Page 52 of Her Devoted HERO

He hugged her closer. She shut her eyes and melted into his warmth.

“Okay.”

***

He arranged for Griff to take Rosalie home, then he followed Kenna and Austin to their house to pack. He helped them unload at Penny’s house and kissed Kenna goodnight afterwards he headed home where he hit his computer. He placed a call to Detective Warren, told him to call him first thing in the morning, if not fucking sooner. Then he went to work.

He had three pieces of information to go on. The unidentified callers coming into her cell phone. The flowers. The fact that the caller had referred to her as Mary Poppins. He was going to leave the first two things to the cops, the flowers were going to take a lot of legwork. The call was going to take hacking into the wireless company, and that would take time. Right now, he already had a way into the dating site, so that’s where he would start.

“I’m going to find you, you motherfucker.”

Chapter Eight

Dex joined Kenna on Monday afternoon when she met with the detectives about the case. He had caught her look of surprise when he’d arrived at the police station. She needed to start getting used to things. Yep, even in such a short amount of time, she was pretty damned important to him. She was special. He hadn’t met that many special people in this lifetime. She shone. Thinking of how she was with Austin was a miracle after what he’d witnessed in Egypt. She deserved this kind of care from him.

Warren and Sanchez seemed to know what they were doing. They didn’t share a lot about what was going on with Jean’s case since it was an ongoing investigation, but it was obvious they had someone in their sites.

“Ms. Wright, there was someone in Ms. Baldwin’s life who is of particular interest. We are currently closing in on him. This has nothing to do with the dating site, so the fact that your caller mentioned your dating profile name suggests these are two different men,” Detective Warren said.

“Thank God. That means I can stay at home tonight.” Kenna said.

“How sure are you that you have the right guy?” Dex asked.

“We need a few more days to make our case and get a search warrant, but it’s looking good,” Sanchez said.

“Good enough that Kenna shouldn’t worry?” Dex asked.

Sanchez leaned forward across the interview table. “Ms. Wright, you are being stalked. It’s not a good sign that somebody has your phone number and your employer’s address. We’re homicide detectives. This isn’t our purview. We’ll get your set up with someone who can take a report.”

“What good will taking a report do?” Dex demanded. “Will they track down who sent the flowers? The telephone calls?”

Both detectives looked uncomfortable. Kenna looked at them, then at Dex. “Don’t worry, this is some kind of weird stalker who’s just into me. It’s not a murderer.”

Dex turned to the detectives. “This is more than a stalker, isn’t it? He’s gone to a lot of trouble to learn a lot about Kenna. Doesn’t this shit normally escalate?”

“If it is somebody in her past, like an ex, then yes, it does. If it is just a crazy, then they can find a new target. You can’t predict crazy,” Warren said. “But seriously, this isn’t the murderer.” He turned back to Kenna. “Ms. Wright, we’ll get you in touch with someone in our department who specializes in this, and you’ll need to keep them informed. If you’re approached, they’ll up their investigation, and you’ll be able to get a restraining order.”

Kenna smiled. “I’m just thankful I don’t have to worry about a murderer. A stalker I can handle.”

Dex saw red. To his way of thinking there was not one damn thing to be thankful for. He’d culled the dating site the previous night and found that Kenna had received over a thousand e-mails. It amazed him that for some reason she had replied to his profile. It made him uncomfortable since it hadn’t even been an e-mail he’d written. Granted the picture had been his, and the basic facts about his life. But still, the woman had been inundated, how in the hell had he made the cut?

He went with her when she made out her report to the police officer. The cop was sympathetic, but she explained there wasn’t much she could do at this point. She gave Kenna her card and told her to keep her informed if she was contacted again.

“At least I don’t have to stay at Mom’s tonight,” Kenna said as they stepped into the San Diego sunlight.

“Was it really that much of a hardship?” Dex asked as he walked her to her car.

“I like having my own space. Austin ends up sleeping on the pull-out sofa in the living room, and I hate that for him.”

“You would.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you’re a good mother.” Dex opened her car door.

“Do you have a problem with that?”

“Hell no. I think it’s sexy.”