“I’m sorry. I knocked. Called out. You didn’t hear me.”
“So you just decided to come inside?”
“I thought something was wrong.”
“What? Why?”
“I don’t know. Just a feeling. Something told me you were in danger.”
It was quick, but he saw her expression flicker.
He narrowed his eyes. “Maybe I wasn’t too far off the mark. What’s going on, Nina?”
“Nothing.” But she shifted, unsuccessfully trying to hide the paper she was holding behind her.
“Don’t lie to me. What is it? Did you get bad news?”
She stared at him, trying to decide whether to trust him, then shrugged. “I got a note from someone who’s angry with me. It was a little disturbing.”
“By disturbing, do you mean threatening? Let me see it.”
She took two steps back. “No.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s a private communication.”
“By all means. Let’s protect the privacy of someone who’s threatening you. Damn it, there’s no patient here that you need to protect. And if someone’s frightened you, you shouldn’t be protecting him at all.”
“It isn’t so much what was said that frightened me as the fact that it was left on my doorstep. I—I don’t like knowing someone who’s angry with me knows where I live, especially since my house alarm is broken. But I’m sure it’s nothing.”
“You can’t know that. Let me see it. Please.”
He knew it was the please that finally did it. If he’d pushed, if he’d ordered, he had no doubt she’d do her best to keep the note away from him. As it was, she hesitated, sighed and then tried to hand him the note.
“Hold it out for me,” he said. “So I don’t get my prints on it.”
She did. Simon’s jaw clenched as he read it.
“Do you have a Ziploc bag you can put it in?”
She hesitated. Nodded. Quickly got an oversize plastic bag from the kitchen and put the letter inside. Only then did Simon take it from her.
“Do you know who left it for you?”
“No.” But again there was that slight hesitation.
“Doc?”
“I don’t know. I automatically thought of one person, but he’s on the other side of the nation. Or at least he should be.” She rubbed her forehead, then shook her head. “No. It can’t be him.”
“Him who?”
She opened her mouth. Shut it. “Nope. I’m not accusing a man of something like this when I don’t have proof that it’s him.”
“What if the proof is the fact that you end up hurt? Proof is the police’s job to find. Or maybe it’s just that all psychiatrists would rather risk their lives and the lives of other people to give dangerous criminals the benefit of the doubt.”
“So we’re back to your disdain for my job?”
He could have said they’d never left it, but he didn’t. “Nope. We’re here. With you scared. With someone threatening your life. And with you not willing to tell me about it. Yet you forget. We’re supposed to work together. Haven’t you considered the fact that someone threatening you might be a threat to me, as well? To your patients?”
She bit her lip, obviously taking what he said seriously. “You’re right,” she said quietly. “I’ll tell you. But I want your word you’re not going to go off half-cocked, hunting down someone who might have simply let his emotions get the better of him and written down something that he shouldn’t have. It doesn’t mean he has any intention of acting on it.”
“I promise not to go off half-cocked. I’m not much for half measures anyway. When I do something, if I ‘do it,’ I make sure I go in all the way.”
The sexual innuendo was unmistakable and deliberate on his part. At worst, he wanted to distract her; at best, he wanted to make her smile. The fact she didn’t smile let alone call him on his statement told him she really was scared. But she wasn’t stupid. She narrowed her eyes, searching his face for humor, and he was careful to keep his expression blank.
“Have a seat,” she finally said. “I have to get something, and then we’ll talk.”
* * *
NINA WENT INTO HER STUDY, shut the door and leaned back against it as she tried to get her racing heart to slow down. Simon had scared her, yes, but she was feeling off balance for another reason altogether. Because of the letter she’d received yes, but also because...well, she’d thought he was sexy before...
When he acted all firm and protective of her? Wow.
She’d been tempted to throw herself in his arms and