Jake (A Redemption Romance #2) (4 page)

“I came in to say goodnight,” he growled, in a low sexy voice, making my entire body tremble with desire.

“Goodnight,” I breathed, but felt my breasts tighten in anticipation of what would hopefully come next. My body had taken control, overriding the signals of restraint my brain was sending out. I had no business doing anything physical with Jake tonight, but my heated core disagreed. I’d felt him inside me once and I wanted to feel him again. My heart rate had increased, my breathing ragged with his close proximity. The smirk on his devilishly handsome face told me that he noticed.

Jake leaned in, eyes trained on my mouth, arms, bending to bring his chest closer as the shrill tone of my phone’s text alert sounded, filling the otherwise silent room. I watched as Jake’s eyes rolled and he pulled back. Now sitting on the edge of the bed next to my hip, he watched me reach to the nightstand and grab my phone.

I swiped the screen and read the new message from an unknown number.

Unknown Number:  Where did you go, Hope? Don’t think I can’t find you.

My entire body stiffened as Jake’s hand shot out and grabbed the phone from me. He read the text, then he pushed some buttons, I assumed to try and find out who was sending it. He cursed, loudly and dropped his head in frustration. I could tell by the waves rolling off him that he was holding his anger in, but just barely. I found it endearing that he would try to shield me from his emotions like that, knowing at least part of my story, that he’d restrain himself as not to frighten me. I almost loved him in that moment.

Of course the pull of desire had been broken, the proverbial bucket of cold water dumped over both of us, so when Jake stood from the bed, he leaned down and kissed the top of my head chastely and muttered a quiet “good night.”

I wasn’t surprised to see him walk out of the room. Disappointed? Maybe a little, but honestly, I wasn’t ready. Sure, I wanted to see where things could go between us, but we didn’t need to move into a physical relationship right now, there was too much going on.

Coming to terms with that, I got all the pillows arranged around me, just how I liked them and shut out the light. I lay in the darkness, with only the light from the hallway coming through the crack under the bedroom door and practiced my focus techniques. It took almost an hour, but finally my mind stopped racing and my body relaxed into sleep.

It was a few hours later when I was jolted awake by a blood-curdling scream. Unfortunately, like so many other nights just like this one, the one screaming was me.

Jake

I sprang up from the bed, reaching out to grab the Glock off my nightstand. Hope was screaming, whatever was wrong, I didn’t know, but I wouldn’t let anyone hurt her again.

I ran from my room, through the hallway and made it to her bedroom within seconds. I flung the door open, shielded my body with the wall and peered around the doorframe to assess the danger. What I found, absolutely broke my heart and any resolve I had that would keep me away from this woman.

Hope sat up, wide eyed and terrified in the middle of my guest bed. Pillows surrounded her body in a U-shape, two on each side and one for her head. She barely had room to roll over.

Her hair was a wild and disheveled mess, but she’d never been more beautiful. All of her defenses were down, she looked tiny in the middle of her nest of pillows; tiny and alone. Looking around, I confirmed that there wasn’t anyone else in the room, then walked in and sat my weapon on the nearest piece of furniture - my desk.

Making it to the bed, I sat on the side, used two fingers to gently move her face so I could look into her eyes and figure out what the hell was going on.

“What’s wrong?” I kept my voice as low as I could, not wanting to frighten her any more than she obviously already was.

Hope shook her head, eyes still wild, but calming some. She didn’t speak, but I watched as she swallowed and took a few deep breaths. Finally, after an interminable wait, she answered.

“I’m sorry I woke you, it was just a dream.” Her voice was different than I’d ever heard it, stilted and quiet. She was obviously very upset by whatever she’d dreamed about. I didn’t have any experience with this, the dreams, absolutely, I had nightmares all the time, but I didn’t know how to help someone else in the same situation.

“What can I do?” I asked her, her answering smile was hesitant, but genuine. Relief spread through my veins at the sight of it. The affect this woman had on me with just her smile was absolutely life-altering. It made me want to scoop her up and protect her from anything that could ever touch her.

After a few minutes, her breathing steadied, the pulse pounding against the side of her delicate throat slowed and she allowed me to pull her into my chest and hold her. I spent a long time there caressing her hair, stroking the long straight strands.

The feel of the silky soft tresses was enough to make
my
heart rate increase to inappropriate levels. She didn’t need me to make a move on her now, obviously, but with the feel of her sweet body against mine it was about all I could do, not to lay her back against the bed and let instinct take over.

Hope’s gentle hands, that had once been clasped firmly around my back, holding onto me for dear life, were now relaxed and I could feel that her body was pliant and preparing for sleep again. Still holding her, I twisted on the bed and laid us both down, my head on the pillow, hers nestled into my chest. I waited, listened for a long time until her body relaxed completely.

Thankfully, I was working in the office for the next several weeks. I was gathering intel and doing some surveillance for my next assignment. That was good, since I could work when Hope did and be home when she was.

Over the next several days, I made it a point to follow her to work every morning and if I wasn’t home when she got there, she checked in with me to let me know she was safe. No more strange phone calls had come in. When I’d gone by her house, no packages or unwanted gifts had been left either. The asshole had stopped, but I knew it wouldn’t last forever.

Hope agreed to be careful coming and going to work each day, promised to take a different path every time. We’d talked about how to watch for a tail, to take note if she saw the same vehicle more than once and I had slapped a GPS tracking device on the underside of her little Toyota Camry, just in case. She knew about it, and thankfully she didn’t fight me.

Her nightmares had, continued, however, to the point that by the third night, I got her to sleep in my bed with me. I hadn’t made a move, though my dick protested my restraint vehemently every night and morning.

With all this shit surrounding her, I wasn’t going to be the dick who acted like he just wanted to get in between her thighs – those luscious, milky white thighs. Groaning, I readjusted myself and tried to focus on the road in front of me.

I was headed back to Hope’s. I came by every couple of days to check things out. She hadn’t been here at all. Her mail was delivered to a Post Office box, so at least that was secure. Any mail that came to the house was usually junk mail.

Instead of pulling right up to the house, I waited at the stop sign on the corner and took a minute to look around. I didn’t see anything out of place, but I made the turn down the side street anyway and did a quick tour of the neighborhood. I was especially interested in the street that ran behind her house, she had neighbors there, but the yards were large with full size trees.

The streets were quiet, a few people coming home from work, lights on inside several houses and an older couple out walking a little white dog. My hackles rose, because it was too perfect. Nothing was ever this simple. The guy didn’t just fall off the face of the earth, unfortunately. Turning the corner back onto Hope’s street, I drove slowly up the block, paying attention to every car. Still, nothing was out of place.

I parked two houses down and across the street, then waited. My truck had heavily tinted windows and got traded in for a different one frequently since I used it for surveillance. It wouldn’t do to have the local dealers see me and know who I was. Now, I waited and watched.

Local residents came and went, cars passed by, still nothing. Leaving the truck where it was, I exited and walked to Hope’s house. Using the key, she’d given me, I entered, not seeing anything obvious outside. No notes, no flowers, nothing on the porch or around it.

The inside of the house was quiet. The lights were on in her spare bedroom and in the kitchen. I’d installed variable, alternating automatic lights in each of the main rooms, especially those lining the front of the house. Lights would turn on for a while, sporadically, making it appear that someone was in the house.

I scanned each room, checked the doors and windows, and looked over the alarm panel. There wasn’t one thing wrong. Scanning the picture window in the dining room for the third time, I paused and studied it. It was the only window in the house that wasn’t covered. I looked over the entire window, the molding around it, but I couldn’t figure out what had caught my attention. What was it about this window that caught my eye?

I spent several minutes there, moving into the room, looking from different angles, everything I could think of. It was dusk outside, so I had enough light to see without turning on the lamp. I grabbed my flashlight and shone it over the glass in a methodical grid pattern. It was on the second pass that I saw it. A smudged mark that looked like a handprint, next to another more rounded print, right there on the glass. The window looked out over the front lawn, but the house was set back far enough that no one should be standing near that window.

I was worried about her safety; it was time I asked for some help.

“Hey Trent, I’m at Hope’s. I think I found something, can you meet me over here?”

“Give me twenty, do I need to bring anything?”

“No, I think I’m good.” I disconnected the call and waited.

It was a good feeling to be closer with the guys again. Before Nolan had taken his own life, we’d drifted apart. I didn’t think it was a conscious decision for anyone, we were all just busy and let our lives get away from us. Now, we were making the effort to spend more time together and reach out if we needed help. In this situation with Hope, I definitely needed help.

I searched the area outside, in front of the picture window but didn’t find anything aside from the prints on the window and a couple of smashed plants in the flower bed just below it.

I was changing the angle of one of the security cameras to include that area of the house better when Trent pulled up. He was a good guy, and had always possessed an eye for the smallest detail. He noticed things that the rest of us would miss. With his work at the sheriff’s department, I was sure that skill came in handy.

Gavin got out of the passenger side and they both strode over. Trent glanced up at the camera, took note of the others and scanned the entire area.

“Show me what you found.”

Tilting my chin in the direction of the front window, I saw the change in his expression the moment he noticed the smudges on the otherwise clean glass.

I was interested in his method, so watched with rapt attention as he scanned the area. He used the same grid pattern that I had, but his eyes narrowed on the shrubs separating Hope’s property from her neighbor’s. I focused in on the same area, took a moment to really study it and finally saw it.

Gavin stood back, watching as he always did. He was quiet, funny and light-hearted, but quiet. He observed, keeping himself somewhat removed from any situation, but he took it all in. Gavin’s ability to read people, to see what was just under the surface was uncanny. It made him an excellent cop.

“The flower petals?” I asked, confirming that was what Trent saw. There were a few red petals under the overgrown shrubs. Hope’s grass was overly long and I made a mental note to find a lawn service to deal with the maintenance while she stayed with me.

“Yeah, no reason they should be there. No garbage cans nearby, hasn’t been windy in a while, no flowers like that in any of the yards surrounding this one.” He was right. How he’d ascertained that information so quickly, I didn’t know, but he had the best eye I’d ever seen.

Continuing the scan, he confirmed my suspicion that the smudged hand print was most likely from a man and the strange rounded print was probably a forehead. I could just imagine some asshole standing out here, late at night looking into her window, just out of range of the cameras. He’d have had to come through those shrubs to stay out of view of the cameras. I’d checked the feeds and there hadn’t been any unusual activity.

“What do you think?” I asked him, hoping he’d have the answers I so desperately needed.

Shaking his head in frustration, they followed me into the house. Trent went through the house looking for any disturbance, just as I had. Gavin stayed with me, studying me. I looked at him in question, but just before he spoke, Trent came back into the room.

“I think whoever left her that note and shit stood right there and looked in her house. This neighborhood is filled with mostly working families, so probably not many people are here during the day. It was either late at night or midday when no one was around.”

“Makes sense. Do you see anything else?” On one hand, I wanted him to find something, a clue, but on the other, I didn’t. Every part of me wished this creep would just mysteriously fade into obscurity again.

“Nothing, looks clean.” We checked the house, doors and windows again, set the house alarm and walked out front to leave. The old Chevy truck I’d noticed before was idling in the street, stopped by the curb on the opposite side of the house from my truck. When we stepped out onto the porch, I noticed it right away and motioned to it subtly so Gavin and Trent would take note.

“What’s up with that?” Trent asked, watching, but not being obvious about it.

The truck pulled away from the curb, made a three-point turn and drove away from the house. It seemed like the driver was purposely staying far enough away from us and from the cameras so we couldn’t get a good view of the driver or the license plates.

“No idea, I’ve seen it a couple of times, it looked out of place so I paid attention.”

“You run the plates?” Trent knew me well enough to know that I’d already noted the license plate number.

“No, I didn’t have a good reason to, until now.”

“Looks bad for you to run it, if it isn’t relevant to one of your cases.  I’ll see what I can come up with.” Gavin said, entering the conversation for the first time.

“Thanks man, appreciate it.”

Trent nodded, then asked “You talk to Dan Dupree about this shit?”

“Yeah, Hope has an old file on her history with this guy, she asked him to add it to the pile. He’s looking around, but hard to do much without a credible threat.”

“I’ll talk to Dan, he’s a good guy, we work together on cases all the time. Let me see what we can come up with. Text me the plates and we’ll get working on it.”

I thanked them, we did our standard childish fist bump and went our separate ways. Before I pulled away, I texted Gavin the number and watched the street for a while longer.

Hope knew that I was planning to come over here tonight and with the nightmares she’d been having I was afraid to tell her what we’d found. All I wanted to do was to protect her, but I knew that she’d lose her shit if I kept it from her. She deserved to know the truth.

As I drove back toward my house, I made odd turns and watched closely for a tail. I passed by the bar I’d spent so much time in before Hope came to stay with me. I knew that I’d been drinking way too much. The nightmares had come back full-force after Nolan’s suicide and I’d fallen back into old, dangerous patterns. Now, with Hope, to protect, I’d gotten my shit together and hadn’t had more than a beer.