Page 5 of Decker

“So, I see. Well, I’ll bid you goodnight, Dr Sankey.”

He saw her lips twitch as if she’d won a point in a game he didn’t know the rules to.

“Good night, Decker. Thank you for the apology and the help.”

He inclined his head and walked away, slipping into his car and he waited until she closed the door and the lights turned off before he drove away.

She was far too beautiful and much too spirited, nothing like Susie had been. His wife had been sweet and gentle, a home maker who’d always deferred to him, even when he urged her to find her own voice and to tell him what she wanted but he’d loved her and she’d loved him, and he still missed the way her body would curl into him when he got into bed. Sex had been good, if a little rehearsed, but that wasn’t the be-all and end-all in life and having Milo had been hard on her.

Maybe it was a good thing Savannah was so different from Susie. It would help him stay away from the very different Savannah Sankey or maybe that was the problem. The good doctor, and he knew she was excellent at what she did, was everything he didn’t deserve. He didn’t deserve to be happy and find love again and it was a risk he wasn’t prepared to take, not for anyone—no matter how beautiful they were.

Either way, their paths shouldn’t cross again. She was a temptation, and he never quite knew how he’d react to her and that was its own problem. Decker drove home to his silent house and parked the car in the garage before setting the alarm. It unsettled him to know Adeline’s friend was alone with no security and some crazy person was hell-bent on making her life difficult.

Sleep wasn’t easy that night. Dreams of Susie and Milo trapped in the car after the stricken truck driver had run the red light haunted him, before Susie morphed into Savannah Sankey, red blood dripping from her hands as she looked at him with accusation.

Around five am, he gave up and got up. He changed and went for a run, hoping the exercise would extinguish the nightmares. His legs and lungs were burning by the time he made it home and he still couldn’t get the thought out of his head that something terrible had happened and that he should never have left her alone last night.

By nine am, he pulled on his leathers and took his bike out on the road, his mind taking him to the street where he’d been just last night. He stopped at the end of the road feeling like a stalker as he watched the still house, wondering if he should knock and check on her but not wanting to act like the stalker he suspected she might have.

At nine-thirty she stepped out onto her front porch in running gear and he watched, mesmerised as she did some stretches, the bra top and shorts hiding none of her considerable assets. He swallowed and willed away the desire that flooded him, his tongue thick in his mouth, his breathing fast, and he pulled his visor down before turning the bike around and driving away. She was fine and he’d sort the alarm out for her at cost and then he’d walk away.