Page 18 of Nick
“I won’t know until I get a chance to question him.” Rafe gently grasped her shoulders before pulling her into a hug, and Nick felt an unreasonable spur of anger swirl deep in his gut. He quickly quashed it down, knowing he had no right to feel anything when it came to Gracie. She wasn’t his. With his job, he knew it wouldn’t be fair to even contemplate making her a part of his life.
Antonio slipped through the door, the brown paper bag held in his right hand, and his eyes met Nick’s. He gave an almost imperceptible nod and Nick knew the gun would be turned over to the sheriff’s office for prints and tracing the serial number, if there was one.
Gracie stared at the man seated in her dining chair. “Who are you?”
He kept his lips zipped, like he knew any answer he gave would dig the hole he was in deeper. Guess it wasn’t his first rodeo, Nick thought. Standing with his arms crossed, he watched the man’s face, the stubborn set of his jaw.
“I want a lawyer.”
“Look, he speaks.” Rafe pointed to the badge on his hip. “I haven’t even read him his rights yet. Guess he’s been arrested a time or two, that or he’s a fan of cop shows on TV.”
“My guess is the former,” Antonio piped in, moving to stand a few steps closer to Gracie, bending to speak softly in her ear, though Nick heard every word. “Rafe and Nick are going to take him to the sheriff’s office. I’m gonna call Momma, and have her and Dad stay with you until we figure out who he is and what he was doing sneaking around your apartment with a gun.”
“Gun? What gun?”
Antonio held up the paper bag she’d handed him earlier, and all the color drained from her face. Nick’s hand’s itched to pull her close, comfort her, and promise everything was going to be alright. Instead, he balled his hands into fists to keep from reaching out. He still didn’t understand this pull he felt every time he was near her. Heck, he barely knew her, had only seen her a handful of times, and yet he knew there was something there. Something—special.
Antonio surprised him by handing Nick the gun, but he realized Rafe would have his hands full cuffing and escorting their suspect to the awaiting car. Looked like he’d be responsible for handling the evidence, at least momentarily.
“Go with them, Antonio. I’ll be fine. You don’t need to call Ms. Patti.”
Antonio chuckled. “When word gets back to my momma that we caught a prowler outside your apartment, and believe me she’ll hear, and finds out that I didn’t immediately call her—well, let’s just say I like having my hide in one piece.”
A tiny smile tugged at the corners of Gracie’s mouth. “She’s not that bad.”
“Yeah, she is. But we love her.”
Nick grabbed the front of the stalker’s shirt and pulled him to his feet, and Rafe snapped handcuffs on his wrist. The guy took a deep breath, opened his mouth like he was going to say something, and then shut it. Guess it was too much to hope he’d spill his guts.
As Rafe started to walk past with his prisoner, Antonio told him he’d meet them at the station as soon as his mother got there to stay with Gracie. Rafe gave a curt nod and walked out of the apartment. Nick met Gracie’s gaze, reading the question in her eyes, but couldn’t give her answers. Not yet anyway.
This thing, whatever it was between them—chemistry, attraction, call it what you will—they’d have to talk about it, because he had the feeling it wasn’t going away.
And he wasn’t sure he wanted it to.
CHAPTER NINE
Nick took thesteps from the second floor of the B&B on silent feet. It was still black outside, and he didn’t want to wake the owner. He hadn’t been able to sleep the previous night, his head filled with pictures of Gracie when he’d left her with Antonio the night before. Accompanying Rafe to the sheriff’s office, they’d interrogated the man he’d caught skulking around the outside of her apartment. Things would have been different if he hadn’t been carrying a gun at the time.
As he’d suspected, the guy was some two-bit piece of garbage who’d caught wind of the job from a buddy currently a guest of the state, doing ten years. Simple enough job, since he’d been provided not only with the name and address of Gracie, but also photos of her. Candid shots of her around Shiloh Springs. At Jill’s Bakery. Daisy’s Diner. But especially at her coffee shop.
The guy had been hired to scare her. Nothing more. To make her jumpy enough to make mistakes. Under their intense questioning, he’d admitted he’d planned to do more than simply scare her, and it had taken every bit of Nick’s self-control to keep from jumping across the table and strangling the man with his bare hands. The thought of this low-life getting his hands on Gracie…
Shaking his head to clear away the thoughts that plagued him all night long, he opened the front door and walked outside, closed it gently behind him, and headed for his car. He’d barely made it into the parking area when he knew something was wrong. The car sat at an abnormal angle, lurching to one side like a drunken sailor.
Squatting down by the front driver’s side tire, it was easy to see the deep slash in it. The back tire was cut too, making them a matched set. He didn’t touch anything, though he doubted they’d be able to pull any prints from them. It was a rental, and probably dozens of people had left prints all over the car and the tires.
“Perfect.”
Straightening slowly, he glanced around, taking in his surroundings, which he should have done in the first place. He’d gotten lax since coming to Shiloh Springs. Instead of focusing on the job, he’d found himself and his mind pulled in too many directions. Reestablishing his relationship with Ms. Patti and Douglas, as well as getting to know the rest of the Boudreaus had him thinking about coming back to the States permanently.
But if he was honest, he knew the reason he hadn’t kept his head in the game, hadn’t focused enough on figuring out who was after him, and her name was Gracie Medeiros.
Something about her that fascinated him. She was pretty, no doubt, but he’d been around beautiful women most of his adult life. Gorgeous women were part of the job, and he’d admit he’d dated his fair share. But there was something about the coffee shop owner that made his heart race. Made his brain lose all train of thought with a simple glance.
He suspected it wouldn’t be long before he made a trip to Huntsville to have an up close and personal chat with Brewster.
Pulling his cellphone from his pocket, he snapped a few quick pics of the tires, and texted them to Rafe, along with a short message. It didn’t take but a few seconds for his response.
