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the door. Getting wet was the least of her problems.
    A few moments later James returned to the door with his cell phone pressed to his ear. “No, I think they’re gone.” He listened intently and nodded. “Okay.” He ended the call and turned to her. The rain had slowed to a drizzle.
    She sat sideways on the driver’s seat with her legs propped on the frame of the door, scanning the empty parking lot.
    “Are you okay?”
    “Yes, but I’m about done with this nonsense.” She reached behind her and unlocked the back door. She stood up and yanked it open. A brick lay on the backseat. She muttered under her breath. She scooped up the umbrella sitting on the floor of her car, shook off the broken glass and popped it open. She held it over both of their heads.
    Huddled together under the protection of the umbrella, she jerked her head toward the back of the car. “How much do you want to bet that’s my friend?” Now she was mad, almost apoplectic. “Why does he keep coming after me?”
    “I don’t like this at all.” A drop of water fell from his hair and landed on his nose. “He doesn’t want you to do the composite. Until he’s caught, you can’t take any more risks.”
    The backs of Lily’s ears were on fire despite her soaking-wet hair. “Risks? I’d hardly call getting into my car after work a risk.” She said it with an air of confidence she didn’t feel. “I am going to meet with a sketch artist. Then they’ll catch this guy. Then life will go back to normal.”
    “And until then...” He raised an eyebrow at her. The sky opened up again and the rain poured down on the umbrella, leaving the impression they were in a world all their own. She tried to ignore his close proximity.
    She shook her head in anticipation of what he was about to suggest. “I can’t go into hiding. I have my work. Too many people are counting on me.” She lowered her voice. “I am not going to hide. I’m not.”
    James gestured for her to get behind the wheel of her car. “Pop the hood.”
    Lily did as she was told. Wrapping her arms around her middle, a chill racked her thin body. She felt like a drowned rat. The initial surge of adrenaline had drained out of her. Through the droplets of rain on the windshield, she tracked James’s blurred movements around her car. He checked a few things and then slammed the hood shut.
    He jogged around to her side of the vehicle. Holding the umbrella over the space separating them, he said, “Come on. I’m driving you home.”
    Once they were both in his car, he scrubbed a hand across his short hair. Water glistened on his angular face. “Your battery’s gone.”
    Lily plucked her wet shirt away from her skin. “Someone ripped out my car battery?”
    “Yes.” James ran his hand under his nose. “I’m going to call Security. Maybe they have something on surveillance cameras.”
    Lily glanced toward her vehicle and a chill penetrated deep into her bones. Suddenly, going someplace far, far away—where this thug couldn’t stalk her—didn’t seem so ridiculous.

SIX
    G rateful to be out of the rain, James shook off his raincoat and hung it on the coatrack inside the mudroom of Lily’s cottage.
    “Brrr...” Lily kicked off her shoes and wrapped her arms around her midsection. She bounced on the balls of her feet. “I’m freezing. Excuse me a minute while I go dry off.”
    The familiar knot twisted his insides. He had spent his adult life helping people, but intentionally not growing close to any one person for fear of getting hurt. For fear of losing them. Like he had lost his parents. Like his grandparents had shipped him off to a boarding school after his parents’ deaths.
    Yet something about Lily was pulling him in.
    He grabbed paper towels from the kitchen counter and dried the rain from his face. How was he going to tell Lily the news he had received from the police today?
    “Go change. I’ll make you something hot to drink,” he said, buying time. He toed