Page 84 of Sentinel's Kiss
“No, I’m saying I didn’t give him a shot.” Stan spoke to her like she was an idiot. “I booked out of there, honking and making a ton of noise. He’s after me. If I go into his bar, I’ll never come out.”
Ashley took a deep breath to gather some patience against his dramatics. “I could go with you. Even bring a cameraman. You’d be perfectly safe.” And everyone likes a reunion story.
“I’m going back underground. I can’t take it. With what happened at the hunting club and everything, I feel like there’s a target on my back.”
“Will you stay with your father’s family? The Petrovs?”
He tensed. “What?”
“You were adopted by the Stevenses, but before that you lived on the West Virginia border.”
Stan stared out of the window, and he looked haunted.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to bring up more bad memories. You lost your parents so young.”
“My mom passed when I was six. We couldn’t afford health care. The flu got into her lungs and eventually turned into pneumonia. My father was a drunk. He went fishing one day and drowned.”
“I’m so sorry.” She reached across the table and held his hand.
“Don’t be,” he said. “He was a bastard. He drowned my collie when he found out she was pregnant.”
“Oh.” Ashley snatched her hand back.
“We didn’t have the money to feed her, not to mention the puppies if she ever had her litter. I hated him though. I tried to save her. He almost drowned me too. From that day on, I’ve been terrified of water. It was a relief, the day he died.” Running his hand over his face, Stan gave a shaky sigh. “I wasn’t prepared to think about my old man. I thought my brother-in-law was the worst I’d have to encounter today.”
“It wasn’t Josh this morning,” Ashley said quickly. She couldn’t give him any peace about his father, but she could let him know Josh wasn’t hiding behind a bush waiting to kill him. “He was at Suffolk County Hospital in the neonatal unit working a night shift.”
“What?”
“He’s a baby cuddler.”
“Lady, he’s a stone cold killer. They don’t let pieces of shit like that near innocents.”
Her jaw clenched. “I’ll prove it to you.” She dialed the hospital and asked to be transferred to the neonatal unit.
“He got to you, didn’t he?” Stan shook his head. “That boy has been knee-deep in pussy since he reached puberty.”
She curled her lip at his crudeness, and when the nurse came on the line she said, “Hi, I’m Ashley Carver from WWHC News. I’m doing a story on Josh Lehmen’s community service. Can you tell me if he was with the babies last night?”
“I haven’t seen him lately,” the nurse said.
Ashley’s face locked in a stiff smile.
“But let me check the visitor log just in case. Oh wait, yes, he was here. Usually the girls are all in a tizzy when he’s been here. He’s a heartbreaker, that one.”
“Yeah, I can see that. Thank you.” She hung up. “Confirmed.”
But rather than easing his fears, her verification left Stan looking even more alarmed.
Their food came and Ashley waited until Stan had taken a bite out of his burger before springing the naughty nurse on him. “Dina told me that you used her services.” Actually, Leslie had told Josh, but she’d leave that part out of it.
Stan glared at her while he chewed and swallowed. “I’m a widower and what happens between two consenting adults in a private club is no one’s business.”
He had her there, especially after her antics last night with Josh. “True, but two other men who consented to be with her had their wives killed the same way Sarah was. I find it odd that the cabin suddenly caught fire after we put that together.”
“Maybe one of the SOBs did it.”
She squirted ketchup on her fries. “Why?”