“This person wants to keep you scared,” Officer Haldon said, his voice disgusted. “But we won’t let that happen. As much as we possibly can, ma’am.”
Kat nodded tiredly. “Thank you for all your help.”
“After you get that window boarded up, you can stay here if you’d like. The police will be watching twenty-four seven.”
Gavin stiffened at the thought of her staying here alone. There was no way in hell he was going to let that happen. But Kat spoke before he did. “I don’t think I want to stay here tonight, but again, thank you.” She held out her hand, and Officer Haldon shook it with a slight frown.
When Gavin and Kat arrived back at his place, it was just the two of them, as Emma wouldn’t be home from school for another two hours.
“I only had to teach a half day today,” Kat said by way of explanation, “and I wanted to check on the house. And then…” She sighed. “This person sure isn’t giving up. I guess I have to give them props for consistency.”
The attempt at a joke fell flat, and Gavin couldn’t even try to laugh. He handed her a cup of tea. After that first night, he’d made sure to stock every flavor of tea he could buy at the local store, although Kat had assured him that plain old black tea was perfectly fine.
“Mike told me that this jasmine tea is good,” he explained.
Her mouth quirked into a smile. “I’m not sure how much of a tea connoisseur Mike is, but I’ll take his word for it.”
She sipped her tea in silence. He didn’t want to press her to talk. But as she drank her tea, he could see her hands starting to shake; eventually, she was shaking so hard that he took the mug from her, worried she’d spill the hot liquid on her fingers.
“I was so scared,” she gasped. “When I saw what they’d written on the house, I was sure they were still there, just waiting to hurt me.” She swallowed, and her eyes were wild when she looked at him. “They’re going to kill me, aren’t they?”
Gavin’s heart lurched. He pulled her into his arms and held her tight, her words terrifying him. “Not without killing me first,” he vowed.
She clutched at him, like she couldn’t get close enough. He could feel her heart pounding wildly, like a bird fluttering against its cage doors.
“I was so scared, so scared, oh my God, Gavin.” She kept saying the same thing over and over again, her entire body trembling, and he didn’t know how to make her feel safe. He felt utterly useless, but at least he could hold her, keep her close, and murmur things in her ear. He could rub her back and tell her he’d never let anything happen to her.
She kept trembling, though, and soon he heard her breath hitch. That was when she started crying: in deep, rolling sobs, she was crying so hard that he was afraid she’d hyperventilate. He let her cry until his shirt was soaked with her tears, but he didn’t care. He knew someone like Kat didn’t let her guard down easily. He doubted she’d cried even once since all this had started. So all the fear and anger and grief came out in one intense burst of tears that finally petered out after what seemed like an eternity.
She took off her glasses to wipe her eyes, her cheeks tear-streaked. She looked exhausted and yet, inexplicably, absolutely beautiful. He kissed her on the lips, but it was a tender kiss. It didn’t suggest anything other than affection and reassurance. Afterward, he tucked her head underneath his chin and held her until she dozed off in his arms.
He carried her to his bed, stripping off her boots before placing a blanket on top of her. He changed his wet shirt, and soon after, Emma arrived home from school.
“Kat’s taking a nap,” he said, “so let’s be quiet, okay?”
Emma nodded, frowning. “Why is she taking a nap? Is she sick?”
“Kind of. She had a hard day.” Gavin wasn’t going to tell Emma what had happened. It would just terrify her, and he didn’t need both Kat and Emma crying. “Did you have a good day at school?”
Emma pulled her pant leg up to show him her knee. “I fell off the tire swing and got this. But I didn’t even cry.”
It was a rather impressive bruise, he had to admit. “How did you fall off the tire swing, anyway?”
“We were standing on it and then Danny made it go so fast that I fell off. I had to lie still underneath it until it stopped turning, otherwise it would’ve hit me in the head.”
Honestly, sometimes he wondered how any child survived elementary school. “And are you supposed to be standing on the tire swing?”
She shrugged. “No, but Ms. Reeves has a crush on Mr. Loy and doesn’t pay much attention while on recess duty if he’s around.”
Emma recounted the rest of her day, which included various bits of teacher-related gossip that both amused and rather astonished Gavin—mostly due to the fact that Emma knew of such gossip in the first place—while Kat slept the afternoon away. He heard her get up around five o’clock, but she didn’t come out into the living room. He couldn’t blame her. He was the type of person who needed space after something so emotional, and he imagined Kat was similar. But that didn’t stop him from knocking on the door and asking if she needed anything, to which she’d replied that she was fine.
“I heard someone broke into Ms. Williamson’s house,” Emma said as he started
