We ate breakfast at Mack’s an hour later with Biscuit chasing a tennis ball that Thad threw over and over again for him. I’d showered and searched through Ginny’s clothes until I’d finally settled on a pair of shorts and a tank top. Both were too small and tight for my comfort. I felt like every part of me was exposed.
I pulled at the shorts again and sighed.
Mack dropped his fork and shot me a look. “You didn’t make this much fuss when there was a dead body in your bed, woman. What’s the big deal?”
I pressed my lips together firmly and felt my eyebrows slam together. “It’s nothing. I just wish I had my own clothes.”
“Those baggy things? You look better in clothes that fit.”
“Well, thank goodness I’m not concerned about looking better.” I instantly regretted how sharp it’d sounded and felt guilty. “Sorry. I’m cranky. I didn’t sleep much last night.”
Thad glanced up at me. “I heard. It sounded like there was a parade of wind-jacket-wearing seniors in your room.”
My face heated and I caught the next ball he tried to throw to Biscuit. Taking over the game of fetch, I felt better with my focus on something instead of Thad or Mack. “It was probably just nerves from the potential of being charged with murder. You know, that little thing.”
Mack scoffed. “You’re not going to be charged with murder. That idiot Jennings can only take his attitude so far. I know the chief in Corpus Christi and he’ll put a stop to Jennings’s stupidity before it gets too far. All you have to worry about is the fact that someone is obviously after you. In a big way.”
Thad scoffed then. “Just that little thing.”
Mack finished his eggs with a thoughtful look on his face. “You know who’s after you. Tell me about it.”
I swallowed. I hated the story. I’d been told in therapy not to keep it in and give it so much power over myself, but I’d never been able to dive into that piece of advice. Most people around me knew, in Dallas, anyway. They’d seen the ill-gained news clip of me stumbling out of the police station and into a waiting squad car. They’d witnessed the ugliness of my scar in its newness.
There was kind Mack, though, who didn’t know.
“You don’t have to, Rain. I just wanted to try to make some sense of what’s happening. I’m not a cop anymore, though, so I probably wouldn’t be any help, anyway.”
Biscuit yipped at my feet, letting me know I’d been holding the ball hostage. I threw it and then pushed my plate away from me. “Might as well talk about it. It could be a bigger issue now. I don’t know what’s going on, but I know it involves Sallisaw.”
Mack sat up straighter. “Steven Sallisaw?”
I nodded. “The one and only.”
Thad frowned. “You got mixed up with Sallisaw through Antonio Carver, right? Through Cash?”
I nodded. “Cash asked for help on the Carver case and I was working in my free time on it. I was looking for him when Sallisaw found me. He decided he liked me, cut me up, and then took me back to his place for drinks. You know? The norm.”
Standing, I walked to the other side of the kitchen and leaned against the counter. “He kept me for a while. I manage to escape.”
I didn’t mention how I’d taken half of Sallisaw’s face with me. A scar for a scar, I’d figured. It was only right. A shiver went down my spine as I remembered escaping.
“And now he’s after you?”
I nodded. “Has been. I don’t know what he’s doing. He’s been toying with me. Killing my informants and turning my cases to shit. I had to leave the force because all of my cases were tainted. Sallisaw got his hand in every one of them, somehow. He went into hiding, though. The FBI got involved and froze any accounts of his they could find, stopped a few of his major business rings. He’s been underground for a while. Until this. This has his name written all over it.”
“He came out of hiding to fuck with you?” Mack shook his head and shoved his own plate away. “He’s got a real thing for you, huh?”
“I think he had someone else do it, but yes. He’s got a real thing for hurting me. As sick as yesterday was, it wasn’t a real flex of his muscles. He was just playing. I think it was just a reminder that he’s out there and that he can get to me anywhere and anytime he wants.”
Thad growled. “It’ll be a little harder for him, now. Flex all he wants, he’s not getting through me.”
I tried to meet his blue and green eyes, but I couldn’t. It was hard to see the life in him and know that he was standing between Sallisaw and myself. It only meant bad things for him. Another reason he had to leave. I didn’t want anyone protecting me for multiple reasons, but a big one was that they were likely to end up dead when Sallisaw finally did show up. I’d seen him kill his own men to prove a point. He was evil. There was nothing stopping him from putting a long-range bullet through Thad’s head.
Now that I knew the score, I’d be better prepared. I’d gotten too relaxed on the island. I let my guard down. It wouldn’t happen again. No more drinks from strangers and no more unarmed walks on the beach. No more putting myself at risk. I didn’t have a lot going on in my life, but I wanted to live. I would fight for my life. Alone, though.
“I’m going to go call Cash.” I strode out of the kitchen and out the back door with Biscuit at my heels.
Of course, I got his voicemail. “Cash, I’m serious. Call Thad off. I don’t need anyone with me. I don’t care what Ramsey says to you, you’re not responsible for this. You don’t have to try to take care of me this way. I don’t need it. Call him off.”
Shoving my phone in the tiny back pocket of the shorts, I looked around and sighed. The location of the houses lent themselves to privacy. There would be a large chunk of time each day that Sallisaw couldn’t get across the bridge, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t take a boat. And the time restraint hadn’t stopped him from pulling his first stunt.
For not the first time, I found myself wishing I had my gun. I’d left my personal handgun in Dallas, telling myself that I wouldn’t need it. Denial was a strong emotion. I just wanted to be able to protect myself to the best of my ability, which might not be very well.
I had no interest in going after Sallisaw. The cops could handle it. The Feds could handle it. I just wanted to forget about it. When I forgot, the anxiety quieted to a hum and I could handle that. Since he wasn’t going to let me forget him, I was at least going to be prepared for a fight. I could do that.
Yet, even as I thought it, my hands started to shake. He’d bested me more than once. My entire time with him, he had bested me over and over again, intent on showing me that he was bigger, stronger, better, and tougher than me. If I didn’t have help on my side, I would lose to him again.
Stiffening my back, I held my chin high and forced myself to breathe normally. I watched waves crashing on the beach in front of me and felt a tiny bit of the tension leave me.
I let myself out of the fence, leaving Biscuit behind, and walked closer to the water. With the sound of it surrounding me, I closed my eyes and imagined a world after Sallisaw. One that I could live in without constant fear. I tried to feel that lightness, but it was just out of reach.
Blowing out a sigh, I opened my eyes and screamed. Thad was standing right in front of me, his eyes on my face. “I told you not to sneak up on me!”
A hint of a smile lifted the corner of his mouth. “Didn’t sneak. You just weren’t paying attention.”
Great. Another reminder that I sucked. I’d probably be dead in days.
“Did you come out here for a reason?”
He nodded his head back towards the house. “Jennings is here to see you. Mack wouldn’t let him in, so he’s just in the front yard, waiting.”
I laughed, unable to help it. I loved that old man. “Did he have handcuffs?”
Thad grinned down at me suddenly, transforming his face into something almost boyish and alarmingly handsome. His money shot, I instantly knew. “Big plans with the good detective?”
I scowled. “You’re not funny.”
He just stared down at me. “Some people think I am.”
“I’m not one of them.” Despite saying it, I found myself smiling. Shaking my head, I turned towards the house and walked slowly towards the front. “Wonder if I could just drift into the ocean and avoid all of this?”
A large hand rested in between my shoulder blades and pushed me towards the back door. “You’d have to land somewhere.”
Biscuit was passed out in a plushy corner of grass and didn’t notice us walking through. Leaving him there, I walked into the kitchen and looked out the front window at Jennings. He looked irritated and hot in his three-piece suit. Served him right for trying to look like one of the men in black, I thought.
With a heavy sigh, I opened the door and moved to stand in the front yard. “Detective Jennings.”
He looked over at me and his eyes immediately went to my legs. “Ms. Willows.”
I shifted, uncomfortable with the way his eyes were lingering on my body. “Do you have news on the case?”
He spoke to my chest next. “I went over the findings from the doctor. He wrote in his report that you wouldn’t have been able to lift your arm, much less stab a man thirty times.”
“He was stabbed thirty times?”
“Yes. Did you know the victim?”
I’d already told him that I didn’t. “I’d never met him before. I’m new to the island.”
“I know that you and the big chief from Dallas want to believe that some bigger force was involved, but honestly, ma’am, it seems like a crime of passion. Maybe this man drugged you and tried to sneak back to your place with you. Maybe his girlfriend found out and snuck after him and did him in.”
I ground my teeth together. “Did he have a girlfriend?”
He cleared his throat. “We’re still looking.”
“It’s Sallisaw.”
“I doubt it. We don’t get much trouble down here, besides tourists having sex on the beach and a few husbands getting rough with their wives. And you said yourself that Sallisaw didn’t know where you were.”
I looked away from him, irritation fueling me to say something I’d probably regret. I noticed a cleaning van at the curb in front of my original house. “When can I get my stuff?”
“It’s all evidence.” He shifted closer to me. “Besides, you look prettier in this stuff, anyway.”
I jerked my face back around to him and scowled. “Fuck off.”
His come hither look faded, replaced with one hundred percent angry cop. His hand went to his belt, inches from his gun, and he leaned his red face closer to mine. “You should watch your mouth. That’s not how a lady should talk.”
“It’s a good damn thing I never claimed to be a lady, then, isn’t it? If you don’t have anything else to tell me besides the fact that you won’t be doing your job properly, then you can go. This is private property and you’re irritating me.”
“Listen here”
My personal guard dog growled from behind me as he stepped forward, his front nearly pressed against my back. “You heard the lady. If you have any other updates, you can call.”
Jennings stepped back and spit on the ground next to my feet. “I was going to be doing you a favor, anyway. That scar would’ve been hard to get past. Have a great day, Ms. Willows.”
I watched him walk away with Thad’s warmth coating my back and heat scorching my face. “He probably thinks that was original.”
Thad growled again and rested his hand on my shoulder. “Anyone who can see your scar past your scowl is a fool, anyway.”
I laughed before I knew it was coming and nearly choked on it. Glancing over my shoulder at him, I rolled my eyes. I didn’t want him to see how much his words had meant.