Chapter eight
Dottie stood at the counter chopping herbs to go into the paella planned for dinner.
The chicken thighs and chorizo sat to her left, coming to room temperature.
It took three hours to cook the amount of paella they needed to feed everyone, which meant she’d start browning the meat and sautéing everything else in the next thirty minutes.
They’d have a green bean and tomato salad as well, but Amber could throw that together in twenty minutes. She needed more to take her mind off the conversation she’d just walked out of.
“I restocked the pantry if you’re looking for dessert ideas,” Dottie said, not taking her attention from the chives currently meeting their fate at the hands of her knife.
“Thanks,” Amber muttered, wandering into the huge walk-in pantry.
She hadn’t told Dottie anything, but she knew Amber needed the distraction.
Dottie always knew. As a survivor herself, she recognized the signs.
They’d also grown close over the past year, spending hours together in the kitchen or shopping for supplies.
Feeding the Falcons was no small feat, and even if fewer of them were around for dinner these days—some preferring to be home with their partners—breakfast and lunch were always on tap.
She scanned the shelves looking for inspiration.
A hard thing to come by with half her brain still stuck back in the meeting room and Mantis’s words on rerun in her head.
If Anthony wasn’t behind it, then who? She had no friends while married, and her father died seven years ago.
Her mother and her sister adored Anthony, and his money, and she’d cut them from her life when she left.
That gave her pause. Could one or the other of them be ill and the nurse Mantis mentioned was sending her notes about them? Trying to reach her?
Pulling out her phone, she sent Spencer a text suggesting that HICC check out that option. He replied immediately saying he’d pass the idea on.
As she stared at the shelves, the possibility settled inside her.
A nurse searching for her to relay news of her family fit.
Even the substance of the notes fit. Mostly.
The third one, with its reference to the unnamed “he” knowing they had “her,” didn’t.
But the others did. If her mother or sister were gravely ill, telling her that “she didn’t die,” that she’s “in danger,” and asking if she wanted to see “her” seemed relevant.
The delivery of the notes posed a different set of (slightly ominous) questions, though.
Ones she didn’t want to think about because the more she did, the more they blew her new theory up.
Instead, she grabbed the canister of flour and a few other dry ingredients and headed back into the kitchen.
The guys would feast on croquembouche for dessert tonight.
She didn’t care that the towering cone of cream-filled profiteroles held together by crunchy caramel was fancy for a weeknight.
They wouldn’t either. Thankfully, those men loved to eat.
She was pulling the last tray of profiteroles out of the oven when her phone rang. Setting the confections down gently on the counter, she wiped her hands on her apron, then dug the device out of her pocket.
“Hey, Leo,” she said by way of greeting.
Dottie glanced her way, then nodded to the main clubhouse, silently asking if Amber wanted her to let the guys know.
Again, Amber didn’t question how Dottie knew something was going on, just nodded.
She’d learned a long time ago that very few things stayed a secret among the Falcons.
Especially not something like this. They may as well hear firsthand what Leo had to say.
“Hey, Amber. I traced that number, and it’s a burner,” he said. Her shoulders fell. Couldn’t she be a little bit lucky?
“And I don’t suppose it’s turned on?” She knew the answer. Leo would have led with that if he’d been able to track it.
Spencer, Mantis, and North followed Dottie into the kitchen.
They couldn’t fix what was happening, but their support meant the world to her.
Spencer’s bright green eyes met hers, and he immediately came to her side, setting a steadying hand on her hip.
After today, there’d be no question the club would know that the relationship between them had shifted.
She felt a pinch of guilt on Spencer’s behalf.
No doubt, he preferred more discretion when he entered into these… arrangements.
“Mantis, Juan, Dottie, and North are here,” she said, hitting the Speaker button and setting the phone on the counter.
Leo repeated what he told her, then continued.
“It’s not turned on, but we’ll keep an eye on it.
It’s made eight calls in the past two months, though.
Nothing unusual. A KOA campground in West Virginia.
A pharmacy in northern Georgia. A pizza parlor outside Kansas City.
A pharmacy in South Dakota. Another campground in Montana. That sort of thing.”
“Whoever they are, they are moving west,” Spencer said.
“Any chance the phone belongs to Adrian Mills?” Mantis asked. “I assume Sabina filled you in on that situation.” Sabina was Leo’s boss, a petite woman with a ginormous brain who led the elite cyber team.
“She did, and there’s no evidence to support that, but I won’t rule it out,” Leo replied.
“Do you really think the two things are tied together?” Amber asked Mantis, then shook her head.
“Never mind. I’m the one who suggested it.
Sort of. After over a year of living quietly here in Mystery Lake, having both these things happen at the same time is too much of a coincidence.
Even if I can’t see how they fit together. ”
“Books and movies will try to convince you otherwise, but coincidences do happen,” North said. “Not everything is part of a big conspiracy. But this? Yes, it feels too related to be unrelated.”
“So if we make that assumption, that the phone belongs to Adrian Mills, then a nurse whom I’ve never met and we know nothing about isn’t just looking for me, but she’s found me.
And is leaving me weird notes,” she said.
Confused, she shook her head and added, “Why on earth would she do that? It makes no sense. Why not just approach me? She obviously knows what car I drive.” She started leaning into Spencer as she spoke, then caught herself.
She didn’t need to make things more awkward for him.
Only he snaked an arm around her waist and tucked her against his side.
She had too many other questions, other fears, spinning up in her mind to question him, and she went willingly.
Leo cleared his throat. “I can’t answer why or make sense of it yet, but if we make those assumptions, I agree with you.
Adrian Mills is here and she is the one leaving you the notes.
” She’d been resisting that possibility, hoping the others would point out a flaw in the logic.
That they didn’t, and that Leo agreed, made denial impossible, and the reality clicked into place with a jolt that had her shifting uncomfortably.
Spencer’s arm tightened, and his fingers closed over her hip.
“Why do you say that?” Spencer asked.
“Just looking at the calls and the trajectory,” Leo said. “The first was made two months ago in West Virginia, and the last was made near Klamath Falls in southern Oregon two weeks ago.”
“And the first note was left on my car about a week later,” she finished, her chest tight as her stomach churned.
She didn’t know Adrian Mills from Adam, but the thought of her lurking around Mystery Lake, leaving strange notes on her car, did not give her the warm fuzzies.
Then again, the thought of someone unknown doing it was even creepier, so maybe she’d take option one.
“It’ll be okay,” Spencer said, his voice quiet but sure.
“Can I just turn into a hedgehog?” she asked.
Spencer raised a brow, his lips twitching. “You can curl up into a ball and hide all you want. No one will judge for that. But you’re not prickly enough to have all those spines to protect you.”
“You need us for that,” Mantis said.
“You have us for that,” North corrected. All three men nodded. Out of the corner of her eye, Dottie, still at the stove eyeing her paella, nodded, too.
She blinked back tears. She didn’t want to be weak.
She wanted to be strong like Callie and Lina, fearless like Charley, fierce like Daphne.
But she wasn’t any of those. She’d spent years tiptoeing around Anthony, always fearful of what might set him off, rarely knowing what would.
Unpredictability meant pain. And that cause-and-effect equation seemed hardwired in her brain.
Maybe less loud now than it had been, but all these uncertainties unsettled her. Deeply.
“Holy shit!” Leo’s voice burst through the phone. North and Mantis straightened; Spencer pulled her tighter against him. As if all three were preparing for a battle in the kitchen of the clubhouse.
“Leo?” Mantis demanded, his voice sharper than it had been seconds ago.
“The phone just came on.”
“Is Adrian making a call?” she asked at the same time Spencer asked, “Where?”
Leo murmured something that sounded like “hold on,” and the click of a keyboard sounded through her device. Spencer’s thumb traced small circles at her waist. She focused on those as Leo worked his magic.
What seemed like ages later, though was probably less than ninety seconds, Leo exhaled.
Loudly. “Well, fuck,” he said. Then not waiting for Mantis to jump in, he continued.
“Whoever has the phone is definitely here. In Mystery Lake. Not ten miles from the clubhouse. I can’t pinpoint the location, though, unless Adrian—assuming it’s her—makes a call. But at least we know the area.”
A heavy silence fell across the kitchen—even Dottie stopped working—as they waited. Amber’s gaze flickered to the clock on the wall. The second hand ticked around while Spencer’s hand remained warm and steady on her hip.
Thirty-two seconds passed when Leo exhaled, the quiet sound startling her.
“She turned it off,” he said.
“Without making a call?” she asked. “Why would she do that?”
“Because she was checking the device to see if you’d called her,” Spencer replied. She drew back and looked at him. A mixture of determination and concern shadowed his eyes.
With a little shake of her head, she returned her attention to the phone.
“Is the area searchable?” she asked. “If we think it’s Adrian Mills leaving the notes and making the calls, I assume we have a picture of her or can find out what she drives or trace her credit cards?
If she rented a house in that area, maybe we can find her without her knowing we’ve found her?
Maybe do a little recon,” she said, then made a face.
“Saying that around a bunch of ex-military makes me feel like a poser.”
The men chuckled. “You’re not wrong, though,” North said. Both Mantis and Spencer nodded. “Assuming it is Adrian, if we can get a better bead on her location, through all those means you mentioned, Amber, we can investigate. See if we can gather any clues as to why she’s looking for you.”
“I can do a search on rentals,” Leo chimed in. “It’s not a heavily populated area. Too far from the resort for the weekenders. There’s one campground out there, too. Actually, given we know she’s used campgrounds in the past, I’ll start there.”
“What about a picture of her?” Amber asked.
“Sabina will send one over. She started looking into it when Mantis called earlier today but got pulled into something else. She’ll be wrapping up in the next hour, and it won’t take her long to dig one up,” Leo replied.
Spencer pinned her with a look. “Don’t even think about going to the campground to have a look around.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Are you telling me what I can and can’t do?”
North and Dottie snorted. Mantis hid a smile behind his hand. Spencer narrowed his eyes.
His jaw ticked, and she’d swear he held his breath for the count of five, then exhaled. “I would prefer if you didn’t go to the campground alone to look around. If you want to go, I’ll go with you.”
The band around her chest eased. She’d held her ground, and nothing bad had happened to her.
In her heart of hearts, she not only knew but also trusted that none of the Falcons would ever hurt her, least of all Spencer.
But still, a little thrill of power coursed through her. A power that allowed her to be honest.
“You know I’m a chicken. I would never go out there alone. We can talk about it later and decide if it’s a good idea and if so, how we should go about it,” she said.
Relief eased the lines around his eyes. “You’re not a chicken.”
“I have a couple of hours before I’m meeting Joey at my parents’ house for dinner. I’ll see what I can dig up before then,” Leo said. She and the others thanked him before ending the call.
A contemplative silence fell among them, then Mantis turned to her. “How are you?”
Confused. Curious. A little worried. Glad to be at the clubhouse surrounded by the Falcons. “It’s unsettling. But I’m safe here, so that’s what I’ll focus on.”
“You going to be able to sleep tonight?” he asked.
Her mind flashed to the bag lying on her bed. Her plans for the night derailed when she walked in the door a few hours earlier. But maybe they didn’t need to go entirely off track. She glanced at Spencer. A mistake. A bloom of heat started on her chest and rose up her neck.
She cleared her throat and stepped out of his embrace. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.”