Page 76 of He Sees You
Let him exhaust himself.
Let everyone see him lose control.
Let them see the good sheriff attacking the man who saved his daughter.
Another punch, this one to my ribs.
I absorb it, file away the pain.
Sterling is sobbing now, his punches becoming wilder, less focused.
"She was supposed to be safe! I was protecting her!"
"Dad, stop!"
Celeste's voice cuts through everything.
She's standing in the doorway, looking exactly as she should—shirt torn, face bruised, blood on her clothes.
The perfect victim, if you don't look too close at her eyes.
If you don't see the satisfaction hiding behind the performed trauma.
Sterling releases me, scrambling toward his daughter. "Celeste, baby, are you?—"
"Cain saved me." She collapses into her father's arms, a masterful performance of delayed shock. "Jake broke in. He was drunk, angry about being suspended. He tried to—" She breaks off in a sob that sounds completely genuine.
Sterling holds her, but his eyes find mine over her shoulder.
The rage is still there, mixed with something else.
Suspicion. Knowledge he can't prove.
"Take her to the ambulance," he tells one of the deputies. "Have them check her out."
"I want to stay?—"
"Now, Celeste."
She goes, playing the obedient daughter, but catches my eye as she passes.
A quick look that saysbe careful, don't let him break you.
Sterling waits until she's out of earshot, then advances on me again.
This time the deputies are ready, positioning themselves between us.
"How?" Sterling's voice is deadly quiet. "How were you here?"
"I was hiking. The trails behind your property connect to mine."
"At night?"
"I often hike at night. The woods are peaceful. You know this—you've had deputies follow me enough times to know my patterns."
"Bullshit." He shoves past the deputies, gets in my face. His breath smells like coffee and exhaustion. "You were watching my house. Stalking my daughter."
"I heard screams. I responded. Would you prefer I had kept walking?"
