the driveway and the road. When I reached the edge, I peeked around the bushy plant wall.

“Hey, man, I’ve made my delivery,” an unfamiliar voice was saying. “Can I have my ID back and go? I have a lot more flowers and traffic to deal with.”

“I haven’t seen your ID yet,” Teller said. “I want to know who the hell you are.”

Teller, Bryan, and another of the security guys were spread out, surrounding the delivery driver. I’d never seen the man before. A truck with flower decals was parked beside him.

I spotted the flower arrangement on the ground. Bigger than any of the others I’d received so far. The splotches of bright red were visible from here.

Red daisies. Shit.

There was a small card stuck into the new arrangement. I had to know what it said.

“Why are you people making such a big deal about this? I deliver the flowers. That’s it.”

Bryan handed the ID to Teller, who studied it. “So you work for the florist, Christopher?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’ve been telling you.”

Whatever was going on, I didn’t believe this guy was my stalker. Biggest Fan had been too careful in the past, never revealing his identity even when he’d ordered those flower arrangements to be sent.

Teller had asked me to stay out of sight, but that just wasn’t going to work for me. He was my boyfriend and the most important man in my life, but I’d already told him that I wouldn’t fade into the background. That would never be me.

I marched across the driveway, right into the middle of their huddle, and grabbed the card from the flowers.

“Dude,” the delivery guy exclaimed. “You’re Ayla Maxwell.”

Teller was at my side like a shot. “What are you doing out here?”

“Finding out what I need to know.” I tore open the envelope. There was a card inside with a handwritten note, I assumed written by somebody working for the florist.

He’ll never be good enough for you.

A folded sheet of paper sat behind the note. I opened it. Yep, another printout of a photo. But this one showed Teller in his police uniform.

Heavily scribbled Xs blacked out his eyes .

Anger flooded my bloodstream. The previous messages had been bad enough. But this one seemed to be threatening Teller.

“You’re Christoper, right?” I asked the delivery driver. “I want to know who sent this. It’s extremely important.”

Christopher shook his head. “I don’t know. The order was called in yesterday, and the person gave a lot of instructions about printing out a photo or some shit, which is definitely weird. But it’s not our job to ask a bunch of questions.”

“Really? Even when somebody sends a photo like this?” I turned the image toward him.

Christoper’s eyes bugged. “Dude, that’s creepy.”

“You think?” Bryan asked.

Teller’s face was impassive.

“Somebody else prepped the order, and they probably figured it was a joke,” Christopher said. “I didn’t know.”

Teller pulled out his phone. Took a photo of the man’s ID. Then held the card out to return it. “Mention any of this to anyone, and we’ll know it was you. We’re going to call your employer and check your story.”

“Whatever you want. I don’t want nothing to do with this creepiness. I’m just going to make my deliveries and keep my mouth shut.”

He got in his truck, backed up, and drove off.

I pointed at the flowers. “Red daisies.”

Teller nodded. “I noticed.”

“What does that mean?” Bryan asked.

I waved a hand. “Don’t worry about that. Can you check the flowers? Make sure there’s nothing hidden inside? Unless you two want to call a bomb squad or something.”

Teller arched an eyebrow at me. “Not funny.”

“I’m not laughing either.” Bryan grabbed a pair of gloves and carefully poked around. “It’s clean. Nothing here.”

Like the others.

I was so damn sick of this .

Bryan stood up, backing away from the flowers. “You want me to toss them? Or?—”

I charged over, picked up the arrangement and started tearing the stems out. Once all the flowers were scattered on the driveway, I stomped them into the concrete. Last, I dropped the terracotta planter. It cracked in half.

“Sorry about the mess.”

Bryan and the other security guy just stared.

“Did that make you feel better, Troublemaker?”

“It did, actually.”

Teller put a hand on my shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go back inside.”