men shook hands all around before Sam said to the foreman, “You’re the one who found the bat?”
Robert nodded. “Dug it up this morning while we were cleaning out the trees. It was wrapped in a dirty T-shirt and a garbage bag. I set it aside for my kid and didn’t think anything of it until one of the other guys said it looked like the one . . .” He trailed off as he shot an apologetic glance at Kylie. “Kind of makes all the other stuff that’s been happening a bit more significant, in my opinion.”
Her expression remained unchanged, but her shoulders tensed. “I don’t think—”
“What other stuff?” Chase cut in, narrowing his eyes at her.
“Nothing that—”
“Vandalism started about two weeks ago,” Robert said. “Sugar in the gas tanks of the earthmovers. Sabotaged engines. Stolen materials. More annoying than serious, but definitely suspicious.”
“Why didn’t you call the police?” Chase directed the question at Kylie.
“I didn’t see a need. Like Robert said, the incidents were more annoying than serious.”
“But escalating,” Robert pointed out. “Whoever’s behind it is getting bolder. I don’t—” The ringing cell phone on his belt cut him off. “Excuse me, folks,” he said and stepped away.
Chase moved in on Kylie, deliberately invading her space. “Someone’s trying to scare you off, and you’re not doing anything about it?”
“Chase . . .”
He ignored Sam’s warning tone. Screw the conflict of interest. Kylie was being threatened. “You should have called the police, Ky.”
“You’re here now.” Cool and solid, not a flicker of emotion.
“That’s not the point,” Chase said. “Escalating vandalism can quickly turn into violence. You should have—”
“We need to stay on track here,” Sam said.
Chase took a breath to check his temper. Figures. Her past had just risen up to take a swing at her, and he was the one on the verge of losing control. Being near her could make him so irrational. “Where is it?” he asked, teeth gritted.
She gestured with a rock-steady hand toward the off-white trailer that served as the foreman’s office. A metallic blue aluminum baseball bat with red lettering sat propped under one of the shadeless windows. On the dirty yellow tape wrapped around the grip, one word had been scrawled in black marker: KILLER.
Chase’s stomach flipped. Jesus, that was the bat that demolished her knee to the point where only the fast work of one doctor saved her leg. Saved her life.
He realized now that she must have locked everything inside her down. No way could she look at that thing and not feel something. So she’d done what she could: kept her eye on the ball with the same laser focus that won her the Australian Open at seventeen, launching her into tennis stardom mere weeks before two barbaric bastards held her down on a deserted path and viciously destroyed her.
He swallowed as the same old helpless rage welled inside him. He’d been head over heels in love with her, and all he could do after the attack was stand there, powerless and lost and pissed off, while her world imploded. She lost everything that day, in the course of one or two bloody minutes. Her future. Her sense of security. Her innocence. Her very identity.
When he was feeling rational, he couldn’t blame her for running away from Kendall Falls. She’d landed on center stage, under a glaring spotlight, at the most vulnerable time of her life. It was like being assaulted twice.
A flash of lightning, closer now, jolted him out of his thoughts, and as he looked away from the bat, he realized Sam watched him with a warning in his gaze. Keep it together, man.
Chase cleared his throat. No problem. Do the job. “Where are the shirt and bag?”
“Foreman said he tossed them before he knew what he had,” Sam said.
“Tossed them where?” Chase asked.
“Dumpster.” Sam jerked his thumb toward the back of the site.
“We’ll have to go through it,” Chase said.
“Is that all you need from me for now?” Kylie asked.
So stoic and controlled and, God, still so achingly beautiful. When she cocked her head, waiting for his response, he had to swallow against the tightness of his throat, sure she had no idea what was coming.
Thunder crashed, and Chase noticed everyone except Kylie glanced up at the furious clouds. Her focus had zeroed in on him and his next words.
“Construction has to be shut down,” he said. Blunt, to the point. Like ripping off a Band-Aid.
Nothing in her expression changed, her eye obviously still on the