Page 12 of Threat of Danger
“I haven’t even seen him yet.” She picked up the chair and turned from him. “Good to see you,” she lied. “Sorry, but I have a lot to get done tonight.”
He stepped around her and blocked her path.
“How long are you staying?” His tone suggested he would prefer to drive her to Burlington right now and put her on a plane.
“Three weeks.” A brand-new decision Jess was regretting already.
Derek frowned and shook his head—as if that timing didn’t work for him.
His reaction baffled her.Why does he care?
“What are you doing with that chair?” His question was abrupt and off topic. Everything about him was unwelcoming, as if his first burst of anger still simmered invisibly under his skin.
Jess’s defenses went right up.What doeshehave to be angry about?
“I’m making the house handicap-accessible,” she told him in a none-of-your-business tone.
He seemed to miss the hint. “I’ll help.”
“No.” She nearly stepped back but caught herself and pretended that she was just rocking on her heels. No way was she backing down. But the truth was, she didn’t want him near her, all large and looming, and everything she wanted to forget.
A stubborn glint stole into his eyes. “I can help your mom. You don’t have to stay.”
“She’smymother.”
His voice was flat as he said, “First time you remembered that in a decade.”
The words hurt all the more because they were true. And yet,stillnone of his business. She resisted grinding her teeth. “It’s difficult for me to be here.”
“Time to forgive, Jess.” For a moment he sounded ... tired?
She, on the other hand, was jumpy and buzzing with nerves. “Easy for you to say,” she snapped, then dialed it back a notch because she didn’t want to give him the power to make her upset. “I thought you were telling me to leave.”
“Forgive from afar.” He stabbed his fingers through his short, dark hair. “And easy for me to say?Easy?Jesus, Jess, is that what you think?”
“You don’t seem to be having any trouble being here.”
The staggering sense of betrayal choked her. Her life had been destroyed here, on this land, and nobody seemed to care. Everybody just went on with their lives, and expected her to get over the past.
How could Derek live here, after those three nightmarish days they’d spent in the woods, the prisoners of a madman? After what had been done to Jess? Derek had been tied too, so he could watch, so he could tell the story later, after she’d been killed. That had been the attacker’s plan.
The masked man had planned on killing Jess, then sending her body through the wood chipper. He was going to feed her to the crows. There wouldn’t be enough left of her for the police—or for a funeral—so he was counting on Derek to tell the tantalizing tale of his genius.
After Jess had been released from the hospital, all she’d asked from her parents was that they move away from here.You will heal, her mother had said.This is the land of your ancestors. This is your heritage.
Her parents had chosen the family land and family business over her. And—more stunningly—they’d expected her to be OK with that. They’d expected her toget over it.
She hadn’t.
She’d quit college—since she was going locally—and went to live with her father’s youngest sister, Aunt Linda, who had moved to LA decades before.
Derek had joined the navy.
Jess had thought that he felt the same as she did about staying here—that the very idea was obscene and impossible. She’d been wrong. He’d come back and settled in.
Derek put his hands on the chair to take it from her, but she wouldn’t let go.
He raised an eyebrow. “You’re stronger than you look.”
