Chapter 19
I pulled up to my apartment complex and looked up at my door. It was hanging wide open, and I felt that same shiver of fear run through my legs. Every single hair on my body stood on end as I slowly got out of my car. I popped my trunk to grab the crowbar I kept there. Slowly, I made my way up the steps, my ears listening for any sound indicating danger.
But I knew he wasn’t here.
I was certain that Jeremy had been the one staring at me in the hotel parking lot.
Walking into my apartment, I looked at the mess that had been created. As I stood in my kitchen, tears streamed down my face. My couch was overturned and the stuffing had been ripped out. My coffee table was broken and was sticking out of the wall. All the glassware in my kitchen crunched underneath my feet. The contents of my fridge had been dumped onto the floor.
“Holy shit,” I said as tears continued to flood my face, dripping onto my clothes.
I slowly walked down the hallway as I dug my phone out of my pocket. I hit the redial button and heard Logan answer the phone, but the moment I turned and walked into my room, all I could do was sob.
“Lexi? Lexi, where are you?” Logan asked.
“Is that Lexi?” Liam asked. “Put her on speaker.”
The mattress had been overturned and shredded with a knife. My mirror was broken and my makeup was tossed onto the floor. Blushes and lipsticks and mascara littered the carpet, painting it every color I had ever possessed. Sobs wracked my body. I could hear the brothers talking, but I had no idea what they were saying. The only thing I could do was look around the room.
And then my eyes finally settled on the wall.
I screamed. I screamed as I read the statement over and over again. I heard bustling on the other end of the line before the phone fell from my fingertips and my hand clasped over my mouth. There, on the wall—written in my pink lipstick—were the words, “Can they keep you safe now?”
I picked up the phone with my shaking hands and took a picture of it. I sent it to all the twins, knowing I had to cut things off with them. This couldn’t go on any longer. They were in clear and present danger. I cared about all of them too much to do this to them any longer.
I had to get out of town. I had to leave until the police could find Jeremy.
Stumbling back into the wall, I pressed send on my phone. I listened as the photo whizzed off to everyone, and then the phone fell from my hands again. Tears lurched down my neck as I slid to the floor, curling up into a ball and holding my knees tightly.
Holy fuck, what in the world was I going to do?
Suddenly, I heard familiar voices call out into my apartment. I buried myself deeper into the wall, wanting nothing more than to fade into the background and disappear. I heard the two men barrel through my apartment, calling my name as they turned into my room.
The note scrawled on my wall silenced even the firefighters before someone scooped me into his arms.
“Come here. I’ve got you,” Logan said.
He carried me out of my room and opened the door to the bathroom. The mirror in the bathroom was shattered, but the toilet seemed to be fine. Liam shut the toilet lid and Logan sat me down on it as I heard more men enter my apartment. Liam left to greet them as Logan tried to dry my tears.
“It’s okay. We’re here. You’re safe, and that’s all that matters.”
“The—th-the, the n-note. It—y-you guys, you aren’t s-sa—”
“Sssshhh. You’re in shock, Lexi. Breathe with me, nice and slowly.”
I turned my gaze as a pair of tall, handsome redheads appeared in the doorway. The Jameson brothers looked over at me, their eyes filled with concern as the blood drained from their faces. They knew they weren’t safe with me, but I didn’t understand why they weren’t leaving.
“You guys all have to get out of here,” I said. “You’re n-n-not s-safe. N-not safe.”
“She’s in shock,” Kyle said as he slipped behind Logan. “Let me.”
He put his fingertips on my wrist and took my raging pulse. Kevin slipped in as Logan slipped out, and I heard more voices enter my apartment. Kevin put a cool, wet washcloth on the back of my neck while Kyle tried to get me to take deep breaths, but I couldn’t focus.
The only thing I could focus on was the glass underneath my feet.
“Th-the p-p-police. We have t-t-to call. My phone—”
“How is she?” Cole asked as he popped his head in.
“In shock. If we can’t get her to calm down, she’s gonna need a hospital,” Kyle said.
“I can call the police,” Cameron said. “Give me a second.”
“Phone. My phone. Th-the number. It’s uh, uh—um, it’s Row-Row-Row—”
“Officer Rowland?”
I slowly turned my gaze toward the tall, dark, handsome man standing in the hallway. His bespoke suit boasted of wealth and prestige, and his long, dexterous fingertips scrolled through the contacts on my phone His dark brown eyes were set deep into his face, and I recognized his light accent immediately.
Even the Wolf brothers had come.
“Yes. Yes, yes, yes. H-h-him. Him. Him. Him.”
“Sssshhh. Sh, sh, sh. Look at me and try to breathe with me, Lexi,” Kyle said.
I took deep breaths with him as Tony got on the phone with the police officer. He walked down the hallway as the Jameson and Oakley brothers stood watching me. I felt weak, helpless, like a small child curled up, traumatized from their worst nightmare. I couldn’t stay here. Not anymore. My home wasn’t safe. This wasn’t safe.
None of us were safe.
I slowly caught my breath as police sirens came squealing down the road. I heard them skid into the parking lot before footsteps thundered up the steps. I heard Officer Rowland’s drawl in my apartment as people flooded through the door. The snapping of pictures could be heard as my eyes slowly fluttered shut.
“I know you’re tired, but you have to stay awake, all right?” Kevin said. “Your heart rate still isn’t settled.”
“Miss Marx?” Officer Rowland asked. “You okay to answer some questions?”
“Not right now,” Kyle said. “She’s still a bit—”
I held up my hand to him, and he gave me a curious look. I struggled to my feet, and he helped me, his hand sliding around my waist as Kevin grasped my arm. I could hear the Wolf brothers talking to the Oakleys while the Castle brothers talked to the other police officers. I knew they were probably looking for evidence, something that could point them in Jeremy’s direction.
The Jameson brothers helped me out of the bathroom, but I still couldn’t walk past my room. I stayed at the end of the hallway with Officer Rowland as Kyle and Kevin stood on either side of me, but I didn’t let him ask any questions before I told him about what I had seen, about the figure in the parking lot.
“Officer Rowland, he was watching me after work,” I said.
“What?” Kevin asked.
“How do you know it was him?” he asked.
“He was staring directly at me as I sat in my car. I was on the phone with someone before I got on the road, and I saw him in my rearview mirror. Coupled with my apartment the way it is, I know it was Jeremy.”
“Where did you see him?” Rowland asked.
“At the corner of the resort. He backed himself into the dark alley and disappeared from sight. Then I got home and saw all this.”
My body began to tremble again, and the Jameson brothers wrapped me in their warmth. My jaw quivered, threatening to spill tears down my reddened cheeks again. For the first time in my life, I was truly frightened for my safety, and I just didn’t know what to do.
“Rowland, we got something.”
“What?” I asked.
“Some of the glass that’s shattered in here has fingerprints on it, darling,” Tony said.
“Yes, love. They’ll be able to run it at their lab. Probability and statistics state that the fingerprints belong to Jeremy. The size of the print coupled with the description of him the officers could piece together for us denote that it’s probably him,” Terry said.
“I got something else in her room, Rowland,” another officer said.
“Yep. The tube of pink lipstick has fingerprints on it, too,” Cameron called out.
“And he must’ve actually stomped on some of your makeup, because there’s a massive boot print near your closet,” Cole said.
“That shit will probably match Jeremy, too,” Logan called out. “Anything on your end, Liam?”
“Nope. The living room is clean save for some broken furniture. But there’s a board that’s been ripped up.”
I grew still as my mind came back together. Jeremy had been in this apartment so many times, and he knew about Courtney’s weird paranoia with banks. I wrenched away from the Jameson brothers and ran down the hallway. I dodged officers and crunched through glass as they called out behind me, their footsteps close as I hopped over the broken furniture.
I skidded across the hardwood floor on my knees and looked at the board Liam was talking about.
“No, no, no, no,” I whispered to myself.
I reached my hand down in there and felt for the metal box. Courtney kept all her extra money there, money from odd jobs she took and extra tips she didn’t need to pay for bills and the essentials. I’d been begging her for months to invest it somewhere, telling her that the banks weren’t going to collapse like her paranoid mother kept ranting and raving about.
But the box was nowhere to be found.
“What’s supposed to be in there?” Liam asked.
“Officer Rowland!?” I called out.
Someone came over and quickly started taking pictures. The box had been there for so long that there was an imprint of its dimensions on the foundation beneath it. There were only three people on this entire planet who knew where that box was: myself, Courtney, and Jeremy.
And Jeremy knowing about it was simply an accident.
“What was in there?” Rowland asked.
“A lock box containing somewhere between two and three thousand dollars,” I said. “It was my roommate’s.”
“Any chance she has it?” Rowland asked.
“I can call, but I doubt it,” I said.
“I’ll give her a call, darling,” Tony said. “What’s her name?”
“Courtney,” I said.
Tony walked off with my phone to make the call as I sat back on my bottom. I felt the Jameson and Castle brothers sit down around me as the officer finished taking pictures of the broken floor. I sighed as I put my face in my knees. I couldn’t stay here anymore. I’d never be able to come back to this apartment no matter how strong I wanted to be.
“I can’t stay here anymore,” I said in a whisper.
“Then come stay with us. You know you’re welcome,” Kyle said.
“Or you can come stay with us. We’d be more than happy to have you,” Liam said.
“We could stagger our days at the firehouse,” Logan said.
“Or we could have our staff take over our workloads so one of us could be with you,” Kevin said.
“You could travel the world with us for a little while,” Tony said, “stay in the hotel suite we have booked.”
“Or you could always take us up on that protective detail we keep offering,” Terry said.
“You could come stay with us,” the Oakley brothers said in unison.
“Our coaches wouldn’t mind if we filled them in on what’s going on,” Cole said.
“Yep. We live in two separate houses, but you’re welcome at either one. And the guys could drop in on you at any time,” Cameron said.
I was absolutely overwhelmed. The owner of the complex had now come into the apartment and was surveying the damage and asking for my insurance information. I couldn’t even stand to go into my room, much less choose who the hell I was going to go stay with.
But Kevin analyzed me on the spot and started talking to Tony.
“Hey, Tony, call Courtney back. Tell her what’s happened, and let her know that we’ll need an address so we can drop off Lexi with her. It’s late and no one else needs to be in this apartment,” Kevin said.
“I can do that. Darling, are you sure that’s what you want?” Tony asked.
“It’s my default—Courtney. I just can’t process anything else tonight.”
“It’s fine. It’s fine,” Kyle cooed. “Whatever makes you comfortable. That’s what we’ll do, okay?”
“Sweetheart,” Cole said as he grabbed my hand, “do you want to reschedule things?”
“No. Not for a second. The only bright spot in my life right now is you guys. Please don’t cancel. Please,” I said.
“Okay, okay. We won’t. I promise,” Cameron said.
“And we’re not canceling Friday either, love,” Terry said. “I’m very much looking forward to wielding you across the floor in your dress.”
“I have an address for Courtney’s friend’s place. We’ll send the dress there; expect it Wednesday morning,” Tony said. “In the meantime, we’re all going to follow you and make sure you get to Courtney’s all right. She’s clear across town.”
“I don’t have a car,” I whispered.
“Then you’ll simply ride with one of us,” Kyle said as he gripped my hand.
“Are you all right to go into your room to pack, or should one of us go pack up some of your things?” Kevin asked.
I started to move that way, then felt myself turn white as a sheet. “I can’t go in there. Please don’t make me,” I said.
“Not a problem,” Logan said. “I’ll go put some stuff in a suitcase and get it out to you.”
“I’ll come, too. It’ll go faster. Then we can get her out of here,” Liam said.
“Kyle, can you go get the manager? I need to give him my renter’s insurance information,” I said.
“Let us take care of that, darling,” Tony said. “We’ve got you.”
“He has to file a claim against—”
“No, he doesn’t. This isn’t your responsibility. He’ll need to file a claim against his own insurance. You’ll need to do that too, but not tonight.”
“Lexi,” Terry said sternly, “just take deep breaths. Don’t worry yourself anymore tonight, love.”
I relaxed into Kyle’s arms as he held me close. Kevin sat in front of me, distracting my gaze as everyone hustled and bustled around us. I closed my eyes and tried to whisk myself away to a far-off place, a place where no one could touch me save for the men who were in this apartment right now, making sure I was taken care of and all right.
Kevin began to massage my legs, and I finally relaxed into Kyle’s grasp as he whispered into my ear.
“That’s it. Just relax. We’ve got you. You’re safe, I promise.”
I latched onto his words as I tried to breathe deeply. I had no idea how I was going to get Courtney’s money back, but I would. I had no idea how they were going to catch Jeremy, but I knew they would.
I had no idea how I was going to piece my life back together, but I knew I would.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “Thank you so much.”
“No thanks needed,” Kevin said. “There is nowhere else we’d rather be. I promise.”