Keeping Guard (2 page)

H
ow could her brother ever have trusted this cranky man?

Their gazes locked, and Kylie knew this would be the longest week of her life. Yet at the same time, she couldn't help but feel relieved that she had a place to stay, somewhere to lie low until the madman back in Kentucky was arrested.

He would be arrested, right? The police had said they had a good lead and they should have the man behind bars within a matter of days. And with the man's advances becoming more aggressive, they'd suggested that Kylie get away until everything was cleared up.

She'd overcome obstacles before in her life—huge obstacles, she reminded herself. She could overcome this, also. Though it was the second time in her twenty-nine short years that she'd had to fight for her life, she'd learned a lot during that first battle.

Nate cleared his throat, and Kylie snapped from her thoughts to see him waving her through a doorway. She averted her eyes and stepped over the threshold into a modest apartment located over the restaurant that Nate owned. The small space would be perfect—for a week.

Her gaze swept the place. It appeared to have all that she needed—a great room with a breakfast bar separating the living room and kitchen, one bedroom and one bath. A wall of
boxes lined one wall, no doubt storage items for the restaurant in the previously unused space.

“Home sweet home,” Nate muttered, a sour expression still etched on his face.

Kylie swallowed before speaking. “I appreciate you giving me a place to stay. And I'm sorry for the rough start.” She silently begged him not to ask for any more details. Not now.

He seemed to study her face for a moment before nodding. “I'll need you down in the kitchen by nine for prep. We open at eleven.”

Kylie nodded. “No problem.”

He rubbed his head and turned to leave, but paused to point toward the ceiling. “I'm in the upstairs apartment if you need me.”

He stepped into the hallway, and Kylie had the impression that it was in her best interest that she not need anything in the next eight hours. Regardless, she cleared her throat. “Nate?”

He turned.

“You know you can't go to sleep after taking a blow like that, right?”

He scowled again. “Yeah, I know.” He stomped toward the steps before yelling, “And call your brother. He's worried sick.”

Kylie closed the door slowly and clicked each lock into place. She then leaned against the door and looked at her new temporary residence. She'd be safe here. No one knew where she'd gone except for her brother, and he'd never tell. Everyone else thought she was out doing research.

Her brother…she had to call him. She rushed across the room to where an old rotary phone rested on the breakfast bar and dialed the familiar number.

Bruce answered halfway through the first ring. “Where
have you been? I keep trying to call your cell phone and it goes straight to voice mail.”

His voice sounded tight and anxious—just what Kylie had expected. “I know. I dropped my phone into a puddle on the way here. The weather put me behind schedule.” She twisted the phone cord around her index finger and shivered. The chill from her wet clothing seemed to seep through all the way to her bones. She'd have to get some dry clothes before going to bed.

“But you're there now? You found Nate?”

“Yeah, I'm here now.” She glanced around the small apartment. “But I don't know about Nate. I think I'm just going to be in his way. And you know me, I like to do things my way.”

“Yes, believe me, I know you.” Her brother chuckled. “Listen, I know Nate comes across as tough, but once you get to know him, he's the nicest guy you'll ever meet. He'll make sure nothing happens to you.”

Kylie raised an eyebrow as she remembered their introduction earlier. “I have my doubts.”

“Kylie, believe me. You can trust Nate. I wouldn't have sent you there if you couldn't.”

She didn't know who she could trust. And of all the people who came to mind, Nate Richardson sure wasn't one of them. Not with the cold reception she'd received from him. Not that she could blame him. He
had
been rendered unconscious because of her.

“Thanks for your help, big bro. You'll let me know as soon as he's arrested, right?”

“You'll be the first person to know. One of the officers here is a dead ringer for you. She's going to do the cooking demonstration on Friday and we'll wait for your ‘friend' to show up. Then we'll arrest him. We've got him on breaking and entering and harassment. This nightmare will be over soon. I promise.”

Kylie closed her eyes and said a feeble prayer that things would go as planned. “Thanks, Bruce.”

“Tell Nate I said hi. And Kylie? You
can
trust him.”

She still wasn't sure about that. “Thanks.”

She hung up and shivered again. She had to get some dry clothes.

She glanced out the window as lightning flashed across the nighttime sky. The last thing she wanted was to go outside again. Was the only way to get to her car through that dark alley again? There had to be another way. She bit her lip, considering her options.

Beneath her, a nice-size puddle had formed on the floor. She opened a door beside the bathroom, hoping to find some towels. Nothing. She frowned. She couldn't—or shouldn't, at least—complain. At least the place was furnished. But the furnishings would do nothing right now to keep her from catching cold in her soaked clothing.

That settled it. She had to get to her car. She could ask Nate to go with her.

She shook her head, remembering his rotten mood and realizing she'd only further perturb him by disturbing him now. They'd already gotten off to a rough start.

As quietly as possible, she opened the door and tiptoed into the hallway. A wooden floorboard creaked underneath her and she shushed it. Lightly, she crept down the stairs. She paused at the outside door, trying to gather her courage before plunging into the night.

 

“Where do you think you're going?” Nate stood at the top of the steps and watched as Kylie gasped, turned around and pressed herself against the door with wide eyes. A hand went over her heart. The woman looked almost childlike with her big eyes and delicate features.

“You scared me to death.” Kylie's hand moved from her
heart to her forehead and she closed her eyes, looking as if she wanted to melt right then and there.

“Yeah, same here. I thought someone was trying to break in.” He lumbered the rest of the way down the stairs, his head still throbbing. When would that aspirin kick in? “What are you doing? You have no business going out at this hour.”

“I need my bags.” She looked down at her clothes. “I've got to change or I'll end up sick and be no help to you at all.”

It was true. Nate had already changed into some sweats and a T-shirt. He hated to go back out into that rain again. But he would, like it or not. His mother had raised him well.

He nodded the opposite way of the back door. “Come on. We'll go through the kitchen and avoid some of the storm outside.”

He didn't check to see if Kylie was following him. He could hear her soft steps behind him, though. He unlocked the door leading to his kitchen and allowed her to go inside first.

She stopped in the doorway and her face lit up as she looked around. “This is fabulous.”

Her compliment gave him a small amount of satisfaction. “Thanks. I like it.”

She stepped forward and gingerly ran her finger across the tile counter. “You've kept this as original as possible to a Colonial times restaurant, haven't you? That's just brilliant.”

Nate watched her carefully, surprised by her fascination and knowledge. “Yeah, I wanted to give people the experience of what it would be like to eat in Revolutionary War times—with a few modern amenities, of course. That's why they come to Yorktown, after all. To experience a bit of the past.”

She twirled around, apparently forgetting about her wet clothes and whatever problems had brought her here. Her eyes seemed to absorb each and every appliance—or lack thereof. She looked like a girl who'd woken up on Christmas morning to find she'd gotten everything she'd asked for.

“This is going to be amazing.”

Nate actually felt his lip begin to twitch in the start of a grin. Seeing someone who actually had some passion for the place felt nice. He only wished he had a touch of that same fire. “I'm glad you like it.”

“I more than like it. I'm just…I'm amazed. Maybe being here won't be so bad after all.”

The beginning of Nate's smile slipped into a frown. She seemed to catch what she said and she dropped her hand from the countertop to look at him with doelike eyes. “Sorry.”

“No need to apologize, Kylie.” He stepped around her, going toward the front door.

If she didn't need to apologize, then why did he feel so annoyed? He knew the answer. He'd already screwed up one rescue mission and he had no intention of screwing up another. But Kylie—the very person he was trying to save—could very well be his biggest obstacle also.

Just as he reached the front door, lightning brightened the sky to purple. The flash of light illuminated a man at the restaurant's front window. The man stood with his hands to his eyes, peering through the glass into the darkness.

Before Nate could say a word, a splitting scream cut the air.

“H
arvey,” Nate mumbled, walking toward the door.

The tall, lanky man grinned and waved from outside, clueless to how shocking it had been to see his face pressed to the glass.

Nate unlocked the door and pushed it open. “All due respect, Harvey, but are you crazy?”

Harvey stepped inside, shaking the rain from his coat. His miniature poodle walked in behind him and followed suit, sending water all over the entryway.

“No, I'm not crazy. Your earlier fiasco, you know, the one where you drug me out of bed? Well, that woke up Tinkerbell and she insisted on coming outside in the rain for a little potty break. As I was walking past, I saw the light on and just wanted to make sure all was okay.”

Nate glanced behind him at Kylie, who still stood with a ghost-white complexion. Her hands gripped the countertop, the skin tight over her knuckles. The woman was a basket case. He knew she needed to hide for a few days, that someone had threatened her. But he would need to find out more.
Terrified
seemed to be an understatement.

“Harvey, wait here with Kylie for a minute, will you?” He turned to Kylie. “Kylie, let me have your car keys so I can grab your stuff.”

She nodded, fished through her pocket and pulled out a
ring of keys. She tossed them to Nate, her hands trembling. She noticed him staring and quickly stuffed her fingers into her jean pockets.

With Kylie under Harvey's watchful eye, Nate jogged into the rain to her car—the only one in front of his restaurant at this hour. He popped the trunk and heaved out a large—very large—suitcase. This is how the woman packed for a few days?

He slammed the trunk closed and hauled the suitcase inside.

Harvey and Kylie were chatting like old friends when Nate stepped back into the restaurant. Kylie's face had lost some of its ashen appearance as she squatted, petting Tinkerbell. He noticed her hands still trembled, though.

She stood when Nate approached and leveled her gaze with his, seeming to retrieve some of her confidence. Nate dropped the suitcase in front of her, a little harder than he intended. “Dry clothes.”

He chose not to mention that his were now soaking wet—again. Instead, he looked at Harvey. “Why don't you go out the back door, Harvey? You won't get quite as wet.”

“Sounds good.” Harvey winked at Kylie before turning to walk through the kitchen. “I'll see you tomorrow morning!”

“Tomorrow morning?” Nate questioned.

“I just invited you and Kylie over for breakfast. We've got to get to know our new neighbor. It's the Southern way.”

Nate started to argue but changed his mind. “I'll see you then, Harvey.” He opened the door for his neighbor, watched as he exited and then turned, expecting to see Kylie behind him. She was gone.

Curiously, he wandered down the hall, through the kitchen and back into the dining area. By the front door, Kylie knelt with a roll of paper towels, wiping up the rain Harvey dripped inside.

“You don't have to do that, Kylie.”

She glanced up, her face pale again. “It's okay. I don't mind. Besides, I need to earn my keep. Call me crazy, but it's the way I was raised.”

He started to deny what she'd said but changed his mind. Instead, he grabbed some more paper towels and wiped at the wet footprints tracked across the floor.

After they finished cleaning, Nate touched Kylie's arm. She flinched.

“Listen, I know you're wet and tired. Will you do me a favor, though?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

“Go upstairs, change and then come back down here, have some coffee and tell me what's going on. I can't help you if I'm in the dark.”

She looked numb as she said, “Okay.”

“Let me get your suitcase upstairs for you then.”

 

Dressed in dry yoga pants, a sweatshirt and slippers, Kylie crept downstairs. Her gaze darted to every dark corner. She flinched at each creak of the old wooden staircase. Her heart sped as she paused by the backdoor.

How had her life become this? Just when she'd been doing so well, truly beginning to stand on her own feet. Then one man had decided to turn her world upside down.

She'd fought coming here, convinced herself that going into hiding made her look weak. She wanted to stay in Kentucky and confront her faceless nightmare head on. Her brother insisted staying in Kentucky wasn't safe. And after that last encounter with the person she called “the Man in Black,” she'd conceded—but not happily.

She'd come to refer to him as the Man in Black because that was simply all she knew about her stalker. Not knowing what his face looked like only increased her anxiety. His eyes
and features were always shadowed by that hood. He could be anyone.

Kylie had seen him only three times. Once he'd been outside the window at her house. Another time he'd been watching in the distance as she went grocery shopping. He hadn't gotten close to her, but she'd known it was him from the way he'd stood idly by, watching. And at her last cooking demonstration, he'd been there, at the back of the crowd. By the time she'd alerted someone, he'd disappeared, probably abandoning the sweatshirt so police couldn't identify him.

All she knew was that he was tall, broad-shouldered, relatively thin. On the phone, his voice sounded gravelly and low—probably disguised. In emails, he used proper English, which made Kylie think he had to be educated. On handwritten notes, his writing appeared calm, controlled—like he knew just what he was doing.

Kylie shuddered.

She'd been over a list of suspects with the police, but the list seemed so ambiguous. There was the fan who constantly left aggressive messages on the public online forum to her cooking show. Of course, the police could never trace the address, as the man seemed to use computers at various places around town, all without security cameras. However, the stalker could be someone who'd given no clue to his identity—someone who'd watched her show and developed an obsession, someone who'd seen her shopping and she'd caught his eye. He could be a friend, a neighbor, an ex-boyfriend.

At the thought of an ex-boyfriend, Kylie squeezed her eyes closed. Colin was far too sophisticated and cultured to pull off a stunt like this. Besides, he'd avoided her since they broke up. Why would he avoid her in general and stalk her at every other time? Sure, he'd been controlling, but he would never go this far.

Would he?

They'd dated for a year before Kylie finally had the sense
to break up with him. He was the president of a local advertising agency. She'd catered an event at his office and he'd immediately taken an interest in her. She'd been flattered and, initially, swept off her feet. His strength and advice had been comforting in the beginning. But as she got to know him, she realized that the more they were together, the more she was losing herself.

Slowly, he'd begun to isolate her from her friends and family. He'd begun to critique everything she did. He'd begun giving career advice and calling her producer to insist he make it happen. He'd even figured out her email password and begun answering her emails. He'd accepted invitations or declined opportunities without so much as a mention to Kylie. He'd claimed he was only trying to make her into the successful woman she had the potential to be, and in order to do so, she needed to align herself with certain people and write others out of her life completely.

The final straw came when she found out he was cheating on her. She wished she'd seen the signs earlier, that she'd gotten out before discovering his betrayal. The good thing, she comforted herself, was that at least she'd gotten out.

Despite his cheating, Colin hadn't taken the breakup well. Told her she'd realize her mistake and come running back.

She hadn't.

Instead, she'd avoided him whenever possible and comforted herself with her friends and family, who'd been terribly neglected. Life had finally started feeling normal and happy again.

Until her stalker showed up.

She braced herself to face Nate. She rounded the corner into the dining room, where Nate sat with two steaming mugs before him. The rain still pounded against the window as the storm raged outside.

Kylie took a minute to observe him as she approached. He really was a good-looking guy in a tough, outdoorsy type
of way. As his arms rested on the table, she noticed the fine definition of his muscles peeking out from under his T-shirt. She scolded herself for even noticing.

Nate nodded her way when he spotted her in the doorway, thankfully not seeming to notice that she'd been staring. “Come on over and have a seat, Kylie.”

Her slippers made no sound as she crossed the floor and sat across from Nate. He pushed a ceramic mug toward her.

“It's decaf.”

She wrapped her fingers around the warmth of the mug. “Thanks.” She normally used cream and sweetener, but tonight she'd drink it black. She sipped the bitter liquid.

“So, Kylie, I need you to tell me what's going on. I don't mind you staying here—I'm more than happy to help out you and your brother—but I need to know more about the circumstances bringing you here.”

How did she tell him without causing him to overreact? Of course, with everything that had already happened since she arrived, him overreacting could be a forgone conclusion.

“How much did Bruce tell you?”

“Just that he was fearful for your safety. He told me you would fill in the rest of the blanks.”

She'd have to give her brother credit for that. It must have killed him not to go into detail, but that's what Kylie had requested. She wanted to handle this mess on her terms, as much as possible, at least.

She sucked in a breath. “The rest of the story would be that a man has been following me—stalking me, I suppose—for the last several months. Recently, he's become more aggressive. It's become more and more apparent that this man has no intention of backing off. The police finally collected enough evidence to press charges, but first they have to figure out whom to press charges against. My brother is working with the police to set up a sting and make that happen. I just need
to lie low until everything settles.” She looked away and took a sip of coffee.

“Are you sure he didn't follow you here?”

The thought caused fear to grip her heart as the emotion had done several times already this evening. “I'm not sure of anything, Nate. My brother is the only one who knew I was coming here. I didn't even tell my best friend or boss. I took back roads on my way here. I didn't see any signs of anyone following me. But this man always seems to be a step ahead of me.”

“And you have no idea who he is?”

She shook her head. “No idea. I've never seen his face.”

“Which is why you freaked out when you saw me approaching you with my sweatshirt hood up…”

She nodded and glanced at the knot already forming at his temple. “I'm sorry about that. Is your head okay?”

His eyes darkened. “I'll be fine.” He leaned back in his chair and took a breath. “You know anything about working in a restaurant, Kylie?”

“A restaurant? No, not terribly much. But I have experience as a cook.”

He cocked an eyebrow and waited for her to explain.

Was this the time to tell Nate about her cooking show back in Kentucky? Or about the successful catering business that she and her friend had started? No, she decided. She'd have time to share that later. Right now, her head pounded and she needed some time alone.

She stood. “I'll explain tomorrow. I promise you have nothing to worry about. I may not have restaurant expertise, but I've got plenty of experience. But before I get into that, I could really use some sleep.”

 

In her room, Kylie pulled the covers up tight around her neck. Despite adding another layer of clothing, shivers still
racked her body. Was the weather causing her chills? Or could it be everything that had happened?

She pushed her face into her pillow, remembering what a fiasco tonight had been. The fact that someone had intimidated her enough for her to go running sent a flare of anger up her spine—at herself and her stalker. She fought against anyone dictating what would happen with her, preferring to make her own decisions. But now she found herself in this situation.

Thunder rolled outside. She pulled the covers up to her eyes.

Soon enough, all this would be over. Her brother had promised her. She expected a call sometime this week saying that her stalker had been arrested and she could go back home and resume her normal life.

She sighed and turned over in bed. Would her life ever be normal again? Or would she always jump at every shadow, tense at every unknown sound? She bit her bottom lip, hoping that wouldn't be the case. She'd overcome other obstacles in her life—big obstacles. She could overcome this also.

As thunder grumbled again outside, Kylie realized she shouldn't have drunk that coffee, even if the brew was decaf. Despite how tired she'd felt downstairs, her mind felt fully alert right now. She glanced at the clock beside her bed. 3:23 a.m.

She pressed her head back into the pillow, wishing sleep would find her. Instead, her thoughts raced, replaying her drive here.

Could she really be certain that no one had followed her? She'd continuously checked her rearview mirror for headlights. At times on the road, no one was behind her. That meant no one could be trailing her, right? She had no reason not to feel safe here.

Her heart slowed some.

She sat up and flicked the light on. She had to distract her self from these thoughts before she went crazy. From the
floor, she grabbed her oversized purse, reached into it and pulled out a paperback novel.

Reading always relaxed her. This particular book was a romance novel. Just the thing to distract her from her troubles.

She leaned back into her pillows and opened the first page.