He backed off a step as if he feared she’d aggressively set out to seduce him if she could. “I will not sleep with you, Anna Louise.”
He studied her warily. “Is this some kind of game you’ve been playing the last few minutes?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
He reached for her, then let his hands drop back by his sides. “I will not lose my temper,” he muttered solemnly.
Anna Louise laughed out loud. “Do you honestly think your temper scares me?”
He scowled at her. “I’m not thinking about what effect it has on you. It scares the dickens out of me. No one on earth infuriates me the way you do. You are the most annoying, most exasperating woman I have ever had the misfortune to be attracted to.”
“Good.”
“Good?” he repeated incredulously. “What in the world is good about it?”
“You’re starting to feel again, Richard Walton. That’s what’s good about it. For a while now, I’d almost given up on you.” She stood on tiptoe and planted a chaste little peck on his cheek. “Go home and think about that, why don’t you.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Richard had never been so furious or felt so helpless in his entire life. Not in Iraq. Not in Bosnia. Not in Haiti or Somalia. Maybe it was because those things had been beyond his power to control. But he should have been able to protect one incredibly special woman from the kind of harassment she was facing in supposedly safe and civilized Kiley, Virginia.
Over and over Richard heard those terrible messages playing in his head and wondered what kind of spiritual beliefs made excuses for hatred and harassment, especially when the target had brought only kindness and gentleness to everyone she met.
He tried telling himself it was not his fight. He tried to focus on the more pressing issue of what to do about the crazy turn Anna Louise’s mind had unexpectedly taken. A few more conversations like that and he wasn’t going to be responsible for his actions.
As for that business about getting him to feel again, he supposed that was true enough. He just wasn’t sure she was as ready as she thought she was to deal with what he was feeling. And he sure as hell wasn’t ready to deal with the consequences of acting on those very same feelings. He’d suffered enough pangs of guilt in his time without actively courting more.
But as much as he tried to turn his attention away from those damnable messages and onto more provocative topics, he couldn’t. He kept seeing Anna Louise’s face as the terrible words had spilled from that tape. It wasn’t fear he read in her eyes. It was anguish. She was deeply hurt that anyone could hate her so much.
It might be better if she got angry, he thought. The way he had. Fury led to action and that was what he believed with all his heart that she needed. This was no time to be turning the other cheek.
He broached the idea of discovering the caller’s identity while sitting in her kitchen a few nights later. “I’ll hire a private investigator,” he suggested. “We’ll nail this guy and put an end to it.”
Anna Louise regarded him with a rueful expression. “This is Kiley. How long do you think a stranger would go unnoticed? He’d only drive the caller further underground.”
“There are devices we could put on the phone, ways to trace the calls,” he argued.
“Identifying him won’t change the way he thinks. And there will always be someone else to take his place. I won’t live like a victim. He’s not out to harm me, just to drive me away.”
Richard shook his head and lifted her hand to his lips. “I can’t decide if you’re incredibly brave or an idiot.”
She smiled at him. “Neither one. I’ve just lived with this before. I’ve accepted that it comes with the territory.”
“It’s not right, blast it!”
“Nope,” she agreed. “But no one knows better than you that life isn’t always fair.”
“Shouldn’t your God protect you from this kind of antagonism?”
Her face paled slightly at his bitter sarcasm. “Maybe He’s just trying to test my strength,” she replied.
She said it so quietly and with such acceptance that Richard wanted to shake her. Seeing the stubborn lift of her chin, he heaved a sigh of resignation. “I wish I had half as much strength as you do.”
“You do,” she reassured him. “You’ve managed to resist me.”
He couldn’t help grinning at that. He supposed she had a point. As tests went, that was without question one of the toughest he’d ever faced. Nobody was more surprised than he was that he was passing.
Maybe he couldn’t get Anna Louise to actively do something to identify her tormentor, but there was at least one thing he could do without bringing down her wrath. He could talk to Orville. If his old friend vocally opposed Anna Louise, then maybe he’d have some idea if one of his followers would take whatever he said and carry it to an extreme.
The next morning he went into the drugstore to see Tucker.
“Morning, Richard. What brings you out so early?” Tucker said, pouring him a cup of coffee before he could ask. “Care for a piece of coffee cake? It’s fresh. Has a touch of raspberry preserves in the middle.”
Richard grinned, despite his otherwise grim mood. “You know I can’t resist raspberries.” When he had the coffee cake in front of him and had taken his first bite, he inquired casually, “How’s Orville getting along these days?”
“Haven’t you seen him?”
“Only the day of the flood.”
“To tell the truth, he sticks pretty close to home over in Jasper Junction most of the time these days. He knows I don’t approve of this vendetta he has going with Anna Louise.”
“He’s trying to get her thrown out, isn’t he?”
Tucker heaved a sigh of regret. “I’d say he’d have her tarred and feathered if he could. I don’t know how that boy can call
