Forever Hers by Walters, Ednah (new ebook reader .TXT) 📗

“You sound so different. Please, don’t go yet. Your dad wants to talk to you.”

“Next time, Mom. I promise.”

“Don’t hang up, Amy. Nolan wants to talk to you too.”

Shock slammed through her. “He’s there?”

“Yes. He’s been searching for you. He’s worried about you. We all are.”

Amy didn’t want to talk to Nolan or even discuss him, but the nerve of the man had her doing something she hadn’t planned. “Did he tell you he knows where we are?”

There was silence on the line. “Uh, no. He spent the last week at his cottage in Lovingston and just arrived back this morning. He stopped by the house to see if we’d heard from you.”

“He found us, Mom. I don’t know how, but he found us and once again, he’s stalking me.”

“Oh, Amy. Not that again. No one is after you, sweetheart. It’s all in your head. We talked to Dr. Chambers and he’s willing to work with you—”

“I don’t need a shrink, Mother,” Amy said through gritted teeth then took a deep calming breath before she continued. “I don’t need help. Nolan does.”

Silence on the line.

“I am not going to beg you to believe in me. But I’ll say this one more time. Nolan terrorized me when I was in Virginia and he’s doing it again.”

“I’m looking at him right now, Amy. How can he be over there and be here at the same time? He was at the cottage. He even brought us fresh fish.”

They hadn’t received a single call or had an intruder alert since Raelynn saw him outside the lake house, which meant Nolan was covering his tracks. She knew him well enough to know he probably drove to his cabin first, stopped by the local diner so everyone saw him, left his car parked outside then had someone drive him to and from the airport. Lovingston was a small town outside Charlottesville and the locals knew him. They would swear they saw him when he arrived and left. Eye witnesses, from the way he used to brag, were very unreliable.

 “Amy, please talk to Nolan.”

Hysteria bubbled to the surface. “I don’t want to talk to him, Mother. Ask him where he’s been the past week.”

“He would have told us if he knew where you were, Amy. Like I said, he was at his cabin for a week and just got home.”

“He lied to you. For once give me the benefit of doubt, mother. Believe me, not him.” Amy hung up the phone and paced in the small space between the sink and the shower. Her mother made her so angry sometimes she wanted to scream.

Amy stopped, closed her eyes and sighed. There was no point in getting frustrated with her parents. She’d lied and twisted half-truths most of her teens and never gave them a reason to believe anything that ever came out of her mouth. It wasn’t their fault they didn’t believe her now when it mattered. Showing them that Nolan was guilty was the only solution.

Amy splashed water on her face and studied her reflection in the mirror. She looked like a crazed woman. Taking deep breaths, she patted her face, put eye drops in her eyes to get rid of the redness, applied lip gloss and pinched her cheeks to add color to her face. Happy with her appearance, she checked in on Raelynn then went in search of Eddie.

Eddie, Ron and Vince were hunched over a computer tablet on the coffee table. It had eight split screens. One showed Ken walking around the house. He appeared to move from one screen to the next in a smooth, continuous flow.

“How’s the audio feed, boys?” he asked. “I’m about twenty feet from the house now and closer to your neighbor’s compound. A woman is staring at me through her window like I’m an escaped felon or something. I don’t blame her since I’m talking to myself and this is the third loop I’m doing around the house.”

Eddie adjusted the angle of the camera and the neighbor’s yard came into view, then their house, where Catherine, Jimmy’s grandmother, scowled at Ken. The new cameras had a wider range and angle than the ones she’d bought. Eddie touched the screen again and the screen with Ken dominated the screen while the remaining seven lined up under it.

“You have a winner here, Noble,” Vince said.

“I know. We’re giving a demonstration to the local P.D. next month, so if they like it, the money we spent developing it will be worth it.” Ron looked and saw her. “We’re almost done here, Amy.”

Eddie looked over his shoulder and frowned. In one smooth, graceful move, he stood, rounded the couch and came to stand in front of her.

“Are you okay?” he asked, searching her face.

She started to nod, then shook her head. Behind him, the other men were on their feet too looking at her expectantly. She lowered her voice when she spoke. “Can we talk privately?”

He nodded then took her arm and led her outside just as Ken came around the corner and asked, “How was the audio feed?”

“Great,” Eddie said, but his focus was on her. He led her to the pier, where the chairs were, and took the one across from hers. The boat was gone, which explained Chase’s absence.

“Before you say anything,” Eddie said, leaning forward in his chair. “I want to apologize for what I said earlier. Vince is a happily married man and you are not the type to come on to a married man. This mess with Nolan is screwing with my head.”

She wanted to say bullshit, but housekeepers didn’t sass guests, so she bit her inner cheeks and smiled. “I’m sorry for dragging you into my mess when you are supposed to be on vacation.”

He shook his head. “You didn’t drag me into anything, Amy. You need help and it is my duty as a police officer to give it to you.”

Meaning he’d just be as involved if