He turned into a section of condos in the newer part of town, one that bordered Violet’s cookie-cutter neighborhood. The condos were all upscale, with stone and brick and stucco exteriors. But as we drove past the well-manicured lawns, I couldn’t help noticing how boring the landscaping looked.

When he pulled into a driveway, I looked through the windshield at the two-story four-plex that loomed ahead. “So this is where you live?”

“This is it.” As he led me through the front door I noticed the car that had been following us was parked at the curb across the street. Mason locked the door.

“Do you think he’d come here looking for me?”

Mason stopped and hesitated as he searched my eyes. “Yes. Crocker is bat-shit crazy and obsessed with making you pay for what he thinks you’ve done to him. I have no doubt he’d come here or anywhere looking for you.”

“Oh.” That wasn’t the answer I expected.

“Stay away from the windows.” He disappeared upstairs and came back out carrying a handgun.

“Is that really necessary, Mason?”

“Yes.” He set it on the kitchen counter.

He was being so matter-of-fact, so different from how he’d been last night, that I suddenly worried he’d decided I was too much trouble. “Mason, are you mad at me?”

His head swung around, his eyes wide as he placed a box of pancake mix on the counter. “Why on earth would I be angry with you?” He came around the counter and pulled me into his arms. “No, I’m freaked out. He was in your house with you and he could have…” His voice trailed off. “I should have stayed with you. I should never have left but I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to resist you if I stayed and Jeff was so sure—”

“Mason, stop.”

He squeezed me tighter. “Jeff said they had Crocker cornered in Shreveport, but it just didn’t make sense to me that he would have run that far.”

“Why?

“Because he’s obsessed with you.” He released me. “Do you like pancakes?”

I blinked, stunned by his bombshell followed by a complete change in topic. “Yeah.”

He grabbed a bottle of syrup out of the cabinet.

“I’m beginning to think everyone eats better than I do.”

He glanced over his shoulder as he spooned pancake mix into a measuring cup. “What do you usually eat?”

“Canned soup.”

He grimaced. “Then just about everyone does eat better than you.”

“Thanks.” I laughed, but it was forced. I was eager to find out what Mason knew. “I know that I shouldn’t have touched the note he left, but I wasn’t thinking straight.” I shrugged. “I saw the sofa and I just—”

Mason turned around to face me. “It’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Do we have to eat now? I keep thinking about him being in my house and it makes me feel like I’m going to throw up.”

He was around the counter in seconds, pulling me off the stool and into his arms.

I rested my cheek on his chest and wrapped my arms around his back. “You found the note?”

“Yes.”

“Was that blood on the sofa?”

“No, it was catsup.”

“Thank God. I was worried someone or some animal had gotten hurt.”

“No one got hurt. That I know of.”

I leaned my head back to look up at him. “How do you know he’s obsessed with me?”

“I did some digging after what that boy from your neighborhood said about Crocker’s guys threatening you.”

“Oh.”

“The sheriff’s department has been investigating, but they didn’t do much legwork because they seemed like idle threats. Crocker’s known associates had been lying low and Crocker was behind bars. Until the guards at the county jail realized he wasn’t in his cell around three a.m. two days ago.”

I shuddered.

“I get the rose petals and the rolling pin.” His voice softened. “But why the geode?”

I stiffened, remembering the day of Crocker’s arrest. “I guess it wasn’t in the report.” I forced a smile. “And I know you’ve read the report. Sometimes I think you know more about me from reports than I do.”

He grimaced.

“I’m teasing—or trying to. If you were investigating Crocker’s threats, of course you would have looked at the report.”

“There was nothing about a geode in there.”

“When I went to the warehouse to save Joe, I got Crocker to take me upstairs to keep him distracted so he wouldn’t shoot Joe. I may have…questioned his masculinity.”

“That wasn’t in the report, Rose. All it says is that he took you up to the office, then the bust unfolded and Joe came upstairs to save you.”

I shook my head. “That’s not how it happened.”

He guided me to one of the chairs at the kitchen table and then disappeared for a moment, returning with a legal pad and pen. “Start from the beginning. The first time you saw Daniel Crocker was at the DMV, correct?”

“Yeah, when I saw the vision of me dead on Momma’s sofa with my head bashed in. I passed out before I could blurt out that he was going to murder me. He left his paperwork and disappeared.”

He nodded. “Okay, I have that part down.”

“The next time I saw him was at the bar in Jasper’s. My blind date had left while I was in the bathroom, so I decided to head to the bar and scratch an item off my wish list—drink wine.”