Chapter 7
Rex
Back home I knew how to handle men who used their hands on women.
It was a language my brothers and I were fluent in.
You put yourself between the threat and the person you’re protecting.
Simple. And if it came to it, you made sure the threat never got the opportunity to try again.
In Castle Rock I could read the room, feel the weight in the air the moment before anything kicked off.
Here I was trying to read a city I didn’t know, with people whose movements I didn’t yet understand.
My instincts hadn’t been built for people like Adam Dexter.
By the sounds of it, Adam was a man with a cold-hearted temper. He hadn't done anything overt to Rahat the last couple of days, but he was out there and he wanted her to know it. That was enough.
We pulled up the hotel network interface.
"There," Rahat said as we went through the network log. "It's a device ping at 02:13."
"That's about an hour after we got back from Velour," I said, and she nodded.
There was no room assignment. No registry match.
The connection window was just fourteen seconds.
Burner ID. We kept looking. There was a second ping 23:47.
Last night. Same device signature. Also unregistered.
We cross referenced against the hotel's own device list. There were fourteen active units in rooms and public areas, all tagged. These weren't among them.
That meant two devices. Two nights. Both sterile.
I sat back and stared at the screen. It could be nothing. But two pings with spoof IDs said it was something. Couple that with the van and the courier, not to mention Adam at the club, I was certain we were being watched. Or more specifically Rahat.
"I think we need to check out of the hotel and stay somewhere else," I said.
Rahat didn’t argue. "I got out of my rental lease when I was in Colorado,” she said instead. “I don't want to stay with Auntie Deepa." She laughed and nudged me with her elbow. "Although, I'm sure she'd be more than happy to help us."
I nodded. We didn't need to bring any trouble their way. "Gabriel might have a safe house. We should pay him a visit."
Rahat stood and started packing her bag. But a moment later her phone rang.
"Hi Priya," Rahat said the moment she answered. "Hang on. I'm having trouble hearing you. Let me put you on speaker." She tapped her phone. "Okay. Say that again."
"Something weird happened this morning," Priya said across the line. "Mum wanted me to tell you."
Rahat glanced at me with obvious worry on her face, and paced the room. I moved closer.
"Someone posted an envelope through the door this morning. There's no post mark, so it must have been hand delivered. But we didn't see who. Mum thought it was one of the neighbours at first."
"What was inside," Rahat asked.
Priya huffed a deep breath along the line before answering. "A photo. Of you. Well you and Rex. Sat outside having coffee or something. I think it's at that place on Blackfriars Road."
"We were there yesterday," Rahat said.
"There's like a line of computer stuff on the back. Code, maybe. Though I haven't a clue what it means."
Rahat's hand started shaking, and the look on her face was one of pure horror. I took the phone from her hand, realising that she could face any threat to herself, but this message was a threat to her family. Adam knew where we were. He wanted Rahat to know that he knew where her family was too.
"How's your mom holding up?" I asked.
"She's fine. More confused than anything. Rex, what's going on."
I moved to the window and looked out at the city below.
The morning sky was a bright blue, and the morning light cast everything in a fresh glow.
Beside me I heard Rahat’s uneven breathing.
But I didn’t turn to face her. I didn’t want her to see how angry I was.
Right now, she needed me to be a steady presence, even if I felt like ripping Adam’s head from his fucking body.
"We're not sure yet," I said before asking if she knew the exact delivery time.
"It was here when we woke up," Priya said. "It could have been any time between midnight last night and 6:30 this morning."
"Okay. Where are you all today?"
"Ashraf just left for college. Mum's here in the house, and I have to get to uni in two hours."
I ran my hand over my head, trying to think. "Okay. Is there any way you can call Ashraf and have him return home immediately. Can you stay there too? I'm gonna make a few calls and get back to you. Okay?"
"Okay. But what--"
"Just stay put and stay together," I said before handing the phone back to Rahat. She took it with both hands.
"Hi Priya, just do as he says. I'll explain everything as soon as I can. Now call Ashraf." With that, she ended the call, tossed the phone on the bed, and turned her attention to me. "He was sending it to them," she said, stopping dead in the middle of the room. "That was a message for me."
"I know."
"So what is this? A warning? Is he threatening my family?" She paced the room again.
I stepped in front of her and pulled her in for a deep hug.
"He's showing off," I said because from what little I’d learned about the man, it was fucking true.
"We go to Gabriel's as planned. If he has a safehouse for us.
He should have one for them too. We can deal with this.
We've dealt with men far more dangerous than Adam Dexter. "
Rahat sobbed and buried her face in my chest. "This is just a nightmare. I don't understand anything. Why now? He disappeared for six years, and now all of a sudden he's back. It just doesn't make sense."
I closed my eyes and hugged her even tighter. She trembled slightly in my arms, and a smile tugged at my lips as I realised, she wasn’t afraid. She was as furious as I was.
I pressed a kiss on the top of her head.
"It does when you know he'd been in prison for those years," I said after a moment, not bothering to add that Gabriel had a hand in sending him there.
"Six years have passed for you, and for that time, you got to move on.
But Dexter's been in a holding pattern.”
I didn’t add the next part out loud, but the fact was, I think he meant to pick up where he left off. And I’d be standing in his fucking way the moment he tried.