“And presents?”

Brian laughed. “Yes, doofus, lots of presents.”

Shane watched, a wide smile on his face, as Cassie accepted hugs from everyone with ease. Gone was the woman who winced or trembled if someone she didn’t know well hugged her. She still got spooked from time to time but she’d grown into an effusive person who loved to touch as much as be touched. It gladdened his heart to know he had a part in that.

Once seated at the head of a large table, she dug into the pile of presents. He’d noticed that she loved presents. Big or small, cheap or expensive, it didn’t matter. It was the ripping of paper and ribbons, the surprise that she loved.

The day was a good one. The kind of day that memories were made of. Cassie wouldn’t forget the smell of the cobbler and the sound of the salt and ice crunching in the old fashioned ice cream maker or the taste of fresh, home made vanilla ice cream. She wouldn’t forget the way it felt when she’d seen all her friends and the people who’d become her family stood there, smiles on their faces as they shouted Happy Birthday!

The sun shone on the water, the day was warm and clear and absolutely perfect. Shane had given her something wonderful yet again, a memory to replace the bad ones.

They all cleaned up as the sun went down and Cassie looked up when Brian called out to her.

“What?”

“Your phone is ringing.”

She trotted over to her bag and dug through it, wondering who the heck it could be since everyone she knew had been at the party.

“Hello?”

“Happy birthday, Carly.”

Nausea bolted through her as she lost her legs, her knees hitting the ground as she heard Terry’s voice.

Brian’s eyes widened. “Cassie? What is it?”

“Are you having a good day? I hope so. This is the last birthday you’ll ever see.” With that same laugh he used as he’d berated her, the line went dead.

She looked up at her brother as he went to his knees. Dimly she heard someone call for Shane and then his feet pounding the earth as he came to where she was.

“Cassie? What is it?” He looked confused at Brian and then her.

“It was him.” The phone dropped from her nerveless fingers.

“Him? Terry? Terry just called you? What did he say?” Brian demanded.

Shane grabbed up the phone and flipped it open. “Caller ID? There’s a number here.”

Cassie watched numbly as Shane went into cop mode and called the number on the phone and then hung up shortly. He then called into the state police and spoke to some people who told him within moments that the number was one from a disposable cell phone that could be purchased anywhere.

“Cassie, darlin’, what did he say?” Matt helped Brian get her into a chair and Shane knelt before her, touching her face.

She told them.

“How did he get the number? It’s…”

“What?” Shane looked up sharply at Brian.

“It’s in my name. I didn’t want to chance putting it in hers when I bought it for her last year. I’m an idiot. I’ve put her in danger.”

Shane squeezed his shoulder as Cassie shook her head vehemently. “Brian, you didn’t. Don’t you see? He doesn’t have to know her new name if you had this phone in yours. All he had to do was find out your phone information. He doesn’t necessarily know she’s here. You kept her safe by doing that.”

“He called me Carly.”

Shane looked back to her. “Okay, that’s a good sign. He probably doesn’t know your new name.”

“He would have used it if he did, just to f**k with me. He doesn’t know my new name and I’m betting he doesn’t know I’m here. Don’t you see, that means it probably wasn’t him on the road in February.”

“Oh honey, one step at a time. Could you tell where he was? Think carefully, any details at all could be important.”

She shook her head. “No. It was loud here, people talking and laughing. All I heard on his end was his voice and that laugh.”

“Okay, sweetie, let’s get you home, all right? I bet you’d like a stiff drink and a shower.” Penny put her arm around Cassie’s shoulders and looked worriedly at Shane.

Once home Cassie stood on the top step and looked down at Shane and Brian and Shane’s brothers. “Do not talk about me when I’m gone. We’ll plan together. I won’t let this happen to me. I will have a hand in this or I’ll go crazy. Please.”

“Of course we’re going to talk about you when you’re in the shower. But I promise to have you in on the plans when you come back down here,” Shane negotiated back.

She exhaled and narrowed her eyes at him. “I will not be handled, Sheriff.”

He rolled his eyes. “Go and shower, woman. I need to talk about you while you’re gone.”

“Honestly!” Throwing up her hands she walked toward their bedroom, mumbling.

“She’s going to be okay if she can still get pissy about being managed,” Shane murmured to Brian who chuckled.

“You two know each other pretty well. Now, what the hell are we going to do to protect her?”

“We don’t know that he knows where she is. She seems to think he doesn’t and she knows him better than I do. Only that he’s tracked down this number.” Shane held up the phone. “I need to call the California authorities to get a warrant so we can set up a trace on this phone. That’ll be complicated, we’ll have to get a warrant for her own company and then one for whatever company that handles the phone he calls from next. That means it may be a matter of days or even weeks once we find out who he’s used on his next call and he’ll have time to jump to a new location. But it’s something. I also want to get someone to keep a watch on the house here.”