Chapter 11
Bailey
I should duck into the hall for this next part. I haven’t had a chance to wrap my head around any of this, and now my friends and brother are sprinting into the chat all hot and heavy first thing this morning.
When I pictured Rhett coming to my event last night, I imagined it going plenty of ways.
But this? A four-way conversation between Rhett, Hollis, and now Axel thrown on the line, too?
I’m a hard yes when it comes to a reunion with the four of us, but not over some stalker who has it out for me.
I melt into the countertop, making sure Rhett is aware of how I feel about accepting Axel onto the line.
Not that I want him to reject the call, but his sister and my brother are oil and vinegar on a good day.
“Axel!” Rhett exclaims, patching him in. “My sister’s on the line too, by the way.”
“Hey, Ax,” Hollis calls out calmly, suddenly sounding more subdued. The whirring has stopped in the background, so there’s a chance she’s turned off the treadmill.
I raise a brow at Rhett but stay silent.
“I’m guessing Mrs. J already filled you in?” Rhett asks.
“About which part?” Axel’s voice sounds calm compared to Hollis’ cussing tirade a few moments ago.
It’s so deep and reassuring that it immediately makes me tear up.
Without hesitation, I wish he were here.
Axel’s been stationed across the country for the past few months, and we don’t get to see each other nearly enough.
Me, always on a deadline or touring post-book-release, and him stuck in an already record-breaking wildfire season without a weekend to spare.
I wish I could hug him right now. “Are you asking if my mom mentioned you handing my sister a robe while she was in a towel this morning? Or about the idiot you both let into Bailey’s event last night?
” He doesn’t wait for an answer before going on.
“Sis? Talk to me. You didn’t answer my calls.
” I look down at my silenced phone to see three missed calls from him that probably came in while we were talking to Hollis just now. “You doing okay?”
“I’m fine,” I offer, followed by the slightest sniff.
Rhett frowns and wraps an arm around my shoulder, squeezing me in for a side-hug before letting go to walk around to the opposite side of the kitchen island, so we’re facing each other with the phone in the middle.
I wish he would have just stayed there. The side of my body feels instantly colder without him.
“A robe?” Hollis pipes up, a shade louder than when Axel first came onto the line.
“Yep. After her shower,” Rhett answers with just enough lack of detail to make them both squirm.
Hollis sounds like she’s started choking on something, while Axel clears his throat, then repeats the question a bit softer, “You sure you’re okay, sis?”
God. It never fails.
Whenever something horrible happens, I can be strong about it until one certain person asks me if I’m okay or not.
Then the water works break open. Just like when my mom came to pick me up at school in seventh grade because my great grandma had suddenly passed away.
She was extremely old, so I should have seen it coming, but just that Christmas, she’d taught me how to make hook rugs while we watched Jeopardy and ate those pink and white frosted animal cookies together with the sprinkles on top.
I’d loved hearing her say the correct answer out loud before the contestants did, winking and grinning at me each time they repeated the answer she’d already said.
She was so sharp, I thought she’d break all the records and live forever.
I barely blinked when the school counselor told me she’d died. But the second Axel had been called down and walked into the office, too, and asked if I was okay? I’d immediately burst into tears and sobbed on his shoulder like I was four years old again.
The right person asking if you’re okay makes it safe to suddenly not be okay sometimes. And that’s exactly how it feels, having my brother ask me that right now.
My eyes flood, and I take a shuddering inhale.
Thanks a lot, Ax.
I avoid looking at Rhett. I couldn’t see his face through my blurry vision anyway, but his hand clasps over mine momentarily, palm pressed into the back of it. He feels warm, steady, and for the hundredth time, I’m glad that he’s here and not some stranger I’ve never met that Hollis had to hire.
“It’s okay to not be fine about this,” Axel says, dropping an octave, like it’s just us in the room. “Do you want to talk privately away from these two boneheads?”
I shake my head even though I’m wishing I was standing in the hall for this part of the conversation instead of two feet in front of Rhett with us all on the line. I try to pull it together.
“Ugh, no, I’m fine.” I catch three more tears that manage to fall after getting the word fine out.
“Oh, Bay.” Hollis sighs, and her voice softens. “You always say fine when you’re the most not fine.”
Pressing the pads of my fingers to my eyes, my chin trembles, and I wish I could turn all this off like a faucet.
Who cries over a few photographs? The whole thing is so stupid.
But it’s more than that. It’s having all four of us back together on the line.
It’s Rhett being here in my apartment for the first time as adults.
It’s Hollis being so far away. It’s missing my brother.
It all wells up inside me until it comes pouring out.
Rhett must have circled the counter because he slides his arm around my shoulders, and this time I feel the weight of him settle in.
Rolling his knuckles up and down the back of my arm, while my shoulders heave a few more horrifying times.
He doesn’t say anything or try to stop it from happening.
He just lets me cry for a minute. They all do.
And I hate it. I love them all so much, but I hate how I feel right now.
Pressing my hands back down against the countertop, I force in a breath.
“No, really . . .” I sniff, tucking my bottom lip behind my teeth.
“I’m fi — no, I’m good. There are always weirdos in the world, but they’re usually more loud and open about it.
Having one quietly following me around? Baiting me to go where they want me to go?
Feels different. There are a lot of trolls online, but this . . .”
“This is different,” Axel finishes for me. “This perv has been following you.”
“And he emailed you pretending to be an events manager,” Hollis adds.
“Christ,” Axel exhales. “I haven’t heard about that one yet.”
“He’s playing games,” Rhett adds quietly. “He was able to get her to go to a bookstore while he waited outside to take photos of her when she showed up. And no prints matched the note, so we’re still no closer to finding him.”
I lean back, and his arm drops from my shoulder.
“You’re sure?” I ask.
“The police confirmed it while you were on the phone with your mom. But they’re checking nearby state databases, too.”
“Tell me more about the email from today,” Axel says. “The one about the bookstore.”
Everyone is silent while I explain what happened.
Both Rhett and Axel are incredibly calm, but in a loaded gun right before it pops off kind of way.
When I’m done, the empty lipstick case pops into my mind.
“Oh my God, he might have been here before the party,” I realize, turning to Rhett.
He crosses his arms over his chest, and the blue in his eyes ices over until they’re hard as a rock.
“Why? What happened?”
My heart pounds.
“My lipstick case was completely cleaned out and sitting on my bathroom counter before the event started last night. Something about it was off, but there were a few people helping me get ready so maybe one of them cleaned it out and . . .” I trail off as everyone goes quiet.
You could hear a pin drop before Hollis breaks the silence.
“Bay, no one just cleans out a lipstick case,” she says, gently.
“Fuck this guy,” Axel growls. “Rhett, you’d better not hold back once you get your hands on him.”
Rhett uncrosses his arms.
“Show me,” he says, more calmly than Axel, but there’s a distinct edge to his voice that would make me scared to go up against him if I were this guy.
I walk to the start of the hall before I stop and turn back around.
“Hey, will you come with me?” I ask, shifting my weight to my other foot. “I should probably also grab clothes while I’m about it, too.”
Axel and Hollis simultaneously groan.
“Yes, you should!” Axel calls out. “Not that you need help with that, right, Rhett?”
“I know no one is physically in my room right now,” I tell Rhett, trying not to roll my own eyes at myself. “But, if he had a hidden camera on him last night, what if he got in here somehow and—”
“You don’t have to explain it.” Rhett’s voice is clipped as he passes me to walk down the hall first, leading the way. “Let’s go.”
We leave the phone on the counter and rush to my room. Once in the bathroom, I grab the lipstick tube from the drawer and pull the top off.
“See what I mean?” My hand is shaking when I hold it out.
“It’s like someone scrubbed it clean. I thought I’d lost it, but it was sitting on end in the middle of the counter, right here.
Like I was supposed to see it or something.
Simon didn’t put it there, either, I already asked.
But maybe it was the makeup artist who was here before that? ”
“Set it down.” He points to the counter. “The cops can check it for prints, too. In case you’re right.”
I look around, sinking into the idea that someone else might be watching.
“There’s no way someone could have gotten in,” I repeat, wanting nothing more than for him to agree. “Right?”
But Rhett doesn’t answer. He just stares at me, like I should be catching on to whatever he has rolling through his head.