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here and throwing herself at him like this.
    Okay, maybe he was overreacting.
    She worried about him, and rightfully so with Dale involved. He reined in his temper and used only as much force as he needed to make her release him and step away. When she did, he took another step back to add more space and give him room and time to think. She didn’t deserve his anger. She didn’t do anything wrong. Dale hurt Claire and his anger should be directed at him, not his client.
    “Shannon, aren’t you supposed to be working at the pet store?”
    “My shift starts in twenty minutes. I needed to see you and make sure you were okay.”
    “I’m fine. Dale hurt my neighbor last night. Maybe you should be concerned about her.”
    “Oh, well, of course I am. It’s just Dale threatened you and he thinks we’re . . .” Her voice trailed off and her cheeks pinked with embarrassment.
    Owen frowned, catching the mocking look from Janine.
    “Come into my office. We need to talk.”
    He led her down the short hallway, past the library to the back room that had once been the dining room of the old house he converted several years ago. He purposefully stood behind his desk and waited for her to take the seat across from him before he sat. She did so, but gave him a confused look he ignored.
    “Tell me what happened when Dale stopped by your house last night.”
    “Well, um, he pounded on the door and demanded to come in. I told him I had a restraining order and that I’d call the cops if he didn’t leave.”
    “Okay. Then what?”
    “He kept pounding, saying he got you good, and that you had a woman in your bed, and I was nothing but a cheap afternoon fuck for you.” Her gaze fell away and the words came out soft, touched with her embarrassment. “You don’t have a girlfriend, so he must have got it wrong.”
    “He did. He tried to run down the woman who lives down the road from me with his car. Luckily, he didn’t hit her square, but grazed her. She’s got some scrapes and bruises and a goose-egg knot on her head and a massive headache, but she’s okay.”
    “Well, that’s good.”
    “Is there any reason Dale would believe you and I are sleeping together other than the fact I’m your lawyer and he’s seen us together at the courthouse?”
    “Who knows why Dale gets something in his head? I can tell you this, once it’s in there, he won’t let it go. He’s like that, coming at me all the time with the same old thing, true or not. Like a dog with a bone, he’s not going to just give it up.”
    “When he left your place last night, did he still believe you and I are sleeping together and that woman is my girlfriend?”
    “Nothing I say will convince him we haven’t slept together.”
    Funny, he almost heard the word yet come after that sentence. She made it sound like they weren’t right now, but the possibility lay in the future.
    Not a chance.
    He’d found something with Claire and he couldn’t wait to see her tonight to explore it more deeply. And yet the nagging feeling that getting close to her would only feed into Dale’s delusion that he was sleeping with Shannon, had a girlfriend, and that Dale could hurt Claire to get to him left him unsettled. He hated that Dale’s assumption about Claire was right.
    He’d work on making the girlfriend part true no matter what. He refused to give up Claire because of some asshole’s twisted mind. He’d protect Claire and see Dale in prison for hurting her, but nothing and no one would keep him away from her.
    “If he calls you, I want you to contact me. If he comes by your house or work, call the police immediately. Do not take the time to try to talk him down from whatever crazy thing he’s got in his head. Promise me you won’t take any chances.”
    She beamed him a huge smile. “I won’t. I’ll call you if I hear from him at all.”
    “And if he comes by, you’ll call the police.”
    “Yes, of course. So, why didn’t you call back last