by Sienna Skye
I knew how she felt. I was feeling the same way. But, I needed to try and put him at ease.
“Listen, we are going to watch out for her. And the kids. I think once we have established a routine. Reviewed safety precautions. Given her back some control. She will start to feel a little better. If for some reason we can’t talk her down, we’ll call Hunter. He’s a safety net for her.”
Morgan’s eyes darted over to the direction of the kitchen. He was obviously afraid of Julia overhearing our conversation. When he looked back at me, his eyes were unsure.
“I swear to you. I will look out for her. Keep her steady. And I will protect them with my life,” I promised him.
“The same goes for me, Morgan. Hunter said he felt helpless. I can only imagine what you are feeling. We’ve got this. We won’t let you down.”
Julia walked back in the room then. “It will be ready in thirty minutes, Hunter. Shoot. I gave them my name. I should have given them your name. It’s all wrong.”
No wonder Morgan was worried about leaving. This was not the Julia we all knew.
“Idg, it’s not a problem. I will give them your name when I pick it up. It’s nothing for you to worry about. Now I want you to sit down so you can pay attention to what Jace and Trey are going to ask you.”
I was right when I said Hunter was her safety net. He could talk her down. From the time we were all kids he made her feel safe.
Trey and I were each seated on the couch.
Julia nodded and sat down on the loveseat next to Morgan. He wrapped his arm around her, and she leaned in against him. She closed her eyes when he kissed her temple and she inhaled deeply. Morgan’s presence was calming her. When it was obvious she was not filled with that same frenetic energy, Trey spoke.
“You said this started with text messages. Do you have them on your phone still?”
Julia nodded. “We have a print out of them.”
“Good. We are going to want to take a look at them.” Trey looked from Julia and Morgan to Hunter.
“Here, I have them,” Hunter said as he handed the papers to Trey.
Trey read through the texts and then handed them over to me. There weren’t as many texts as I had imagined there to be, but they were escalating quickly. Frighteningly so. I could see why Julia was freaking out. I glanced at Trey from the corner of my eye. He kept his head straight, in the direction of Morgan and Julia, but gave me the slightest of nods.
I leaned forward, my forearms on my thighs, my hands clasped together.
“Julia, first thing I want to say is I can see why you didn’t get overly concerned about the first few messages. The first was so vague, it did seem like someone sent a message to the wrong number. You need to stop being so hard on yourself. We are going to figure this out, sweetheart. Have I ever let you down before?”
She shook her head.
“Do you trust us?” I asked.
“Yes, you know I do.”
“Good. Then let us do the worrying. And the work. Okay?”
She nodded.
“I agree it’s obvious this is not from someone who has some kind of romantic obsession with you.” I stopped to look at Trey who nodded his head in agreement. “The wording doesn’t quite support that. But, I am not entirely sold it has to do with your work as an advice columnist either.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Trey said.
“Wait. Why do you say that? What could it be then?” Morgan’s voice was revealing how scared he was. I looked at him, then glanced at Julia, and slightly shook my head. I knew he was trying to hide his fear from her, and I was letting him know it was showing through. I knew he understood. I could see the façade come back on his face.
“If you look at the wording, yeah it keeps mentioning you ruined their life, but it seems to include more personal context. Like you were intentionally trying to destroy them.” I pointed out the wording in question. “See how this is repeated over and over? That you were out to get him or her? I’m not saying it’s not work related. It could be someone…” Fuck I didn’t want to go where I had to go given Julia’s anxiousness. “…who maybe takes something that has nothing to do with them and makes it a personal attack against them.”
“Him or her?” Julia asked.
“Yeah, it’s not impossible for it to be a female. But honestly, given the wording, the kinds of threats, I think it’s more likely a male,” I said.
“There’s another thing. I’m sure you noticed that these texts came from different numbers.” Trey looked around the room again and took in their expressions.
“You think he has help? Or that there are more than one?” Julia asked.
“Neither. I think this is a guy who is either very tech savvy…” Trey started.
“Or someone who knows Morgan is more than capable of figuring out a way to get the number traced,” I finished. “That makes him smart. Resourceful.” And dangerous.
“How are you supposed to find out who is threatening me if he is so many steps ahead of us?” she asked.
“Because he shows his hand too much,” Trey said.
“And the angrier he gets, the more he gives away.” I was trying to give her some sense of comfort, but I knew we still had a lot of work ahead of us.
Life went on around us as we pulled it all apart bit by bit. Sarah and Kyle came in with the kids. Sarah brought them downstairs to the family room to watch movies. Kyle sat with us and listened. Hunter went to go pick up the food Julia ordered. By the time he came back, we were all ready for a break.
There were two thumps at the front door that sounded like Hunter kicked it. Morgan went and opened the door. Hunter was holding so many pizzas you could only see his eyes over the top of the boxes. “There’s more in the car. It will probably take two of you.”
“I’ve got it,” Kyle said as he followed Morgan to the car.
When all the food was brought in, we all stood around the table looking at it. There were five pizzas, two antipasto salads, two large meatball parmesan sandwiches, four calzone, two baked ziti, five bottles of soda, an order of mozzarella sticks, and about three dozen zeppole. I made a mental count. There were ten of us and three were kids. When I looked up everyone had the same expression of disbelief I did.
“I might have gotten a little carried away ordering the food.”
Morgan wrapped an arm around Julia’s shoulder. “That’s okay. We’ll do some damage with this, I’m sure.”
“How about we take some food downstairs, guys? I would like to see the rest of that movie.”
Julia mouthed a thank you to Sarah and then she and Morgan started making plates up for the kids.
The three of them and Hunter grabbed the kids and food and brought them downstairs. Casey was pawing and whining at the back door, so Kyle went out in the backyard with him.
Trey waited until everyone was out of earshot before he spoke.
“I can take the first half of the week if you want to take the second. Whatever works for you.”
“Yeah that’s fine. I’m good with either.”
“I don’t like how it started with such a vague text and then went off the rails so quickly.” There was no mistaking the concern in Trey’s voice.
“I know. I’m trying to figure out his next move. He keeps saying she is going to pay, but he hasn’t threatened physical harm.”
“You think he could be out for money? It’s not like it’s a secret they’re rich.”
He was right. They had been in the public for years. Not that long ago, one of the news magazines did this coverage of Hunter and Morgan. Two brothers who started their own tech company. The focus was how good they treated their employees. But it wasn’t like it didn’t splash the title of “Billionaire Brothers” anywhere and everywhere.
“Maybe. That would be the better than the alternative.”
“If he follows his pattern, he’ll show his hand soon,” he said.
Everyone started to filter back into the room. We sat at th
e table to eat.
“Do you want to keep going or do you want to wait until after we eat?” I asked Julia.
“I feel like I need a break for a minute.” She turned then to look at Hunter. “But, I don’t want to take advantage of Sarah making her stay with the kids forever.”
“Don’t worry about that. She loves it. Besides, she knows how important this is.”
We finished eating and then went back to the living room. Trey and I asked Julia questions to try and put the pieces together. We typed notes into our phones as we went along. Then we started talking about safety. We’d both been to the house a million times, but we told them we wanted to walk around and take a closer look. We wanted to look for every weak point. Morgan had a decent security system, but if it turned out this guy was tech savvy, we wanted to be two steps ahead of him.
We talked to Julia and Morgan about changing up routine. Taking different routes. Being more aware of their surroundings. We ran them through a ton of scenarios.
Julia huffed in frustration. “I know everything you are telling us to do is important. And I am so grateful to you both for doing this. It pisses me off that I have to cause upheaval for my kids because of this guy.”
“If there was another way, Julia…”
“I know, Jace. I know it has to be done. I get it.”
Hours later, we were done.
“I want you guys to call us or text us if you get any more messages. Or if anything doesn’t seem right. Day or night. Doesn’t matter.” Trey’s expression was serious, and it was clear he meant what he said.
“Trey is going to take the first few days here while Morgan is gone. I will do the second half of the week. Send us anything on your schedule you need to do. Work, doctor appointments, anything.”
We decided on a plan. Morgan would drop Julia and the kids off at that gym on his way to the airport. After her session, Trey would take them back home and start his stay at the house.
Before we left, we reviewed the plan with them again.
“Try to get some sleep tonight. We’re going to get to the bottom of this.” I hugged Morgan and then Julia.
I left the house and kicked myself again for disregarding my instincts. I’d never make that mistake again.
Chapter Twenty
Madison
It wasn’t a training day for me, but I was at the gym working out on my own. I found myself looking forward to my days at the gym and not just because I could be in close proximity to Jace. It was good for my focus. For stress relief. Not to mention the changes I was seeing in my body.
I hopped on the treadmill and cranked up the incline. Slower speed. My eyes automatically sought out Jace. He was training a client, but I could tell something was off. It was in his body language. The way his eyes were constantly scanning the gym. Like he was on alert. That was not unusual for Jace. He always seemed to be acutely aware of his surroundings. But, this was different. While he was interacting with his client, he wasn’t giving her his usual attention. I don’t know if most people would have picked up on it, but it was there.
A few minutes later, his gaze settled, and I followed his line of sight. Hunter, Trey, and Julia were standing together. The same energy that was radiating off Jace, was radiating off them as well. Hunter’s face was a mask of concern. Trey’s behavior was almost identical to Jace’s. There was an even sharper alertness to him than usual. His eyes scanned the gym as well. And Julia…she looked worried too. Scared was probably more accurate. I was too far away to make out any of the conversation, but it was all there in their body language. Hunter placed his hand on Julia’s shoulder as he spoke to her. She nodded. The slightest bit of relief spread across her face. Hunter walked off and a moment later, I saw him coming from the direction of Pebbles, with all three of the Stone kids. Julia gave him a nervous smile as he walked them to his office.
Once they were all behind the closed door of Hunter’s office, Trey stepped up closely into Julia’s space. His face was serious as he spoke to her. Julia was nodding nervously. Trey grabbed both her hands and bent down a little so that he was eye to eye with her. It was as if he was saying “Trust me. I’ve got this.”. As they walked off to start her session, he had his hand on her back. I turned to look back at Jace. He was working with his client, but he still had that same sense of alertness about him. Clearly, something was wrong.
When I finished my workout, Jace was done with the training session. I walked over to say hello. His smile didn’t fully reach his eyes. He gave me a kiss and a hug.
“Hey you. You okay?” I asked.
“Yeah.” But he shook his head.
“You look distracted.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you want to tell—” I didn’t get to finish asking because Hunter walked up, a twin in each arm and Sophia at his side.
“Jace. Can you do me a favor and watch over things for a bit? Bobby is out today, and I want to go with them to get them settled in. I’ll be back a little later.”
“Sure thing. Happy to do it. Just go take care of things over there. I will cover for you as long as you need.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.”
Hunter walked off in the direction where Trey and Julia were.
“Hunter is taking the kids home?”
“Yeah. Well Morgan is out of the country for work.”
“That’s nothing new. I’ve seen Julia handle the kids all on her own plenty of times,” I said in confusion.
He just stood there looking at me. It felt like he didn’t want to lie but couldn’t tell me the truth.
Just then Hunter and Julia started walking to the door. Hunter still had the kids. I saw Trey sling a duffel bag over his shoulder and head toward them. He walked by us along the way. Up close, I could see the expression in Trey’s eyes. It was not the usual jovial expression of a natural born flirt. There was an icy coldness to him. He nodded to Jace and there was an unspoken conversation in their expressions.
“Call me if you need me, brother.”
Trey nodded again at Jace. Then he stopped and looked him in the eye. “Like they’re my own.”
“I know.” Jace clapped Trey on the shoulder.
Trey walked off and met up with Hunter, Julia, and the kids. The six of them left together.
“Jace, what the hell is going on?”
He hugged me again. Enough to squeeze the stuffing right out of me.
“Hey, I have a client coming in now. I’ll call you later?”
That was it? I shook my head. “Sure. Call me later.”
On the way home, I stopped and picked up some dinner for myself. I ate in front of the TV but kept going back to what I saw earlier at the gym. Eventually I decided to turn off the show since I wasn’t really paying any attention to it anyway and take a hot bath. Just as I turned it off, the doorbell rang.
I padded over to the door and opened it. Jace was standing on the other side, leaning casually against the side of the doorway.
“Hey. Can I come in or will it wake the kids?”
“They’re with their father.” That in itself was odd because Jace was very good about remembering their schedule. “Come on in.”
I motioned for him to sit on the couch. “Do you want something to drink?”
“Not right now. Come here and sit down for a minute please.”
Not like that made me nervous or anything.
“I couldn’t say anything earlier because it wasn’t my story to tell. But, I called Julia and she said I could tell you.”
“Tell me what, Jace? You have to know this is kind of nerve wracking.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that. I know you could obviously see something was wrong.”
I stayed silent but nodded in agreement.
“Julia has been receiving some threats. She didn’t think anything of it at first. She thought the texts were a mistake.”
My mind recalled the odd look on Julia’s face when she got those texts at lunch and how nervous she
was about the kids being outside and with the sitters. “Threats?”
“Yeah. They’re serious. They could be related to her work. Like maybe she gave advice to end a relationship and the jilted party is seeking revenge. Something like that. Maybe. Obviously, the police are involved. The studio is doing their best to provide extra security there and they are cooperating with the police.”
“Oh my God. That’s terrifying. So that’s why Hunter wanted to go home with them.”
“Yeah. Trey is staying with Julia and the kids. Morgan already had this trip planned. He tried to cancel, but Julia wouldn’t let him.”
“Hunter couldn’t go?”
“Nah. It was a technical thing. That’s Morgan’s arena. Anyway, he wanted Julia and the kids to have protection, so he asked us to help. Trey and I will be helping and doing some investigating on our own.”
“Like they’re my own,” I mumbled.
“What?”
“That’s what Trey said to you. He meant he would protect them like they were his own family.”
Jace nodded. “The thing is, this guy could be anywhere. He could be someone who works out at the gym. Someone at the grocery store where she shops. She is understandably scared. Especially worried about the kids. She is trying to maintain some sense of normalcy for them and keep them safe at the same time.”
“I can’t even imagine what that must be like for her. Poor Morgan must feel so helpless. It’s good they have you and Trey. I’m glad Trey is staying with them.”
“Sorry I couldn’t tell you sooner.”
“I get it. It’s okay.”
“I hope I didn’t interrupt any plans you had for tonight?”
“Not at all. There was nothing on TV that was holding my interest, so I was about to go and run a hot bath when you rang the bell.”
“A hot bath sounds amazing. Is there room enough in that tub for two?”
“I’ve never tried.”