The gun was Adams, and hed suggested I get another Sig Sauer 9mm like my preferred gun instead because it was lighter and, being an automatic, the 9mm was faster to reload. Id told him it was a waste of money when he already had this one.
I had made the assumption that this guy was Christys stalker and not some poor lost traveler who stopped to use the phone or something. We hadnt managed to get any kind of photo of him, but how many guys travel in rental cars with a wickedlooking dog?
I looked at the monitor again and tried to evaluate him in the blackandwhite screen. He appeared to be tallish, and his hair was lightcolored. Without anything that eliminated him from the description Christy had given, I decided I was okay with making the assumption that he was the bad guy. If not, I could apologize to him later.
Why had he come here instead of going after Christy?
Maybe he had, and all the people we had guarding her had made him rethink his plan.
Maybe he thought he could take me to use as leverage to get to Christy. Or, if he was really crazyand burning down a building was acting crazy in my bookhe might be planning on killing me to get back at Adam for keeping Christy from him.
Maybe he just wanted to ask me if Id seen Christy. My understanding of psycho stalkers was not infallible. It was also very possible that I was overreacting.
My chest hurt, and I felt the stupid lightheadedness that told me I was flirting with a fullblown panic attack. Panic attacks were stupid and counterproductive, rendering me helpless to protect myself until they were over. Happily, I didnt have them as often as I used to, but now was not the time.
I reminded myself firmly that I had prepared for another attempted assault. I had a bolthole for the coyote to hide in. At the back of the garage, on the top of the floortoceiling shelves, there was an old wooden boxa fake box. The front
and most of one side were all that was left. Those I had woodglued and screwed to the shelf so it wouldnt fall off if I bumped it. A narrow opening at the back of the side not against the wall meant I could squeeze into the box, but I wasnt trapped because the box had no lid. All the way up near the roof of my fourteenfoothigh garage meant it didnt need a top to keep me hidden, and I had about a foot between the top of the box and the ceiling.
So why wasnt I doing the smart thing and hiding up there as a coyote? He might know who I was and where I worked, but it was extremely unlikely that he knew what I was.
I watched the monitors as he tried the door, then looked around the parking lot. The camera angle wasnt wide enough for me to see what he was looking at, but I was pretty sure it was my van. He couldnt know I was still there unless hed been watching the shop, but the van might make him suspicious.
That was assuming he knew what I drove, which might be giving him too much credit. Though he had apparently followed Christy from Eugeneand I knew that Adam wouldnt have advertised the trip over here if he could help it. Hed figured out she was staying with us and found my garage. It wasnt too much to assume he knew what I drove.
He walked away from the door and back to his car, the big dog pacing at his side without a leashjust as Lucias dog had done. I had time to hide.
The security camera had its eye focused on me, recording my every move. If I hid from this human, the whole pack would know what I had done. Christy was human, fragile, and no longer the Alphas wife. That she had gotten into trouble she couldnt get out of by herself was to be expected.
In a wolf pack, the dominant members protectthey dont need protection. I was not just the Alphas wife, I was his mate and a pack member. That all meant that what I did mattered, and I was expected to make a better showing than Adams fragile exwife, whod driven this man off with nothing more than a frying pan. So I stood watching the monitors, waiting for him to break in, instead of hiding in safety. But the knowledge I chose to face him, that I had other options, seemed to have pushed the panic attack away.
I watched as Christys stalker walked back over and began working on the front door of my garage. Darkness hadnt yet fallen, though the sun was low in the sky.
Five minutes until help arrived.
Five minutes if Tad was at home when Adam called him. If not, Adam would be here in fifteen.
What did it say about Christys stalker that he risked breaking into my garage with a crowbar when it was still light out? Was he stupid? Or did he think he had enough money, enough power, to escape the consequences of his actions?
I closed my eyes and stretched my neck and rolled my shoulders to loosen them.
The front door gave with a tremendous crackbut my ears are more sensitive than most. I leaned on the front of the Passat and left the gun resting on the hood, though I kept my hold on it. Lifting the gun up too soon would cause my arms to tire, and Id lose accuracy. I didnt worry that he would be too fast because I was as quick as any of the werewolvesand they were a lot faster than any human.