has gotten all rolled into one tangled mess inside me. A mess that involves you, me...and the killer. I don’t want to include you in that nightmare, but it did begin with you, and I can’t just forget that.”
“Yeah,” he said and looked away. Gabriel always looked away whenever the subject of attraction or sex came up between them. And despite her near murder not actually being about sex, it was sex that had started it all.
Or rather, lack of sex.
“You were nineteen,” he reminded her. “Too young to be with me.”
Obviously, his mind had hitched a ride on the exact train of thought as hers. “I was an adult.”
“Barely. You were also one of my kid sister’s best friends. And I was five years older than you. There’s a world of difference between a nineteen-year-old college student and a twenty-four-year-old deputy sheriff. Legally, you weren’t jailbait, but that still didn’t make being with you right.”
It was his old argument that she knew all too well since it was the same one he’d used the night of the attack. She’d been staying in the Beckett house, a guest of Gabriel’s sister Ivy, who at the time was also her college roommate. Around 10:00 p.m., Jodi had walked the less than a quarter of a mile distance between the Becketts’ and Gabriel’s place, the house left to him by his grandparents. And Jodi had done that for the sole purpose of seducing Gabriel.
It hadn’t worked.
“You turned me down,” she said under her breath. Thankfully, it didn’t sound as if she still carried a decade of hurt. But it had certainly hurt then. Simply put, Gabriel Beckett was the only man she’d ever wanted. It was ironic, though, that after the night of the attack she’d never wanted him or another man again.
She silently cursed. That was a partial lie. A lie she could feel now that she was standing so close to Gabriel. Much to her disgust, she still wanted him.
“Sex is a commitment,” she mumbled. “That’s what you told me when you turned me away,” Jodi huffed. “Which wasn’t the truth since you had sex with half the women in town, and you didn’t commit to any of them.”
He said something under his breath that she didn’t catch. Then, something she did catch. Bad profanity. “Why did you really come here? Because I’m not buying it that you’re here just to remember. Are you trying to draw out the person who sent you the email?”
She didn’t deny it. Jodi did indeed want to draw him out in the open and put an end to this once and for all.
“He could just shoot you,” Gabriel reminded her.
“I don’t think so. I think he wants his hands on me again.” Just saying it nearly made her gag. “I won’t be the victim for the rest of my life.”
“Then start by not being here.” Gabriel paused and glanced around. The kind of glance that a lawman made as if checking to make sure no one else was there. “You’re not the only one who got a threatening email.”
Everything inside her went still. “Who else? You?”
Gabriel nodded. “All three of my siblings, too. Jameson, Ivy and Lauren.”
Jodi hadn’t needed their names. She’d grown up next to the Becketts and knew them well enough to know their birthdays. Now, of course, they were her enemies. Enemies who’d apparently gotten death threats.
“What’d the emails say?” she asked.
Gabriel drew in a weary breath. “Almost the same as yours. Except for mine. The threat was, well, more explicit. Probably because I’m the sheriff now.”
Jodi tried to process that. “What possible reason would my father have to send threats like this?”
“I’ve given up trying to figure out why killers do what they do.” He hesitated again. “But I’m leaning more toward a copycat. There are a lot of sick people out there, and the story got plenty of press. With the tenth anniversary coming up in three months, I believe it’s bringing out the lunatics.”
“So, you think the emails are empty threats?” Jodi hated to sound disappointed. Hated even more that she was disappointed that it might be true. It sickened her to think the truth had already played out.
And that her father had left her for dead.
“Copycat threats aren’t always empty,” Gabriel corrected. “That’s why I don’t want you out here. Not alone anyway. If you want to try to jog your memory again, call me, and I’ll have someone meet you.”
Jodi probably should be insulted because she was an expert marksman and trained in hand-to-hand combat. She could protect herself.
Probably.
And it was the fact that the probably was not a certainty that kept her up at night.
She turned, ready to head back to her car, but something caught her eye. Some movement in one of the second-floor windows. Gabriel must have seen it, too, because he stepped in front of her.
And he drew his gun.
Jodi pulled her weapon, too. “Should there be anyone in the house?” she asked.
“No.” That time he absolutely didn’t hesitate, and Gabriel started toward the porch. “Before you jump to conclusions, it’s probably just a teenager out for a stupid thrill. Or maybe a reporter. Either way, you should go to your car now.”
“Just in case it turns out to be something more than a teen or a reporter, I can back you up if you’re going inside.”
Which he apparently was.
Gabriel didn’t turn down her offer of backup. Didn’t order her to her car again, either. Maybe because he figured she could be attacked while heading to the road. It was obvious he was thinking this was more than just a false alarm. Of course, after those threatening emails, Jodi doubted there was anything false about it, either.
Mercy. Was the killer here?
That sent her heartbeat racing, the sound of it throbbing in her ears. The memories came. Too many of them too fast. She had to force them back into that little box she’d built in her mind. This was no time for a panic attack. Not in front of a killer.
Not in front of Gabriel, either.
He took slow, cautious steps, his gaze firing not just to the window but all around them. “I’m Sheriff Gabriel Beckett,” he called out. “You’re trespassing. Come out with your hands in the air.”
Nothing.
It was hard to hear because of her racing pulse and the breeze rattling through the live oaks, but Jodi thought she heard someone moving around inside. There were plenty of windows on the back part of the house that the intruder could use to escape. But maybe he didn’t have escape in mind.
Maybe this would turn into another attempt to murder her.
If so, she was ready.
“Stay behind me,” Gabriel insisted. “And watch our backs.”
She
