Chapter Thirteen
April
“I have pizza and I’m on my way over,” Kelsie’s voice sounded through the speakerphone while I sat in traffic on my way home from work. “And I’m not taking no for an answer.”
“I literally haven’t said one word,” I answered around a yawn. Growing a baby was exhausting. I’d done nothing all day but sit at my desk and work, yet I was as tired as if I spent the whole day being physically active. “I like pizza.”
“That’s why I got pizza. I knew you couldn’t resist, and you haven’t said much about how you’re feeling. Mentally and physically.” The worry in her tone was evident, and I knew that sleep would have to wait.
“I’m tired but I’m okay, Kels.”
“Then that’s what I’ll see when I get to your place. Gotta make another call, but I’ll see you in about twenty, yeah?”
“I’ll be there.” Probably asleep or just curled up on the sofa trying hard not to sleep. I ended the call. Once we passed a fender-bender, the traffic began to move. The window was down, and the warm breeze was nice against my skin, and it helped me keep my eyes open.
Suddenly I had a weird feeling that I was being followed, which was ridiculous because who would be following me?
Even as I tried to talk myself out of it, I decided to get off the main drag that provided a shorter path to my house and take the shortcut that wasn’t technically a shortcut.
There were fewer traffic lights and less traffic, but it was all residential streets which meant a lower speed, speed bumps and stop signs.
The black sports car turned right when I did and then left when I did. And my heart kicked into high gear. “Am I being paranoid?” I knew that I was but still, I made an abrupt left turn and a quick right.
The black car stayed behind me, matching me, turn for turn.
My hands gripped the steering wheel, and I pressed the gas as much as I could without becoming a danger on the road.
Home was just two blocks away, so I kept my eyes on the road, with only the occasional flicker into the rearview mirror.
Every little flicker showed the black car was behind me until I pulled over to park and he—I assumed it was a man—cruised past me slowly but the window tint was too dark to make out who the person was.
“Fucker,” I grumbled to myself. My hands shook as I pushed open the door and grabbed my bag, my mind still on that guy. Was it just some road raging asshole trying to scare me or was it someone I knew?
I tried to shake it off, but the fear lingered and only made me more tired as I dragged my body up the steps and froze.
My door was slightly open, just enough to notice from a few feet away but not from the street. I whipped around to see if anyone was there watching me, specifically if the creeper in the black sports car had returned.
He was nowhere to be seen, and the block was mostly quiet aside from a few strains of music that played down the block.
I turned back to the door, took a deep breath and pushed the door open.
I took one step inside and stilled at what I saw.
Someone had broken in and vandalized my home.
There was spray paint on the walls, the furniture cushions were split open, and all the stuffing was scattered over the rug and the wooden floor beneath.
Lamps were overturned and the overhead light fixture was shattered on the floor in hundreds of pieces.
“What? Who? Why?” There was a snare drum inside my chest trying to beat its way out as I took in the damage. My hands shook even more, and I was too stunned to move, to speak, to think. Grab your phone and call the police, I told myself. Call the police and get out now.
I pulled out my phone and called nine-one-one as I left my destroyed living room and knocked on my brother’s door. By the time Jacob opened the door looking bored and slightly annoyed, the call was over. “I’m fine April.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not here for you. Someone broke into my place and vandalized it. Can I come in?”
He hesitated for a moment, and I scoffed.
“Seriously? Fine,” I turned away. “I’ll wait for the cops out here.”
“Come on in,” he sighed.
“Don’t do me any favors Jacob.”
“I’m just tired and cranky,” he explained. “Come in. Take a seat.”
I stepped inside and took a seat without looking around. “I would think you’d be happy that I’m not here to ask you how you’re feeling.”
His lips kicked into a grin. “I was too shocked to respond appropriately.” He leaned forward and studied me for a long time, and I didn’t have to ask what he saw because I was still shaken and uneasy, still tired down to my bones. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “A little shaken,” I admitted and debated whether or not to tell him about the guy who was following me.
In the end I decided to keep it to myself.
“At first glance it doesn’t look like anything was taken.
” A loud pounding started, and I jumped about a foot off the sofa, and a shriek escaped.
“April are you in here?” The voice was male and lightly accented, almost familiar but not quite. The pounding sounded again, so loud and so heavy that it shook the wall between our units. “April!”
“Boss, you have to calm down before you scare her.”
That voice I definitely knew well. I spoke, albeit briefly, to that voice a few times each week. I stood and opened the door with a frown as I spotted not one but two familiar figures. I just didn’t understand why they were together. “Maxim?”
“April, you’re okay!” The man had perfectly styled dark brown hair and crystal blue eyes that were wide with worry.
I stared at the man again and a telltale tingling in my lips told me exactly where I’d seen him before. He was the man I kissed at the lake what seemed like forever ago. “You,” I pointed, my gaze narrowed in his direction. “What are you doing here? Did you do this to my place? Why?”
He frowned in confusion. “Why would I vandalize your home?”
“I don’t know! What are you doing here now and how do you know Maxim?” The pieces were all there, but my exhausted brain was having a hard time putting them together.
“Maxim works for me,” his tone was offended, almost haughty.
“You,” I shouted and took a step back as my body started to tremble. “Is this some kind of sick fucking joke?” I took another step back and shook my head back and forth as disbelief coursed through my veins. “What is going on?”
His jaw clenched but to his credit, he kept calm. “What is going on is that you are in danger. You are not safe here and I need you to come with me.”
“I don’t even know you!” It didn’t matter that even in the midst of fear and anger, attraction pulsed through me. He was as gorgeous as he was infuriating and that just made me madder.
His shoulders fell in something like resignation. “And now you see why,” he insisted. “But the truth is that your life and the life of my baby is in danger.”
I gasped instinctively and shook my head refusing to believe his words. “You’re just trying to scare me.”
“I’m not trying to scare you, but you should absolutely be scared. I saw the damage next door,” his eyes were wide and slightly wild, his chest heaved. “My oldest friend in the world, a woman who was like a sister to me was brutally murdered in her home last night.”
“No!” My hand flew to my mouth, but I couldn’t deny the thread of pain in his words, the flat look in his blue eyes.
“Yes. She was murdered and now your place has been destroyed,” he folded his arms, one dark brow arched. “Has anything else odd happened to you in the past few days?”
I looked away.
“Tell me. Please,” he added in a gentle tone.
“I thought a man was following me on my way home today. I assume it was a man, but the window tint was super dark, and I didn’t see anyone.”
“What the fuck April?” Jacob roared the question, and it quickly shut everyone up.
I sighed heavily and dropped back onto the sofa, looking between Jacob and Roman. “I took a different route just to see if I was being paranoid, but I wasn’t. He followed me until I parked my car on the street.”
Roman dropped down on his haunches in front of me, his hands on my knees and his blue eyes fixed on my face.
“The woman who was killed, her name was Maria, and she was going to take care of my baby and now she can’t,” he shook his head, his voice so soft it was barely above a whisper.
“These men, my enemies, they will kill you just on the off chance that it might hurt me, and I won’t let that happen. I can’t.”
I remembered some of what we shared at the lake, “Your brother?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
Dammit. I saw the hurt in his eyes at the lake and even now that wound was still raw. “I’m sorry, Mr. Stephens.”
He winced and his brows pinched but it was gone quickly, and I wondered what it was about.
“I can’t,” I began and put two fingers to his lips to stop whatever threat or promise of safety came next. “I can’t leave Jacob. Since you are who you are, you already know why.”
“You can’t stay either,” Jacob replied, his tone both angry and worried. “Am I safe here?”
“Unlikely,” Maxim answered honestly.
“I’m not leaving my brother,” I insisted.
A knock sounded on the door as it opened and both men quickly pulled out their guns and aimed at the suspected intruder.
Kelsie appeared with shocked brown eyes, her hands were occupied with a pizza box on her palm and a paper bag dangling from her fingers.
She looked at Maxim and then Roman, a slow smile spread across her face.
“You must be my best friend’s baby daddy. ”
Leave it to Kelsie to diffuse the situation with her outrageous question.