She hugged herself, her lungs working overtime with short bursts of breaths. Her body started to shake, every subtle noise causing her to flinch. And it wasn’t until Chase practically yelled her name that she even realized he had moved.
“Scottlynn!”He used her given name—and a gentle hand on one shoulder—to finally catch her attention. “Are. You. Okay?”
Blinking several times, Scottie gave her head a slight shake to put the awful memories out of her mind. With her vision clear, and her consciousness back in the present, she took in the alarming expression covering Chase’s handsome face.
“I…I-I’m okay,” she stuttered badly.
Sure, she’d probably be sore tomorrow, but otherwise, she was physically fine. Emotionally, however…
Yeah, I’m gonna need a few more minutes to work on that.
“Come here.” He pulled her in for a tight hug.
His body became a blanket of safety. A comforting warmth she’d so desperately needed. It was in that moment of security and protection when Scottie fully accepted the danger to her was over.
She wrapped her arms around Chase, her fists filling with the back of his shirt and holding onto him as if he were her lifeline. And then, with her body flush with his and her cheek pressed against his chest…
Scottie began to cry.
9
“Wasit the same guy from the other night?”
Chase paced along an invisible line running through the middle of Scottie’s cozy living room. While she showered upstairs, he filled Lucky in on what had transpired at the shelter two hours before.
“No,” he answered Lucky without hesitation. “That guy was thinner and had darker skin.”
Too bad that was aboutallhe’d seen of the man.
“Still pisses me off that I couldn’t get more for you on that front,” Lucky offered sincerely. “Bastard was smart, I’ll give him that. Parking in just the right spot to avoid the streetlights and then using a phony license plate on a non-descript vehicle…turning onto a street with no CCTV…”
“Kind of sounds like something a pro would do,” Chase mused.
“You still think it was one of Dawari’s men?”
“No way to know for sure, but who else could it be? You checked that same night and confirmed that Scottie’s stalker…what was his name?”
“Dustin McVey.”
“Right.” Chase remembered. “So you confirmed McVey was still safely locked away inside that mental institution in SoCal, and I know for a fact the asshole from tonight wasn’t him. The only thing that makes sense is maybe Webb was wrong and Dawari is still targeting us.”
“That’s my thought, too,” Lucky agreed. “Of course, we’ve pissed off a lot of people since we signed up for this whole Eagle’s Nest gig. Could be someone from one of the cases the firm’s already taken on.”
“Problem is, without more to go on, we’re basically stuck with what we know. Which, at this point, is jack shit.”
The good news was Chase hadn’t seen the guy from the car since that night outside the restaurant. And he’d damn sure been looking, too.
Everywhere he fucking went.
“I don’t suppose Scottie has any thoughts as to who he was?” Lucky asked after a brief pause in conversation.
“She didn’t see him. Not really. And I didn’t tell her about him taking our picture. Didn’t want to worry her unnecessarily, you know?”
“Makes sense,” Lucky agreed. “Don’t want to freak her out for no reason.”
My thoughts exactly.
Though the man from the car had definitely been acting suspiciously, it was possible Chase had simply overreacted. Perhaps the guy hadn’t really been watching them at all, but rather his unusual demeanor was a direct result of Chase’s alpha male behavior.