He’d better not be.
“So are we still looking at the ex? Ethan Barclay? You think the guy got obsessed and can’t let go?”
“Ethan has a history of obsession.” And violence. “Three years ago, his ex-fiancée was killed in a car crash, one week after she’d broken up with him. Then he had another girlfriend, Marjorie…she wound up in the hospital, with broken ribs and a concussion. She filed charges against him, but then…hell, I don’t know what happened. She dropped the charges and vanished. He got away clean.” His fingers tapped against the steering wheel. “So, yeah, I think it’s safe to say the man may have one serious problem with rejection.”
Lex whistled. “Sounds like a serious asshole.”
“Ethan has had plenty of brushes with the law, but nothing has stuck. The guy has been in and out of jail more times than I can count. Or at least, he was, until he turned eighteen. Since then—”
“He’s gotten smarter about avoiding arrest,” Lex guessed.
Chance nodded. “That’s what I figure.” The guy sure hadn’t gone legit.
Gwen’s lights turned off.
Chance tensed.
“Um, man, are you sure he’s the only one obsessed?”
Very slowly, Chance turned his head to stare at his friend.
“What I mean…” Lex rushed to say. “What I mean is that until we have proof that Ethan is our guy, we have to keep our options open.”
Damn straight they did.
Lex bit into his burger. “And I also meant…” He mumbled around the food, “that you’ve got it bad for her.”
Tell me something I don’t know.
He stared back up at Gwen’s window.
***
Her phone rang. Gwen turned in her bed, moving so that her gaze fell on the phone that rested nearby. The phone was on the nightstand and when it rang again, it vibrated, moving slightly against the wooden surface.
She reached out and her fingers curled around the phone. She swiped her finger across the screen. Gwen didn’t recognize the number. She shouldn’t answer it—
She did.
“Hello?” Gwen put the phone to her ear.
Nothing.
Another one of those damn calls.
“This isn’t funny,” she snapped. “Stop calling me. I’m sick of this game, got it?”
She heard the quick exhalation of breath and then… “Never said it was a game.”
The voice was a low, rough rasp. Her heart actually stopped when the man spoke.
“Who is this?” Gwen demanded.
“You smelled good tonight.” He was still talking in that low, raspy voice, as if he wanted to disguise himself. “Like vanilla. You use that vanilla lotion, don’t you? Put it all over your body.”
She pulled the covers closer. She did use vanilla lotion. She kept it on the vanity in her bathroom.
“Scared?” He laughed then. “Are you going to sink under the covers and wish this monster would go away?”
Sink under the covers…
She had sunk beneath the covers.
“Too bad, princess. I’m not some bad dream you can wish away.” His voice roughened. “You’re not going to escape from me.”
“Who is th-this?” She hated that her voice trembled.
“I like those panties you’re wearing. They’re sexy. But you should have ditched the shirt.”
Before she’d climbed into bed, she’d pulled on a pair of bright red panties and an old college t-shirt.
He saw me. It was suddenly hard to breathe.
Sink under the covers…
She was inching even deeper beneath those covers. Dear God…was he watching her right then? Was he in her apartment? “Leave me alone,” she told him.
“Never,” he promised.
The line went dead.
The silence was suddenly too thick. Too terribly thick and consuming. Every muscle in her body was tight because she was afraid that she wasn’t alone.
She’d woken once before and found a man in her bedroom. Ethan had reached out to her and she’d screamed.
Was he back? Had he come for her again?
Maybe her father had been right. Dammit, she hated it when he was right and—
Something scratched against her window. With a sharp cry, Gwen leapt from the bed and raced out of her bedroom.
Chapter Three
Chance’s phone rang. He frowned down at the screen, but he answered quickly. “Valentine—”
“He’s watching me.”
Chance would have recognized Gwen’s voice anywhere. Anytime. But he sure didn’t like the fear that trembled in her words.
“I-I searched my apartment, twice, but the things he said when he called me…he has to be here. He has to be close. He’s watching me.”
“Gwen, baby, slow down.” But he was already reaching for his car door. He motioned to Lex, covered the phone and said… “Keep an eye out.”
Then he was leaping out of the car. The snow was falling even harder. “Tell me what’s happening.”
“He called again.” She wasn’t slowing down. Her words were shooting out in rapid-fire succession. “What he said…he had to see me. He knew how I smelled.”
Chance was in her apartment building and running for the stairs.
“He knew what I was wearing. My…my panties. The t-shirt.”
Chance was on the second level of stairs.
“He could see me,” she said, her words rough. “But I can’t find him. I can’t!”
Chance was on her floor. “Baby, open your door. I’m here.”
He could hear the quick thud of her footsteps. Then the door flew open and Gwen was there. She saw him and she threw herself against him. His arms closed around her¸ the movement as natural as breathing. She trembled against him.
Gwen still had her phone gripped tightly in her hand as she eased back to stare up at him. “He was watching, but he isn’t here. He isn’t.”
He could hear her fear and he hated that she was so terrified. No one should do this to her.
Without her heels, Gwen stood at only five foot four in front of him. She seemed far too delicate standing there. Too breakable.
“He said I wasn’t going to escape from him.” She glanced back over her shoulder and into her apartment. Chance realized that she’d turned on every light in the place. “He said I’d never get away.”
The SOB was dead wrong.
***
An hour later, Chance had Gwen safely installed at his place. He’d sent Lex to thoroughly search her apartment and to go ahead and change her locks. Chance had done a sweep before they’d left the place, and he knew that the guy harassing Gwen hadn’t actually been inside her home. At least, not when the jerkoff had called her.