Ox let out a loud scream from inside the room, which startled Tara. Brody held onto her.
“Don’t worry,” Caleb said. “He put up quite a struggle but his legs and wrists are zip tied. He’s not going anywhere.”
Caleb moved to the back of the stockroom to talk to Hunter, giving Tara a clear view of the store. Her eyes welled up with tears again.
“I’m sorry, Tara,” Brody said. “I wasn’t thinking of what would happen to your shop.”
She shook her head. “Don’t. They’re just things. I was so afraid you might be killed.”
“Funny. All I could think about was you.”
Sweet Montana Outlaw: Chapter Ten
It had been years since Tara had felt so scared. Even seeing the gun pointed at her at the shop hadn’t brought her to her knees the way being alone in her apartment was making her feel now.
There was a time after Doug had died that she had been afraid of everything. Her world had been rocked. She’d been angry and grieving. At the shop today, she had been numb. It wasn’t until she’d seen Brody and Hunter standing there, that she realized what was actually happening.
But now that numbness was gone. And she was alone.
A tear trickled down her cheek and she quickly swept it away. She went through her apartment and turned on all the lights. If she had to sleep on the sofa with the light on, she would. Something told her she wasn’t going to get any sleep at all.
Her heart beat strong in her chest. Even putting her hand over her chest couldn’t calm it.
“You are insane, Tara. You’ve been living here for five years and have never been afraid to be alone.”
She heard a loud crash in the kitchen and bolted to a stand. She didn’t want to go in there. But she knew in her mind that it was only Dexter. Her cat had a habit of knocking things off the counter onto the floor when Tara ignored her when she got home.
She slowly walked to the kitchen and peeked inside. Then she laughed when she saw Dexter standing by a nearly empty food dish and an empty water bowl. The can of tuna fish she’d left on the counter was nearby on its side. Dexter gave a very loud meow in protest.
“You can’t scare me like that,” she said reaching down and scooping him up from the floor. When she felt lonely, Dexter usually made her feel better. But tonight her faithful cat did not have the same effect at calming her nerves.
Tara put the cat back down on the floor and busied herself for a few minutes by filling the water bowl and adding dry food to the cat’s dish. As soon as she set both bowls back in place, Dexter ignored her.
She should be hungry, but she wasn’t. Making dinner would probably kill at least thirty minutes of time and keep her mind off her nerves.
Or she could bake a cake. She’d purchased some frozen huckleberries at the grocery store the other day. Of course, then she’d have to eat the cake. And it probably wouldn’t come out as good as Norma’s delicious pastry goods.
She gasped, as she thought of Norma. She probably heard of what happened at the shop today, but in her fear and in the day’s events, Tara had somehow forgotten to call her to let her know that she wasn’t opening the shop in the morning. It might be several days before she could open her shop again given the damage that had occurred.
She rushed into the living room and grabbed her purse. Then she pulled out her cell phone. Norma’s telephone number was on speed dial so she quickly dialed and waited for Norma to pick up.
“I was wondering when you were going to call,” Norma said. “I didn’t know if you were home from the police station yet.”
“I’ve been home for about an hour,” Tara said, nervously flipping a strand of hair behind her ear and looking around the living room at everything and nothing at the same time. “Sorry, I forgot to call you.”
“News travels fast. Of course, I heard about what happened to you, you poor thing. Are you okay?”
“Oh, you know me,” she said, lying through her teeth. “I’m fine. But I am staying closed tomorrow. Probably for the rest of the week. I’m not sure if the police are going to need to come back and do any type of forensics like they did the last time.”
It was another lie. Caleb and the other officers had already done an exhaustive investigation. Caleb had said they wanted to make sure their case against Ox, who was the man who broke in, was ironclad.
It would be impossible to open the store tomorrow. But now that Tara was home and feeling so isolated, she wondered if that had been a bad decision. At least at the shop, there would be activity just outside her door and inside as people came into town.
“I thought as much,” Norma said. “Don’t you worry about a thing. Just let me know when you need me to start up again, and I’ll be over first thing in the morning with the goodies.”
Guilt stabbed at Tara. This was lost money for Norma. And Tara knew just how much. Her voice quivered as she answered, “Thank you, Norma. It will only be a few days. I want to make sure we cleanup when the police are finished, and I’m going to see about getting a better security system.”
“That sounds like a good plan. Call me if you need anything.”
“I will.”
Tara disconnected the call and then sat down on the sofa. She could get up and start cooking. Or baking. She’d planned to do as much before she’d rushed to call Norma. But what would that do? She’d still be alone.
* * *
“No way,” Brody said, standing in the doorway
