Page 178 of The Woman Left Behind

“This morning, I had a station full of women charging ex-officers with stalking, harassment, attempted coercive sexual assault and actual sexual assault. Seven women were stopped for alleged traffic violations and a deputy wearing this exact goddamned uniform tried to barter a blowjob for forgiving a ticket. Five of those women took the ticket, which they swear was falsified, so their fines were excessive, but they told him to go fuck himself. However, two women, the younger ones, the easier ones to manipulate and scare, got on their knees for this monster. None of these women came forward to report, because they knew it would go nowhere, and they had to live for years with the fear it might happen again and the injustice it happened at all.”

My heart sank, and I swallowed.

Harry kept letting it out.

“That might be the tip of the iceberg. Since that seal has been broken, we’re preparing for there to be more.”

“Oh, honey,” I said softly.

Harry kept going, “The same man who did that to those women is on the run for more than those heinous crimes, and obviously, that isn’t spray-painting my house. It tracks that he assisted a local couple in an insurance fraud and subsequent frame job, he crossed state lines to take the lives of your parents, he continued an extortion scheme for a decade and a half, he murdered a man who found out what he’d done, he used department resources to cover it up, and now the man who helped him do it is very dead. And there are three people who have gone into hiding for very good reason. If this guy keeps it up, they’re all next.”

I pressed my lips together and waited for him to get it all out.

“Which means I have to find him not only so they don’t get dead, but so he can pay for all he’s done and just simply end the liberty of a man who is an out-and-out menace. And not least of that, to get the woman I have deep feelings for, the woman I sleep beside and wake up next to, answers and justice.”

I stayed silent, sensing he wasn’t done.

“Now, I learn when you were nineteen fucking years old…”

Oh Lord.

He was losing it.

“…he sat on this house and followed you for the purposes of scaring you, warning you, if you knew what he thought your parents knew, or just dicking with you, because that’s who this motherfucker is. He knew your folks were gone because he took them from you. He wasn’t waiting for their return. Then, after he committed that act, he came back to my fucking town and fucked with you, my fucking woman.”

Totally losing it.

“Baby,” I whispered.

“So that, Lillian, all of that is what’s troubling me,” he concluded.

I didn’t know what to do.

He was more than prickly. He wasn’t inviting approach.

But he was Harry.

My Harry.

So what if we were new?

He’d had an incredibly shitty day after weeks of shitty days and freaking years of working with hugely shitty people.

I got off the couch and walked to him.

Harry didn’t move a muscle when I got close and curled my fingers around either side of his neck.

“I have a new doorbell with a camera,” I said softly.

“Lillian—”

I squeezed his neck and talked over him. “I have a thermostat I don’t have to remember to turn down. I didn’t even have to program it to turn itself down.”

A muscle in his cheek jumped.

“I’ve had dinner at The Lodge, something that is rare, because I can’t afford it. Same with the Bon Amie. I’ve also had my first spa visit,” I reminded him.

“Lill,” he murmured.

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