No One But You (Silver Springs #2)(108)

It was because Sly was such a good liar, she decided. He could lie his way out of anything...

The moment they received the chief’s message, Dawson had her go inside and lock the doors. He also told her to keep her cell phone handy so they could contact each other at any given moment. Then he went out back to dig a small pit where Sly had been backing into the artichokes. Dawson said, because the moon was full, he should have barely enough light, and once Dawson covered the hole with plants and straw, Sly would never expect it to be there. If Sly returned to the same spot, he’d back into it when he tried to leave and wouldn’t be able to get out. And if his car was there in the morning, or he had to call for a tow, they’d have proof that he was still harassing them—proof that didn’t depend on Chief Thomas seeing Sly on the farm with his own eyes.

Dawson said it wasn’t much, but it was better than letting Sly peep into their windows at night without any repercussions.

After seeing the look on Sly’s face while they were at the bar, however, Sadie was afraid he’d do far more than peep. She’d never made him so angry, mostly because she’d spent their entire married life trying to appease him. And if Thomas had given away the fact that she and Dawson knew about his late-night visits, Sly wouldn’t fall into Dawson’s trap. He wouldn’t go anywhere near it. All of Dawson’s work would come to nothing.

Hoping to talk Chief Thomas into fulfilling his commitment, she called the police station. She was told he’d left for the night, so she tried his home. That didn’t help, either. His wife simply said he was “unavailable.”

What the heck did that mean? Sadie wondered. Where could he be? What could he be doing that was so important? She and Dawson were in trouble. She felt as if Sly had finally snapped. The way he’d behaved at the bar—so openly hostile despite the presence of many witnesses—proved he was dangerous. To make matters worse, he had no fear of punishment, believed he lived above the law, because he could live above the law so long as Chief Thomas supported him. Something terrible would have to happen to change that, and Sadie didn’t like to consider what that “something” might be.

She paced in the kitchen while waiting for the police chief to return her call, but that call didn’t come. His lack of response was beginning to smell like a purposeful dodge. He was acting to protect his officer, just as Dawson had always thought he would. And it was only getting later and darker. By now, Sly would be off work and out of the meeting—if there really had been a meeting.

She sat down to compose a couple of letters—one to Chief Thomas and one to Jayden. After she sealed them each in a separate envelope, she called Petra and asked to be able to say good-night to her son.

“Where’s Dawson?” Jayden asked once Petra put him on the phone.

Sadie couldn’t help smiling at that. He was so enamored with the new man in their lives. “He’s still working.”

“In the dark?”

“In the dark.” That concerned her, too. She’d been trying to suppress the worry that plagued her by telling herself that it was early yet. But Sly could still show up, could just as easily shoot Dawson while he was out on the tractor as any other time.

She hurried to the back door so she could check on him, just in case, and was mildly reassured by the rumble of the tractor. He was okay for now.

After closing and locking the door again, she returned to the kitchen.

“He needs to come in now,” Jayden was saying. “It’s bedtime.”

Sadie chuckled at her son’s bossy tone. “You’re right. I’ll make sure he does.”

After she told Jayden she loved him and that she’d see him tomorrow, Petra took the phone back. “He’s having a good time, is about to go to bed,” she said. “Don’t worry about him, okay?”

“I won’t. Thank you. I hope... I hope it’s not too much of an imposition that I asked you to take him with you.”

“Not at all. I know you wouldn’t ask unless you really needed it. And my parents love him. How are things in Silver Springs?”

She drew a shaky breath. “Tense.”

Petra’s voice took on a more serious tone. “What’s going on?”

Sadie had shared a little of her concerns about Sly. That was why Petra had agreed to take Jayden. Otherwise, she would’ve said she couldn’t babysit, that she wasn’t going to be home. “Sly is acting a bit...threatening.”

“He is.”

“Yes.”

“You’re frightened.”

“I am,” she admitted. “If anything happens to me, would you—”

“Whoa,” Petra broke in. “You don’t think this thing could go that far.”

“No, of course not.” She didn’t want to scare Petra, but, in Sadie’s heart, she believed it could get that bad. She’d always believed it could get that bad, or she wouldn’t have let Sly control her for so long. “I’m just saying if the worst happens—not that it ever would—Sly’s mother will take Jayden. But will you make sure he gets the letter I’m putting under the front porch of the Reed farmhouse? He won’t understand what it means at this age, of course. So wait until he’s older, if you can. There should come a time when...when it will be important to him.”