Page 20 of My Stupid Heart

“I’ve welcomed that woman—Kate—into my home,” Molly said, that sense of dread turning into a nauseous sensation in her belly.

“One last thing,” came Chase’s voice from the counter where Ryker’s phone still sat.

“Oh shit.Sorry, man,” Ryker said, and returned to the kitchen with Sasha and Molly behind him.

“No worries,” Chase said.“It gave me a chance to keep digging.Anyway, it looks like Mrs.Gubler’s daughter was recently taken into custody for shoplifting.”

“Okayyy,” Ryker said.“What did she steal?”

“Film for one of those Fujifilm Instax polaroid cameras.”

OfficerLindenendedhisphone call and joined them in the kitchen, where Chase relayed his information.Obviously, Officer Linden wasn’t happy that a quote-unquotecivilianwas hacking into things.Too fucking bad.It helped that Chase lived on the west coast of Canada and refused to give up his name, location and was calling from a burner phone, so there wasn’t much the Jackson Hole cop could do, anyway.

“Thanks, Chase,” Ryker said, ending the call and glancing at Molly and her daughter.The fact that the woman he loved and the kid he loved were dealing with this gutted him.He hated that he wasn’t there to protect them sooner, and that Sasha’s cat had paid the ultimate price.

Neither woman felt safe in their own home.

But now that they were almost certain of the culprits, he was going to make sure Molly and Sasha were never bothered again.That they always felt safe.Because he would always be with them.

“Police just finished questioning Mr.Huber,” Officer Linden said, accepting tea from Molly.“He hasn’t left his house all night.”Then he glanced at Ryker with a suspicious glint in his eyes.“Said he was told to stay away from Mrs.O’Shea or there would be hell to pay.You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

Ryker shrugged.“Nope.”

The officer tried to hide a smile but did a shit job of it.“Anyway, his neighbors corroborated his story, and we checked the security camera footage that his car didn’t leave the parking garage all night.Camera footage that encompasses his front door also showed that Mr.Huber didn’t leave his apartment all night, either.”Ryker got some side-eye from the cop.“Camera caught a visitor wearing a ball cap that hid his face yesterday, though.”

Ryker cleared his throat and sipped his tea.“Okay, so we can rule Huber outtonight, but the guy is still a creepy stalker who put cameras in the house and harassed Molly.Then he took it out on Sasha by benching her.And let’s not forget the misogynistic things he said to Molly.Calling her a cock-tease and saying sheowedhim for the dates and dinners.The guy has incel creep written all over him.He might not be a cat-killer but he’s still done some pretty heinous shit that can’t go unpunished.”

“Benching a player is not a felony, Mr.McKnight.And we can’t confirm that it was Mr.Huber who installed the cameras or killed the cat.”

“Did you send cops to Mrs.Gubler’s house?”

“We did and nobody was home.”

“They’re on the run,” Molly whispered.“They know we’re on to them.”

“We have an undercover police car and officer parked outside Mrs.Gubler’s home, so as soon as she returns, we’ll have her.”

Molly nodded and gripped her mug tighter before bringing it to her lips.

Their pensive silence was interrupted by the crackle of Officer Linden’s radio clipped to his vest.“We have a 467 in the gated community of Ridgeview Terrace.Address is 146 Buffalo Drive.”

Molly’s eyes bugged out, so did Sasha’s.

“That’s Olivia’s house,” Sasha whispered.

“What’s a467?”Molly asked.

“Domestic disturbance,” Officer Linden said with a veiled calmness that Ryker saw right through.

“That’s where they’ve gone,” Ryker said.“Kate and Sailor fled to Olivia’s house.”

Officer Linden pressed the radio and responded appropriately.

The need to deal with the people who hurt Molly and Sasha gnawed like a mouse at Ryker’s gut.But he wasn’t a cop.And no fucking way was he leaving Molly and Sasha.

“You can go,” he said to Officer Linden.“I’ll stay here with them.”

The cop appeared torn for a second before nodding and heading out, the headlights from his cruiser flashing through the living room window as he pulled a U-turn and left the dead-end road.

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