Chapter 69 #2
I nod as I breathe in his spicy scent mixed with leather and try to calm my racing heart. The guys surround me as we head into the hospital and a bit of tension leeches out of me when we join up with everyone from the Forest Creek club.
Mae’s the first one to reach me, and she takes one look at me before pulling me in for a hug.
“What happened?” she demands.
Swallowing thickly, I pull out my phone, open my text thread, and showing her and Mary, who had joined us.
“Futtenfarter,” Mae curses, and despite my state, I find myself sharing a small, tight smile with Mary at how Mae curses.
“If that son of a flying fudge monkey thinks he’s getting his hands on you, he’s got another thing comin’!
He’ll soon be facing the Steel Archangel’s wrath, and then he’ll be wishing he left you the fudge alone!
” Mae seethes as her eyes take on a dangerous glint.
“Agreed. That asshole is going to beg for mercy that will never come,” Mary replies.
Mama Astrid wraps her arm around my shoulders and I lean into her.
“And if the unthinkable should happen, our boys will fight tooth and nail to get you back.” She pauses and looks around before her gaze locks with mine.
“Actually, it might not be a bad idea to talk to Smoke. Maybe get those trackers that Mary, Mae, Patch, Timber, and the kids all have. I think some of the others talked about getting them too, but I don’t know if they have or not. ”
Nodding, I exhale heavily as a bit more tension leeches out of me at that.
If they strip me of all my other trackers, that might be the only thing that saves me if that asshole does manage to get his hands on me.
“I’ll talk to him and Reaper. I remember Smoke saying he had a program tied to it, but I don’t know if Python has that same program or not. ”
Mae rubs her back and tries to hide a wince as she rubs her stomach with her other hand. I glance down and notice one or two of the babies are kicking her stomach as well. Glancing up at her face, I frown at seeing faint dark circles under her eyes.
“Let’s all sit down. It looks like the boys are pretty active right now.”
Mae nods at my words. “They’ve been so active lately, it’s hard to get any sleep.”
We fall into an easy rhythm of chatting, and it helps keep my mind off my stalker’s texts.
Until another one comes in.
Unknown: I won’t allow you to keep ignoring me, my Little Songbird. This is the first price you’ll pay for your disobedience. Enjoy the show.
My eyes widen at the text and I grip my phone so tightly.
“Futten-fuckin-farter,” someone curses and I blink, surprised, before looking around only to find that those around us are staring at Mae in shock. “Reaper!” she calls out and immediately, Anthony’s kneeling in front of me.
He takes in my expression and white knuckled grip on my phone before he gently pries it of my hand only to curse when he reads the text.
“Call Emma, Lark. I’ll get on the phone with the others.”
That snaps me out of my shock and I dial Ma’s number. After a few rings, she picks up.
“Hey, Honey! How’s everything going?”
I swallow the lump in my throat, hating that I’m going to ruin her good day. “Ma,” I start, and my throat tightens again.
“What’s wrong, Honey? What happened?”
“My stalker… He sent me a message and it sounds like he’s going to do something to hurt me or maybe even one of you guys.
I’m in Forest Creek right now—Levi went into labor with the twins.
I’m not able to keep an eye on things. I need you, Granny, Uncle Mark, and Khloe to stay alert. I don’t know what he or she will do.”
Ma curses. I bite my lip, hating that they could be hurt because of me.
“Pass on my congratulations to Levi for me, Honey. Sometime when she’s here in Junction Creek, I’d like to meet her. Now, as for the stalker, I’ll pass along the warning to Ma, Mark, and Khloe. At least we got that security system Anthony’s grandparents have in their store. We’ll—”
An alarm sound comes over the line right as a message pops up on my phone.
“Smoke!” I call out while trying not to freak the fuck out.
This can’t be happening.
It can’t be.
Not again.
Looking around, I find him staring at something on his phone before he curses. He looks up, a grim look on his face.
“The fire department’s been deployed already, Lark,” he tells me as he comes to stand next to me, showing me live stream video of the tavern.
“M-Ma, did you hear that?”
“Yes, I did, Honey, and it’s a relief. Mark’s grabbing the fire extinguishers and we’re going to head down and see if we can get a head start.”
“Stay safe and be careful. He could be waiting for you guys to approach.”
“Will do, Honey. Stay safe yourself. I’ll call you later.”
I hang up with Ma and switch over to the security screen on my phone. A moment later, Anthony looks over my shoulder watching the footage with me. We see Ma, Granny, and Uncle Mark come down from the house and start using hand-held fire extinguishers.
I can visibly tell a section of the outer wall was doused with something, because I can see the trail of liquid still running down the lapboard wooden siding and onto the stone base.
He must have done that since he couldn’t leave piles of rags drenched in accelerant like the arsonist did to our house and supper club last year.
That’s the reason why we decided to rebuild to go with a design that had stone from the ground up about four feet off the ground.
Instead of doing a facade, the stones are actually the foundations of the buildings along with some concrete and rebar.
As I look closer at the picture, my chest tightens.
“That’s part of the exterior wall to my office. I recognize the curtains in the window.”
Anthony wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me into his chest as I continue to watch the feed.
“So far, the exterior cameras around there show no movement,” Smoke tells us and my shoulders slump in relief.
“At least he wasn’t waiting to ambush them.”
“Or he heard the sirens and decided to get out of there because there’s the fire department now,” Anthony says as he tilts his head toward my phone.
Seconds later, the firemen jump off their rig, grab hoses and run toward the fire.
Chief Riggs approaches and urges Ma, Granny, and Uncle Mark to step back.
It’s at that point that Chris and Sway join them and they watch the firemen work.
Ma and Chief Riggs talk for a while before Erik joins them.
After a bit, I watch as Erik pulls his phone from his pocket and then my phone rings.
“Erik, how bad is it?” For a moment I wonder if I should text him instead, but then I remember his hearing aids pair with his phone. Then there’s also the program Python wrote for him that transcribes what I’m saying into a note app on his phone so he can read it if need be.
“I take it you were watching from the cameras?” he asks. I can tell he’s trying for a bit of levity, but it’s not working.
“Yes, I was. I got the alert on my phone.”
“Emma said you got some sort of text from your stalker basically warning you something was going to happen.”
“Yes, I did. Three texts and two voicemails came through while we were on our way to Forest Creek, each one worse than the last. The voicemails were just someone breathing heavily, they didn’t say anything.
It was the fourth text that I got a few minutes ago that warned me he was going to do something because of my ‘disobedience’ as he calls it.
I called Ma as soon as I got it and while I was talking to her, the alarms went off.
Just a moment and I’ll take screenshots of the texts and send them to you. ”
I pull the phone from my ear, take screenshots of the texts and send them to Erik. Frowning, I look at my voicemail icon on my phone, wondering how I can get them to Erik as well. And for that matter, the security feed.
“Lark, Python texted. Tell Erik that he’ll email him your voicemails. He’ll also send footage of the security cameras,” Reaper says.
“You guys read my mind,” I tell him as I put the phone back up to my ear.
“Erik, I texted the screenshots and Python said he’ll email you the voicemails and the security feed.
” I pause, taking a deep breath. “When I switched over to the feed after getting the warning, I could see wet trails along a section of the outer walls.”
He curses and I can almost see him running his hand through his hair and over his braids. Much like the rest of his family, he keeps a lot of his hair in braids to honor their Viking heritage.
“Thanks, Lark. The crew is still working to put out the fire, but thanks to the security system, it was caught early. Do you know what’s on the other side of where the fire started?”
“My office.”
I swallow thickly and my eyes burn with unshed tears, but I blink rapidly to keep them from falling.
He sighs heavily. “Well, at least this time you guys have that stone base around all of your buildings. That helps with him not being able to leave piles of rags doused in accelerant like last time.”
“I thought of that as well.”
I hear voices getting louder in the background, but I can’t quite make out what they’re saying.
“Lark, I’ll call you back later. The crew got the fire put out so we’re heading in to take a look at everything.”
“Okay.”
“And Lark?”
“Yeah?”
“Keep your head on a swivel. This guy is ramping up and my guess is he’ll be coming after you and soon.”
“I will,” I croak out right before he ends the call.
Anthony wraps an arm around me, pulling me back against his chest. I switch back over to the camera feed.
I hesitate for a moment, but then click over to the cameras in my office.
Two of them are blacked out, which I suspected would happen since they were along the outer wall and pointed toward my desk.
I breathe a sigh of relief when I see that the fire didn’t spread that badly.
As we wait for news about Levi and the girls, I continue to watch the security feed, worried about what my stalker might do next.