Broken Pasts Read Online Free PDF

not the time to check, not
with Nathaniel just a few, careful inches behind me. I moved to open
the bathroom door first when he put out his hand to stop me. “May
I?” he asked with a smile. “Just in case. That's what
I'm here for.” I nodded again, still not trusting myself to
form coherent sentences.
    He
put his side against the door, keeping me behind his broad back, and
twisted the knob slowly. With reflexes I could barely follow,
Nathaniel had flung the door open and there was a handgun gripped in
his long fingers. He was pointing it into the room like he expected
Gary to be standing there, knife in hand. He then proceeded to check
behind the shower curtain and then moved over to the window where he
tested the lock.
    “ Um,”
I said as I swallowed hard and finally found my voice. Nathaniel
left the bathroom, closing the door behind him as he went. He
immediately moved around me and pointed at Rhea's door. Just the
proximity of him was making it hard for me to think. Never before
had I had this reaction to a man. Not once in my entire life
had I been tongue tied and loopy. Five minutes after meeting him, I
was practically smitten. Not good.
    “ Is
this a bedroom?” he asked me and I nodded around the rush of
blood to my head. Nathaniel held out an arm and gently used it to
push me against the wall beside him. The feel of his bicep against
my ribcage was hard to ignore. It was so … firm.
    “ I
don't think this is really necessary,” I said as I watched him
repeat his sweep, this time on my daughter's bedroom. I was still
struggling to get my thoughts in order, but at least I was finally
speaking. I tried to use the situation at hand to deal with the
horrible rage of lust that had bloomed in my belly and dug its claws
into lower places. “Gary hasn't really done anything. I mean,
I'm just doing this for my friend. She's pretty paranoid. I don't
really think there's anything to worry about.”
    “ Emily
informed me that he assaulted you in a parking lot,” Nathaniel
said as he paused so close to me that I could smell the minty
freshness of his breath. Wow. I remembered then that I
absolutely had not brushed my teeth. Heck, I'd barely combed my hair
and I was still wearing sweats and a ratty, old tank top. I had
expected a tough guy, almost sexless, with a permanent frown and a
balding head, not a thirty-something heartthrob with perfect teeth
and a deliciously dirty smile.
    “ He
… I … ” I didn't know what to say to that. I
had sort of spilled everything to Emily during her questioning. I
guess she'd written it all down and given it to Nathaniel. I mean,
that made sense. Of course that's what she was doing. I flushed.
Somehow I had played our conversation off as just two girlfriends out
to lunch. Wow, that woman is good at her job.
    “ And
has he made death threats before?” I blinked my eyes and
looked directly into Nathaniel's gaze. There was a heavy pain
resting there, like he was carrying the weight of the world on his
shoulders. It was … intriguing.
    “ Death
threats?” I said, wondering how he knew about that. I had only
told Emily about the incidents of the past few days, not about the
end of our marriage when Gary had said things that still made my
spine tingle with fear. I wasn't sure if I wanted him to know. I
played dumb. It wasn't difficult with my body doing its best to
short circuit my brain. And he probably hasn't even noticed me.
How embarrassing. I'm a client for goodness sake. “What
do you mean?”
    “ Most
often, when it comes to stalkers, there is no paranoid and there is always something to worry about.” He paused and the
lines of his face became harsh for just a moment as he frowned. As
quickly as it had come, the expression passed and he continued
talking. In his voice though was an intense passion bordering on
hate. “They start off with little things: letters, phone
calls, e-mails. And then they start following you, vandalizing
property, trying to tarnish your