Honeysuckle Summer (The Sweet Magnolias #7)(89)
When Walter showed up and announced both he and Rory Sue were moving in for the duration, she lost it. It had been bad enough when Walter had insisted he was going to stay with her, but nothing she’d said had dissuaded him. The thought of dealing with Rory Sue for the foreseeable future as well was just too much.
“Are you totally out of your mind?” she demanded. “Rory Sue and I don’t get along that well on a good day.”
“Then now’s the perfect time for the two of you to get better acquainted,” Walter replied cheerfully, his expression unyielding.
“Why would she even agree to do this?” she asked, bewildered.
“Mostly to protect her turf,” Walter admitted. He held up a hand to prevent her protest. “I know there’s nothing going on between you and me, but she doesn’t buy it.”
“She doesn’t trust you? That should tell you something. A relationship without trust is, well…” She tried to think of an appropriate description. “It’s basically nonexistent. You might as well call it quits, throw in the towel—”
Again, he held up his hand, this time to pause the tirade. “I get the picture. I don’t think I’m the one she’s worried about. I think she’s afraid you’ll suddenly find me irresistible and that I, a mere mortal man, will succumb to your wiles.”
“As if,” Raylene muttered, then met his determined gaze. “Okay, fine. Heaven forbid that I cause a rift between the two of you. How long is this supposed to go on?”
“As long as necessary,” he said.
“You do realize this could be the answer to my prayers, don’t you? Rory Sue will probably make me so insane, I’ll be thrilled to walk out the front door and never look back.”
Walter laughed.
Raylene regarded him with a grim expression. “I’m not joking.”
In fact, nothing about this entire situation was even remotely amusing. If she weren’t quite so terrified of Paul showing up, she really would kick every one of her self-appointed protectors to the curb.
Carter stood aside as Walter and Rory Sue carted several pieces of luggage into Raylene’s. It grated on his nerves that protecting her inside the house had been relegated to Walter, of all people. Unfortunately, with things the way they were at home with Carrie, Carter knew he couldn’t do it. Raylene wouldn’t have let him if he’d tried. She’d made that clear when he’d broached the possibility. His place was with his sisters. She’d also insisted that he keep both of the girls away from her house for the foreseeable future.
“I don’t like this,” he muttered as Rory Sue and Walter headed for Tommy and Libby’s room to settle in.
“I’m not exactly overjoyed about it myself,” Raylene said. “You’re the one who insisted I needed bodyguards.”
“These are not the ones I had in mind,” he said in frustration.
“Well, Travis needs to be with Sarah and the kids.”
He met her gaze. “At least you’ve stopped telling me that you don’t need anyone. I suppose I should be grateful for small favors.”
She frowned. “I’m not stupid. I know Paul better than anyone. Sooner or later, he will turn up here to get even or at least to tell me how I’ve ruined his life.”
Carter studied her. There was no mistaking the underlying tension in her voice. It hadn’t been there yesterday or even earlier in the day today. Something had happened to shake her bravado in the face of Paul’s release.
“What happened, Raylene? Don’t even try to tell me it was nothing. I can tell from your tone that you didn’t just wake up this morning and decide to be agreeable.”
She looked flustered that he was able to read her so well.
“Don’t you dare hold back,” he said when she remained stubbornly silent.
“I don’t really know if it’s anything,” she admitted eventually. “I’ve had some calls, hang-ups. The number was blocked. It’s probably just kids or someone who’s dialing a wrong number, but it has creeped me out a little bit.”
Carter’s stomach clenched, but he tried to stay calm and matter-of-fact. “I’ll have a trace put on your line, but if it is Paul and he’s just hanging up, they may not be able to catch the number. You’d have to keep him on the line for a while.” He met her gaze. “Could you try to engage him in conversation?”
“You mean just start talking as if I know it’s him, and keep the line open?”
Carter nodded.
“If it means catching him before something happens, I’ll do it.”
Carter hesitated. “You know we’re not going to be able to arrest him just because he’s calling you, right? So far it doesn’t even rise to the level of harassment. We really need him to come over here and violate the restraining order. If he so much as steps onto your property, it will also violate the conditions of his parole. Then we can get him locked up again. This time he’ll have a good long stay behind bars.”
Raylene sighed with evident frustration. “No wonder so many battered wives lose faith in the system. They have to be attacked before they can get any kind of justice.”
Carter was no less frustrated. He’d seen too many instances where abusive husbands had gone right back home and beaten the daylights out of their wives before anyone could legally intervene. The hands of the police were often tied until too late, just as Raylene had said. Threats alone or past history weren’t enough to offer the kind of protection these women needed. Even in a place like Serenity, where the local sheriff’s department was more than willing to step in, there wasn’t enough manpower to do round-the-clock surveillance. Despite that, he was determined that Raylene wouldn’t wind up as one of those sad statistics. At least, thanks to Tom, there were extra people on the street during the day to keep an eye out for the arrival of any strangers. Even the neighbors had been alerted.