My Deadly Valentine - By Valerie Hansen & Lynette Eason Page 0,41
can take a look around. You might want to call Alex, too.”
“I know. If someone was really out there, then I suppose that’s what I need to do. I’ll think about it.”
Confused, he just looked at her.
Her expression softened. “Sorry, but Alex is—” She paused and waved a hand in the air as though searching for the right word. She finally settled on “not the person I want to call.”
“But he’s the sheriff. He needs to know.”
“I know, but I don’t want to encourage him if I don’t have to. If I go running to him with this…” She sighed. “Please, I’d rather handle this on my own.”
That rocked him back for a minute. She didn’t want to call Alex because the man was still after her to reunite. He wondered what she’d say if he offered her his help. “I’m going to go have a look around and then we’re going to have a talk. All right?”
She raised a hand to rub the side of her head that wasn’t bruised. “Look, I’m probably just being paranoid. Most likely, this was all just some stupid prank or something.…”
“Like the break-in at your shop?”
That took the wind from her sails. “I don’t know what to think, Eli.”
“Get me that light. I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Okay.”
She set off to find the light. Returning, she handed it to him, looked deep into his eyes for a brief moment before saying, “Thanks.”
He nodded and walked to the door. Flipping the light on, he headed to where the motorcycle had disappeared. Since Holly hadn’t heard the approach, whoever had been on the motorcycle had probably walked it up to the house.
The light pierced the darkness, but revealed nothing as to the identity of the man on the motorcycle.
When he returned to the house, Holly had a cup of coffee in one hand, her fingers drumming the side of the mug in nervous taps.
“I didn’t see anything. Sorry.”
She blew out a harsh sigh. “Thanks for looking.”
“No problem.” He handed her the light.
Hesitating at the door, she finally seemed to make up her mind about something. “You want to come in?”
“I want you to tell me who you think might have been lurking outside your house.”
“I have no idea.” She waved her empty hand. “I don’t have anything of any real value except Mom’s silver and china. The usual stuff. But other than that…”
“All right, well you need to keep your doors locked, that’s for sure. Someone’s targeted you for some reason.” He paused. “You said Alex was constantly harassing you about getting back with him. Could he have been out here doing a little spying on you?”
Biting her lip, she studied her mug. “I don’t think so. Alex is the sheriff, he’s harmless. Persistent, but harmless. He’s more into sending me gifts than scaring me.”
“What kind of gifts?”
“Expensive ones. First it was flowers at my shop. Then today I got—” she set her mug on the end table, crossed the room and opened a drawer “—this.”
She dropped a box in his outstretched hand.
He opened it and whistled.
“Tell me about it.” She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “For the auction, he even signed up to be on the same committee as I am.” She flushed. “That sounds really egotistical, doesn’t it?” Throwing up her hands, she said, “I don’t know. It’s just when sign-ups went around at church for the auction…” She shrugged.
His dad had explained it to him the last time Eli had been home. The church had come up with the idea for the auction after a mission trip to Haiti two years ago. Holly had been a part of that trip and had fallen in love with the children of the orphanage they’d worked with. On their last day, they’d learned that the place was on the brink of being shut down. When the team had returned to America, the church voted to do what they could to help and had come up with the idea of an auction. Anything donated was auctioned off. To Eli, it looked like a huge yard sale, only in auction format. It had been so successful, they’d made it an annual event.
And the orphanage thrived. His dad also said Holly planned to go back sometime in the summer. He tried to picture what he would be doing four months from now. Briefly, the interview for the job as captain of the New York precinct flashed through his mind. He still hadn’t heard anything about that