Page 50 of The Desperate Warrior

“Is she there?” Adrian hissed. “Put the home-wrecker on the phone!”

Something in Jules’s mind tore loose. Before she realized what was happening, her feet shuffled forward. She stepped up beside Brock, ready to fight. “I hear you have something to say to me.”

Surprise flicked in Adrian’s eyes, but it only took her a second to recover. “You have no right to come between me and my husband.”

Jules met her glare full-on. “You and Brock are no longer married.”

Adrian scoffed. “That doesn’t change the fact that you’re destroying my family. I hate you,” she seethed.

Before Jules could launch a rebuttal, Brock placed a hand on her arm. “Don’t get in the mud with her. It’s not worth it.”

Reflexively, Jules pushed his hand away. “I’ll be the judge of that.” She looked Adrian squarely in the eyes. “Any woman who would lie to her child just to manipulate her ex is the real home-wrecker. No wonder Brock left you.”

Adrian gasped. “How dare you?”

Brock intervened with a firm, “That’s enough.” He looked at the screen. “Stop telling Trevor I said things that I didn’t. Trying to turn him against me will only hurt him. Think about your son for once and what he needs instead of yourself.”

Adrian crossed her arms, a spiteful grin wrapping her lips. “I’m not doing you any favors. You made your bed, now you can lie in it.” She clicked off the call.

Brock turned on Jules, his expression thunderous. “Why did you do that?”

“Do what?” she demanded. “She’s the one who attacked me.”

“Yeah, and you poured gasoline on the fire. You know she’s unstable.”

“Yeah,” Jules said hotly. “I kind of picked up on that. And for the record, I’m not a home-wrecker.”

He held up his hands in weary frustration. “I never said you were.”

She got up in his face, still stinging from Adrian’s hateful accusations. “You and I are no longer together, so Adrian doesn’t have to worry about me getting in the way of anything.”

He tightened his jaw, dark eyes flashing with both hurt and fury. “I got that loud and clear.”

She lifted her chin. “Good. I’m glad we got that established.” With that, she turned and hobbled out of the room, her teeth clenched.

What a horrible, horrible woman!

Her heart ached for Brock, for Trevor, and for herself.

Chapter 13

Going back to work was just as hard as Jules feared it would be. By ten o'clock, her entire body ached, and it felt like her skull might burst from the pressure building behind her eyes. Thankfully, LouAnna had known Jules wouldn’t be ready to assist in surgery. Instead, she assigned Jules to the front office, where she worked on scheduling procedures and updating electronic medical records. It wasn’t glamorous, but Jules was relieved to have a desk job for the day.

Even though she was doing much better without her crutches, walking was still a struggle. Nikki had been helping around the house ever since the accident—running errands and making sure Jules didn’t overdo it. Brock made a point of sticking to her like glue. He’d followed her to the clinic this morning, and she had no doubt that he was holed up in his car and doing surveillance on the building.

Ever since their blowup last week over the video call with Adrian, things had been tense between them. He was polite but detached, treating her with a cool respect that frustrated the heck out of her. Then again, how else was he supposed to act? She’d made it crystal clear that the two of them weren’t getting back together. Jules kept reminding herself that she should beglad Brock had finally gotten the message and was keeping her at a distance.

Strangely, she wasn’t.

Her conflicting feelings weren’t making any sense. She was worse than a ping pong ball, ricocheting in every direction.

The PI still hadn’t been able to locate Steve Randall. It was as if he’d vanished from the face of the earth. Luke questioned Steve’s boss and coworkers. What he learned was disturbing. Steve had a short temper. He’d been given several warnings and was on the verge of losing his job when he got into a heated argument with his boss and stormed out of his workplace. When Luke questioned Steve’s son, the man admitted that his father had a history of violence. He’d hit Lisa once and had beaten his son on several occasions after having too much to drink. Luke got the impression that the son was relieved that his father hadn’t tried to contact him. Luke interviewed Steve’s daughter, who told a similar story.

The only bit of useful information Luke gleaned was that Steve loved to fish at Eagle Mountain Lake. It was a slim lead, but it was all they had to go on. Luke was methodically combing the area and checking out all of the cabins. Nikki had volunteered to go with him a couple of times, saying that two sleuths were better than one. Her cousin was so transparent. She was setting her sights on Luke. Nikki always got what she wanted when it came to men. The poor guy didn’t stand a chance.

The PI’s report on Dean Powell was interesting but not a total surprise. More than anything, it was a repeat of what was happening to her. A little less than a year ago, Dean developed a fascination with a woman to whom he’d sold a home. They dated briefly, but then she broke up with him because he was growing way too possessive. At which point, Dean began stalking her—showing up everywhere she was and even brought her rosesseveral times. The woman confronted Dean, but he denied that he was stalking her and begged her to get back together with him. When she refused, he threw a tantrum that rattled her enough to call the police and get a restraining order. After that, Dean backed off, but the woman, Sabrina, said that she’d spotted him a month ago outside of her place of work and feared that he might be following her again.

Dean was creepy, but was he dangerous? Jules’s gut instinct told her that he wasn’t, but Brock might argue differently. As Sutton Smith pointed out in the video call, they had to take every possible threat seriously. Especially since Jules had never seen Steve Randall’s face in her nightmare—only a man coming towards her with a gun. However, she was sure it was him.

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