“But I’m an adult.”
“You’re a woman living alone being terrorized. Fuck! Fuck!”
She’d never seen him like this and it kind of scared her. Not because she thought he would hurt her, but she was worried about what he was doing to himself.
“There’s going to be times you have to work. You can’t be here all the time.”
“You didn’t call JSI.”
She shook her head. “I was going to, after the note arrived last night.”
“Should have called them after you got that first bunch of flowers. Should have called me. That was one of your rules, Daisy. To call me if you were in trouble.”
“I know,” she whispered. “But you had to concentrate on what you were doing. And I didn’t think anything of the first bunch of flowers. I thought they were from a neighbor. Then the second bunch arrived and I didn’t know what to think. It wasn’t until the first note arrived that I realized that this could be dangerous. I was going to call JSI. I promise. And no matter what you say, those children were more important. I was fine.”
“Not to be mean or anything, babe, but you do not appear fine. You’re carrying around a baseball bat in your own house. A house where you have all the curtains pulled. You look like you haven’t slept in days or eaten, I’m guessing. And you have fear in your eyes. Something I never wanted to see.”
“Not something I ever wanted to feel either.”
He took in a shuddering breath. She needed something to diffuse the situation. She looked at the hole in the wall. “Should I be worried about your tendency to make holes in things?”
“What?” He frowned at her.
“Not that I’m sad to say goodbye to the window.” She shook her head. “It was a bitch to clean.”
“Baby, I’m not going to break anything else.”
“You sure? Because the toilet has been a real pain in the ass lately.” Her lips actually twitched. There was nothing to really laugh about. Her life was a mess. She had a stalker. She was terrified. Her man had just put his hand through a wall and was now dripping blood on the wooden floors.
But he was here. He was here and she wasn’t alone.
“I’m not alone,” she whispered.
“Come here, Daisy-girl. Please, baby.” She walked over to him and he pulled her close. “I’m sorry for earlier. And you were right, the past is something we need to talk about. Especially the part about my grandfather. But right now, that’s not the most pressing thing we need to deal with. We need to figure out what the hell to do about this mess.”
“I’m sorry. You’ve just come home. You’re exhausted. You probably just want to eat and sleep and now you’ve got all this to deal with.”
He drew her back, his hands on her shoulders as he gave her a firm look. “Baby girl, listen to me well. None of this is your fault. Understand? None of it. You didn’t ask for this asshole to start creeping on you, this is all on him. Not you. Got it?”
She took a deep breath, let that settle in. It wasn’t her fault. She hadn’t done this. She didn’t know who was doing this or why. She couldn’t figure it out.
But Jed was here now. He would help her. She wasn’t alone.
“All right. Only, what are we going to do?”
He frowned. “Have you still got the stuff he left?”
“Yeah, in here.” She took hold of the hand that wasn’t bleeding and led him into the kitchen. They passed the baseball bat and she reached down and picked it up. “We need to secure that window.”
“I’ll take care of it.” He lifted the bat from her hand and carried it into the kitchen, setting it down on the table, next to the flowers. She hadn’t kept them in vases after the first bunch so they were a little worse for wear. “I didn’t want to throw them out as they were evidence. I looked up how to deal with a stalker and it said to gather all the evidence possible.”
“I’m guessing it also said to call the police, yes?” he asked gently.
“Yeah. I suppose I didn’t want to think I had a problem worth calling the cops about.” A wave of dizziness washed over her.
He pulled out a chair. “Sit down. I don’t like your color. When is the last time you ate?” He poured her a glass of water.
“Can’t eat. It just keeps coming back up when I do.”