If I were the reason she was being targeted, should I walk away? After just promising the universe I’d do anything to make all her dreams come true if she was all right? After finally realizing she was my entire world? I wasn’t sure I could do it. And that might just make me a worse bastard than I’d ever considered myself to be.
The silence that had settled turned heavy and weighted. It was Fallon who broke it by putting her hand on Lewis’s arm and asking, “Can I help you pack a bag?”
Maisey’s dad looked from Maisey to me. “You’re not going to let her out of your sight?”
“Not even for a second.”
He nodded, moved in to kiss Maisey on the temple, and then went with Fallon into the house.
Sandy called to Cleaver, and he strode off into the spotlights. As Bugsy began wrapping gauze around Maisey’s hand, Parker jerked his head toward the street and the Harrington Ranch rig they’d shown up in. I followed him.
“What can I do to help?” he asked.
When Fallon had been in danger three years ago, Parker had walkedaway from his SEAL career to protect her. I was a firefighter. I didn’t have the same set of skills as a Special Forces operative, but I’d protect Maisey with every last breath I had. But I didn’t have to do it alone.
“Someone has been watching her. It can’t just be knowing her schedule, because no one could’ve known she’d come by the firehouse the day she got the first note. Hell, even I didn’t know she was coming.”
“Do you remember my old teammate Cranky? He’s coming for the holiday with some of the guys. They’re arriving tomorrow. Between Sweeney, my old team, and the ranch’s security, we can arrange twenty-four-hour surveillance. We’ll catch this asshole.”
The pressure in my chest eased. “I’d appreciate the help.”
“I’d like one of the guys to stay here.” He nodded toward my house. “Maybe at Mr. Campbell’s as well.”
“I’m fine with doing whatever it takes to catch this asshole.” I looked down the darkened street. “The Helmers rent their place out through one of those online vacation rental services. It’s highly unlikely, but if they don’t happen to have someone booked, we could stick someone there too.”
Parker’s focus shifted down the block. “It would be good to have all three houses covered. I’ll talk to Sheriff Wylee and see what we can do.” He looked back at the ambulance where Bugsy was finishing up with Maisey. “You staying here tonight?”
Unease filled me at the thought, but I doubted whoever had done this would be back tonight. They’d wait to see if Maisey heeded their warning. I said as much to Parker, adding on, “It’ll be just for a few hours, so she’ll get some rest. Then we’ll head to the Carlyle in the morning.”
“I’ll send one of the ranch’s security to sit out front until you leave,” he said as Fallon and Lewis emerged from the house. They each had a duffel thrown over their shoulders. Maisey’s father looked faded. Weary.
Once again, I wondered if this had anything to do with him. I didn’t see how, but I also couldn’t see anyone hating Maisey enough to attack her like this, certainly not over some misplaced desire for me.
I didn’t realize I’d spoken my thoughts aloud until Parker responded, sending a shiver up my spine. “You can’t use logic to understand or explain the actions of people like this, Beckett. If someone is unhinged enough, nothing they do or say will make sense to anyone but them.”
It had certainly been true of the assholes who’d come for Fallon. And it had certainly been true of my mother, who’d had zero compunction about leaving me, even after she’d realized I was in the house she’d set on fire.
The authorities hadn’t been able to prove Mom had even been at the house, but I’d seen her leave. Everyone had thought it had been my smoke-filled hallucination because she’d had an alibi. The guy she’d been cheatingon Dad with had sworn she was with him. Dad was the only one who’d really believed what I’d seen that day.
Maisey joined Fallon and Lewis as they threw his things in the back of the Harrington rig with Vader right on their heels.
“I can’t take my dog with me to the Carlyle.”
“He can come with us,” Fallon said.
“We’ve got a kitten too,” I said with a sigh.
Parker’s lips twitched. “Theo and Lila will be thrilled to have a cat over.”
“Let me grab her and their things.”
When I came back out of the house with the cat in the crate and a duffel full of their food and toys, Maisey was hugging her dad. Vader’s look, when I loaded him and Dorothy into the back of the vehicle, was worse than the one he’d given me the day I’d left for my shift. It was enough to make my newly pinked heart bleed a bit more.
I rubbed his ears. “You’re a good boy, Vader. A good boy. This is just for a few nights. We’ll all be back together soon. Back together and home where we all belong.”
I shut the door and then pulled Maisey to me.
We watched as the car drove away, with Lewis and Vader both watching us out the windows with matching sorrowful expressions.