“And if that’s the case, he probably followed you back here from London,” Teddy pointed out now. Expression grim, he moved to peer out the kitchen window at the dark backyard.
Drina and Tricia moved to the front windows to peer out, and Harper turned to head out of the room. Sherry supposed he was going to look out the side windows of the house, but noted that he retrieved his cell phone from his pocket as he went.
“No!” Elvi protested, sounding almost desperate. “Leo couldn’t have followed us back. We’d have noticed.”
“Sweetheart,” Victor said quietly, turning off the burner under the meat and moving to slip his arms around his wife. “He could have. We weren’t watching for him. We thought he was in Toronto.”
“Yes, but—” Her gaze shifted anxiously to Stephanie, and she said with frustration. “What was he doing in London? He’s supposed to be in Toronto.”
“Who knows?” Victor said wearily, pulling her against his chest.
“There are hunters crawling all over Toronto looking for him,” Katricia said quietly, continuing to look out the window. “He probably got out of town to avoid them.”
“But London? Why London of all places?” Elvi asked almost plaintively, and Sherry frowned, sure there was something going on here that she wasn’t quite getting.
“Could he have followed you girls down from Toronto?” Teddy asked, and Sherry’s eyes widened as she recalled spotting someone she’d thought might be Leonius in the service center parking lot.
“No,” Drina assured him. “I was watching for—”
Sherry blinked her thoughts away and glanced to Drina curiously when she abruptly went silent. The woman was peering at her, dismay on her face. She wasn’t the only one. Everyone in the room was staring at her with expressions that varied from surprise, to horror, to anger. Only Basil wasn’t. He was glancing from expression to expression, his eyes narrowing.
“What is it?” he asked finally.
“You saw him?” Elvi asked Sherry, accusation in her voice. She pulled away from Victor and stalked toward her, growling, “And you didn’t say anything?”
“I wasn’t sure it was him,” Sherry said at once. “And then a truck went by and he was gone and . . .” Her gaze slid to Basil as she recalled how she’d been distracted by his kisses. By the time the others had returned to the truck, Leo was the last thing on her mind. Shaking her head, she sighed. “I’m sorry. I—”
“You’re sorry?” Elvi interrupted in a voice that shook with a rage and grief that left Sherry bewildered. “We are about to lose our daughter because of you and you’re ‘sorry’?”
Sherry stared at her wide-eyed. “I don’t understand. Your daughter?”
“Stephanie,” Victor said quietly. “She was sent here because it was a safe place Leo couldn’t know about. But now—”
“But now he knows,” Elvi said grimly. “Because you didn’t say anything about seeing him in that service center parking lot. If you’d said something, Drina and Tricia could have kept driving, or turned back to Toronto, or something. Anything but lead him here to Port Henry. But you said nothing and now he knows about this place. She’ll never be safe here again until he’s caught. She’ll have to leave. We’ll lose her . . . because of you.”
“Elvi,” Victor said wearily, pulling her into his arms again. “This is not Sherry’s fault. Leo is the villain here.”
Elvi pushed at his chest, trying to break out of his hold. “But if she’d just said something.”
“She was not sure it was him, and did not even remember it once Basil got done kissing her,” Victor pointed out quietly, rubbing her back. “Not until now. You remember what it is like when you first meet your life mate.”
“Yes, but—”
Sherry didn’t stay to hear more. Turning on her heel, she hurried out of the kitchen and upstairs to her room. But when she tried to push the door closed behind her, it bounced off of something. Swinging around, she stared wide-eyed at Basil as he followed her inside.
“I—” she began, but it was as far as Sherry got before Basil pulled her into his arms and kissed her. As usual, her body responded at once, flooding with passion and overwhelming need, but he broke the kiss quickly and rested his forehead on hers. They were both silent for a minute, trying to catch their breath, and then Basil raised his head and peered her in the eye.
“None of this is your fault,” he said solemnly.
“But—”
“None of it,” he repeated firmly, and then said, “Sherry, the day before yesterday you were just a store owner with a normal life, friends, and family. Then Stephanie charged into your store, Leo and his men followed, and everything changed. This is all down to Leo.”
“But if I’d told them that I thought I might have seen him at the service center—”
“You did not remember it, Sherry. You could not tell them something you did not remember,” he reasoned.
“Yes, but I should have remembered,” she said grimly. “That’s the point. I should have remembered. It’s not like forgetting where you put your keys or where you parked your car. Leo is a monster. I should have remembered seeing him. In fact, I can’t believe I didn’t.”