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you?”
    “I got the first e-mail six months ago.” She tugged her gloves off, affirming she wasn’t really cold, just upset. “I don’t know how long Nemesis was watching me before that.”
    “What did it say?”
    “That I shouldn’t buy so much junk food. I’d just made a chocolate run to the grocery store. My current work in progress was giving me fits and I didn’t feel like cooking, so I bought a lot of easy prep meals and snacks, too.” Her soft voice echoed with pained vulnerability.
    “He was watching you pretty closely, then.”
    She shuddered. “Yes.”
    “What did you do when you got the e-mail?”
    “I shift-deleted it like I do all my junk mail. I thought it was weird, but it didn’t occur to me that it was the beginning of something sinister. He didn’t say anything about why he was writing me.” The now flat and unemotional tones of her voice were at odds with the near hysteria she’d been exhibiting earlier. “He never does…not in his e-mails, not in his calls. He just makes sure I know he’s watching me.”
    “When did you realize it was a serious problem?”
    “When he called. I got good and scared then. He talks through a computer digitizer and it was really eerie, you know?”
    “Did you go to the sheriff?”
    “Not then.” She sighed. “I still thought I could handle it. He hadn’t threatened me or anything.”
    “What happened to change your mind?”
    “How do you know I did?” she asked, sounding curious.
    “You wouldn’t have moved away from your family and home if there was another solution open to you. So, I figure you went to the authorities, but they couldn’t do anything for you.”
    “It was more like a case of wouldn’t, but you’re right, something did happen that made me realize I really wasn’t safe.”
    “What?”
    “He broke into my apartment. I came home after visiting Bella at the ranch to find the things on my computer desk altered just enough for me to know someone had been there.”
    “What did the sheriff say when you reported it?”
    “He thought I was being a publicity hound, that I was making it all up to get media attention.”
    “Why in the hell would he believe something so stupid?”
    “He used to work for the Houston police force, and a woman did that very thing. She was a self-defense instructor and the free publicity got her a boatload of clients, I guess.”
    “He refused to take you seriously because he’d been burned once by a false report?” Joshua had a hard time believing it.
    “A lot of manpower got wasted and it left the detectives involved looking stupid, not to mention really jaded about the whole stalker issue. The sheriff ended up leaving his job and moving to Canyon Rock. He wanted concrete evidence I was being stalked before he would open an investigation and I couldn’t give it to him.”
    “Idiot.”
    “I thought so at the time, but I’ve got to admit I didn’t push too hard. I didn’t want Jake to find out, and things get around in a small town. So, I went home and had my locks changed, but Nemesis managed to break in again.”
    “Did you report it?”
    “Yes, but this time the sheriff was really belligerent. He told me he didn’t have the manpower to stake out my apartment and I still didn’t have concrete evidence. After all, nothing had been taken.”
    “Bastard.”
    She shrugged.
    “So, you moved across country to get away from the stalker.”
    “I’d researched the problem and read about several cases where stalkers had hurt the family or loved ones of their victims. It disturbed me.” Her hands twisted together and her face averted to look out the side passenger window. “I started having nightmares. Then, during one of his phone calls, Nemesis mentioned seeing me with my sister-in-law and baby niece. That’s when I decided to move.”
    He understood her choice, but it hadn’t been the smartest one. Moving away from the small town where she was well known had actually made her more