It took Leslie almost four hours to drive back to Virgin River, and during that time she thought a lot about her years with Greg. He’d wanted so much more than she had since the day she met him. Then he’d traded her in for a prom queen, but boy did he get a tiger by the tail. Not only had Allison dumped him, Leslie had no doubt the word was out—he’d been cast aside. Chucked. Humiliated.
Greg would never be a mayor. He might not even be elected to City Council. But she wasn’t worried about him—he would land on his feet. He’d find another woman because he wasn’t good at being alone—he needed reinforcements, needed an audience. Now this whole business of wanting to be friends with her—it didn’t matter anymore. She could afford to be charitable. She wasn’t angry. In fact, she was grateful. If Greg and Allison hadn’t driven her out of Grants Pass, she might’ve never found Conner.
She asked herself if she should have doubts about whether Conner would turn out to be a bad choice, but she just couldn’t summon any. In fact, while she wasn’t a religious person, she found herself uttering a little prayer. Please, please keep him safe!
And her cell phone rang.
“Are you out to dinner with the fun couple?” he asked.
“I was just thinking about you! No, I’m driving home. I did what I went to Grants Pass to do, felt much better about everything and decided to go home. Tomorrow is my day off and I want to spend it in the yard. If there’s time, I might drive my neighbor, Nora, into Fortuna just for fun.”
“And what did you go to Grants Pass to do?” he asked.
“Well, it was a very interesting day, now that you ask.” And she told him all about her visit with Allison and the conclusions she had come to. At the end of her story she said, “I feel a kind of peace about my divorce that I just didn’t feel before.”
“I understand,” he said. “I totally understand.”
“If I could just have your trial over and you back here, there wouldn’t be a tight nerve in my whole body.”
He laughed deep in his throat. “I really enjoy the job of loosening up those tight nerves of yours.”
“You’re very good at it, too. What’s on the agenda for you tonight?”
“We’re taking the boys to a pizza joint that will be crazy with loud kids and games and life-size singing puppets. We’re having a party because I’m headed for Sacramento in the morning. If there’s a God, it won’t take too long and I can do what I have to do and come home.”
“Aw. You think of this place as home….”
“I think of you as home, baby. You.”
His words wrapped around her like his arms had, and she knew she was more in love than she’d ever been. Her feelings had been quite real when she’d met and married Greg, even though she’d been so young, but with Conner, love had taken on a new dimension. It was grown-up love, steady and deep. Leslie didn’t have to worry about holding on to Conner by meeting his expectations. This love she felt for him, that she felt from him, was bigger than the biggest love she had ever imagined.
She embraced his pillow while she was falling asleep, inhaling his special scent, that woodsy musk with just a dash of his sandalwood cologne. They had talked for almost an hour as she drove, talked until his nephews were pulling at him and telling him to come on, come on, come on…. He had talked about how he not only wanted a life with her but a different kind of life than the one he had before, that life that had been drenched in hard labor and only punctuated by short breaks of leisure time with his family. Until this visit he had never spent more than a day with them. He’d rarely taken a weekend or evening off away from the store—they had been open almost 24/7. After the trial was over, he was in search of more balance. And that balance included her in a major role.
When he gave in to his nephews’ urging to hurry up, he said, “All right, all right. I love you, baby. I’ll call later.” And in the background Leslie heard a small boy’s voice say, “What baby do you love, Uncle Danny?” followed by Conner’s deep, sexy laugh.
She was dreaming about him when somewhere deep in the night she was awakened by a noise. At first she thought it was a cat, then she realized it was crying. A baby was crying and crying. There was the sound of a door slamming, more crying from at least one baby or small child, then a shout. And another shout.
She sat straight up in bed. Another slam, but she wasn’t sure where it was coming from. And then there was a pounding at her front door and she hoisted herself out of bed and she ran. Without thinking, she threw the door open. There stood Mrs. Clemens, looking tinier than ever, wrapped in a very old, faded blue chenille robe, her white hair all springy and misshapen from sleep.
“He’s back,” she said with a small cry. “That man is back and I think he’s hurting her!”
“Who?” Leslie asked.
And before Mrs. Clemens could answer, Mrs. Hutchkins came sprinting down the street. She was wearing a gray sweat suit with a hoodie, and flip-flops on her feet. “Adie,” she yelled. “Go get someone right now! Go get Preacher or Nick Fitch or Ron from the Corner Store. Hurry!”
And with that, Martha Hutchkins ran right up to Leslie’s house, through the flowers that bordered the yard and grabbed the rake from the side of the porch where it had been leaning. “Hurry up, Adie!” Martha headed back through the flowers, the rake in hand.
“It’s Nora,” Adie said. “That man’s hurting her!” And then she shuffled at her fastest speed down the street and away in search of help.
Leslie shook the cobwebs out of her head. She heard another scream—these houses must be made of paper! The baby was crying her lungs out. She ran back inside and grabbed her broom and thought, I need a baseball bat! She put some power in her stride to catch up with Mrs. Hutchkins. “Did you call anyone?”
“I called Mike V, our town cop, but he’s at least ten minutes out of town. I’m not waiting for him, but he’s our closest law enforcement.” And with that, she moved quickly up the walk to Nora’s front door, which stood open. Mrs. Hutchkins pushed her way right inside, Leslie close on her heels.
What Leslie saw next was terrifying. The baby was on the couch, crying and wildly kicking her little legs. Berry was nowhere in sight, and some tall, skinny ugly guy held Nora up against the wall. Her hands were locked on his forearms, trying to push him away, and her legs were in motion as if she was running in the air.
While Leslie took in the scene frozen in shock, Mrs. Hutchkins wasted no time. She turned the rake around in her hands, holding on to the edge with the prongs, walked right up to the man and, with all her might, whacked him in the head with the handle of the rake. He dropped Nora to grab his head.
Nora slid to the floor, gasping in fear, while the man whirled around and, with eyes blazing, snarled at Leslie and Mrs. Hutchkins.
Leslie, feeling a little late to the party, pointed the handle of the broom at him, hanging on to the business end. “All right, back away from Nora!” she commanded. “The police are on the way!”
He laughed, and when he did, Leslie caught sight of rotting teeth. Who was this? Not the good-looking, badass baseball player, surely? This looked like a vagrant! His holey jeans hung low on his hips, the sleeves were torn off his T-shirt, his curly hair was long and dirty, and he didn’t exactly have a beard so much as hadn’t shaved in quite a while. And he had very scary-looking sores on both arms.
He reached right out and grabbed both the rake handle and the broom handle and shoved them away. In an act of fantastic cowardice, he settled his attention next on his small, white-haired attacker, advancing on Mrs. Hutchkins, giving her a slap and a hard shove that sent her tumbling backward and to the floor. And then he turned on Leslie.
Baseball player, was he? She assumed the batting position, broom handle over her shoulder, rocking back and forth. Behind him, Mrs. Hutchkins was slowly getting to her feet, and Nora was crawling away from the action, still looking terrified. She appeared to have a nosebleed and she wasn’t yet standing.
The man approached Leslie, and she took her swing. He intercepted the broom handle easily and gave it a hard tug to either wrest the broom from her or bring her close enough to hit.
Mrs. Hutchkins whacked him on the back of the head with her rake again. Leslie marveled. Martha was fearless! He whirled on her, and Leslie whacked him in turn with the broom handle. And now the growl that came out of him was enraged and a little crazed. He was done fooling around. He whirled on Leslie, grabbed the broom out of her hands and flung it aside with very little effort. He advanced on her fast, and she did the only thing she could think of—she kicked him in the balls. He never saw it coming; he dropped to his knees, grabbing himself in the crotch. He looked up at her with watering eyes that made it clear he was going to kill her.
He rose slowly. Slowly and as menacingly as possible while still clutching himself. Behind him Mrs. Hutchkins was scrambling around, looking for something else to hit him with. Leslie braced herself; she’d never get off another kick. With one big, meaty, dirty hand he circled her throat, hit her in the jaw with the other hand in a hard fist and lifted her clear off the ground.
And then he was gone. An arm appeared around his neck and pulled, and she fell from his grasp.
She shook herself, trying to clear away the stars, as she watched Pastor Noah Kincaid wrestle the man out the door of the house.
Leslie ran to the front door in time to see the good pastor rolling around on the front lawn, a lawn that was more dirt than grass, trying his best to stay ahead of the bad guy. She watched the pastor take a slug to the jaw, then return one. Nora was suddenly beside her, pressing the baby close. “He’s high,” she rasped out. “He’s going to be hard to subdue.”
“What’s he high on?” Leslie asked.
“Meth. Look at the sores on his arms. Meth sores. Oh, no!” she said suddenly. “Adie! Leslie, intercept her and take her to your house or something!” And sure enough, there was Adie, walking up the street in her old chenille robe, headed right for the fistfight on Nora’s front lawn.
Leslie turned around and scanned the little living room. “Where’s Mrs. Hutchkins?”
“She’s kneeling on the other side of the couch, trying to talk Berry out. Berry has been hiding behind the couch. Did someone call the sheriff or something?”
“Mrs. Hutchkins called Mike Somebody.” She looked back outside and saw Adie taking up a position behind a big tree. This was turning into an old lady military campaign.
A big, jacked-up truck came screaming down the street and screeched to a halt. Jack and Mike Valenzuela jumped out and ran to assist Noah. And then, just as Nora had predicted, it took all three of them to subdue him. He was so wired on meth, he had the strength of five men.
Adie came quickly to the doorway of Nora’s house. The three of them—Nora, Adie and Mrs. Hutchkins—all worked at comforting the children while Leslie couldn’t pull herself away from the front door. For the first time she noticed there were other neighbors with lights on in their houses, a couple of them looking out windows and opening their doors.
Eventually, Mike and Jack trussed Chad up like a roped calf. He was laid on his belly, his hands tied behind his back with a rope strung to his bound ankles. And he was still yelling and rolling around, trying to get loose.
Dr. Cameron Michaels showed up by the time the suspect was tied up and administered first aid in the form of ice packs and bandages to those who needed it. The sheriff’s deputy had been called, but, as the folks in this town had grown accustomed, he wouldn’t get there real fast. He had a lot of territory to cover.
“Nora, did you open the door for him?” Noah asked her.
She nodded and held both Berry and the baby close. Tears welled up in her eyes as she fought the feeling of being completely responsible for so much damage. “He said he’d break it down. I told Berry to hide behind the couch, put the baby on the couch and prayed he wouldn’t hurt anyone but me. Pastor, he could’ve gotten in anyway. I didn’t know what else to do. He wanted money. I gave him what I had, but it was only sixteen dollars. And it made him so mad!”
“It’s not your fault, sweetheart. It’s his fault. I’ll come over tomorrow afternoon with better locks. We’ll get the doors and windows reinforced. And it’s time for a phone, Nora. I know you’ve been avoiding it because of the expense, but you can’t put it off now. You need to be able to call for help from the inside of your locked house.”
She nodded and buried her face in Berry’s curls.
“How’d you get into this, Reverend Kincaid?” Leslie asked.
“Bad sermon,” he said with a shrug. “I was hoping for inspiration. It was keeping me awake and I didn’t want to bother Ellie. If I get up in the night, she gets up, too, so I decided to try the church office. Sometimes the church, in the middle of the night, is a wonderful place.” He ran a finger over his cut lip. “Ellie’s going to yell. She doesn’t even know I slipped out of the house.”
Jack put a hand on Noah’s shoulder. “I didn’t know you were so scrappy, Noah. Next time we have trouble, I’ll give you a call.”
Noah looked at his bruised knuckles. “I might’ve had a slightly wayward youth on the Seattle docks before I tried the seminary. He is going to jail, isn’t he?”
“He’s going to jail,” Mike said. “With any luck, he’s got meth in his pockets or his vehicle so we can double up the charges.”
This was when Leslie had a chance to look around Nora’s house. It was sparsely furnished, just a sofa and chair with quilts covering them, a small table with two chairs, a rug that didn’t cover enough of the floor, some toys for Berry, the stroller by the door, and it was spotless. Shining clean.
The men stood in the living room, Mrs. Hutchkins and Mrs. Clemens occupied chairs at the table while Leslie sat on the couch with Nora. Berry wasn’t even crying; she was clinging to her mother with wide eyes. Leslie reached for the baby. “Let me, Nora. Want me to fix her a bottle?”
“I’ll do that in a minute,” she said. “Leslie, I’m so sorry you were dragged into this.”
“Don’t start,” she said. “I’m a woman alone, too, as are Mrs. Clemens and Mrs. Hutchkins. If we don’t back each other up, we’re sunk. As it is, I think that maniac was held off by me, a preacher and two little old ladies.”
“Who are you calling little?” Mrs. Clemens said.
It was another half hour before the sheriff’s deputy arrived. Henry Depardeau stepped out of his car and approached the men in the front yard. “Well, Sheridan, this has the look of your work. I think the county would save time and paperwork if we’d just deputize you.”
“We can’t do that, Henry,” Jack said. “We look forward to your visits. You getting a little backup out here?”
“Am I going to need it?”
“Possibly,” Jack said with a shrug. “Took three men to hog-tie him. And that was after two women weakened him with blows to the head.”
“Crap,” Henry said. “I hate long reports.”
It was midmorning when the phone beside the bed woke Leslie. She answered tiredly.
“What’s up, sleepyhead?” Conner said. “I thought you’d be working in the yard!”
“Hmm,” she hummed. “I’m sleeping in. Where are you?”
“Changing planes in New York. Then I change planes in Denver. Then I drive straight to Sacramento from Redding so I can get there by morning.”
“Oh, Conner, sleep on the plane if you can! You’ll be so tired!”
“Are you sick?” he asked. “You don’t sound right.”
“Not sick, just tired. I was up late last night. We had excitement in the neighborhood and I didn’t fall asleep until five this morning.”
“Block party?” he asked.
“Not the usual kind,” she told him. “Nora had an intruder. Her ex…ex-boyfriend, I guess. He brought her up here six months ago and just dumped her here, leaving her with the babies. He came back looking for money and got real mean and physical and the sheriff had to be called.”
“Is she all right?” he asked.
“No one required stitches or anything…just ice packs and… Well, Noah had to have a butterfly bandage to close his lip. And Mrs. Hutchkins has a sore tush from being shoved and falling on the floor. But Jack and Mike V only have bruised knuckles.”
“What?” he said as if he hadn’t heard right. “What?”
“Mrs. Hutchkins and I were able to hold him off for a while with a rake and a broom. That Mrs. Hutchkins—don’t mess with her!” She laughed a little. “She grabbed my rake and walked right in that house and clobbered him on the back of the head. Then it was game on!”
“Leslie, were you really in a fight?” he asked.
“A short one. Then Noah, Jack and Mike saved the day and the sheriff’s deputy came, eventually, and took him away. Thank goodness! The ex, he was high as a kite and really strong.”
“Wait a second, wait a second….” She heard a beeping sound in the background.
“What was that?” she asked.
“I’m boarding. That was the boarding pass being scanned. Are you all right?”
“Oh, sure, just a little bump on the jaw. It doesn’t hurt. But I got one off on him, let me tell you. Kicked him right where it hurts most and brought him to his knees. Amazing what you can do when you have to.”
“Leslie, listen to me—I want you to get the crowbar out of your car and keep it handy, just in case—”
He was cut off by the sound of her laughter. “Conner, if I ever see that lunatic again, I’m not going after him with anything stronger than a broom! He’d take a crowbar away from me and kill me with it! He was out of his mind!”
“Then I want you to go stay with Paul or Dan until I get back there!”
“Conner, I’m fine. He’s in jail. I’ll check with Jack to make sure he’s staying in jail for a while, but seriously, he was taken away by three deputies. And besides, only a fool would go up against me, two little old ladies and a minister again.” And then she laughed.
“Stop laughing,” he said. “You have me scared to death! Now listen, they’re closing the door, but I’ll try to call you from Denver when I change planes again. Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Conner, I’m fine. I think I’ll take another nap, though. It was a long night.”
“I’ll call you when I can.”
“Just have a safe flight and don’t worry. I never should have told you!”
“Be careful,” he said. “I love you.”
Leslie had no idea when to expect a call from Conner from the Denver airport, but she knew one thing she had to do for sure. She took a walk down her street to check on Mrs. Clemens, Mrs. Hutchkins and Nora and her family. The elderly ladies were still a little riled up and excited from the earlier events. Nora, on the other hand, was so embarrassed and filled with regret, Leslie spent almost an hour trying to comfort her and get her back to her old self.
“I feel like I shouldn’t even be here,” Nora said. “I don’t want to be found by him again and I don’t want to bring trouble to my neighborhood. Not after everyone has been so good to us.”
“Your neighbors will hunt you down and try to protect you if you do anything crazy, like try to leave. You don’t even have a car. I don’t know how you manage!”
She shook her head. “Every couple of weeks, Jack or Noah will add my shopping list to theirs when I need groceries, or Mrs. Hutchkins takes me with her into Fortuna while Mrs. Clemens sits with the girls during their nap. And until now, I was never afraid or worried.”
“Once you get a little rest and a few quiet days, you won’t feel that panic anymore. I’m going down to Jack’s to ask him what he knows about your ex’s jail visit. I’ll let you know what he says. I’m sure he won’t mind checking in with the deputy—they seem to be friends.”
“Les, Berry hasn’t talked all day,” she said in a whisper. “She was talking so well for her age.”
Leslie patted her hand. “She’s probably still scared. Try not to panic yet. Ask Mel and the doctor about it. Ask Noah.”
“Right,” Nora said.
That information did seem to bring some peace of mind to everyone. The suspect was still in jail and in fact had quite a few warrants outstanding from other cities, so it looked as though he wouldn’t make bail. The sheriff’s department was planning to let Oakland, California, have him back—a more positive outcome for Leslie and her neighbors than the idea of him being released.
But of course, she must have missed a call from Conner while she was out, taking the pulse of the neighborhood. She just hoped he would have time to call before he began the five-hour drive from Redding to Sacramento.
It was ten at night, and when she still hadn’t heard from him, she started to imagine flight delays or even canceled flights. Then there was a knock at her locked door, and her first thoughts returned to the night before. She didn’t have a peephole; the kinds of precautions a person would take even in a city the size of Grants Pass had never crossed her mind since being in Virgin River.
“Who is it?” she asked the locked door.
“It’s me, Les,” Conner said.
Stunned, she threw open the door and was instantly in his arms.
He just held her close and in great relief for a minute, then slowly pulled away to look at her. He ran a knuckle across her bruised jaw.
“What are you doing here?” she asked him.
“I couldn’t go to Sacramento without seeing you, without making sure you’re all right. You made the injuries sound like nothing. This is something.”
“We’re very proud of our bruises,” she said. “They’re badges of honor. How long are you staying here?”
“Till early morning.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be there by morning?” she asked.
“I think they’ll wait for me.” And then he pressed his lips gently against the corner of her mouth, opposite the bruise. “Goddamn, Les. It’s killing me that you got hurt.”
She smiled at him. “You have a lot of people you try to take care of, don’t you? I told you, I’m fine. We’re all fine. What about Katie? Is she all right?”
“I think so. As of right now, she wants to stay there. She thinks she’s cultivating something with the dentist, but I don’t know about that. I don’t know how long she’ll last. He seems kind of…” He shrugged. “He’s very nice. He likes Katie and the boys. But something’s missing.” He bent his head to gently kiss her again, careful not to be rough. “Nothing is missing for me, though. Let me lay down with you, let me just hold you.”
She smiled at him. “I don’t think I really got it until now. You were responsible for your sister from such an early age—it’s natural for you to be a caretaker. I’m not used to that.”
She took his hand and led him to the bedroom; she pulled him down beside her. He sat to take off his boots and then pulled her into his arms. It felt so good, so safe to be with him like this.
When she was young, her parents had looked out for her. When she married and left their house, she became the caretaker. For a long time, she was the protector, the supporter. It was a brand-new experience to have a man like Conner, so responsible and protective that he’d drive hours out of his way to be sure she was all right.
