Page 84 of Love Me Gently

“Yeah, but a man like him doesn’t usually show up and make those threats, either. He must have something else at play.”

“Where’s his wife?”

“Trina,” I stressed, because I wasnevergoing to call her that when it came to him, “is safe at a friend’s house.”

“Robbie’s?”

“Dad was still at church and Robbie’s the best shooter I know.”

Chief sighed and looked at his booted feet. “Know you care about her, and I’m not the only one who’s happy she’s back in town, Cole, but this could cause problems.”

Big problems, especially if I was arrested and left Trina unprotected. “How much help can I get ensuring she’s safe?”

He pushed his lips to the side. “I’ll call Boone’s chief and see if he has any men he can spare. Would call the county but we’re turning the corner into an election year, and you never know how politics play into decision-making.”

Our county sheriff’s office was filled with good men, but Jonathan Wolf was powerful, and even the best men could fold under the right kind of pressure.

It was still a risky call. Which meant I’d be calling Kip as soon as I left the station.

“That all?” I asked.

Chief gazed out the window, lingering on nothing and finally brought his gaze back to me. “Folks in town are starting to whisper. Word’s getting out. How’s she doing?”

“Healing, I think,” I told him. “But she’s got a long way to go.”

“People heal quicker with loved ones around them.”

“Think she’s taken all of that she can get for a while.”

“I think what I’m trying to say is, you keep her hidden away too long, and the gossip that starts won’t help her any. Besides, you get her out and around people, that’s more eyes on her. More of our own looking out for another.”

“Right.” I got it loud and clear.

It’d be a lot easier for something to happen if she was tucked away on my mountain. Something that could put me in the line of fire, too, and while that was the last thing I cared about, it’d bring more questions to our office, and no one wanted that. He had a point, especially if Jonathan stayed close. “Anything else?”

“Enjoy the day, sorry to drag you in here when I know you got a long one ahead of you.”

I held out my hand and shook Tim’s, and with that done, hurried out of the office, barely sparing Eline a wave as I left.

Kip’s number pulled up, it was already calling him before I climbed into the truck.

Thirty

Trina

My heart was racing, and I couldn’t sit still the entire time Cole was gone. Now that we were back in his truck, everything was magnified. My fears. My memories.

All the things I’d done before that had somehow led me right back to this man driving me through a town I remembered so vividly and yet was so different.

Growing.

Maybe, somehow, in the last week, I was starting to do that, too.

“You need to tell me,” I whispered. My hands were tangled and twisted together, knuckles aching on my fingers. I couldn’t sit still. He picked me up from Robbie’s, said we’d talk soon, and then took me in a direction that wasn’t at all back to his house.

“Later, Trina. I want to pick up the girls before they get worried. But things are okay.”

“You promised,” I reminded him. “You said you’d tell me everything.”

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