Page 90 of Cornered

Lahela and Daphne burst into laughter. Even Briggs couldn’t help but crack a smile as Fish dropped into his chair.

Their laughter slowed when the waitress arrived with a tray of Juana’s tacos along with bowls of rice and refried beans, and Fish looked like he wanted to kiss her. He filled his plate, only pausing when he realized he was the only one. A taco hovered in his hands, inches from his first bite, when he glanced around the table again.

“What’s wrong with you guys?”

“We should eat before it gets cold.” Lahela set a fish taco on her plate. “We can talk about everything else later. It’s Nash’s birthday. Let’s celebrate.”

“Taco’bout what?” Fish crunched into his taco and smiled. “See what I did there?”

Briggs loved Fish, but reading a room wasn’t where he excelled. He looked over at Lahela, who was pushing her rice around on the plate. It wasn’t his place to bring up the calls and texts right now, but he wasn’t done discussing it.

AN HOUR AND A HALF LATERand with restrained patience, Briggs had forced himself to eat if only to encourage Lahela to do the same. Nash opened his gifts. They laughed, they talked, they ate tacos, and to anyone seated around them they seemed like a group of friends enjoying a normal night out.

What they wouldn’t see was the angst turning Juana’s delicious tacos into something tasteless and heavy in his gut. Or the places his mind was taking him as a former police officer. It was enough that when they had finally paid the bill and were walking through the parking lot to their vehicles, he’dkept to Lahela’s side and vigilantly surveyed the area. Was the person behind the calls and photos out there watching her now?

“So, you’re picking me up tomorrow for the festival?” Lahela asked Daphne when they got to her car.

“Yep.” She looked at Briggs and then back to Lahela. “Are you sure you don’t want us to go with you to the police station?”

“You already know they can’t do anything.”

“But you need to report this.” Nash slid a look at Briggs, understanding passing between them before he said, “Especially because whoever is calling you has changed their tactics with the photos of you at your work and home.”

Lahela’s chin tipped down and her features shifted into worry. Nash wasn’t trying to scare her, but his job with the FBI gave him the same insight Briggs had into these types of cases. Briggs hated that someone was doing this to her and hated it even more that she wasn’t wrong. He’d worked stalking cases, and without any names of possible suspects, there wasn’t a lot the police could do, which put her at a disadvantage.

Briggs put a hand on her shoulder. “I agree with Nash.”

“Listen, guys, I appreciate your concern, I do. And I’m taking it as seriously as I can, but I know”—she looked at Nash and then Briggs, her eyes lingering on his for a few seconds—“there are a lot bigger crimes that need the attention of the police, and I’m not going to distract them with a potential prank caller.”

“We just want you to be safe.” Fish hugged Lahela. “You call us anytime you need us. We’ll be there for you.”

Nash voiced his agreement and then pulled Briggs aside while Daphne and Fish said their goodbyes. “If you can get her to give you a list of potential suspects, I’ll do whatever I can from my position.”

“Thanks, Nash.” Briggs fist-bumped his friend. “Happy birthday, man.”

When Daphne, Fish, and Nash left for the night, Briggs turned to Lahela. “Listen, I know you don’t want to go to the police right now, but I care about you.” There was a shift in the way she was watching him. A softness in her gaze that had him remembering what he’d been hoping to do tonight. The timing wasn’t right in her vulnerable state, but he did need her to listen to him. “If you get another call or text, you’ll go to the police immediately. It’s their job. These kinds of cases can become dangerous, and I need you to understand that.”

“I do.” Her tone wasn’t defensive like he expected. It was assenting, and it made him see that she wasn’t trying to defer the seriousness of the situation so much as maybe she was trying to assure him she was okay. “Is that all?”

He swallowed and fought back the urge to ask her out right now just so he could spend every second with her and keep her safe. Instead, he reached to her cheek and brushed her hair back behind her ear. “I’d also like to make sure you get home safely.”

“I’d appreciate that.” Her eyes dipped to his lips and then back up again. “Thank you, Briggs.”

Relief swelled through him, fighting for space with the mix of attraction and protection already battling in him. For the first time all night, he thought he saw a glimpse of the emotion that made him believe they shared the same feelings for one another. Any other night, he wouldn’t waste another second, but tonight ... tonight hadn’t gone as planned.

FIVE

“YOUHAVE NO IDEAwho it might be?”

It wasn’t like she hadn’t asked herself the same question dozens of times since the calls started, but it was the very last thing she had wanted to focus on tonight while they were celebrating Nash.

Lahela’s gaze moved to Briggs’s headlights in her rearview mirror. It was hard not to let the guilt ripple through her, but at least her house wasn’t far away so Briggs could do his good deed and then be on his way back home.

Any hope she had that Briggs would ask her out disappeared the second she saw his frustrated concern at her decision not to report this latest incident to the police. But he wasn’t there the last time she went in and made a report, only to be told they couldn’t do anything without a list of people to investigate. When the calls started four months ago, she’d only been living here six months and honestly had no idea who would do this. The police officer was kind and patient, but Lahela couldn’t help feeling like she was wasting their time.

Lahela pulled into her driveway and grabbed her purse. Briggs was already parking his truck when she got out of the car and started across her yard to let him know he was fineto go on home. Then her attention snagged on something on her front porch.

Redirecting her steps, she hurried toward her home, not believing what she saw.

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