Close To Danger (Westen #4)(14)
At the table, Chloe ordered like a pro. “Two cheese coneys, mustard, no onion. Coke.”
Wes followed suit but ordered a five-way spaghetti instead of a coney. He waited until they had their food before commenting.
“Chili, huh?” he asked as she scooped up a large portion of one of her two chili cheese coneys with her fork.
“It’s cold outside. I’m hungry and I crave this stuff. Especially when I’m stressed.” She slid her forkful of food in, closed her eyes and gave a satisfied moan.
Wes wanted to moan right along with her. The woman made eating a sensual event. Quickly, he focused on his own meal.
Once he was done, he sat back and simply enjoyed watching her work her way through the second coney. He’d been surprised she hadn’t ordered coffee, but given how many times the young lawyer, Justin, had retrieved them coffee during the afternoon, she probably already had enough super-caffeine on board. The Coke would just keep her slightly less buzzed.
“What?” she said, finishing her last bite.
“Just remembering how you told me you existed on junk food and caffeine.”
“This,” she said, scooping up the last bit of bun, dog and cheesy chili on her fork, “is not junk food. It’s manna from heaven.”
He’d also learned something else about the woman seated across from him back in Westen. She was way friendlier and cooperative when her stomach was full. Like now.
He held up his hands in mock surrender. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to insult your choice of dinner food.”
“Come on. It was delicious, admit it.”
“It was. I promise never to mock your food choices again.”
The waitress returned with their check. He slipped a few bills in to cover it and the tip. Finished eating, he put both elbows on the table and leaned forward. Time to cut the bullshit. “Now, you want to tell me about your stalker?”
CHAPTER FIVE
Chloe stared into Wes’s blue eyes. Intense. Straight forward. They also said, trust me. After last night, she was no longer sure she could handle the problem alone. Maybe it was time to ask for help.
“I told you before the wedding I couldn’t prove that someone was following me. That I’d just gotten some odd hang-ups on calls and a feeling of being watched.”
“But that’s changed.”
“Ever since I got home.” She twirled her glass in slow circles between her hands. Movement, any kind of movement, slowed the building panic. “I started getting text messages. Simple things at first. Welcome back. Nice holiday? Then a little more personal. Thought you’d get a tan on your vacation. Be careful driving home in the snow. Stuff like that. Innocuous to most people, but creepy to me since I have no idea who’s behind it.”
“It’s meant to make you nervous. And the phone calls?”
“I still got only anonymous numbers and hang ups. Well, until today, and you were there for that one.” She paused. “Again, why are you here?”
When nothing came out of him, an idea popped into her head.
“Bobby and Gage got back today. You told them, didn’t you?” Anger surged through her. She grabbed her coat and bag. “The last thing my pregnant sister needs to worry about right now is some maybe stalker. How could you tell her?”
Anger propelling her toward the door, she shrugged her coat on as she went. She was out the door into the winter air, when he caught up with her.
“Chloe,” he said, grasping her by the elbow. “Wait.”
In a fury of sisterly worry, she whirled to face him. “How could you put her and their baby at risk like this?”
He held up his hands in an innocent fashion. “I didn’t.”
She studied his face a moment. “I don’t believe you. You’re hiding something from me.”
Without waiting for him to answer, she headed for her car in the parking lot, almost not noticing something was wrong. She stopped so suddenly, he crashed into her from behind. Catching her with one arm around her waist, he kept her from planting her face in the icy pavement.
“Whoa. I’ve got you,” he said, his warm breath right against her ear. “Why’d you stop so fast?”
“There,” she said, trembling hard, fear sluicing its way down her spine. “Someone’s slashed my tires.”
“That’s enough,” he said, scooping her into her arms and striding for his SUV. Before she could pull herself together enough to protest, he had her securely inside the cab and was headed out of the parking lot.
“Wait, I can’t just leave my car here like that. I have to call the police.”
“We will. Just as soon as we’re on our way out of town.”
Turning to argue with him and demand he take her back to her car, she saw his jaw firmly set as he shifted his gaze from the road in front to the rearview mirror, then the side mirror and back to the front. He was checking to see if anyone was following them. Taking her safety very serious.
She pressed her lips tightly closed and stared out the passenger window at the suburban areas zipping past them.
Maybe Wes was right. What could she really have told the police? That she’d received some mysterious phone calls that could be explained as someone just dialing the wrong number? Well, except for the one this afternoon. That she’d gotten some unwanted texts from numbers she didn’t recognize, that could also be explained as someone just hitting the wrong numbers with fat thumbs? Well, except for the one last night. That she’d had this eerie feeling someone was following her, which could easily be explained as nerves from over work and stress? Well, except for the four slashed tires on her car.