“The law sucks.”
“The law is complicated,” Barney revised.
“I get what you’re saying,” Jeb inserted. “But right now, all I feel is frustrated. The jerk could make bail and head straight back here.”
Barney nodded, his expression weary. “I wish I could stop it from happening, but California has jurisdiction.”
“There’s still the restraining order that Amanda filed. He totally disregarded it. Why can’t we get him for that?”
Shifting his stance, Barney replied, “He’s got a letter, supposedly written by Amanda and postmarked in Mystic Creek, that invites him to come here. Amanda denies writing the letter, but even she admits that the cursive resembles hers. I can’t prove she didn’t send Mark the invitation until I get a handwriting expert on board. That could take some time.”
“Even if Amanda did invite Banning here, the restraining order is still valid. I’ve heard of women inviting an ex to come see them and then pressing charges because restraining orders were violated.”
“True, but in this instance, Banning has an actual written letter as evidence. That complicates things. Unless we can prove he forged the handwriting, a judge may read it and think Mark was tricked into coming here. Women do that kind of thing all the time to get revenge.”
As Barney walked away, Chloe stirred on Jeb’s lap and asked, “Does that mean Uncle Barney can’t throw away the key?”
Jeb looked into her trusting brown eyes and swallowed hard. “Yes, honey, that may be what it means.”
Chloe mulled that over. “It’s okay, Mr. Jeb. Even if they turn my mean daddy loose, I won’t be afraid. I’ve got Bozo to protect me and Mommy.”
Definitely a smart girl. She knew who she could count on, and it wasn’t Jeb.
* * *
After the deputies took Mark away, Jeb was left to ponder what he’d done and what he’d failed to do. Barney was right; he was an idiot. He’d spent thousands of dollars on a security system, and then failed to protect the network from a hacker.
Amanda remained shaky long after Barney took off. Jeb wished he could reassure her, but right then, he felt like such an abysmal failure that he needed to lick his own wounds. While she was upstairs trying to get Chloe settled again for the night, he slumped on the family room sofa and stared at the ceiling. He’d tried so hard to keep them safe, and he’d screwed it up so badly that he wondered if he’d ever get over it.
Amanda came back downstairs and sat on the ottoman in front of him. She braced her elbows on her knees and clasped her hands, studying him in a way that made him feel naked to the bone.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, her voice pitched low.
Jeb hated to tell her that he’d left his network wide open to Mark’s attack, but when it came to something this awful, trying to dodge the bullet didn’t seem right. So he told her the truth, leaving out nothing.
“You intended to create stronger passwords this evening,” she reminded him. “And I don’t think your temporary ones are really that weak.”
“Barney says they are. He’s the criminal investigator, not me. I should have come up with some stronger ones right away.”
“It’s been a little crazy around here.”
Jeb appreciated her effort to make him feel better, but he couldn’t let himself off the hook.
Amanda sighed. “You’re not going to turn loose of this, are you?”
Jeb released a long breath, too. “I let you down. I tried to keep you safe, and I let you down.”
She sat erect. “Now maybe you can understand how I feel. I let Chloe down, not just once but many times.”
He hadn’t thought of that. Whammo, right in the solar plexus. How many times had he told Amanda to turn loose of her guilt? It would be a cold day in hell before he let go of his. He felt like a fool. He suddenly understood her in a way he hadn’t before.
“I’m sorry,” he said, knowing that was inadequate. “I totally screwed up.”
“If it will make you feel better, during our marriage Mark took night classes in computer programming. He also hung around with some guys who called themselves crackers and infiltrated people’s networks just for fun. In his own way, Mark’s also smart.” She lifted her shoulders. “I don’t think he’s a genius or anything close, but he is obsessive and capable of hyperfocusing when he wants to inflict harm. I got away from him, and now he will go to any lengths to get his revenge.”
“In short, he’s an asshole,” Jeb observed. “I can’t believe he figured out how to invade my network and gain control of my DVR. Sometimes my phone will pick up signals from an unprotected network, but I’d never for a moment think about hacking in.”
“You have scruples. Mark doesn’t.”
Jeb guessed he should be happy that Amanda believed he had scruples, but right then, he ached with regret, and he couldn’t rejoice about much of anything. “I’m sorry I didn’t get better passwords up sooner.”
“You’ve done your best. Now you have to move on.”
Jeb shifted on the cushioned seat. “You mean I have to follow different rules than you do?”
“I don’t understand.”
“You did everything you could to protect Chloe, and you can’t forgive yourself for failing. Now I’ve stumbled into Mark’s twisted world, and I’ve failed to protect both of you. Why are you allowed to hold on to your guilt, but I’m not?”
She stood and gazed down at him for a long moment. “You just answered your own question. You stumbled into Mark’s twisted world. I walked in with my eyes wide open.”
Jeb watched her step into the adjoining kitchen, where she collected the Magnum .357. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to borrow this. You can use the shotgun, right?”
“Right.” He glanced at the revolver. “If you’re taking that to bed with you, put it where Chloe won’t find it.”
She circled the counter and paused to search his expression. “You think he may get out on bail, don’t you?”
Jeb hated having to admit that. “My brother isn’t sure he can keep him behind bars here. Mark thought of nearly everything—a forged letter from you that invited him here; a permit to carry concealed; hacking into my network to turn off the cameras. We’ve got no real evidence against him.”
“But he’ll be extradited to California to be prosecuted for the charges I filed against him. And he might be allowed to post bond there.”
“Pretty much, unless Barney can make something that he did tonight stick. He’ll try to nail him on disregarding the restraining order, but your letter makes that iffy.”
“It’s not my letter.” She headed toward the stairs. “I’m sorry to leave you alone when you’re feeling down, but I need to be close to my daughter right now.”
“He won’t be released tonight, Mandy.”
She paused with her hand on the baluster. “I know you’re only trying to reassure me. You might even believe it, Jeb. But you don’t know Mark.”
Chapter Fifteen
With one eye open, Jeb slept on the sofa that night. Earlier he’d set up better password protection on his computer, using random numbers, symbols, and letters, and taking diligent notes. Surely that was now impenetrable, but he didn’t know how strong his firewall was.
Jeb rolled onto his back and then onto his side again. I hate sleeping on this sofa. It’s too damned short. He thanked God that Bozo was upstairs in Amanda’s bed. If Banning somehow escaped custody and slipped inside again, the huge dog would at least slow the bastard down, giving Jeb enough time to race upstairs. Letting his arm drop over the edge of the cushion, he curled his fingers over the shotgun lying on the floor. He wouldn’t get caught off guard again.
The next morning, the bedding on the couch didn’t escape Amanda’s notice. While working in the kitchen to help fix breakfast, Jeb endured questioning looks from her. When Chloe ran to the bathroom, she w
hispered, “Is he out on bail?”
“Not that I’ve heard. I’m just being cautious.”
Amanda tipped her head to study his face. “You look exhausted.”
“I had trouble drifting off.” In truth, Jeb hadn’t slept much. He’d been too wound up. “I’ll grab a nap later.”
That plan went south. Gowdy showed up to work on Jeb’s network security. He installed a router guaranteed to block all invasions, and then for good measure, he loaded two different firewalls. In addition to that, he checked Jeb’s passwords and gave them high marks. Shortly after Gowdy left, Barney showed up.
“I bring new locks,” he said with a smile. “These can’t be picked, not easily anyway. I got off early to help you install them.” He glanced past Jeb toward the kitchen. “I also brought Chloe’s homework, and before you ask, no, I didn’t pick it up. I sent a fellow deputy. If you’re still speaking to me when we’re done, maybe I can bum a beer and dinner off you tonight.”
Jeb’s stomach knotted. “He made bail,” he guessed.
Barney shook his head. “Not yet. The California boys came this afternoon to haul him back to Eureka. He’s still in custody, but I don’t know for how long. He’s got a barracuda attorney and used his one phone call last night to contact him. Around noon, the lawyer showed up. He argued that we have no proof Banning did anything wrong, and he told Sheriff Adams that he’d have his badge if he tried holding the creep until we find a forensic handwriting expert.” With a shrug, Barney added, “I did my best to keep him, Jeb, but now it’s out of our hands.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“I paid him a visit in his cell before the California officers took him into custody. I told him if I see him in Mystic Creek again, I’ll kill him and make it look like he fired a shot at me first. I’m pretty sure he believed me, because he turned as white as snow.”
Jeb rested a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Thanks for that.”
Barney nodded. “Come to find out, I wasn’t the only one who went back to threaten him. Even the sheriff did. If Banning comes back here, he’s crazy.”
“That’s the problem. He’s nuts.” Jeb took the sack and homework from his brother. “How much do I owe you for the locks?”
“I’ll take it out in dinners. I enjoy that little girl. She’s cute as a button. I like how she turns you into melted butter. I always thought you were a tough guy, and then, bang, you went soft.”
Jeb dredged up a smile. “Gird your loins, bro, or she’ll have you melting like butter, too.”
Jeb took the homework into the kitchen. Then he decided he and Barney should change the locks on only one door at a time, one man working while the other stood guard. Mark Banning had gotten the better of Jeb once; he never would again.
Barney said several times, “Even if he’s back in Eureka, it’ll take a while for his attorney to get him out on bail.”
“I’m not taking any chances. He’s as slippery as an eel.” Jeb glanced up at his younger sibling. “What’s the matter with people, believing a slimeball like him?”
“From a cop’s perspective? Here in Mystic, things are boring, but while working for the state, I saw things you wouldn’t believe.” Barney warmed to the subject. “After being jilted, some women hate their ex-lovers so much, they’ll bang themselves up to get the men arrested. Bust their own noses, blacken their own eyes. And they’re pretty convincing, crying and shaking. Cops have to look beneath the surface and question a story.” He relaxed his shoulders and leaned back against the doorframe. “Don’t get me wrong. I know Amanda. But when it’s a stranger, how can a cop know if a woman is telling the truth or trying to get even?”
“What is it with this getting-even bullshit? Why can’t people just call it curtains?”
Barney shifted his weight onto one foot and crossed his ankles. His brown boots shone like buffed wax. “The world is filled with all kinds of people. Some are crazy, or just self-absorbed and can’t handle rejection. They have to strike back. Right here in Mystic, I’ve seen people slander each other publicly. About six months ago, we had a dude who got dumped by a gal, and in retaliation, he posted on Craigslist under her account, uploading risqué pictures of her and inviting all comers for a one-night rodeo. She got calls from men all over the country. Jilted lovers often have no stops.”
* * *
They switched the locks out in an hour, and by then the delicious smell of baking bread filled the house. Adjourning to the kitchen, Barney sat with Chloe to help with her lessons while Jeb gave Amanda a hand in the kitchen.
Jeb felt better with Barney there to provide backup, but all too soon dinner was over and his brother left for home. Jeb made sure to lock up and reset the security system, but after last night, he didn’t trust the electronics much.
Once Chloe was settled in for the night, Amanda came downstairs to get the skinny. Jeb knew by the haunted expression in her eyes that she suspected Mark was no longer in the local jail, but that didn’t save him from having to say the words. Shortly after he told her, she rushed past him to the bathroom. He heard her gagging and wished he could do something. Problem was, he didn’t know what.
When Amanda returned, she had a little color back in her cheeks.
“What are we going to do now?” she asked.
Seated at the table, Jeb felt helpless. “We have to wait it out. Right now, he’s still in custody.” He wanted to assure her that Mark would stay behind bars, but in reality, it was a crapshoot. “Johnson is trying to get an early date for the divorce-and-custody hearing in Crystal Falls. I can’t imagine a judge ruling in Mark’s favor.”
“It may be a long wait, Jeb. And even if a judge denies Mark unsupervised visitation, what good will it do? He has no stops.” She folded her arms, her stance rigid. “You can’t spend the rest of your life standing guard over us. What about your business? At some point, you’ll have to work.”
Jeb was glad to know she’d started thinking long-term in regard to their relationship. If he had the honor of protecting her and Chloe for years, he’d count himself one lucky man. “Gowdy wired the shop and put in a security panel. If an important job comes in, I’ll take you and Chloe out there with me while I work.”
“Which will mean I can’t do the job you’ve hired me to do inside the house.”
“For now, can we forget about that?”
“No. This is a mess with no light at the end of the tunnel.”
“We’ll work it out,” Jeb insisted. “If nothing else, you can help me in the shop, and when we come back in, I’ll help you with the house.”
He anticipated an argument, and the thought made him feel like a dog chasing its tail. He wasn’t sure he had it in him to go over the same old points again.
Instead, she surprised him with, “You’re a difficult man not to love, Jeb Sterling.”
“Then stop fighting it.”
She bent her head. When she looked back up at him, her eyes had gone warm and shiny. “I think I already have.” She held up a staying hand. “Don’t take that to mean I’m ready for anything physical.”
“You’re attracted to me.” Jeb knew he was pushing her, but his male radar told him it was time to give her a nudge. “I feel the electricity snap between us, and I’m no kid still wet behind the ears. I know you feel it, too.”
The faint color in her cheeks deepened to rose. “Yes, I do.” She glanced away, then back at him. He saw her struggle and wondered if she could muster the courage to go on. “I wonder how it might be if you kissed me. Sometimes I want to touch you in ways I shouldn’t. I used to have nightmares about things Mark did to me, but they stopped when I came here. Now I have only lovely dreams about you. And other times, being near you makes me feel as if I just swallowed a cup of live minnows.”
Jeb had been thinking, Oh, yeah. But that last bit shocked him out of his hormonal reverie. “Sweet Lord.” He
gulped, telling that part of his body with no connection to his brain to stop pushing against the fly of his jeans. Since adolescence he’d privately called that unruly body part George, and George was certainly active now. “That must feel awful.”
She shook her head. “It’s actually not awful. Bad wording. It’s how I feel when I—um—yearn to find out how it might be between us.”
“Just say when, and we’ll find out,” he said.
“I can’t. For me, it’s like standing on a cliff, looking at jagged rocks far below and thinking about jumping.”
Though Jeb felt proud of her for having the guts to be truthful, now it was his turn to struggle, to try to wrap his mind around this sweet but complicated lady’s emotional processes. Jumping off a cliff? He’d always found sex pleasurable, and his partners had never complained. Hello, it felt good. But his Mandy had never experienced sex as good or even okay.
He searched her lovely eyes and saw that the thought of having sex frightened her. He suspected Mark had used physical intimacy as another way to make her pay for screwing up his life. “Don’t jump off the cliff,” he told her, his voice so gravelly he barely recognized it. It wasn’t what he wanted to say, but, damn it, it was what she needed to hear. Borrowing her analogy and changing the picture, he added, “When you feel as if you’re standing on a boulder, and all you see is me there to catch you, then go ahead and leap.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “When will I feel that way? You’re everything I ever dreamed of, and—” She wiped her cheeks, looking miserably unhappy, not with him but with herself. “I’m such a coward. I know you won’t hurt me. I tell myself it’ll be nice, but just as I think I’m ready, I want to run. And what if you get fed up with me and run before I do?”
Jeb had a hard-on now that throbbed. He’d known she wanted him, but hearing her admit it—well, George never had listened to a thing Jeb told him. “Mandy, I’m not going to run. The first time I met you, I felt drawn to you, and that hasn’t changed.”
Her swimming gaze clung to his. “Really? You’re not impatient with me? I know I’ve sent you signals, and then I’ve backed away. Men don’t like a tease.”