Chapter Seventeen
W hen Cross’s cell phone rang, he glanced at it and saw the name Asshole flash across the screen. He left the club and stepped outside to answer.
“Yes?” Cross greeted.
“I have no idea what Lorelei sees in you,” Evren stated flatly. “Your manners are atrocious.”
“Look at you using that college degree.”
“Can you hear me rolling my eyes?”
“Why have you called?”
“The chip,” Evren said, and Cross immediately tensed. “Consumer technology is probably a decade or more behind privatized technology. Meta. Apple. Anything Japan or South Korea puts out. For instance, this chip that was inside Lorelei is like radio-frequency identification trackers. There is a transponder, a receiver, and a transmitter. The difference, however, is that while a scanner is needed for dog-tagging, in this chip, the transmitter is pinged on radio towers. It was easy hacking into that system and seeing where this chip was located. Very sophisticated piece of technology.”
“That goddamn doctor,” Cross muttered. “If I ever see that asshole I’m going to gut him like a fish.”
“Well, at least he can’t get to her now.”
“Yeah. Thanks, Evren.”
Thinking about how Lorelei had been hurt and degraded by that son of a bitch Birsha, he wished he’d been able to roast him slowly over fire and brimstone. It would’ve been his pleasure to send the bastard to Hell.
****
T he days fell into a routine. Lorelei kept with Cross’s hours. Sleeping in until noon, then she’d work on her own projects until Cross came home, keeping busy watching YouTube as she practiced cooking and knitting.
Late one evening, after Cross had left for work, the doorbell chimed and she froze. She knew no one, no one knew her, so who was visiting? Should she ignore it? Placing a hand over her thundering heart, all that rolled through her mind was that she had to hide. Had to arm herself. Defend herself. The person on the other side of the door couldn’t be a good person because who shows up nine o’clock at night? Just as she grabbed a knife from the butcher’s block, she heard a very loud voice call out Cross’s name.
“Aera! Open the door! I have a present for Lorelei!”
It was Saxon. She sagged in relief, almost collapsing as her knees threatened to give way. Laying the knife on the counter, she hurried to the door and threw it open. Saxon stood there with a cellophaned gift basket in one arm and a Styrofoam cooler in the other. Before she could try guessing why he was there, a grin lit up his face, making him look almost boyish.
“Little sis!” he cried. “Just the person I wanted to see. I come bearing gifts.”
He held out the cooler, and she took it, surprised at how heavy it was. Glancing at it questioningly, before looking back at the big man beaming at her.
“I think you’re going to like this present,” he said.
She scooted back from the door and waved him in. Saxon practically bounded into the house, giving a whistle as he looked around the spacious home. She closed the locked the door behind him.
“Wow,” he murmured. “Jeremiah went all out in his welcome-to-the-family gift. Mine might not be a fancy house but I can guarantee you’ll love this one more. Come on! I can’t wait to see how happy this makes you.”
She carried the container to the kitchen and placed it on the island, where she picked up the discarded knife and carefully slit the tape holding the lid on. Saxon sat on one of the tall barstools and placed the gift basket next to him. As Lorelei opened the box, ice packs lined the sides and under them were thick plastic sheets that concealed something, although she couldn’t figure out what. Shifting the plastic aside, she saw ... hair.
Lorelei yanked her hand away and stared into the cooler, slowly realizing the heavy object was a head. She looked at Saxon who smiled at her encouragingly, not only looking extremely pleased with himself but also highlighting the psycho in his crazy.
She shouldn’t be curious. In fact, she probably should be terrorized. Appalled. Definitely nauseous, but maybe she was broken because she was none of those things. In fact, she wasn’t disgusted in the least because she had an inkling of whose head she stared at. Peeling back the thick plastic covering, she stared at the face that haunted her dreams. Birsha’s milky-white eyes still etched the horror of his death, which made her very happy. The monster was gone and the weight of her nightmares slid off her shoulders. Lorelei couldn’t help the big grin that burst through.
“I knew you’d love it!” Saxon cried. “I must admit, I really enjoyed getting you this present. Did you know that Noble Vale was shut down? Birsha was super easy to track down since he wasn’t hiding in that fucking asylum anymore. But, just in case you didn’t like this gift, I brought a backup.”
He pushed the gift basket closer to her.
“I thought we could do facials and mani-pedis.”
She gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up.