Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Hayes
The calls haven’t stopped coming, but the town has at least taken care of the flower deliveries.
All of the locals know by now that if they receive any white roses, they need to call Zeke and report them before immediately throwing them away.
We know Carter is choosing out-of-town florists to deliver them and not leaving a paper trail.
I don’t know what his endgame is, but each delivery is only enraging the town.
They’re almost as out for blood as I am.
Zeke has been doing everything he can as Sheriff, but there’s only so much he can do.
He’s talked to every florist in a sixty-mile radius, spoke to Detective Paul and his superiors at length, and spoken to Carter's probation officer.
Even the well-seasoned Zeke seems to be getting a little more ragey with every day that passes.
Yesterday, the phone calls never ended. The second the phone stopped ringing, a new number was calling. All day long. I ended up shutting her phone off and holding Charlie while she cried for hours.
This morning she insisted on having a normal day at the office, so I’m sitting in the conference room across from them that they never use.
I’ve kind of claimed it as my own, with Olivia’s permission, that is.
I get to watch out for Charlie, study for my classes, or help with the kids if they need it.
Grabbing my phone, I decided to call Drew and Everett. If they can’t talk me off the ledge, I’m about to cash in that “alibi and hide the body.”
“Carrington. What’s wrong?” Drew answers first and I tell him to hold on while I add Everett to the call.
“What’s up, Hayes?” Everett has the same slightly worried tone that Drew had.
“Carter is up to his normal bullshit. Charlie is losing her damn mind, and I can’t do anything about it because I can’t leave her to go throttle his ass! And! And neither of you can leave to do it for me because your lives are signed away to the goddamn U.S. military.” I fume at them.
“Ok. So who do we know that isn’t?” Everett asks casually. It’s not surprising that he isn’t trying to talk me off the ledge. I think we’ve all hit the point that we know this needs to end.
“Well, we’ve got two options. Liam, if we want him dead or Lincoln, if we want his life ruined.
” Liam is a former Navy SEAL sniper we worked with.
He’s a big guy, looks like a Russian Mafia enforcer and has the attitude of one.
Kept to himself mostly, but I have no doubt he could get away with murder for the right reason and paycheck.
He also conveniently owes Drew a favor for saving his ass from killing some guy in a bar fight.
The guy deserved it, but it would’ve been career ending for Liam.
“Start with Lincoln. Hayes is there to protect Charlie for now. Send him a warning that if this shit continues, he’s fucked.” It’s not a bad plan. So far, we have only been on the defense, letting law enforcement handle it. It’s time to start some offense and see what happens.
“Alright. I’ll call him and see what he can do.”
The next call I make is to Lincoln. He answers and I start talking before he gets a chance to say anything.
“Hey. Need another favor.”
He chuckles low in the background. “Been waiting for you to take my leash off.”
“Yep. Whatever you can to disrupt his life. Freeze his accounts, cut off his power, anything to let him know we aren’t fucking around anymore.”
“Hell yeah, brother. I’ve been watching him, his obsession is on another level. He tried to hack into the security cameras at your house. I locked his ass out so fast that he didn’t know what happened. He’s good. I’ll give him that. But not better than me.”
Nodding my head, I say, “I know, man. Thanks for doing all this. It’s a sick fucking game for him now. He gets off on making her scared.”
“You prepared to take the next step if this doesn’t work out? Liam—“
“He’s option B. I don’t want to drag him into this unless we need to. He’s either going to let it go or get pissed off and slip up somewhere.”
“Alright. I’ll get started tonight. I’m gonna take my time. Slow motion. Let the dominoes fall until he’s on his knees.”
“Appreciate ya. Send me a bill.”
“Fuck off. You and Reynolds would do the same for me.” He’s right about that. The brotherhood runs thick between all of us.