Page 67 of Hold Your Breath
“Yes. I do.” Yanking off her hat, she smacked it against her thigh a few times. “Thedickfaceyou are looking for is Brenton Lloyd of Glenview, Connecticut: opportunist, social climber, and dater of teens, as well as an employee and friend, unfortunately, of my stepfather, Mr. Richard Chilten.”
“Ex-boyfriend?” Callum asked with an odd inflection to his voice that she couldn’t decipher.
“As embarrassed as I am to admit it, kind of. My parents wore me down when I was sixteen and he was…I can’t remember, twenty-seven or thereabouts. Completely too old for me, but I was in my compliant phase. We were together off and on ever since—I’d have a brave moment and break up with him, but Brent wouldn’t leave me alone until I agreed to get back together. Ugh. When I look back on it, I can see how weak and stupid I was, but he could be persistent, even a little scary. But I never thought he could do something like this. He wanted to get engaged as soon as I finished law school, but the thought of being married to Brent…” She shuddered. “I kept putting him off until I heard him talking to my stepfather about taking over the business once we were married. I’d been dragging myself to law-firm interviews and hating every second of it. When I heard Richard basically selling me to that asshole, I just…snapped. That’s when I told Brent we were through for good. I packed up and moved to the mountains.”
“Why is he targeting you now?” Rob asked.
“Instead of when I first moved here? No idea.” Trying to calm her whirling brain and think, she was silent for a few moments. “My mom mentioned that he was trying to get a hold of me.” It wasn’t a reason, but it was a possible place to start. She pulled out her cell phone.
“Who are you calling?” Chris asked. Both he and the sheriff stepped forward, as if preparing to rip the cell phone out of her hand if necessary.
“Not Brent,” she hurried to assure them before her phone was confiscated. “I don’t even have his number, since I deleted it from my contacts and erased all his messages without listening to them. I’m calling my mom.” She found her mother’s number and tapped it.
“Messages?” Callum and Rob said in stereo.
She nodded absently, listening to the ringing on the other end. “He… Hang on a sec. Hi, Mom.”
“Louise.”
Rob was saying something about not telling her mother about her suspicions, but Lou waved him off, turning away from the listening crowd of men. She could concentrate on only one conversation at a time, especially when that one discussion was with her mother.
“Do you have Brent’s phone number?”
“Oh, good,” her mom said instead of answering Lou’s question. “Are you finally going to respond to him, then? It’s about time. The poor man’s been frantic.”
Lou frowned. Once she’d heard the description of his car, she’d been positive her stalker was Brent. Now, her first doubt crept in. “Has he been around recently?”
“I wouldn’t exactly say recently.”
“When was the last time you saw him? Feel free to use precise dates.”
“What is this about, Louise?”
With a sigh, Lou restrained the urge to throw her phone into a snowbank. Why couldn’t her mom just answer the question? “I’m going to call Brent, but not if he’s traveling or something.” She winced. That had been weak.
Her mom wasn’t buying her lame excuse, either. There was a pause before her mother spoke again. “What ridiculous thing are you planning, and why are you dragging poor Brenton into it?”
“I thought you were excited I was going to contact Brent.”
“Not if you’re up to one of your little schemes,” her mom said. “Brenton is seriously interested in you, Louise. You already broke his heart once. I don’t want you playing with his emotions.”
“Meplaying with—” It took an extreme effort, but she managed to bite off the rest of that sentence before it escaped in the indignant tone it deserved. “Fine. I’ll be kind to Brent. Can I have his number now?”
“I’m having reservations about this,” her mom snipped. “I don’t believe you are taking my concerns seriously.”
“I’m very serious about this, Mom.” Taking a deep breath, she silently counted to three before exhaling. “Please.”
The pause that followed seemed endless. “Very well,” she agreed, although she still sounded reluctant. “I’ll text you his number.”
“Thank you.” That was the most sincere thing she’d said to her mom in a long time.
“So, does this interest in Brenton mean you’re considering returning to civilization, or are you still enmeshed in your childish rebellion?”
“Sor—Mom…can’t…los—” With a satisfied poke of her finger, she ended the call.
The text came through seconds later, and Lou handed the phone to Rob. “Can you track his phone using the number?”
He scribbled the number into his ever-present notebook. Instead of answering her question, he started asking his own. “What’s his full name?”
