Chapter 41 Austin
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Austin
The first therapy session had been more of an onboarding thing, but the second one had been fucking brutal.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever cried that fucking much.
In a way, I felt like I was paying for my own emotional torture, but it was worth it.
It was worth taking care of myself so I could take care of others.
Nick had shattered something inside me. Maybe it was my resolve. Maybe it was finally letting go of the past. We’d spent hours talking about why we didn’t “like” each other, and god dammit, I was in love with him. Just as much as I was with Evie and Matthew.
I just had one more problem to take care of before I told them.
I spotted Phil in the lobby at Whynot Stay and charged up to him. He spotted me, and his eyes widened, but before he could take off—I grabbed his shoulders.
“Who the fuck are you?” I growled.
Phil went very still. People were staring, but I didn’t care anymore. I was two seconds away from putting this man through the wall.
“You fucking harass my girlfriend,” I snarl. “You try to intimidate my friends. You’re not a real debt collector. Who the hell are you?”
He shoved me back, and he had a surprising amount of strength for someone who looked scrawny. “Do you have an office?”
I didn’t trust him. “We can step out onto the porch,” I said. “Or go out back. You pick.”
“Out back,” he growled.
I released him, shoving him through the lobby. He walked ahead of me, and I used the moment to pull up the big group chat we had now. It’d grown from our original group—now with Levi, Madi, Nick, and Matthew. Four people we’d been missing from our lives all along.
My family. Maybe everyone didn’t have the Whynot name, but they were Whynots. Even Nick. Especially Nick.
But instead of texting them, I directly texted Mateo. Everyone could be mad at me later, but I couldn’t have them all swarming this guy.
Me
Found Phil. Taking him out back of Whynot Stay. Can you film us?
Mateo
Yeah. I’ll be there in just a second
Despite the situation, I snorted and tucked my phone away. We stepped out onto the back porch, heat immediately chasing away the cool air inside. The sun burned high above, and aside from the bugs buzzing around us, we were alone and it was quiet.
I sized Phil up. I could take him if I needed to, of course, and after dealing with all of his harassment, I was this close to punching him.
“Who are you?” I asked. “I don’t think Phil is your real name. I also don’t think you’re a real collector.”
“Of course—of course I am,” he sputtered.
I really didn’t think he was. Last night, I spent about eight hours deep-diving into debt collector scams. In all the calls and emails and shit I’d gotten from this worm over the years, there’d never been official paperwork mailed to any of our houses.
And I’d waded through a lot of fucking mail since Dad died.
This reminded me of something that’d happened in our little town about six years ago. An elderly woman had passed away in Whynot, and her husband had been scammed out of fifty thousand dollars. It’d been awful.
Could this fucker be the same person who did that to them? What if he was specifically targeting folks in our town? The phone number he always called me from had an Odessa area code. Maybe he’d been hanging around a lot longer than I’d realized.
Unlucky for him, I was thinking clearly now. It, unfortunately, turned out that rest, food, and talking through my problems left me more energy to deal with my problems.
God, I hated it when other people were right about shit.
“Where’s the paperwork?” I asked.
“I can give it to you,” he said. “But you should just go ahead and pay—”
I narrowed my eyes on him, and his words fell silent. “And how do you want me to pay, Phil? Debit card?”
He crossed his arms, attempting to give me his most menacing look. “I mean, that would work. A prepaid card, a wire transfer.”
“Mm. Of course,” I said, nodding slowly. “A wire transfer. Right. What’s your agency name again?”
“Well, don’t you know? Haven’t you gotten my countless emails and phone calls and . . .”
I stepped closer to him, my expression sharpening. His eyes went wide. “Have you been watching my family?” I asked. “Have you been stalking them?”
“Just finding out information,” he said, his brows pulling together. “A few harmless photos.”
My blood started to boil. “Show them to me.”
“They’re harmless—”
“Pull out your fucking phone and show me the photos. Now.”
Phil’s hands shook as he reached for his phone, pulling it out. I stood over him, my heart thrashing as he unlocked his phone, opened a folder, and countless photos flashed before my eyes.
Holy fuck.
Holy fuck.
I was going to kill this guy. Rage rolled through me when I saw Evie, Matthew, Nick. All three of them, going to and from each other’s houses, from my house.
And my sister.
Levi. Mateo.
Dallas, June, and Madi.
My mother.
My fist was swinging before he could blink. I hit him square in the nose hard enough for his head to snap back. He stumbled, screaming as he clutched his nose. His phone clattered to the deck and I swooped down, picking it up. My entire body trembled as rage, but I heard the sirens. Thank god.
Mateo suddenly rounded the corner with his phone and gave me a thumbs up. “I got it. I, uh, cut out the part where you punched him. All I saw was him falling.”
“I’m pressing charges,” Phil roared from the ground, blood gushing from his face.
Mateo shook his head, glowering at him. “Buddy, you’re gonna be the one with charges.”
I turned the phone toward Mateo, showing him all the photos. His eyes went wide with fury. He started to lunge for Phil, but I pulled him back, shaking my head.
“Avery’s pregnant, she does not need to worry about you fighting this leech,” I said. “And neither does Levi. I think that man has grayed overnight.”
Mateo let out a string of curses and shook his head. “I’m glad you texted me. For help.”
I smiled to myself. “Me too.”
I wasn’t sure if it was better or worse now that Phil had been caught.
Once the police showed up, they took him and his phone full of evidence. What they discovered was far worse than I could have imagined.
Phil, Tom, David, Bill—he had a lot of names and he was a scam artist. It seemed like he targeted families after the death of a loved one, and especially folks in this area. Our family wasn’t his first target and wouldn’t have been his last if we hadn’t caught on.
Matthew bandaged up my knuckles then pressed a kiss to them. All of us had shown up at Avery’s house for an emergency meeting. Bandit and Bonnie were sprawled out on the floor with Levi, and he was distracting them from jumping all over me while Matthew did his thing.
I sighed in relief, listening to everyone talk around us. Avery was talking a thousand miles per hour, only ever slowed by Evie, June, Madi, or sometimes Nick.
Dallas sat down on the couch next to me and I leaned back. His head leaned against my shoulder and I relaxed, grateful to have a brother like him.
“You should have texted me,” he mumbled.
“Mateo was closer,” I said softly. “I didn’t want everyone rushing this guy. Mateo is also the only fully certified firefighter in this group.”
Dallas sighed and straightened up. “I know you’re right. I just wish I could have punched him too.”
“It was a damn good punch,” Mateo said. “He got him for all of us.”
“Sure did,” I said.
Madi leaned over the couch, rubbing Dallas’s shoulders, and he leaned into her, his frown immediately turning into a smile.
“I’m just glad everyone is okay,” she said. “This shit is scary. There were so many photos. I don’t know how we didn’t notice him.”
“It’s not exactly like you’d expect to be stalked in Whynot,” Matthew said. “Although . . . there was a night where I was in my car, and I swear I was being watched. And one of those photos was from that night, so . . .”
“Was that the night we . . .” I trailed off, but Matthew nodded solemnly.
“I feel like we need margaritas and cake or something,” Nick said. “Well, maybe not a margarita for Avery. Sorry.”
Avery snorted. “I like where your head is at.” She studied him thoughtfully. “You know, I swore up and down when Austin fell in love, I’d give him hell like he did to me.”
Nick grinned. “I mean, you can give me hell. Just leave Matthew and Evie out of it.”
“He’s being chivalrous,” Evie said. “He’s the softest out of us all.”
“Hey now,” Nick chuckled, pulling her against his side.
“I didn’t hear any sort of defense for me there,” I said.
“Avery can pick on you all she wants,” Mateo chuckled. “Even Nick knows that.”
I chuckled and reached for Matthew, pulling him onto the cushion to my left. We really needed a couch like this, I decided. Maybe we could fit one in Nick’s place . . . Oh god. I wanted that, I realized. I really wanted that.
“I won’t pick on anyone too much,” Avery decided. “Besides, I’m just happy to see everyone so happy.”
“Me too,” June chimed. “It’s nice.”
It was nice.
I breathed out for the first time in years. Phil was gone. All my worry about that was far greater than I’d ever realized, and it was gone.
Some of the resentment I’d carried toward my dad immediately lessened, and I melted back, letting the feeling settle in my chest.
And for the first time in years, I really let myself miss him without wishing I was like him, without wishing circumstances were different.
Things were exactly the way I wanted them to be.
Almost.