Coming Home to You (The Rockport Beach Series Book 1) (5 page)

“God, you’re a dick,” I say, slapping him
on the back as we walk into Finnigan’s.

“Yeah, but not as big a dick as you,” he
says laughing.

I roll my eyes and order us beers before
we both take a seat in a booth by the window. By the time we’re on our third round
of drinks, the pub has gotten busier, the rest of the day shift all filing in
to end their week with some well earned drinks. I’m in the middle of a conversation
with Ryan over the likelihood of the Bruins reaching the playoffs when someone
slides into the booth next to me. Turning, I can’t help but shudder as I see
Miranda sitting there, smiling at me and with her cleavage on full display as
though she’s expecting a repeat of last weekend.

“Miranda,” I say, sliding away from her.
We haven’t crossed paths since I fucked her and made up some excuse about needing
to go into work the next morning on Memorial Day weekend. I thought I’d gotten
off with a one-nighter, but I’m beginning to wonder if her showing up here isn’t
a sign that she’s about to go all
Fatal
Attraction
on me, too. “Ah, this is Ryan,” I say, gesturing across the
table.

“Hey,” he says, reaching out to shake her
hand, his eyes never leaving her tits.

“Hi,” she says, before turning back to
me. “I haven’t heard from you, so I thought I’d drop by.”

I hear Ryan chuckle across from me and I
can’t help reaching out and kicking him under the table, a satisfied smile on
my face when he grunts in response. “No, I’ve been busy with work, the homicide
from last weekend,” I tell her.

“Any leads?” she asks, her hand sliding
onto my thigh.

My jaw clenches. “Yeah, Ryan here managed
to catch us a huge break,” I say, smiling as I turn to face my friend. He
scowls at me because he knows what I’m doing here. I’m trying to offload
Miranda onto him and painting him out to be the hero in this case is the best
way to do that. While I’m happy to give Ryan credit for helping us catch the
guy today, when it comes to catching, or in this case, getting rid of a woman,
neither of us ever plays fair. “He basically solved the whole case for us,” I
add on, smirking at him.

“Well, aren’t you clever,” Miranda says,
fluttering her eyelashes at him.

Just as Ryan’s foot connects with my leg
under the table, my cell phone starts to ring in my pocket. “Excuse me, I need
to take this,” I lie, practically pushing Miranda out of the booth so I can
walk outside. “Keep him company while I’m gone, won’t you,” I say to Miranda,
jerking my thumb in the direction of my friend.

I answer my phone without looking at the
screen, grateful to whoever it is who’s just rescued me from Miranda’s needy
clutches. “Detective Beck O’Loughlin.”

“Detective?” the voice says. “Fuck, I
didn’t know that.”

“Who is this?” I ask, stepping outside
onto the street where it’s quieter.

“This is Rockport Chief of Police, Finn O’Loughlin,
asshole,” the voice says. “Your brother.”

I pull the phone away from my ear and see
the caller ID with Finn’s name across it. I’d thought I’d be happy to hear from
anyone as long as they got me away from Miranda. Obviously this is the only
exception. “What do you want?” I ask, not bothering to hide my annoyance.

“Oh, Pop and I are fine by the way,” he
says, his voice just as annoyed. “I trust the big hotshot detective is his
usual couldn’t-give-a-fuck-about-anyone-else, self?”

“Fucking hell,” I mutter. “What do you
want, Finn? I don’t have time for this bullshit.”

I hear a car door slam through the phone
and the background noises fade as though he’s just gotten into a car. “I’m
calling to let you know that the woman you love is in trouble, dickhead. I know
you don’t give a shit about anyone else, but you might be interested to know
that someone certainly gives a shit about your girl, and not in the good way
either.”

“What?” I ask, my whole body freezing.

“Oh now you’re listening, huh?”

“Just cut the crap, Finn and tell me what
the fuck is going on,” I say, my stomach clenching at the thought that Kelsey
could be in trouble.

My brother exhales deeply and I can’t
help but wonder if this really is serious. Even though I’ve told myself every
day for the last ten years that Kelsey and I are over, that I’d moved on and
wasn’t going to think about her anymore, I knew I was completely full of shit.
There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t think about her, there probably
wasn’t a week that went by that I didn’t look at that damn photo album I had of
us. And she was sure as shit the image I conjured up every time I jacked off in
the shower, regardless of how sick that idea was. Christ, at this rate, I was fucking
kidding myself if I ever thought I was getting over this woman.

“Beck, are you listening to me?” Finn
asks, interrupting my trip down memory lane.

“Sorry,” I say, shaking my head. “I
missed that.”

“I said, Kelsey has gone and gotten
herself a stalker. At first it was just harmless stuff, watching her when she
was out, maybe following her a little more than was considered normal. Then he
started turning up at work, at all hours, threatening her when she wouldn’t
take him back. We served up a restraining order, but apparently that didn’t
deter him much because tonight he turned up at her place and physically
assaulted her…”

“What the fuck!” I shout down the phone.
“And what the hell have you been doing all this time? Why don’t you arrest the
fucking asshole, actually do your job, Finn?”

I hear what sounds like a hand punching
the dash and I know it was a dick thing to say. I’m about to apologize when my
brother speaks. “Don’t you fucking start, asshole,” he says. “You lost any
right to tell me how to run this town when you decided to fuck off to the
city.”

“Finn…” I say.

“Shut it, Beck,” he says, not letting me
speak. “I’m only calling you now because I know Kelsey’s never gotten over you,
despite how much she tries to pretend she has. And if you have any fucking
feelings left for her, which at this point I seriously doubt, you’ll call her
and check that she’s okay. Maybe suggest she take a little vacation while we
try and track down the fucker who’s messing with her.”

I let out a deep breath. Finn has no idea
what I still feel for Kelsey. How would he; we’ve barely spoken in three years,
ever since Pop retired and took over the pub. And I sure as shit don’t act like
I still care for her, leaving Rockport and never going back was a pretty good
indication of that. But it’s all a big fucking lie. A lie I’ve been telling
myself every day for the last ten years and which has now just become really
fucking obvious. Of course I still care about her, I’ve never stopped loving
her.

“You still there?” Finn says, and I can
hear the exhaustion in his voice.

“Yeah,” I say. “And look, I’m sorry for
what I said before. I didn’t mean to suggest you weren’t doing everything you
can.” If it’s one thing I do know, it’s that my brother is a good cop. We’d
both been brought up by a family of cops, our dad, granddad and even
great-granddad doing the same job. And even though we disagreed about a lot of
things, doing the job properly was something we all felt the same way about. If
it’s one thing the O’Loughlin’s were, it was good fucking cops. After me, I
couldn’t think of a better person to look after Kelsey, than Finn.

“I’m sitting outside her house right
now,” my brother says. “I’ve got my deputies out looking for him and as soon as
we find him, he’ll be charged. I don’t think she’s going to be in danger much
longer, but it probably wouldn’t hurt if she took a little vacation until I’m
sure.”

Suddenly memories of the victim from a
week ago flash before my eyes, making me feel sick. I’m in danger of losing my
beers as I start to imagine Kelsey’s stalker following the same path. Hadn’t
Jane’s started off as innocent spying and occasionally following her? And look
how that had turned out. Jane was dead and lying in a freezer at the morgue,
raped and strangled while her ex-boyfriend was spending the night in jail.

“Fucking hell,” I mutter, knowing there is
no avoiding what I know I need to do.

“So you’ll call her?” Finn asks.

I shake my head, even though he can’t see
me. “No,” I say, my jaw clenched.

“Jesus christ, Beck, can you for once…”

“I’m coming home,” I say, the words
forced out as though even I can’t believe I’m saying them.

“What?”

“I said, I’m coming home,” I repeat,
knowing there’s no escaping the fact that I finally have a reason to go back to
Rockport.

Fuck.

This has been the longest day of my life.
The constant feeling of being on edge and the fact that the entire town now
knows I have a mentally unstable stalker on my ass, hasn’t made for the most
relaxing day. I’ve spent it hiding out in the back office of The Rockport Beach
Inn with Bella sleeping at my feet. I muttered something about needing to catch
up on paperwork to the two seasonal girls working the desk and neither
questioned me.

Finn has been on high alert ever since the
incident last night and although I appreciate all of his efforts, it doesn’t
make me feel any safer. At this point, I feel like Jason would do anything to
get to me and he proved that last night. He was bold enough to come to my house
and knock on my door without caring that he was in total violation of the
restraining order. Or maybe I was the naïve one because I opened the door.

I don’t even know how it got to this point.
I went on few dates with Jason and things went well, but there wasn’t really
any chemistry. We dated off and on for a couple of months, but with him living
in Boston and me working at the inn every weekend, it just didn’t pan out. We
mutually agreed that it wasn’t in the cards for us and split. He seemed nice
enough, but when he started coming by the inn every weekend, it began to creep
me out a little bit. Looking back I feel like there were probably red flags
that I missed, but I can’t beat myself up over it. I never led him on, I didn’t
ask for this, and I definitely don’t deserve it.

I shudder at the thought of it all. Scared
and pretty much alone, I fear for what may come.

All day I have felt terribly anxious, like
someone is watching me, which could quite possibly be true. I have chewed my
fingers bloody and my legs are far too restless to sit still, yet I’m so
terrified to leave my office. I feel my chest constrict as I wonder if I’ll
ever feel safe again; if I’ll feel safe in my home, at my work, in the town
that I grew up in, a place that has always been a source of comfort and protection.
Jason has robbed me of all of this, taken my freedom and taken control of my
life.

I have no idea how long I’ve been sequestered
in my office when Finn pokes his head in and smiles a bit at me.

“How are you?” he says, but there’s no
simplicity or casualness to his question. He wants to know if I’ve fallen
apart, if I’ve allowed Jason to fuck with my head. And the answer is, “I’m a
shit ass mess.”

But instead, I respond with, “I’m okay.
Thanks for asking.”

His eyes are full of pity as he asks, “You
ready to head home?”

Finn insisted that he follow me in to work
every day and back home at the end of each night until Jason is found. I agreed
because what concerns me more than anything is that Jason has pretty much
vanished since the incident. Finn’s guys have been all over Rockport and the surrounding
towns, including Boston, to try and locate him, but each time they fall short. He
seems to be a professional at evading the cops because every lead they get
turns out to be a dead end.

I nod my head in response, but avoid making
eye contact with him. With Bella in tow and Finn following behind, I head
towards the front of the inn and out to my car.

When I reach the car I feel a hand connect
with the small of my back and I flinch instantly and back away. Chills run over
my entire body and I swallow back the lump that forms in my throat. I don’t
want to cry. Just his hand on my back has turned into something that my body
rejects. It was once a huge source of comfort, something Beck did every time we
entered a room. I longed to feel Beck touch me back then, but now that simple gesture
has been tarnished because of some psychopath.

“Sorry, Finn,” I say as I shake my head at my
own stupidity. I knew it was Finn behind me. I shouldn’t have reacted that way,
but I have no control over myself anymore.

“Kelsey, please,” he says and I walk right
into his open arms, pressing my cheek against his chest and inhaling. He smells
like I remember Beck smelling and although I should find comfort in that, I don’t.
It makes me miss him; I miss him so much it hurts. But the anger I still harbor
is very much real.

Finn’s arms wrap around me and he kisses
the top of my head as the tears begin to form. I can’t control them, falling
fast and soaking his shirt.

“I’m sorry, Finn. You don’t have to do
this,” I whimper out between hard breaths.

He chuckles a little and I feel his chest
rise and fall under my cheek. “Yes I do. You know Beck would kill me if
anything happened to you.”

I pull away from Finn at the mention of
Beck’s name and mumble as I climb into my car, “Yeah, like he gives a shit.”

Finn walks around to the passenger side,
opens the door, Bella hops in and settles herself in the seat. Finn looks at me
again with what I once mistook for pity. I was wrong the first time, what I see
in his eyes is tension. The fact that this guy’s still on the loose seems to be
wearing on him. I hate that I’m the reason for the stress in Finn’s life. He
bore just as much of the burden and hurt when Beck left as I did. He hurt us
both.

“I’ll meet you at your house?” he asks,
quickly putting on a straight face.