Page 18 of The Agent
“It’s not my call. I already suggested that Natalie stay with a friend and she refused because she didn’t want her stalker to target anyone else. So I sent a professional bodyguard to protect her.” Tully shrugged. “But if you think she’ll let you come ...”
Leland gave Tully a thumbs-up behind Dawn’s back.
Dawn assessed Tully with a narrow-eyed stare. “You’d better not be messing with me.”
“Call her yourself,” he said.
Dawn flopped back down in the chair. “It sounds exactly like what Natalie would decide. She won’t budge if she thinks she’s protecting her friends. She can be stubborn.”
“Of course, you don’t have a stubborn bone in your body,” Leland said.
Dawn nudged his sneaker with hers. “And your slow southern drawl doesn’t fool any of us into thinking you’re a pushover.”
“There’s no lack of strong personalities in this room,” Tully said with a grin. “Keeps life interesting.”
“Is the bodyguard really good?” Dawn’s gaze was pinned on Tully again.
“One of my best.” He propped his hip against a desk. “I’m also going to install some additional security cams at Natalie’s house. Leland, I want to set up a feed that my people can monitor from here.”
Leland looked at him with an odd half smile. “Why don’t you let Jackson or Sarah take care of it? They just finished some continuing education on that very topic.”
Tully was about to tell Leland to stuff it when he realized his partner was baiting him. “I need to check out the security at the salon too.”
“Okay, I’ll hook up the monitoring from this end,” Leland said, his smile deepening.
Tully would have wiped the smirk off Leland’s face with a few choice words if Dawn hadn’t been present.
“I’m coming with you when you install the cams,” she said. “I want to see how Nat is doing and meet this bodyguard.”
“Let me ask you something,” Tully said. “Did she tell you about the email messages?”
“No, and I’m not happy about that. She should have.”
“Maybe she doesn’t want you involved because it would add to her anxiety.” Tully kept his voice gentle. “We don’t know what this stalker is after yet, so it’s risky introducing people Natalie cares about into the equation. It makes her more vulnerable, not less.”
“But I’m her friend,” Dawn said. “Friends are there for each other in bad situations.”
“Do you trust me?” Tully looked at her straight on.
“Yes, but—”
“Then trust me.”
Dawn held his gaze for a long moment. “All right, but I’m going to call her to see how she’s doing.”
“I’d be surprised if you didn’t.” Natalie was lucky to have such a fierce ally—just as lucky as he was to have his two partners. But then, Natalie helped women she barely knew. She would be an unwavering friend. “What do you know about Natalie’s ex-husband?” he asked.
“You mean Matt the narcissistic douchebag?” Dawn’s lips twisted into a grimace. “He’s a pro at psychological abuse, so I could easily see him being a stalker.”
“But he’s left her alone for three years,” Leland said. “So why now?”
“Good question,” Tully agreed before he turned back to Dawn. “Would he hurt her physically?”
“Well, she always said he didn’t hit her.” Dawn considered for a moment. “It was more stuff like gaslighting. When no one else was around to hear it, he would criticize her in a horrible, nasty way. If she brought it up again, he would look at her like she was crazy and deny he’d ever said it. If she pushed harder, he would backpedal and claim he didn’tremembersaying it.” Dawn looked thoughtful again. “That might have been even worse—to forget you’d said something so devastating.”
Tully felt an urge to plant his fist in Matt Stevens’s face.
Dawn continued. “He’s very worried about what people think of him—he plays the funny, charming guy in public—so that might stop him from physical abuse. If he injured her, it could become public. He would hate that.”
