“The staff loved your writing.”
And he didn’t even make her ask or wait through small talk. Lord, she could love this man. She wanted to hug him, but that seemed inappropriate here and now.
She clasped her hands together. “That’s great. Awesome. Amazing.”
“I’m going to have my secretary book you a flight to Texas first thing tomorrow. You’ll come back on Monday, the fifteenth.”
Her smile faded. “You’re trying to send me away over Valentine’s Day.”
“You bet. He can’t try to kill you if you’re not in town.”
She rubbed her hand down her arms. “He’ll find someone else, then.”
His determined expression faltered. “I didn’t think about that. All I was thinking was getting you out of harm’s way.”
“I couldn’t live with myself if I came back and saw the woman who was supposed to be me, her face in the paper, those memorials people do…she’ll be this wonderful, nice, sweet woman who volunteered at the children’s hospital.” She pushed forward, stopping only a few inches from him. And a few inches below him, of course. “We have a chance to actually catch this guy. We know I’m his target. We can stop him.”
She saw a mix of disbelief and awe on his expression. “You’re serious?”
“You bet,” she said, using his earlier words.
“And you have a plan, I suppose?”
“Well…no. Not yet. It’s not something you can just look up on the Internet. We’ll come up with something.”
“I know one thing: I’m not leaving your side on Valentine’s Day.”
She shook her head. “As appealing as that idea is, that’ll scare the guy away. He’ll find some other gal who’s not lucky enough to have a big, bad dude watching over her.”
“I’ll stay out of sight, but not far away. Not for a second.”
“That could work.” His protectiveness warmed her down to her toes. “I’ve been reading up on Kiss and Kill Cupid. Typically he’s broken into a single woman’s apartment while she slept or sometime that evening. Last year he deviated from his M.O. and broke into a couple’s apartment.”
“And strangled her right next to her boyfriend whom he chloroformed.” His expression was sour. “I’ve been reading, too.”
“He’s getting more daring. Which means we have to be more careful.”
He touched her chin, tilting her face up to his. “I don’t like this.”
“I agree. But I can’t live with hiding out and letting this monster get someone else. And I don’t think you could, either. We just have to play this smart.”
“When you heard his thoughts at the coffee shop, did you get a good look around?” His eyes widened. “That’s why you looked so distracted.”
“I’m only a klutz when I’ve heard someone plotting my demise. I did check for men who were looking at me in menacing ways but didn’t see anyone obvious. But there were people I couldn’t see on the other side of the line. I’m not sure I’d recognize anyone there if I saw him again.” She decided to broach the subject. “Except for you and Owen, and I know it’s not you.”
“If this guy’s been watching you, and he probably has, then he knows that you and I have had lunch. He doesn’t have to know it’s business. We’re in the beginning phase of dating. So we go out on Valentine’s Day. But we kiss good-bye at the door—a really good kiss—and I leave. Or so it appears.”
“And sneak around the back of the building, where I let you in. He’s outside…watching me.” She scrubbed her hands down her arms at the thought. “He thinks I’m alone. I’ve got a roommate, but I overheard her making Valentine’s Day plans with her boyfriend. I’ll make sure to walk in front of the windows a few times, so he knows I’m alone. Then I’ll close the curtains and tuck in for the night.”
“Is there a fire escape or any exterior way for him to get in?”
“I’m on the second floor. The stairs to the fire escape don’t look as though they would work. It can be climbed, I suppose, if someone was good at that kind of thing.” She gave him a mock-suspicious look. “Like you are.”
“As soon as he’s in, I flatten him.” He flexed a fist big enough to flatten about anybody.
She ran her fingers over his hand, looking up at him through her eyelashes. “My, sir, what a big fist you have.”
“All the better to save your pretty little ass, my dear.”