Chapter Twenty-Eight
Aiden
As much as I wanted to go straight to the stadium to meet with Cassie, Lyndsey demanded that we stop by her place first because she wanted to change out of her plane clothes.
I told her that Cassie wouldn’t mind, but I think deep down she just wants to be in her own space for a minute.
She has been surrounded by me and my family for weeks.
If going to her apartment will make her feel better, then so be it.
My car has been at the airport the whole time we were in Texas.
Lyndsey was confused as to why I would do that, leave my car here despite the expense, but to me it’s nothing.
I love this car, I don’t want to hire a driver to take me to and from the airport.
And right now I’m glad for it, I wouldn’t want to be in a random hire car right now while I feel so amped up.
“Maybe you should come and stay with me.” I make the suggestion before thinking on the drive to her apartment.
But given the threats, who knows what this person is capable of?
I’ll know she’s safe if she is with me. I’d offer to stay in her place, but mine is closer to the Spears stadium – hell, it’s even closer to Bloom and Blossom for her. It sounds like a win-win.
“Not happening, cowboy.” She half chuckles.
“It would be safer if you stay with me,” I try to urge her.
“They haven’t made any physical threats, maybe they’re all talk.
” Before I can tell her that they might escalate she says, “Besides, I live in a second-floor apartment where you need a key to enter the building. That sounds safe enough to me.” We pull up outside of her apartment and, as much as I don’t want to fight, it doesn’t look safe to me.
The front door is old and rusted, one of the windowpanes is covered with a piece of board where it has been smashed.
“Safer than my fully fledged security system?” I point through the car window at the clearly not secure building but she just rolls her eyes before climbing out of the car, not waiting for me to open her door for her.
The honeymoon period is clearly over. Despite her attempt at deflection, I see the way her eyes scan from side to side as I come to stand beside her outside of her building.
She is trying to soothe the protectiveness in me but I can see through that.
She is scared, even if she wants to act as though she’s fine.
The building might be safer than it looks because it takes her a few tries to get the door open.
In the end she bumps her shoulder against it to crack it.
She turns to grab her bag but I give her my best glare.
It works because she pulls her hands back in fake offence, laughing as she starts walking up the stairs.
My muscles aren’t just for show and I use a lot of them to pull her two suitcases up the flights of stairs, apparently the elevator is out of order.
More and more I want to make her stay with me but I don’t push it.
As I round the last corner I bump into Lyndsey’s back where she has stopped suddenly. In a flash she spins to me, putting both of her hands on my chest.
“Don’t freak out,” she tells me. But it does the opposite of what she wanted. I can see fear in her eyes, they dart around, refusing to look me in the eye. Finally looking past her at her door, my heart stutters in my chest.
The door is already hinged open.
The handle is hanging by a thread. Whoever has broken in has used all of their force to get inside. There are splinters of wood on the outskirts of the door frame.
Not wasting a second, I push Lyndsey behind me and gently edge the door open, peeking inside with a small field of vision.
What I see makes my heart drop into my stomach.
Every single piece of furniture is flipped.
Plates are shattered around the room as though they were thrown at the walls.
Her sofa is overturned and there are deliberate slashes through every cushion, leaving stuffing sprinkled on the piles of broken furniture.
A lamp lies shattered on the floor, the glass of the bulb scattered nearby.
Her dining table is in pieces, the wood pointing out in different directions.
I hear Lyndsey taking a sharp breath as the door widens for her view.
There is nothing I can do to protect her from the sight. I watch my step as I move into the home. To my right the bathroom door is wide open, the mirror inside also smashed, and the contents of her medicine cabinet dashed across the room.
This wasn’t a robbery. Her TV is on the floor, her pills poured around.
No obvious valuables appear missing. When I make it to her bedroom, my suspicions are confirmed.
Every drawer has been poured out onto her bed, her bed sliced up like her sofa cushions, but there is a letter perfectly placed in the wreckage.
I open it before Lyndsey follows me into the room.
She has read enough of these terrible messages. This one will be me.
A whore gets what she deserves. Your so-called husband has no idea
the low life he has married. A fake. A liar. A nobody.
As I hear Lyndsey’s slow, approaching footsteps, I quickly rip the paper into tiny pieces.
A quiet voice deep down tells me I should have shown that to Cassie.
The handwriting could have been a clue in itself.
Reckless, impulsive Aiden. But I’ll be able to tell her exactly what it said.
I’ll see that letter behind my eyelids while I try to sleep for the foreseeable future.
Hearing Lyndsey shuffle behind me I turn and pull her against my chest. She cries openly. Exhausted from everything.
“Why me?” She sobs against my top, soaking it like she did all those months ago when Ellis collapsed. Her whole body shakes in my arms, fear and intense desperation comes off her in waves. I knew when Ellis collapsed that I wanted to protect her and those feelings are stronger now.
“We are leaving all this shit here, okay? You are staying in my place if I have to carry you there.” I mean it too.
I would drag her kicking and screaming because I know it will be safer.
I don’t think I’ll have to, I feel the fight leaving her body.
All of her weight is in my arms, her ginger hair tickling at my chin.
“I’ll come. My stuff…” She hiccups from the strength of her tears, her green eyes red as they look up at me, but I just shake my head.
“We can buy new stuff, darlin’, but I can’t buy a new you.
You are more important than possessions.
” I will buy her anything her heart desires.
My money means nothing if I can’t keep her safe.
She wants a new car I’ll buy it. She wants hundreds of bags then I’ll buy one in every colour, but I need her safe in my arms. I need her to stop crying.
I never want to see her cry like this again.
Feeling another surge of protectiveness, I pull my phone out of my pocket, dialling Cassie again.
“Are you guys nearly here?” she asks, but I don’t bother to reply. I’m not taking Lyndsey to the stadium now. No, I need her in my house, maybe even wrapped in a blanket because she is shaking in my arms.
“Change of plan, Cas, I need you at my place as soon as possible.” My voice is hard, leaving no room for disagreement. Even before she speaks again I hear Cassie shuffling on the other end of the line, getting her stuff together.
“Aiden, what’s going on?” she asks, rushing around her office. I even hear her locking her office door behind her as she comes to help me.
“My wife is in danger.”