“So? We’re family, huh? Funny. Deke’s never gonna believe this.” Z laughed. He really did have an awesome laugh—the kind that made you want to laugh with him, except this time.

“Why tell him. Just let it go.” I didn’t need Deke anywhere near my life or me at this point.

“Hell no,” Z barked.

“Why?” I asked, wondering what the hell he was up to.

“I love getting on his ass.”

“I bet.” I snickered.

Z pushed my arm playfully. “Not like that.”

“Whatever.”

“Seriously, I know things are rough with the two of you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t hang out with us. I don’t want it to be weird or have you avoid me just because Deke’s with me.”

I looked out over the garden. “It’ll be fine.”

Silent moments passed before Z spoke up. “You know it was five years ago.”

I looked at him, shocked. How does he know anything about the situation? “I know.”

“Why let him get to you?”

I softened a bit. “I don’t know, but I’m good now.”

Z eyed me wearily. “We should all hang out sometime. You, Kinsley, Sawyer, and Deke, and me.”

“Are you nuts? Deke hates me. Why would I want to hang out with him?”

“It’ll be fun. Come on. He doesn’t hate you. I think it just shocked him to see you in town.”

“Shocked is one word for it,” I mumbled.

“Let’s just try it out. But you have to be sure to bring Sawyer.” I didn’t miss the wiggle of his eyebrows.

“You have a thing for Saw, huh?”

“She’s hot.” Z’s eyes brightened and the gorgeous smile broke free.

“She won’t sleep with you for the fun of it.”

Z’s smile dropped. “Damn it if I don’t already know that,” he grumbled.

“Fine. Whatever.”

“Great. I’ll set it up.” Z slapped my leg as he stood to leave. “I gotta run.”

“Wait!” I yelled, needing the answer to a question of my own.

“What?”

My eyes drifted up to his face. “You still living with Uncle Keith?”

Z laughed. “Hell no. I’ve got my own house about five miles away from them. I only lived there in high school. I went to the academy right after high school. You think a hot guy like me still lives with his auntie?” He raised an eyebrow.

“That’s the way it seemed. So, you’re a cop?”

“That’s what they tell me.”

I thought about telling him what was going on with me, but fear ripped through me in the thought of him telling Deke. I didn’t know how he would take it, so I shut up.

“Gotta go. Later.” Z didn’t give me a chance to ask him any more questions, and he was off.

Sitting alone again, I allowed the quiet night to calm me. I could do this. It would be just like high school. When I existed, but Deke didn’t recognize me. Just like Grams said, time to pull up my big girl panties.

8

Deke

“You are never gonna believe this.” Z’s annoying voice droned on through my office door.

“What?” I grunted. The paperwork was piling up. I hated it and put it off ‘til the very last minute, and like always, this was the last minute. Shit was due.

“Guess who my new cousin is.” Z had that damn smile on his face that told me he knew something that I didn’t. To hell if he did.

“Vann,” I said as I stared at him deadpanned.

“Damn it. You took all the fun out of it,” Z grumbled.

He always wanted to try and get one up on me, but he should know by now that I knew shit. “You think I didn’t know that from the moment you moved into this town?”

“Would have been nice for you to at least seem a little shocked.” Z leaned against the doorjamb, practically pouting, which only made me smile.

“Nah. Old news.”

“I had dinner with her tonight at Grams’s.” This information caught my attention.

“Really. How’d that go?” Not that I wanted to know every single play-by-play that happened with Vann … who am I kidding. Yeah I did.

“Good. She agreed to hang out with us and Sawyer and Kinsley.”

I stared at him shocked. “She what?”

That damn know-it-all smile came back on Z’s face. “Yeah. Something about letting you go or something.”

Letting me go. Didn’t she already do that when she left me high and dry. “Good. You have a point to this little visit,” I said coldly.

Z slammed a manila file down on my desk. “More info on the mark?”

“No. Look,” he said, pointing to it.

Opening the file, I stopped breathing. Vann. Dozens of pictures of her—eating, sleeping, grocery shopping, working out. “What is all this?”

“Your Vann has a stalker. The California police sent all this down to the station. We just got it this morning. I was gonna say something to her at dinner, but decided to wait.”

Rifling through all the papers, I found pictures of dildos, handcuffs, lingerie, lube and various other sex toys spread out in front of me. “What is with all this shit?”

“He sends it to her.”

“Who is he and why is he sending her shit?” I barked.

“Gary Bankenship. At least that’s the name on the packages, but there is absolutely no record of him. Anywhere.” So, some fucker is trying to get to Vann.

“Shit. But why? Ex?”

“Nope. Seems your little Vann is also known as Gabriella Daniels.”

I stared at Z as if he grew three heads. “Who the hell is that?”

“Gabriella is her pen name.”

“Like for a writer?” I asked, growing impatient.

“Yeah, dipshit. She writes erotic romance novels. Very sexually explicit stuff. Check out the list.” Z pulled out a list of titles with their summaries. As my eyes wandered down the paper, I noticed she wrote lots of sex. Sex between a man and a woman. Sex between a man and two women. Sex between two men and a woman. Sex. Sex. Sex.

“How long has this been going on?” I asked breathless, thinking of how Vann felt during sex and wondering what exactly her thoughts were in her books.

“Reports say it started soon after she started writing about four and a half years ago. They believe it’s been the same guy the entire time, but they really have no leads.”

“All right, so she has a stalker. Is it an immediate threat?”

“As far as we know, no. But before she left, she got a letter stating all the things this guy wanted to do to her. And because we don’t know who he really is, we have no idea on his whereabouts.”

Sitting back in my chair, I rubbed my hands over my eyes. Some asshole out there wanted to hurt Vann. Fuck. And she was a writer. A sex writer. Memories of our first time together flooded me like a tidal wave.

“Vann,” I whispered in her ear as she lay on the blanket under the old oak tree by the river, my body on top of hers. I knew she was just as inexperienced as I was, but I wanted to rectify that. I’d had a rep of being a player in school, but it was far from the truth.

I’d never had sex before. I’d always thought about it. I mean, shit, what guy didn’t? I just didn’t want to just do it. I wanted it to mean something.

For some reason, it stuck with me what my dad told me about it not being taken lightly. I’d made out with girls, but that was about it. I never let the guys know, though. They’d be on my ass.

But Vann. She was different. She listened to me and cared. Every time I kissed her, my entire body caught on fire and I wanted more—more from her.

“Yeah Deke?” Vann’s voice was shallow and breathy. The kisses I’d just stolen did that to her. I did that to her.

“Can I touch you?”

Vann’s eyes searched mine as if she was looking for divine intervention. I didn’t know what she would find in my eyes besides want. “Yes.”

Smiling, I reached my shaky hand to Vann’s stomach, slipping my hand under her shirt. Reaching up, I lightly touched Vann’s boob. Her gasp in my mouth told me she felt it, too.

Rubbing her nipple through her bra, I could feel it harden beneath my touch. I wanted to see it. Reaching for the hem of her shirt, I began to slowly raise it from her body. Vann lifted her arms for me to remove it.