This man was wearing a leather vest over a shirt with an insignia of some kind, and he had enticed the bartender into conversation. As he leaned forward, I slid off the stool and made my way through the crowd to the door. Outside I took a deep breath and started down the street. I didn’t want to go right to my car, in case he’d followed me, but I stayed as close to the road and passing traffic as I could. At the first traffic light, I crossed and looked behind me. So far so good.

I started back, staying low behind the other cars parked along the road. I may not have been entirely out of sight, but neither would I attract anybody’s attention. Nearly there, I stopped behind a navy blue pickup. I watched the front door of Against the Wind for the man I’d spotted, but he didn’t emerge.

I tried to talk sense to myself. The guy had been some distance away, with colored lights above us. I could be imagining the resemblance. As I made even more room for reasonable doubt, my gaze dropped to the truck in front of me.

The words painted on the passenger door were familiar. I’d seen them before, on the day I’d been attacked. I’d seen them on this truck, parked a few units down from Wendy’s town house. I wasn’t imagining that the guy in the bar was all-too-familiar.

“Carrillon Roofing.” I breathed it more than said it. I took out my phone and snapped a photo, which included Carrillon’s phone number.

Then, with even more care, I scuttled to my own car, and when I was sure no one was paying attention, I pulled out, and began a circuitous route back to the town house.

In the end, though, all my twists and turns and backtracking made no sense whatsoever. If the guy at the end of the bar was indeed my attacker, he already knew where I lived.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Friday night, despite the security alarm, I slept fitfully. Every noise, a car on the road, a wood stork perching noisily on the master bedroom sundeck, woke me until I finally went downstairs and slept on the sofa. I left my gun in the glove compartment, but sleeping with it had been a temptation.

The moment I’d gotten home, I’d picked up the phone to call the sheriff’s office and tell them I’d seen my attacker, but that was as far as I’d gotten. Wendy and Kim were the same person. As Kim, my sister hung out at a biker bar, and the guy who had tried to break into the town house was a regular who knew her. After all, I’d learned the God’s own truth from that most reliable of witnesses, Craig Leone. It seemed clear that the attempted break-in was somehow related to my sister, and for now, the less attention any law enforcement paid to Wendy, the better.

I also considered calling Teo, but once again, I had to protect my sister, at least until I found out what was really going on. And truthfully, I wasn’t excited about recounting my visit to Against the Wind. At dawn, I got up and packed the few things I would need for my trip to Delray Beach, locking the town house and turning on the alarm behind me.