Read Online Alone and Afraid (Rocky Mountain Home Series Book 1) by Elizabeth Sherry - Free Book Online Page B

himself as much as he did.  She shivered as the sheriff walked David in front of her as he took him out of her house.  She prayed she would never set eyes on him again.
    Chase sat next to Brooke and asked, “Are you alright?  I hope you don’t let that ass’s words get to you.  He’s a bully , and even though you haven’t told me, I think you’ve found that out before.”
    Brooke started writing again.  She wrote, yes, she knew that after he hit her and left her lying on the floor of her apartment.  She also wrote that that was the last time she saw David until today.
    Chase wiped the lone tear that fell down Brooke’s face.  He knew how strong she was then.  She’d been through so much, but held it together, when most people would fall apart.  He reached over and pulled her closer to him , holding her tightly.
    Brooke felt safe in Chase’s arms.  She snuggled as close as possible, until his phone rang.  He got up to answer and after just a few words, hung the phone up.  “That was my friend at the forensic lab in Denver.  He was doing me  favor by checking the broken glass from your back door and the broken lock off the shed, but apparently the person wore gloves. ”
    “Hopefully, they find something from the nail clippings I sent them,” he continued.
    He looked at Brooke and saw she had trouble swallowing.  Her throat was still raw.
    “I’m getting you some water, and honey, and then I think we should sit on the porch and enjoy the sun for as long as it is light out,” Chase told her.
    While they sat outside , they watched Digger play in the front yard.  He tried to catch a squirrel but had no luck and finally he gave up.  He climbed up on the porch and plopped down at their feet.  But he didn’t lay there long before he jumped up and started barking.
    Chase looked around and saw Mrs. Drake , as she walked up the road.  The new Mrs. Drake, as he and Brooke called her, and she wasn’t alone.  There was a tall man who walked beside her. 
    “Hello, neighbors, I see you keep having excitement over here and wondered if there’s anything we could do to help, ” Mrs. Drake said as she glared at Brooke.
    Chase was puzzled by the look the woman sent Brooke’s way, but decided to answer her question and send them on their way quickly.  He got bad vibes from the woman and knew Brooke wanted to keep her life private.
    “Just a peeping tom, nothing too criminal,” Chase replied.  He noticed the gloves on the hands of the man he assumed was Mr. Drake, and curiosity got the better of him, “Isn’t it a little hot to be wearing gloves?”
    The man acted as though Chase hit him.  His face turned re d and Chase saw that he wished he hadn’t accompanied Mrs. Drake on her walk.
    “Oh, this is my husband, Mr. Drake.  He was doing some yard work, when I grabbed him to come with me.  He just forgot to take them off.  Well, if there’s nothing we can do, we’ll get back to work on the yard.  Enjoy the sun,” she said, as she turned around and they both walked briskly off.
    Brooke tugged on Chase’s shirtsleeve as soon as the couple was out of sight.  When he looked over at her, she signed for her writing tablet.  Chase quickly went inside and grabbed it for her.  He wasn’t prepared for what she wrote down.
    Brooke remembered where she saw Mrs. Drake before.  And now that she saw Mr. Drake, she remembered him also.  Mrs. Drake was the woman who spent the night in the motel room next to Brooke’s on the night before Brooke arrived at her cottage.  And Mr. Drake was the man in the room next to that woman who now called herself Mrs. Drake.
    Brooke also wrote that on that night, Mr. Drake was supposedly asleep with his wife when the sheriff of the town woke him up.  If he had a wife, then who was the woman pretending to be his wife now?  And what happened to the woman who shared his motel room? If they lied about whom they were, then did that mean they lied about the screams she