A knock on the window caused me to yelp and jerked our gazes apart.
“Dale,” Rick said, dropping the window down an inch. “You were quick.”
A slight man with ginger hair peered in at us. “I was in the area.” He glanced at me and flashed his badge. “She okay?”
“Yeah, just shaken.” Rick took my hand, studied my teary eyes and my jerky breaths then turned back to the window. “How the fuck could this have happened?” The rage in his voice was just simmering beneath the surface now, catching in his throat, rasping into the air.
Dale shrugged. “She’s a madwoman, we already know that, but this was a big mistake on her part. I’ll have some guys go over and pick her up. She’s done it this time, if it’s her that is—”
“Of course it’s fucking her,” Rick bit out. “Insane bitch.”
The plain-clothed officer gnawed at the inside of his cheek. “You and I know that, but forensics will want to prove it.” He leaned so he could catch my eye through the narrow opening of the window and his voice softened. “Can I have your keys, sweetie? That way we can get in and do our stuff without breaking your front door down.”
“I didn’t pause to shut it,” I said shakily, remembering my terrifying dash from the house, convinced a bullet was whizzing toward me.
Rick let go of my hand, wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close. “Shh,” he murmured onto the top of my head. “It’s okay now, babe, settle down.”
I pressed into him, his strength and air of possessive protectiveness like a warm blanket closing around me. I shut my eyes and drew in his now familiar scent. It slowed my breathing, calmed my soul.
“Keys, Dana,” he whispered.
“Er, I think they’re still in my car, in the ignition.”
“That your car there, miss?” the officer asked.
“Yes.” I opened my eyes and stared at my blue Mercedes, relieved that I seemed to be able to focus once more.
“And your name?”
“Dana, Dana Wilcox.”
“She’s at 243 Highgrove,” Rick added.
“Not for a while, she isn’t.” The officer’s gaze caught mine again. “You got someone you can go stay with, someone out of the city?”
I shook my head.
“She’ll stay with me,” Rick said firmly, his hold on my body tightening. “I got her into this fucking mess and I’ll look after her until it’s straightened out.”
Dale chewed on his thumbnail and studied Rick. He sighed. “Okay, I can live with that. I’ve already got officers going past your place twice a day. I’ll up it, see if I can get a couple staked outside until we’ve tracked her down.”
“Perfect.”
“You want anything from the house?” he asked, looking at me again. “I could get it dropped off at Mr. Lewis’ for you.”
“Mmm, yes, thanks that would be great. My purse and my laptop, perhaps some clothes, anything from the bedside drawers and the wardrobe will do.” I didn’t really know what to ask for but that sounded the right sort of thing to say.
“No problem.” He smiled kindly at me. “But you should both get out of here now. I’ll call when we’ve brought Miss Sharp in for questioning. Shouldn’t take long but until then stay low.”
Chapter Six
When we arrived at Rick’s there were two bored-looking guys sitting in a dark-blue sedan outside his gates. The gates swung open and I noticed the color begin to return to his knuckles as we crunched up the gravel.
As soon as we stepped into the house and he’d done his ritual with the alarm system, he gathered me into his arms.
“I’m so sorry, so fucking sorry about this, Dana,” he whispered into my hair. “I never meant for this to happen, not in a million years.”
“It’s not your fault.”
He pulled back just far enough to look down into my face. “Of course it is. I was being stubborn, refusing to let her crazy threatening letters and stalking ways impinge on my life. I was determined to carry on as normal, working, playing…dating. Okay, I had to have a few extra security measures but I just accepted that as part of my job, part of being a public figure.” His eyes were tortured and burned with the weight of regret and responsibility.
“Rick, shh,” I said, the tip of my index finger resting on his lower lip and over his soul patch. “You had every right to carry on as normal. Like you said to me last week, if you didn’t she would be winning.”
“But it seems she’s not going to be content until she has won and the fact she’s threatened you has really got me mad, like fucking seething mad.” He released me and stepped away, his fists clenched and his spine straight as a steel rod. “I just want to go ’round and fucking punch her, but I can’t because she a goddamn woman. What kind of man would that make me?”