The phone vibrated over on the table by the door where I left it last night—again, again, and again. Ella‘s eyes darkened and fear flashed through them. Her features tensed, and that was all it took to make me furious. Not with her. Rather, over the fucking asshole who’d been tugging on the strings of her peace of mind like this.

I spun away from the counter, walking swiftly toward the door and snatching the phone. I didn’t even look at the messages. I just turned the phone off. Because I’d be damned if I’d let that asshole reach across space and time and ruin this morning.

Ella was right behind me, reaching for the phone. “What did they say?”

“Ella, it doesn’t matter. I’m sure you can imagine. Leave it alone. Talk to your dad today. He’s got some feelers out on this to see what he can do.”

Her lips tightened as she looked at me, her cheeks flushing, but not in a good way.

Spinning back around, she walked to the windows, crossing her arms tightly. “I know you’re trying to help,” she finally said. “But I don’t like this feeling. I don’t need you to take over like this. I don’t need my dad to take over.”

I bit back the curse that wanted to fly out of my mouth.

Walking to stand beside her, I stared out over the view. Mist was rising off of the field in front of the house. It had been cool enough last night to leave a light dusting of frost on everything. As the sun’s rays angled across the landscape, mist rose in the air with the frost evaporating. A misty view of the sunrise stretched out in front of us.

“Ella, no one’s trying to take over. I don’t want you to have to deal with that shit. Neither does your dad.”

She glanced up at me, nothing but frustration staring back at me in her gaze. I had to admit, I didn’t understand why it would bother her to have us try to shield her from this. But it clearly did.

“It’s not that I don’t want help, but I’m not helpless. I don’t…” she sighed, shaking her head. “I can’t explain it. I want help but I don’t want help. That’s all.”

Staring down at her, my heart twisted sharply in my chest. I understood what she meant. Yet, all I wanted to do was shield her from all of this. Uncertain what to say to ease her mind, I simply nodded. I pulled her close, feeling the tension in her body. After a moment, she relaxed. But we didn’t speak of it again.

* * *

Later the following day, I sank into the chair across from Rex’s desk. In the last day or so, the text messages had picked up the pace. I’d been forwarding them to Rex. The theme was just like the first messages I’d seen—an undertone of threatening, telling her he wouldn’t stop, telling her he’d find her, telling her she couldn’t escape, on and on.

Staring at Rex, I sighed. “Please tell me there’s something you can do about this. I can’t believe this bullshit.”

Rex mirrored my sigh, raking a hand through his salt and pepper hair. “Here’s the thing with assholes like that. Now’s the time when things pick up. Because she’s removed herself from any proximity to him. He was getting off on rattling her and shaking her up without every laying a hand on her. Now, he can’t see her so he doesn’t get the satisfaction of knowing he’s fucking with her. So he’s going to amp it up.”

“Yeah, but is he actually going to come up here? I’ll be honest, it might be fucking crazy but part of me wishes he would. Because I’ll beat the shit out of him.”

Rex narrowed his eyes. “You know damn well that’s a bad idea. If he dared to come up here, I’d be able to do something about it. They sent up his records from Portland, and I ran his background check. No surprise, but this isn’t the first time he’s done this. He was charged and convicted in Washington State for doing the same thing to a colleague there. Clearly, this is his MO. It sucks, but it tells me he’ll probably back off after a little bit. Doesn’t change the fact that I want him to face charges again one way or another. He got too ballsy in Washington and tried to break into the woman’s house. So, while he didn’t face any charges for harassing texts and emails, or anything at work, he got slapped with breaking and entering charges. Worked out a plea deal and didn’t do any time since he had a clean record before that. My guess is he moved to another state because misdemeanor charges don’t pop up in different states, only felonies. The bullshit he pulls—the texts and emails—those are like trying to nail jelly to a wall. Especially when they’re not doing anything in person.”

There was a knock on Rex’s office door. Both of us glanced over to see Cade stepping into the office.

“What’s going on?” Cade asked, standing in the doorway. Cade and his father looked so damn alike, it was almost amusing. Cade was a younger, less weathered version of his father with the same steady, low-key demeanor, and easy-going attitude.

At Rex’s wave, Cade walked to the desk and leaned his hip on it. Cade and I hadn’t spoken much in the last few weeks, but I knew he was aware of me persuading Ella to use a different phone because he’d thanked me for it.

Rex glanced to Cade and shrugged. “Nothing new and nothing that won’t piss you off,” he offered with a bitter laugh.

“Please tell me this fucker can get charged with something,” Cade said, not even bothering to ask what we were talking about.

“Working on it,” Rex replied. “I’ve got my buddy in Anchorage who handles Internet crimes helping me. Those are easier to deal with than the phone stuff. Far as I can tell, he swaps out burner phones for the texting.”

I nodded. “Definitely. He uses a different number every time. The tone in the texts is similar, but that’s it.”

“Don’t suppose I want to see them, huh?” Cade asked.

I shook my head slowly. “Oh, I’ll show you but it’s just gonna piss you off.”

At that moment, I heard Ella’s voice along with another feminine voice. In a few seconds, she appeared in the doorway with Amelia, Cade’s wife.

Cade’s expression softened immediately when Amelia stepped to his side and dropped a kiss on his cheek. He slipped his arm casually around her waist, hooking his thumb in the back pocket of her jeans.

Amelia glanced around, casting a smile about the room. “What’s up?”

Ella’s eyes met mine, and I had to restrain the urge to stand and pull her into my arms. We had an audience, a quite specific audience of her brother and her father.

I made do with a smile. Rex grinned at her. “Ella, good to see you stopping by. What are you two doing here?”

“I asked Ella to meet me here. She’s coming to girls’ night,” Amelia explained, tucking a lock of her amber hair behind her ear. Amelia was tall, almost as tall as Cade. I guessed she was close to six feet tall, seeing as I was barely taller than her at six feet, two inches. She and Cade had dated back in high school, broken up and now were quite happily married. I wouldn’t dare say it aloud, but Amelia had just dashed my hopes at another night with Ella.

“Girls’ night is here?” Cade asked, a look of mild alarm in his eyes.

Amelia chuckled. “Oh yeah, we’re taking over the station.” Nudging him with her elbow, she shook her head. “No, I dropped my work truck off for an oil change next door, so I asked Ella to meet me here. I figured it was a good excuse to stop by and see you.”

Cade flashed a grin, glancing between Rex and me. “That means we’re up for cards at Wildlands tonight. Wanna come?”

Rex shook his head with a smile. “I’m getting too old for that. You guys have fun without me.”

“I’ll be there,” I replied.

Amelia dropped another kiss on Cade’s cheek and stepped away. “We’ll get going. I’ll see you when you get home tonight.” Glancing around with a grin, she continued, “He’ll be worried about coming home to tipsy women. Come on Ella, let’s go. If you need a ride tonight, you can stay at our place.”

I bit back the urge to offer to pick Ella up. I didn’t need our audience of overprotective family members to wonder what that meant, especially when my intentions were anything but pure.

Rex called to Ella as she started to turn away. “You’re still forwarding me your emails, right?”

She turned back, a look of subtle annoyance flashing across her face. “Of course. I haven’t gotten any recently. Why are you asking?”

I wisely held my tongue because I’d already had a taste of her irritation on this topic. Cade, on the other hand, didn’t even bother to hold back. “Because that fucking asshole is still texting. Please don’t shut anybody out on this. This is serious.”

Ella went from annoyed to really annoyed. Resting a hand on her hip, her eyes narrowed. “You don’t need to boss me around. I know it’s serious. I’ve been dealing with it for over a year and a half.”

With a roll of her eyes and a shake of her head, she spun around, stalking out of the room. At the last minute, she called over her shoulder. “I’m an adult you know, not your kid sister anymore.”

Amelia had stayed quiet. Glancing to Cade, she sighed. “I know you’re worried, but don’t get all high-handed about it. It won’t help.”

Cade ran a hand through his hair with a ragged sigh, glancing between Rex and me. Before he had a chance to speak, Amelia added, “It’s not that I don’t understand. I’m just saying, don’t let her feel like you’re taking over everything. That would annoy me, and it’ll definitely annoy her. I know you’re worried. Just back off a little.” She paused and caught his hand in hers, giving it a squeeze before she walked out of the room. “See you tonight.”

After the sound of their footsteps was beyond earshot, Cade glanced to me and then to his father. “What the fuck? Why is Ella so annoyed about this?”

“Because she likes to take care of things herself. She was always like that. No need to lecture her on it either,” Rex said, flicking his eyes between us.

I lifted my hands in mock surrender. “You don’t need to tell me. She already got frustrated with me about it this morning too. But she didn’t take her phone back, so I’m taking that as a win.”

Cade’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t say a word. Rex’s phone rang, conveniently ending this conversation.

As Cade and I left, walking down the hall over to the fire station side of the building, he paused in the hallway, turning to face me. “This morning?”

I silently groaned. Fuck. I didn’t need Ella’s overprotective older brother getting on me about her. But, he was her brother, and he was my friend. I couldn’t blow him off.

“Don’t even start, man. You know how I feel about her.”

“Actually, I don’t,” he said, sliding his hands in the pockets of his jeans and leaning against the wall.

Turning to face him, I glanced around, relieved to see no one else happened to be nearby at the moment. “Dude, I loved her, and I still do. How about you let me have a shot at the chance we never got after the accident?”

Cade was quiet, staring at me for a long, taut moment. He finally nodded, pushing off the wall behind him. “Fair enough. If you…”

I cut him off. “Man, you don’t ever have to worry about that with me. You should know that by now. I would never do anything to hurt Ella. My biggest mistake was not fighting harder for us after the accident.”

Cade held my gaze for a few beats and then dipped his head. We turned in unison and walked into the break room at the back.