Chapter 24
“Super glad that you guys didn’t burn the house down,” Becks said playfully, turning to look in the backseat of my truck at Natasha.
“Mom,” she giggled, “It was fun! We ate pizza and watched movies. Lacey even let us try some of her makeup,” she added.
Becks grinned at her, and turned back around, “I’m glad you enjoy spending time with them, baby girl.”
I pulled into their parking lot and we all got out. Becks ran ahead of us, “I really gotta pee!” she exclaimed.
I laughed as I opened the back door to help Nat jump down out of the truck. Before her sneakers hit the pavement, I heard Becks cry out in fear, “Lucas!”
Something in her tone stopped me. A chill went down my spine. I grabbed Nat’s arm gently, “Hey, sweetie. Would you mind sitting in the truck while I go see what’s wrong?”
I looked down at her, fear edging its way into my mind. I wanted to run to protect Becks, but needed to keep Nat safe. Rebecca would have my ass if I didn’t take care of Natasha first.
Nat looked up at me, nodding her head, unsure. I picked her up by the waist and sat her in the back of the truck again, handing her my cell phone, unlocking it,“You lock these doors, Natasha,” I said calmly, “if anyone else approaches this truck, you call nine-one-one, and then Paul, you got it?”
She nodded again, and I stared into her blue eyes. “It's all okay, just a precaution, alright?”
“Ok,” she whispered. I didn’t walk away until I heard the truck lock and then sprinted into the apartments’ outside hallway towards Becks’ door.
She stood with her back against the wall and her hands over her mouth. She glanced over at me and then behind me, “Where’s Nat?”
“Locked in the truck with directions to stay there until we know what’s going on. What the hell happened?” I asked, grabbing her arm and looking her over for any injury. She pointed behind me and I spun around.
The lock and handle were broken off of her apartment door, but they hadn’t been able to get inside with the safeguards I had in place. Since they hadn’t breached the doorway the alarms hadn’t gone off, or alerted our phones.
“Fuck,” I growled. I tugged her behind me, “Go get in the fucking truck with Natasha. Call Paul. I’m checking around the building.”
She nodded and started to step away. I grabbed her hand, “Hey,” I said.
I watched her dark eyes meet mine, tears were welling up in them, “I’ve got you. You’re both okay,” I assured her.
She exhaled shakily and nodded again, trying to smile. I leaned down and kissed her briefly. “Truck, now” I said, pointing back across the lot.
I was clenching my fists as I stalked down the outside hall and around the back of the building. Nothing seemed out of sorts back here, but Rebecca’s apartment was at the front of the building, on the bottom, right corner. She had three windows. The living room, Nat’s room, and her room.
I turned to walk towards the front of the building from the back and saw Nat’s window first. It was fine, nothing touched. I started to settle a bit, hoping it was a random break in. It wasn’t unheard of. I approached Becks’ window next and my heart dropped to my feet. There were footprints below the window left in the mud from some recent rain, something looked smeared under her window along the siding, and an envelope was on the ground. I bent down to pick it up and checked the front of it. It simply had a printed sticker on it that said Becks.
I pushed my fingers trying to feel. It felt like a USB thumb drive. I scowled. This couldn’t be good.
I made my way back around the corner of the building to my truck and picked up my pace to a jog when I didn’t see Becks in the front seat. I slowed down again, breathing a sigh of relief when I realized she was in the backseat with Natasha. Of course mama bear wouldn’t have been too far from her cub in this situation.
Becks saw me coming and hopped out of the truck to speak to me without worrying Nat any further.
“What? What did you find?” she asked, huge eyes staring up at me.
I hated the look on her face and in her eyes. I wanted to eradicate everything that had ever been done to her. The thirteen years worth of trauma and running. I held up the envelope to show her.
“Looks like someone left something for you,” I said gently, “we should probably call Monica and see if they can watch Nat for a while. I gotta call some guys to do some recon here and reinforce things, check things inside, if that’s okay with you. We gotta get this to the station too.”
She just stared at the envelope in my hand, and it's like I could see walls being rebuilt right in front of me. The natural instinct to take her baby and run far away, was right there. I couldn’t imagine the fight or flight response she was struggling with. I reached out, touching her arm gently, bringing her back to me.
“Becks,” I begged softly, drawing her eyes back to mine, “We’re going to figure this out. I’m here. You’re not alone in this anymore.”
She nodded, but my heart broke a little. I could see that she didn’t really think it was all going to be okay. She’d been let down one too many times in her life.
She pulled her cell phone out and called Monica, walking away until I could barely hear the conversation. I glanced towards the truck and met blue eyes, wide with worry and fear. I sighed and opened the door again.
“Hey, peanut,” I said, the term coming easily to me. For some reason it had just stuck when I called Nat that and she seemed to understand it was a term of endearment.
“Is everything okay? Is Mom ok?” Natasha’s voice broke me more than Beck's eyes had.
“Everything is fine, sweetheart. Nothing for you to worry about. I’ve got you and your mom, okay?”
She nodded, as I patted her on the arm gently.
“Lucas?” she asked.
“What's up?”
“Promise you won’t let Mom run again. I don’t want to leave,” she whispered, a tear falling down her cheek.
“You guys aren’t going anywhere, if I can help it, peanut,” I replied, drawing her into a hug. I didn’t know if she needed it more or I did.