Page 26 of Montana Heat

He nodded. “Definitely someone who was trying to hurt you. Probably more, to be honest.”

I kept staring at my car. I couldn’t even seem to make sense of his words. “What are you saying?”

“What was done to that vehicle was meant to cause serious damage. Run you off the road, maybe even kill you.”

I rubbed my eyes. I’d known the stalker wanted to hurt me, had scars on my knees to prove it. But this felt so much more immediate.

“The stalker is getting more dangerous,” I finally whispered.

“It seems that way.” Jensen nodded solemnly. “I’m sorry. Honestly, you’re lucky you made it here in one piece. I can think of half a dozen ways this combination of tampering could’ve been deadly.”

I shook my head, panic starting to hum along my skin. I’d been close to possibly dying and hadn’t even known it. Thought I was escaping toward safety, when really, I’d been heading into more danger.

“If it hadn’t been for your spark plugs going bad and causing your car not to start—a completely unrelated issue, by the way—nobody would’ve ever caught this. You would’ve just been driving one day soon, and catastrophe would’ve hit.”

I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to tamp down the panic.

“Hey.” He stepped closer.

I didn’t know what to do or say. I was probably overreacting, but I couldn’t help it.

The stalker had taken yet another piece of my life when I’d thought I was safe. First my house, and now my car. He waswith me everywhere. I couldn’t escape him. No matter what I did.

My vision blurred, and my chest tightened to the point where I couldn’t breathe.

“Kenzie?”

I heard Jensen’s voice almost at a distance through the roar of panic in my head. I wanted to respond, but I couldn’t seem to force myself to do so. I felt like I was going to shake apart.

Jensen ran his hand up my arm. “Hey, City. Stay with me, okay? It’s going to be all right.”

The smell of him got through to me in a way his words couldn’t. That spicy, clean scent I’d already come to recognize as his. It was a tiny thread of something familiar, and my mind latched on.

I couldn’t stop myself; I stepped closer. He gently pulled me into his arms. Almost immediately, I felt calmer. Safer. Maybe I didn’t quite relax, but the panic receded.

“You’re not in this alone,” he whispered. “We’re going to help you figure this out.”

I nodded at his words, rubbing my cheek against his shirt. I gripped the cotton tighter in my fist, reveling in the soothing timbre of his voice and the strength of his touch.

I could only pray what he was saying was the truth.

Chapter Seven

Jensen

Kenzie was only a couple of steps away from having a breakdown. I’d never had a stalker, but I could remember the feeling of panic wash over me as a kid.

There’d been so much I couldn’t control then: my addict parents and how they would behave. Then once I was in foster care, I’d never known how long any given family would want or have room for me.

Feeling like you weren’t in control of your life was pretty fucking scary. So, if Kenzie needed me to hold her for a little bit while she figured out how to put herself back together, I would damn well do that.

Not that it was any hardship to hold this petite beauty with her big personality. Hell, I’d driven all the way around the opposite side of town just to have a few minutes of talking with her before coming here. I’d probably scared her to death. When I’d made that joke about not kidnapping her, she’d laughed a little too brightly.

And I had no idea why I’d felt the need to talk to her about the cabin I was fixing up. That wasn’t something I generally broughtup with anyone, even though it was some of my best woodworking. But somehow, I wanted Kenzie to know about it.

That didn’t make any sense at all. Hell, none of my behavior when it came to this woman did.

“Charlie told us some of the facts of the case, but do you want to talk about it?” I finally asked. Talking about it at least got stuff out in the open where it didn’t have to feel like it was suffocating you. I knew that for a fact, too. Although I wasn’t very good at following my own advice sometimes.

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