Janet stuck her head outside the kitchen. "Scat."

"Right." Devon grinned and ran up the stairs to her room. She was tired, but it wasn't the kind of weariness that would be assuaged by an hour's nap. She'd take a shower and read her mail.

Should she disconnect the phone? The last thing she wanted was to have to deal with Lester tonight. She'd hoped by putting the new number in Nick's name that it would make it harder for Lester to get it. It had been a feeble attempt but all she could think to do. But the police could find out anything if they wanted to do it.

And eventually Lester found out any information he needed. After the first restraining order, he'd convinced his superiors that she was the one who was bothering him. Cops always stuck together when it was one of their own in trouble.

Don't think about it. She couldn't be sure that Lester was starting the calls again. She'd face that ugliness when she was forced to do so. Right now she wanted to keep problems at a distance, but she'd created a bushel of them by taking Ned out of Santa Marina.

Lord, it was good to be home. This house was old and a little rickety but between her and Nick, they managed to keep it functioning. The secondhand furniture was shabby but comfortable, and the garden out back furnished them with vegetables and herbs. It was all she needed. All she wanted. A haven to come home to from the storms of everyday life.

"Want a cookie, Devon. Want a cookie, Devon. Stingy Devon. Give a gal a cookie." Bronwyn, the most vocal of the parrots, was screeching at her from her perch in the sunroom.

"Shut up, Bronwyn. You'll get one after dinner." Devon closed her bedroom door behind her.

Peace.

She moved over to the rocking chair and dropped down on it. She'd take just a moment and close her eyes. She needed to unwind before she called Hugh Dalks, who was filling in for her at the clinic. It was hard to get out of the mind-set of search and rescue and into the more mundane job of veterinary medicine. She always felt remote when she came back, but that changed with the first patient.