She fought back the grief that always threatened to grab her by the throat when she thought of her missing aunt. Besides, the last thing she wanted to do was get upset because then she might start to stutter, an affliction she’d had since she’d been a young girl but had almost mastered now.
She couldn’t get emotional and start stuttering in front of Jimmy. She’d be mortified. She’d spent a lifetime of torture being bullied by peers and most recently by the man she’d thought she loved, who had obviously not been the prince of her dreams.
Jimmy finished the last of his coffee and stared down into his empty cup. “You know, I was just thinking about that song by Air Supply, the one where there are two less lonely people in the world.”
He looked up at her, his eyes dark and soulful and once again beckoning her to fall into their depths. “Since I’ve been in town I really don’t hang out much with people other than other cops. I haven’t made a lot of friends and I was just thinking maybe you and I could hang out...just while you wait for your prince...you know as friends.”
He gave her an awkward smile. “Or maybe it’s just a dumb idea.”
She studied him intently, noting the faint hint of color that filled his lean cheeks, the insane length of his dark lashes as he cast his gaze back down into his empty cup.
She wasn’t sure if it was her own loneliness she felt or his, but a hollowness welled up inside her. “I think that would be nice...as friends,” she quickly added.
She wanted to make certain that he understood that she wasn’t agreeing to actually date him. Heck, she wasn’t even sure that’s what he intended anyway.
“Great, then maybe some night we could get a drink at the tavern or see a movie or something.”
“I’d like that, and now I know I’ve kept you here too long.” She rose from the table as he did the same.
“Are you sure you feel all right about being here alone now?” he asked as she walked him to the front door.
“I’m fine. Maybe with Aunt Liz’s situation I just overreacted to normal circumstances.” She frowned thoughtfully as she thought of Highway’s frantic barks in the backyard. “Still, there’s no question in my mind that somebody was in the woods. That’s the only thing that would have set off Highway.”
“I’ll talk to Travis first thing tomorrow morning and see if maybe he was still on the trail of that feral pig.”
“Knowing it was him would definitely make me feel better.” She opened the door, surprised to find she was still reluctant to tell him good-night, but it was getting late and this hadn’t been a social call. “Thank you, Jimmy, for coming at a moment’s notice.”
He stepped past her and out the door. “Anytime, Sheri. Anytime you feel uncertain or afraid, don’t hesitate to call me.”
By the time Sheri closed the door behind him a warm glow infused her. There was no question that she liked Jimmy. She would even confess that she was physically drawn to him, but certainly the attraction had nothing to do with anything other than friendship.
She could use a friend, she thought as she locked the door and then began to turn out all the lights in the kitchen and living room.
There were plenty of people who were regulars at her shop, acquaintances but not real friends. With Marlene and Roxy and Aunt Liz, Sheri had never really missed having friendships with other people. Family had filled her up, but now that family had been fractured.
She entered her bedroom, where Highway lay on a rug at the foot of her bed. He raised his head, his tail beating a happy rhythm against the floor at the sight of her.
She sank down beside him and wrapped her arms around his thick, muscled neck. It was like holding a living, breathing teddy bear.
“You’re a good boy, Highway,” she said. He turned his head and gazed at her with adoring eyes. She released her hold on him and stood to change out of her clothes and into her nightgown. “I just wish I knew who you were barking at when I got home tonight.”
As she went into the adjoining bathroom to finish getting ready for bed, she hoped Jimmy found out that it had been Travis in her backyard.
She reminded herself that there was no reason to feel uneasy. Throughout the years there had been times when hunters or hikers had accidentally come onto her property.
She left the bedroom and got into bed and shut off the light on the nightstand. Within minutes she heard the soft sound of Highway snoring.
Jimmy. She had a feeling he’d be a good friend and it would be nice to fill some of the empty evening hours with human conversation instead of the one-sided monologues she shared with Highway.
She closed her eyes and tried to bring a vision of Jimmy into her head, but instead her thoughts drifted to her missing aunt, the sound of Highway’s frantic barking and the window she didn’t remember opening. Had somebody followed her home or had she simply been freaked out by a car that was coincidentally going in the same direction she’d been traveling?
Despite the lingering warmth of Jimmy’s visit, it took her a very long time to finally allow the uneasiness that plagued her to dissipate enough that she could fall asleep.
* * *
Something had to be done about the damned dog. The man stood in the deep cover of the woods, the only illumination a faint beam of moonlight that managed to find its way through the leafy trees that surrounded him.
The dog was like a hound from hell and had to be neutralized before he could get to Sheri. He leaned his back against a tree trunk as he stared at the now-darkened cottage.
And what had the detective been doing out here?
He’d been watching the cottage for weeks now, pleased to realize that Sheri was definitely a creature of habit. She returned home from the store about the same time each day, spent her spare time alone and often in the backyard.
She would have been an easy target, but the appearance of the detective tonight had confused him. Had the dog barking at him made Sheri afraid enough to call the law?
Surely the dog barked all the time when he was outside. That’s what dogs did, they chased squirrels and barked at the wind and chased their own tails.
Maybe Detective Jimmy Carmani and Sheri were starting some sort of a relationship? If that was the case, then he’d have to move fast to take Sheri to his underground bunker where hopefully she would be a far better candidate for his intentions than her aunt and the woman before Liz.
Liz. He frowned and clenched his fists at his sides. He’d been so sure that she was the right one, so certain that she would break and become the woman he needed her to be.
But she’d proven to be too strong, too bullheaded. After three and a half months of captivity she still showed no fear, no hint of weakness. She would have to be disposed of, as Agnes Wilson had been eliminated before her.
He focused his attention back on the small, moonlit cottage. There was his future. Sheri was the right one. He knew it in his heart, felt it in his very soul.
She was sweet and soft and he had a feeling it wouldn’t take her long to understand that her true destiny was to be his wife, to care take for him as she did all the wild animals in the forest.
She was the right one to take the place of his dutiful, submissive wife he’d lost. A man could only be alone for so long.
Now all he had to figure out was how to get past the dog and take what he knew belonged to him.
Jimmy caught up with Travis at ten the next morning at the Wolf’s Head Tavern. The place wouldn’t