Free A New Journey (Second Chance #3) by Christina Escue

Travis told them.
    “Great, another psycho to deal with.” Rylee said with a roll of her eyes then she flinched and looked at Travis sheepishly. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
    Travis reached over and ran his hand down her hair. “It’s okay. Trev is a bit off sometimes. He really isn’t a bad guy when he isn’t being creepy.”
    “I need to go call Ron.” Andrew said as he stood again. “This needs to stop now.”
    “Dad, can you let me try to handle this first?” Karla asked Andrew before he walked out of the room.
    “Karla, I know how much you want to handle things on your own, but this is bordering on criminal stalking.”
    “I know, Dad, but he hasn’t done anything yet. Go talk to Dr. Carpenter, but please let me try to figure this out. I need to know that I won’t cower in the face of adversity.”
    Andrew looked at her for a minute before he nodded and sat back down again. “Okay, Karla. I will let you handle this for now, but if he does anything, and I mean anything, to hurt you he will have to answer to me.”
    “With all due respect, sir, he will have to answer to me too and I won’t go to jail for beating the crap out of him.” Conner told Andrew.
    “True enough.” Andrew said in response.
    “You will both have to get in line because if that idiot brother does something to hurt Karla I’ll beat the crap out of him myself. I love Trevor, he’s like the other half of me, but I will not stand idly by while he hurts someone.”
    “So we agree that if he hurts Karla you will all kick his butt. My question is what can we do to prevent that from happening?” Rylee spoke up. “I don’t want Karla hurt at all so we have to devise a plan to keep that from happening.”
    “I agree with Rylee.” Karla said to them all. “As much as I appreciate you all wanting to kick his butt for hurting me, I’d rather it not get to that point.”
    “We all would.” Leslie agreed. “What did you have in mind, Karla?”
    “We beat him at his own game.” Karla said with a devious grin.  

Chapter Eighteen
     
    The next few weeks passed quickly. Trevor didn’t try anything, but they all just waited and watched for him to make his move. As the first competition of the year approached Karla started getting the feeling she was being watched, but could never see anyone. The Saturday night before the competition she was driving home from a regular babysitting job she had taken when a car pulled out in front of her and slowed down. She immediately pulled her cell phone from her purse and laid it in her lap. She wasn’t a paranoid person, but a teenage girl alone on a dark road could never be too cautious.
    The car slowed down a little more and Karla tapped her breaks. When the road shifted into four lanes she switched lanes and started passing the car. She glanced over as she passed and she almost ran off the road. The driver of the car was someone she never thought she would see again. Karla pressed the gas and sped past the car, her only thought was of getting home where she knew she would be safe.
    “It cannot be him.” She said out loud to the empty car. “I’m wrong.” She kept repeating these things to herself the rest of the way home. When she pulled into the driveway she hit the garage opener and pulled her Nissan into its usual spot as the car she passed stopped at the end of the driveway. She immediately hit the button to close the garage door, but before it closed she saw his face again and knew she’d been right.
    Once the door was completely closed she turned the car off, snatched her keys out of the ignition and ran to the back door. Leslie looked up from her place at the bar when Karla slammed the door shut behind her and locked it quickly.
    “Karla, what happened? What’s wrong?”
    “Can you look out the front window and see if there is a black car sitting out there?”
    “If I do will you tell me what’s wrong?” Leslie asked and when Karla nodded she walked into