The Christmas Stalking (3 page)

Maybe gasoline from the car accident.

His lips brushed her cheek.

She leaned against him, savoring his closeness and the feeling of safety. She longed for more, but she couldn’t afford to get involved with Robby. Her life was far from the tiny Village of Serenity and Peace.

She stepped back. “Still pouring on the charm, I see.” She managed to keep her tone light and carefree, not wanting to hurt his feelings.

He smiled. “Let’s get you inside before you freeze.”

“Sounds like a good idea.”

As they approached the door, she squeezed Robby’s arm. “The door’s open.”

He stopped. “Get back in the car.”

He dropped her arm, walked forward, reached under his jacket, and pulled out his gun.

4

Holly’s feet were frozen to the spot. She should have gone back to the car, but she stayed and stared.

Robby approached the door, gun raised.

This was her fault. Robby was in danger because of her. She should have listened to her security team and stayed in Nashville.

He walked through the doorway and disappeared from view.

Her stalker. It couldn’t be. She’d been so careful about making sure she wasn’t followed. Not the stalker. She’d probably forgotten to lock the door and the wind blew it open.

Where was Robby? Why wasn’t he back?

She stared at the door.

An hour seemed to pass before he returned.

Her knees weakened. She ran to him and threw herself into his arms. “Are you OK?”

“I’m fine.” He caressed her hair.

“I was so scared. I—”

“I’m fine, but I can’t say the same about the cabin.”

She stepped out of his embrace. “What do you mean?”

“Someone vandalized it.” He grabbed her arm. “Come on. Whoever did it is long gone, but be prepared to see a mess.”

Her jaw dropped when she walked inside.

Robby hadn’t exaggerated.

The cozy little cabin looked as if a hurricane had raged through it.

The furniture was overturned, cupboards were opened, dishes decorated the floor, and the log walls had red paint thrown on them.

They had left a message for her on the wooden table in red paint.

Eat, drink
,
and be merry for tomorrow you die or the next day or the next... You can’t escape your DESTINY.

She gasped. As she reread the words, tears welled up.

He had found her once again.

Robby laid a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Holly.”

She swiped at the tears. “It’s silly to cry, I know. I haven’t even been in this place in years, but…” Her fingers touched the red message on the table. Still sticky. She took a deep breath to steady herself. “But my grandfather made this beautiful table himself. I remember my grandma boasting about how he’d made it for her as an anniversary gift. She loved it so much.”

“And it will be beautiful again. I’m sure it can be restored.”

She looked around at the destruction. What had she done to make this man so mad at her? Why wouldn’t he leave her alone? Her voice trembled. “I don’t understand. How did he find me?”

Robby’s eyes narrowed. “You know who did this?”

She wiped away tears. Not the time to fall apart. She had to keep it together. She took a deep breath. “Yes and no.”

“That’s not exactly clear.”

“It’s a long story.”

Putting his hand on her back, he guided her to the sofa. “I’ve got the time.”

She sat down, stifling the threatening sobs. She was afraid if she started crying now, she might never stop. “I suppose you do.”

“I’ll get the fire going.” He turned to the fireplace and stacked three pieces of wood. After putting some kindling under the logs, he blew on it, and a small flame jumped up out of the ashes.

He turned back to her. “You ready to tell me?”

“Ever hear of Destiny?”

“Sure. The country music star. She’s one of my favorites as far as country music goes. Not that it’s my favorite type of music. Give me good old-fashioned rock and roll. But what’s that got to do with this?”

Holly stared into the fire. If she told Robby the truth, would he overreact and place her into more danger? “Well, Mr. Rock-N-Roll, I’m Destiny.”

His eyes widened, and then he squinted harder. “You don’t look much like her. Destiny has long blonde hair.” His voice was skeptical.

“It’s the hair. As Destiny, I dyed my hair blonde, but I also wore a wig on many occasions.” Her fingers fluffed her newly cut short red hair. “I got my hair cut and went back to my natural color.”

“Your picture’s been all over the TV the last few days.” His words filtered in.

“What do you mean, my picture’s been all over the TV?”

“Something about you disappearing and going into rehab. Some guy denied the rumor, but I don’t think they believed him.”

“They never do.”

He moved to the chair and sat. “So what’s going on, Holly?”

“Somebody’s stalking me.”

“And you think he did this?” Robby’s hand motioned at the mess in her cabin.

“Who else could it be? My security team hasn’t been able to find him, nor have the Nashville police.”

He put his hand on top of hers. “Sounds scary, Holly...Destiny...what should I call you?”

“Holly’s fine. It started with some weird e-mails a few months ago.”

“That should be easy enough to track.”

“You’d think so, but it hasn’t been. Whoever sent them apparently knows computers and how to hide from the police.”

“E-mails are harmless. They can’t hurt you but...” He motioned at the mess in the room. “But this is over the top. This shows how dangerous the guy is.”

“I know. I tried to ignore it when he broke into my home in Nashville.” Her cheeks flamed at the thought of the stolen undergarments. “Stole some…some stuff.”

He nodded, but didn’t ask what.

“So I went and stayed with my manager.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “But things got worse. The stalker sent me a dead cat.”

Robby shook his head and rolled his eyes. “That’s how it is with these guys. First they love you and want to get your attention, but it always seems to escalate to violence.”

She nodded. “That’s what Mark, my manager, said, too. So I cut my hair, dyed it back to its natural color, and came here to hide out for a while.” She fluffed her bangs. “Not that it did any good. As we can see.”

“And you’ve got no idea who is doing this?”

Holly shook her head. “On TV they always get the bad guy in an hour. I guess it’s harder than it looks.”

“It is, but they should have been able to find the source of the e-mails.”

“I guess he’s smarter than the police department’s computer geeks.”

“No wonder Renee thought you looked familiar. She’s always playing your music at the diner. Why didn’t you tell her who you were? She’d be thrilled.”

“Are you kidding? She could call one of the magazines or TV shows and make a bundle. Then they’d be crawling all over the town.”

“Renee wouldn’t do that.”

“If you say so, but I’ll take my chances that she won’t figure out who I am.”

“Not everyone wants to profit from your problems, Holly.”

She shook her head. “In my world, they do.”

“That’s Destiny’s world. It doesn’t have to be true in Holly Stone’s world.”

That’s what she’d believed, as well. She’d thought Destiny would be safe here in Holly Stone’s world. She looked around the trashed cabin, and then back at Robby. “It’s one and the same.”

5

“All set?” Robby asked.

Holly avoided looking around her grandparents’ cabin. Just looking at it made her sick to her stomach—and angry. Better to stay focused on Robby. His presence seemed to calm her. “I know he’s out there somewhere. Waiting and watching. It doesn’t matter what I do; I can’t get away from him.” She was tired of running. “What if I stay here and face him, find out what he wants? At least, I’ll find out who it is.”

Robby frowned. “That is not a good idea.”

“Why? I was so careful when I left Nashville. I can’t believe anybody could follow me. “

“You’re safe with me.” He picked up her luggage.

She’d tossed a few things in a bag. Tomorrow she’d come out and get the rest.

“But you can’t stay with me twenty-four-seven. Sooner or later, he’s going to keep his promise.” She pointed at the message. “He’s going to kill me.”

“He’s not. I won’t let that happen. Trust me.”

“Do you think I should call my security team?”

“If you call them in, there’s a good chance the media will find out. And then, it will become a frenzied nightmare. I have an idea, but it will have to wait until morning.”

She stared at him, wanting to believe he could fix it. “What’s that?”

“Do you remember Leonard Massey?”

She searched her memory banks, but shook her head. It had been almost twenty years since she’d been here.

“He was the nerdy one. He always got picked last for the softball games—even after me.”

A picture of a skinny boy with glasses popped in her mind. “Oh, yeah. I think I remember him.”

“Well, Leonard couldn’t play softball that well, but he sure knows computers. He’s got a degree from MIT, and if anyone can figure out where those e-mails came from, he can.”

“Why do we have to wait until morning?”

“Because it would be rude to wake him up this late.” He tapped his watch. “He’ll think better after a good night’s sleep.”

“Makes sense.” She could use one of those herself, not that she expected to sleep that night. She took a deep breath. “OK, where are you taking me?”

“To the hotel.”

“Will that be safe?”

“It will be with me outside your door all night.”

“I can’t—”

He held up a hand. “You can’t stop me, ma’am. I’m the sheriff in this here cowpoke town and it’s my job to keep you safe,” he said in a mediocre John Wayne imitation. He tipped an imaginary hat. “And that’s just what I aim to do.”

Her heart melted and surprisingly, so did her fear.

6

At 7:00 AM, someone knocked on Holly’s hotel door. Dressed and ready to face the day, she called, “Who is it?”

“It’s Robb.”

She opened the door.

Robby was dressed in uniform and looked well rested in spite of the fact that he had spent most of the night outside her door. His curly black locks were still damp.

She gave him a bright smile. “Good morning.”

“You sound awfully chipper.”

“What can I say? I’m a morning person.”

Robby turned to the other officer still sitting in the chair. “OK, thanks for spelling me so I could get a shower, Hank. See you later.”

“Sure thing, boss.” The officer stood and walked away.

Robby turned back to her. “I guess you are. You didn’t look so good last night.”

“I admit I fell apart last night, but there’s not much that a good night’s sleep can’t fix. Except maybe a stalker.”

“True, but Leonard’s going to take care of that. I called him and explained the whole stalking situation to him. He’s expecting us.”

“I believe you’re right, Chief Trenton. I can feel it in my bones. This is going to be a good day.”

“Wow. You really are a morning person, aren’t you?”

“I am.” She smiled—not quite ready to talk about her time with God. It was too special to talk about, even with Robby.

“Want to go to the diner for some breakfast first?”

“Not really.”

He held up a finger, turned, and walked out the door. In the next moment, he was back with a brown paper bag in his hands. “I didn’t think you would, but you still need to eat, so I took the liberty of having some food delivered.”

“You are too sweet, Robby Trenton. Certainly not the bully I remember.” She lowered her lashes, fluttered them, and gave him a smile.

“Me, the bully. I think not. If I recall, you were the one who started the fights.”

“If I’d known you were going to turn out so handsome and so nice, I might have returned sooner.”

He winked. “Well, you’re here now and that’s all that matters. After we fix this mess, I want to get to know Miss Holly Stone a bit better.”

She opened her mouth to speak. To tell him Holly Stone wasn’t all that interesting. Instead, she smiled. “I’d like that.” She stepped closer and his arms went around her. It felt so nice, so real, so safe. His desire to know her—Holly Stone and not Destiny—overwhelmed; her eyes filled with tears.

He cupped her chin and lifted her face.

Their lips met.

She savored the warmth and the promise in them. With great reluctance, she stepped away. “Later. We’ve got a stalker to catch.”

His fingers caressed her cheek, and then he winked. “Yes, ma’am we do.”

John Wayne had returned.

****

They drove down a back road. More of the white stuff had fallen during the night.

Robby handled the car with ease, nudging it gently when the wheels slipped on the unplowed road. He looked over with a smile. “Len’s a little eccentric, but you’ll like him. He’s on the payroll of some New York City business, but works from home most of the time. He goes into the city for a week or so every few months. He’s happy as a clam.”

“That’s nice. Not everybody can say that about their jobs.”

“What about you? You like being a famous singer?”

“Most of the time. Except when some crazy stalker comes along. Or when the paparazzi make my life miserable.”

“Yeah, that would be bad. But all that fame—all that money.”

“I’m not complaining. I know I’m blessed. So many wonderfully talented singers never make it.”

He sang an off-key version of one of her songs. “What do you think? Have I got what it takes?”

She grimaced. “I’d stick with your day job if I were you.”

“Well, at least you’re honest.”

“And one of the good things is that I can live anywhere and still make music.” Her cheeks warmed as he gave her a sidelong glance. She wanted him to know she didn’t have to live in Nashville.