I watched the ceiling fan spin aimlessly. Somehow that felt like it represented my life at the moment: forever going in circles with no hope of doing anything else. 

With a sigh, I made myself get up. That was a bit too philosophical for me, but true nonetheless. Charlie was gone out of my house, but I still had to see him at our family reunion coming up in a week. As it stood, he was probably going to do whatever he could to hurt Jenny. I was sure it wasn't a coincidence we were all meeting up in Boulder this year instead. 

My dad had just been told about it the night before and came to tell me when we all were getting up for the day. Now it was nearly lunch - nearly time for me to go to work - and I hadn't heard anything from Jenny.

I was tempted to call her, but we had spoken until late just last night, and I didn't want to be that boyfriend, the one that had to know his girlfriend's every move.

A loud, banging knock jarred me from my thoughts. I jumped up and ran for the door. With that kind of knock, it couldn't be good. My thoughts were confirmed when I opened the front door and found two officers standing there. "Can I help you?" I asked.

The officer closest to me held up a picture of Jenny's father. "Have you seen this man lurking around here anywhere?" she asked.

I tried to not let on my shock. "I haven't. Did he escape?"

She sighed and lowered the picture. "We have it on good authority that Jennifer Herrington is on the premises. Can we speak with her?"

My face hardened. "Why do you think she'd be here of all places?"

"She told us she was staying in your guesthouse. Would it be fine with you if we go check it out?"

I reached for the keys hanging by the door and stepped out. "Sure. I'll walk you around to it. She's not here, though. She's with her mother."

The man that was with the woman cleared his throat and said, "I spoke with her last night. She said absolutely that she was staying in that building."

My fingers holding my phone twitched, aching to call her. What happened? "Follow me." I led the officers around the main house and was met with something I half expected but was hoping I was wrong about. The door to the guest house was hanging off only one hinge, a large footprint in the middle of it suggesting someone in a blind rage had kicked it in. I stopped and tuned to the police behind me, who both already had their hands on their guns. "Can I report a break-in now or do I need to wait?"

They walked past me and drew their weapons. I stayed put as they entered the building and took a look. While they were distracted, I texted Jenny. What happened? The police are at my place and someone broke into the guest house. What's going on?

Right as I sent the text, the police came back out. "No one's here," the lady said. "The place has been ransacked, though. I'm going to tape it off for investigation. Do you happen to have any cameras or anything that covers the area?"

I pulled out my phone. "We do. It's all digital, though. Motion activated." The officer watched over my shoulder as I pulled up the app and navigated to the middle of the night. The camera was triggered around three in the morning. A man came into view, looking around. He kicked in the door and entered the residence. 

When the man came out, my blood ran cold the moment I recognized him. He was the same man I had shared a cell with: Jenny's father. He broke out of jail? When did this happen? Why did he-

I looked at the officer next to me. "When did Marvin get out?"

She glanced at me. "He broke out of his cell last night. We notified his daughter. She said she was staying here, so she may be in danger."

I looked at the guest house for a long moment. Her partner was putting up  crime scene tape. My gut was telling me that this was a farce. Escaped? How did he know to come here? Why did he go into the guest house and not the main house? I glanced over my shoulder and saw a ladder I hadn't noticed before. It was leaning on the house under my window. 

That sick pervert must have checked to see if she was in my room, too. 

"Sir?" 

My eyes focused back on the officer next to me. "Sorry?"

"Can you send the police this video?" she asked. "We need to analyze it."

"Oh. Right, of course. I'm going to check the other cameras as well, see if they show anything. Can I just step inside for a minute?" She motioned for me to go ahead. "Thanks. I won't be long. I just need to pee."

I turned and hurried into the downstairs bathroom. The blinds on the window over the tub gave me a decent view of the backyard when I parted them slightly. I swiped on a contact and held the phone to my ear. "Come on, pick up," I muttered.

Three rings later and I sighed as I heard her sweet voice. "Brayden?" Jenny sounded groggy. "Is it this late already?" She sucked in some air. "Shoot. I think I missed checkout." There was a lot of rustling of cloth before I heard her again. "You're on speaker, so please don't be too loud. You okay?"

I fought the sigh that threatened to escape. "That's my line. What do you mean, checkout? Did you and your mother stay at a hotel last night?"

There was a moment of silence. "She didn't come home last night, so I ran. I'm at a cheap place on the outskirts of Denver. I had a little money on me, so I stayed, but that's it. I'm going to figure out what to do today. I swear. I just know I couldn't stay with the man trying to beat down my door to get to me." She paused. "It brought back some bad memories," she said quietly.

The officers were chatting by the guest house. "I'm so sorry to cut this short, but I'm in a little bit of a bind. Did the police call you last night by chance?"

"My father escaped," she said matter-of-factly. "I know. I don't see what that has to do with you, though? Are the police looking for me or something? I did tell them I was at your place."

"Um, well, yes and no. They are  here looking for you and I don't know what to tell them, but, well, you see, your dad broke into our guest house, presumably looking for you. Did you say anything at all about your mother?"

"What? What did he do?"

I rubbed my face and then reopened the slit in the blinds. The officers were heading to the main house. Time was running out. "He broke the door. Listen, did you mention anything at all about your mother or Denver?"

"No, of course not. I had a weird feeling that the cop I was talking to was acting strangely. I didn't want them to tell my dad anything, so I didn't mention any of it. I'm so sorry your place got messed up."

"Nah, don't worry about it, baby. Listen, I love you but I have to go before they hear me talking to you." I made a kissing noise into the phone and hung up as she protested. With a sigh, I reach over and flush the toilet. I wash my hands and then step out into the hallway, but pull up short when I realize the woman officer is standing almost in the doorway to the bathroom. "Oh! Um, I didn't know you were there." 

She frowned at me and looked me up and down. "We have a few questions for you. Please come into the living room." She turned and walked away. I followed her and found the other officer making himself at home on the sofa. I sat in one of the chairs. "Have you had contact with either Herrington?" she asked.

"I have had contact with Jenny, but I don't have anything to do with her father. Especially after all the times I saw her come to work bruised up with cuts and stuff. He was never kind to her. He would take her money and use it-"

"I didn't ask about their financial situation. It's a parent's right to handle finances as they see fit. Back to the topic, when was the last time you spoke with Jenny?"

I rubbed my neck. "This morning before I found out about the break-in. She's having some problems too, so I just checked in on her."

"What problems?"

"They're not relevant to this case." I gave her a level look and it finally dawned on me that I knew her. She was a year ahead of me in high school. 

"It's up to us to decide if they're relevant or not. What problems?"

I ran a hand through my hair. This was going to be a huge leap and I was probably going to have consequences if I was wrong, but I needed to protect Jenny the best I could until I knew for sure what was going on with her and with her dad. "What was your name again?" I asked, pointing at the woman.

"I'm Officer Julia Bearden and that's my partner, Officer Dwayne Kelly."

"Julia, Julia, Julia..." I snapped my fingers. "Weren't you the head cheerleader that was a year ahead of me? You were dating that linebacker a year below me. What happened with him? You two kind of dropped off the face of the planet when you graduated. Did he even finish school?"

Her features softened a little. "I was pregnant. He wanted to make everything right, so we got married and I went to college and he finished school with me. We both moved back last year when his parents got sick."

"Sorry to hear that. I rather liked Drew. He was one of the only guys in a different grade that hung around me and my friends."

She eyed me for a moment. "He still talks about you, you know. He'd probably like to know you're back in town."

"I'd like to hang out again. He probably would be upset to learn how Chris and Matt turned out, though. He liked them more than I did. I had to save Jenny from them once. They were drunk and trying to get her to come with them when she was one her way to work this one morning. I was there with them and managed to get them to let her go." That day felt like it was so long ago now. It felt like a lifetime had passed. 

She wrote something in the little notebook she had in her hand and tore it off. "Here." She held it out for me. "That's his number if you want to call him." 

I nodded and looked at it. "Thanks. Appreciate it."

Her face turned a little more serious and she cleared her throat. "Back to the matter at hand. Do you know where Jenny might be by chance?"

I gave her a neutral look. "I'm afraid I don't know exactly where she is right now. There's a lot going on that she's dealing with, things that don't pertain to her father. Where she was staying at, someone tried to sexually assault her, so she's going somewhere else. That happened last night. That has nothing to do with what's going on here." I narrowed my eyes and directed a long look at the male officer before directing my attention back at Julia. "Also, I'm not entirely sure someone won't tell her father where to find her if I say something. Why else would he show up at my place in the middle of the night?"

She frowned and glanced at her partner. He shrugged. Their lack of reaction made the feeling in my stomach tighten even more. It was slowly turning into a ball of dread. "Even if you don't say anything," the male officer, Officer Dwayne, said, "we still have leads on where to find her."

"If you have leads, you don't need me," I said defiantly. 

"You're really trying to make this hard, aren't you?" the man asked as he stood. We were the same height, but he had more muscle than me, and likely knew how to fight. That wasn't one of the few things I'd had the luxury of learning how to do.

"It's just that I'm trying to protect Jenny from her father, and I'm not so sure telling you won't get back to him." I crossed my arms. "Prove to me it won't happen, and I'll tell you everything."

Julia sighed. "I can't prove anything, but you have my word that I won't spread it to him." We both looked at the male officer. He looked between s and shrugged. That was probably as good as I was going to get. 

"She's in Colorado," I said nonchalantly. "She was staying somewhere, but got assaulted by someone there, so she ran. I don't know exactly where she is or if she's on her way here now or anything else. She called me last night and told me what happened, but nothing else. I tried to call her first thing, but she didn't answer."

Julia wrote down everything in a notebook. "So she has a cellphone?"

"Her dad's, yeah. He wouldn't let her have a phone. Not that they could even afford it, anyway."

She wrote down something else. "Thank you for this information. We will be in contact again, so please don't leave town in case we need you again."

"My life revolves around the grocery store right now, so there's little chance of that."

Satisfied, Officer Dwayne nodded. They both headed for the door and I waited patiently for them to leave, closing and locking the door behind them. I walked over to the living room and watched out the window. Once the car was gone, I raced up the stairs as I pulled up a contact and dialed. I listened to the phone ring while I threw my still-full suitcase on the bed. 

"Hey, Dad? I'm afraid I'm not going to be there today. Or probably for a few days. It's a long story, but I promise it's important."

He sighed heavily. "It better be. Is this about Jenny?"

"It is." I swapped out the clothes that was inside, tossing the dirty clothes into the hamper. "She's in trouble, and I can't think of any other way to protect her."

My father sighed again, but this time it felt lighter. "Do what you feel like you need to."