18. Jade
Once we got to Michigan,we drove straight to our Airbnb. The place was close to the U of M Arena where the guys would be playing later tonight. We arrived just minutes before our earliest allowed check-in time. We took our time getting our luggage out of the car before we made our way to where we were staying. It was a nice two-bedroom condo. We left the living room to go put our things away, and once I was done with my stuff, Ruby came into the room. She had the mouthpiece of her phone covered and it was by her side.
“So, the guys called, and they are on a lunch break and wanted to see if we were down for going to eat with them,” she asked.
I nodded and chuckled. “Of course.”
She smiled, brought the phone back up to her ear, and started talking. She walked back out of the room, and after a minute, I followed her back out to the living room. As I stepped into the room, my phone pinged. I expected a text from Noah or something, but I was surprised to see a text from an unknown number.
Unknown
Are you trying to run away from me? It won”t work. I’ll find you.
I stoodrooted to the spot. Even though I had just left Chicago, there was my stalker, still taunting me. It made me wonder if I’d ever get away from this person. But how would they know how to find me? Out of all the cities and states in the entire USA, how would they know where I went? I wanted to be my usual self and give some snarky, sassy comments, but I knew that with this person, it might not be the best idea.
Before I could process much more, Ruby was rushing to the door and letting in someone. Ryder”s curly-haired head and broad body walked through, followed by Finn, Callum, Oliver, and Noah. Callum swept Ruby up for a kiss and hug. Noah put down whatever he was carrying and made a beeline for me. I tried to smile at him, but it felt forced and wrong.
He pulled me into his arms, and when his lips were right next to my ear, he kissed the hollow behind it and sighed. “What”s wrong? Don”t tell me nothing because I can see that something isn”t okay.”
Sighing, I pulled away from him. Not wanting to voice what was bothering me, I unlocked my phone and pulled up the text message, and then I handed the phone to him. Meeting his gaze as he took it, I shrugged. He looked down, reading the message on the screen in front of him. I waited for his reaction, but judging by the expression on his face, I knew he was experiencing the full range of emotions that I’d had. When he had finished reading it, he closed his eyes momentarily. When his green orbs came back into view, they were stormy. There was no fear, and I was grateful for that. If he was scared about this, I don’t think that I would be able to handle it.
He looked around the room, then grabbed my hand, pulling me to the room I had chosen for myself earlier. It was just a lucky guess that he picked the right one. He pushed me inside and closed the door behind him. I was a little disoriented and not quite sure what he was planning on doing right now. He pushed against me until I was backed up to the wall, and he put his arms up on either side of me, caging me in.
“I will do everything in my power to make sure this sicko doesn’t hurt you, Jade. But I need you to be vigilant. The fact they know you aren’t in Chicago anymore is concerning. I wouldn’t put it past them to somehow know where you are. Promise me. Promise you will stay watchful.”
I nodded, because the fact that I was panicking made it really easy to agree that I was going to be hyper-aware. “I promise, Noah. I don’t know what their end game is, but I can’t fight this sinking feeling that we are coming up to it.”
He pulled me into his arms again, wrapping them around me, before kissing me on the temple. I soaked in the comfort he was giving me, and I thought he just wanted to have me with him, obviously safe as long as he was around. He pulled back, giving me a chaste kiss before stepping away from me minutely. He reached into his back pocket and produced a jewelry box, but it was a flat long one, like it might contain a necklace or bracelet. He handed it to me, and after giving him a questioning look, I took it from him. Opening it, I realized that it was a necklace that had some sort of pendant on it. Pulling it out of the box, I inspected it closely. It was a purplish gray wolf with the letters LM in purple and gray.
Noah took it from me gently and undid the clasp, then he put it on me smoothly. “I saw this the other day in the school store, and I figured that it wasn’t too outwardly possessive, but just enough to make me happy.” He chuckled.
I laughed and turned around to look at him. “Thank you. It’s pretty cool, and no, it isn’t too much.”
We headed out from my room and into the kitchen, finding everyone sitting down eating sub sandwiches. Noah led me over to the open seats and we sat together. I inspected my sandwich and found it was prepared exactly the way I liked it. Really, it shouldn’t have surprised me because Noah seemed to know everything about me. I smiled at him before taking a bite out of my sandwich.
The conversation continued to flow at the table, and most of it centered on the guys’ game tonight. We were all excited because they were doing great so far this season. I loved watching hockey games, especially these guys I had gotten to know, but right now I was more concerned about when Noah would have to leave to go back to the arena. My previous feeling of safety seemed to count only if he was around.
Noticing that everyone was almost done eating, I picked up the pace so I wouldn”t be the only one left at the table. Luckily, that helped, and I finished at the same time as Ruby, and we all started cleaning the table and throwing away our wrappers. We finished and headed to the living room. Noah glanced at his watch and gave me that look that said he had to go but didn”t want to. I nodded to him. I didn”t want to become a distraction. I understood he had a job to do and really couldn”t fault him for it.
There were hugs and high-fives all around. Noah and I had a moment while Callum and Ruby did as well, but soon the other guys grew fidgety. Without much more preamble, the guys were out the door and on their way to the arena. Ruby directed a studying look my way, like she wanted to say something. While I was glad that I was getting close to her and we were becoming friends, I didn’t want to talk to her about this situation. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her, but it just felt like something I didn’t want to go around sharing with everyone. “Is everything okay, Jade? It seems like something changed right before the guys got here.”
I nodded, not wanting her to worry or get freaked out by me. “Yeah, everything is okay. There’s just some stuff going on between Noah and me. We’re okay, but there are issues outside of us.”
Ruby nodded, tucking her hair behind her ear. “I get that. I know we are still getting to know each other and becoming friends, but if you need to talk, I’m always here.” Without saying anything, I bobbed my head in agreement. I knew she was being sincere, but I didn’t want to talk about it. She seemed to get that and gave me a small smile. “How about we get ready for the game, yeah?”
I agreed with her. We both went and grabbed our toiletries bags and met in the bathroom. We played some music while we did our hair and makeup. It wasn’t anything elaborate or over the top, just normal with as many of our school colors as possible. Then we went to our own rooms to get changed. The idea was to wear jerseys with our respective guy’s last name on them. It wasn”t overly imaginative, but things were cliche for a reason.
I finished dressing before Ruby, so I just sat on the living room couch, scrolling through my phone while waiting for her. My phone pinged with a text message notification. I was expecting it to be Cora or Noah. I opened the app and saw that I had a message from the unknown number again.
Unknown
I know where you are. My attempts to get you to reveal your secret with that punk have gone unheeded. You will regret this.
I sat up straighter and looked around the room, almost expecting to see someone standing outside a window and staring at me. Real life wasn’t like the movies, and there was no sign that anyone was there. I couldn’t tell Noah because he was getting ready for a game. I had to tell someone, and even though I was worried about discussing this with Ruby, she was my only option.
“Ruby?” I called out.
She came into the living room, rubbing her hands together like she was putting on lotion. She must have seen the expression on my face because her face immediately showed concern. I sucked in a deep breath and prepared to tell her everything that had been going on that she was in the dark about. Hopefully, she didn’t react badly.
By the timewe sat in our seats at the arena, I felt somewhat better. Surprisingly, Ruby didn’t freak out when I told her everything that had been happening. I even showed her the messages, and there was nothing but worry for my well-being. She felt the same way I did—there was a lot of threatening without any action. They obviously hadn’t told our parents or both Noah and I would’ve heard it from them by now. There was no way this person could know where I was, and Ruby and I both agreed that talking to Noah after the game was the best and only option right now.
The game was a ruthless fight from the moment the puck dropped on the ice. Our team had played amazingly so far this season, but so had their opponents. This would not be an easily won game. I fingered the wolf pendant on the necklace that Noah had given me earlier. It seemed a silly thought, but maybe just having it would give them more luck. The sound in the arena was deafening. Where we were in Michigan was close enough for loyal fans from our school to travel, so the cheers when we scored or made a good play were almost as loud as those for the home team.
During the last period, I needed to use the bathroom. Ruby had just gotten back from going herself, so I didn’t expect her to come with me. I let her know where I was headed, and she nodded, looking at her phone as it started to ring. Smiling at her, I left my seat and made my way toward the restroom. When I got there, I wasn”t surprised by how empty it was, being that it was in the middle of the last period. Once I was in my stall, I tried to hurry so that I could get back to my seat before the final buzzer. Hearing the sound of a door opening and shutting, I didn’t really pay much attention to it as it was normal for people to come in and out.
Finishing what I was doing, I exited the stall. As I stepped up to the sink to wash my hands, I saw someone out of the corner of my eye. Before I could turn to see who was in there with me, I was pushed up against the wall. The air gushed out of my lungs, causing me to groan. I didn’t have a chance to even start to fight back, before a hand slammed over my mouth, followed by a pinch in my neck. My world wobbled, and then everything went black.