by Lexi Blake
Serena felt a faint smile tilt her lips up. She loved Bridget. Reasonable or not. “I think they would have preferred to keep me in line with sex, and now they can’t do that.”
Bridget frowned. “Really? So they’ve been completely in control?”
Jake hadn’t been. He’d lost it the night before. He’d taken her when he’d known he shouldn’t. And Adam hadn’t reacted like a man who’d gotten a woman under his thumb. He’d fought with his best friend because he hadn’t been included in their deeply passionate time together. He’d demanded time of his own.
“No. It doesn’t seem that way. I guess they could be playing a game with me, but I don’t think so. It didn’t feel like it at the time. It felt real, but this morning felt real, too.” This morning had damn near killed her.
“I know. But that was inevitable. People in love fight.” Yep. Bridget was being way too reasonable.
“They’re not in love.” They hadn’t said anything beyond they would like to try a relationship. It was far too early to think about love.
“You are.” Bridget let the words drop like a potential mine waiting to go off and blow up in her face.
Serena decided to defuse that bomb the only way she knew how. A little bit of truth and a whole lot of optimistic lying. “Maybe, but I can fall out, too. Hey, I thought I was in love with Doyle. I’m cured of that, and I was actually married to him.”
She stood, stretching a little. She was sore in a way that reminded her just how well they had used her body the night before. It had been years since she’d had sex, and she’d never had it the way they had given it to her. Hard and rough with an edge of real promise. Or she was just really good at making up fiction in her head and it had been simple sex, the act of two bodies coming together out of need and biology.
“I’m going to run to the bathroom.” She needed a minute of quiet. She needed to get her head together. She wasn’t going to cry in the middle of the restaurant.
Jake and Adam were already standing.
“I can surely go to the restroom alone,” Serena said. Had she gotten to the point that she couldn’t even have a single private moment?
Adam walked off, he and Jake exchanging glances.
“He’ll check it out,” Jake explained. “Bridget, would you mind coming with us? Is the bathroom completely interior? No windows?”
Bridget nodded, following as Jake started to walk toward the bathroom, Serena’s elbow firmly in his hand. “It’s small. Just two stalls. No windows. I’ll go in with her.”
Jake smiled back at her. “Thank you.”
They got to the bathroom as Adam was exiting.
“It seems safe enough. No one is in there. Do you want me to stand outside the stall?” Adam asked, his jacket moving just enough to show a hint of dark metal at his side. His SIG Sauer.
“No,” Serena said quickly. She couldn’t think of anything worse than having to go into that bathroom with one of the men listening in. “No one’s in there. No one can get in. I’ll take Bridget.”
“I’ve listened to her pee many times,” Bridget said, still staring at that place where his gun had flashed.
Serena threw her a look, but Bridget just shrugged and opened the door.
The minute the door closed, she took a deep breath. Just being around them was hard.
“Holy crap, Serena. He has a gun.” Bridget was staring at the door.
“He’s a bodyguard. It’s kind of part of his uniform.” Serena looked down and found her hands were shaking. She wanted to walk right back out and beg one of them to hold her. She wanted to sink into their strength and let them surround her. She wanted to feel Adam’s hands in her hair, hear his voice promising her that he would take care of everything. She wanted Jake to kiss her. When Jake dominated her mouth, she didn’t think about anything but them.
But she couldn’t do it. Even if they would let her, she wasn’t sure it wouldn’t simply lead to more heartache.
Tears formed in Bridget’s eyes. “Why? Why is this happening? I don’t understand.”
At least she had Bridget. It was easy to hug her, to put her arms around her best friend and bring their heads close together. This woman was so dear to her. Bridget was brutally misunderstood because she didn’t quite know how to filter her words. But deep down, Bridget was loyal to the core. She knew how to be a friend. She knew how to love. If everything fell down around her, Serena was one hundred percent sure that Bridget would still be beside her. “I’m going to be okay.”
Bridget sniffled. Not many people understood just how emotional she could be. “You have to be. I don’t know what I would do without you. I love you, Serena. I really do. I know they hurt you, but you have to listen to them. You can’t take chances. You’re too important. To me. To Chris. And no matter what this asshole is saying, you have a ton of readers who think you’re important, too. Remember the signing we did where that woman thanked you because she read your books while she was going through chemo? You were important to her. He’s just sick. You can’t listen to him.”
“I know,” she said, though the tears just wouldn’t come. She loved Bridget, too, but she felt horribly bottled up as though she simply couldn’t let go. The tears were right there, but she blinked them back. Maybe one day she would be able to cry again. But not today. Today she would be strong. She would hold it all in until Jake and Adam were gone, and then she could wail all she wanted.
But now she would be strong.
Bridget released her, wiping her eyes. “Sorry. I’m just worried.”
“I know. I would be worried about you, too, sweetie.” She crossed to the sink and ran some cold water. “Can we just hide here for a while?”
Bridget chuckled. “Well, I’m sure they’ll come charging in when we’ve taken too long. I’ll be right back.”
Bridget disappeared into the larger of the two stalls. Serena stared at herself in the mirror. She looked tired and hollow. Just last night she’d sipped wine while Adam had brushed her hair. She’d felt like a princess. Was she being dumb? Should she just go out there and ask them if they could start all over again? Maybe it wouldn’t work, but maybe it would.
“Dumbass,” she said under her breath to the girl in the mirror. Not three hours after they’d ripped her heart out, she was looking for a reason to throw herself right back in the deep end of the pool.
The door to the stall was thrown open, and Bridget walked back out, her eyes wide and an envelope in her hand. “It was on the back of the door. I guess Adam just opened the door and made sure no one was inside. I didn’t want to open it. I still don’t want to. Oh, god. I touched it. I shouldn’t have touched it.”
Serena felt her heart flutter. Bridget held a plain white envelope in her hands, a piece of tape still sticking from the top. Whore was written on the front. Yep. That was probably meant for her. Without really thinking about it, Serena grabbed it. It was like pulling a bandage off. She wanted to just know. If she called Jake and Adam in, she might never actually see what the man who wanted to kill her had to say.
A couple of clipped news articles were attached to the single sheet of the computer-generated letter.
Please read the articles I have attached. You are ruining marriages with your disgusting words. You are tempting good men to do bad things. I love my wife, but I’m going to fuck you. You want it rough, bitch, then I’ll give it to you good. You’re a whore. You prove it with your words.
As you can see, I know your habits, so don’t think you can hide away with your hired guards. I’ll be patient. I’ll wait and I will find you.
Whores don’t deserve nice things. I’ve read your filth. You say it’s your fantasy. I’m going to make your fantasies come true. All of them. Especially the nasty ones.
Serena felt her stomach turn.
The door to the bathroom opened, and Jake barged in. “Serena, we have to go.”
She held up the letter. “He left this.”
Jake’s jaw firmed, and he grabbed her hand
. “He did more than leave you a note, baby. I think he just burned down your house.”
Chapter Seventeen
Jake tried to listen to the cops, but his mind was still on the ruined husk of Serena’s house. The security cameras they had placed around the house hadn’t helped. Jake had looked at the feed he’d received before the whole system had gone down and all he had was a vague shot of the back of a non-descript man in a dark hoodie and jeans moving outside the backyard camera. And then the feed had gone dead.
“Ms. Brooks,” Edward Chitwood was saying, “obviously, this person is escalating.”
“You admit this person exists?” Adam said, his bitterness showing through. He had paced the halls of the police station until the detectives had called them in. Adam had been the one who had hustled them all away from the crime scene. Jake had just stood there watching Serena’s house burn, his whole soul in turmoil. Everything she had was in that house except for the small suitcase Alex had brought her the night before. Her whole world was burning down around her, and she wouldn’t let him hold her.
At least Adam had been thinking. He’d gotten them out of there as quickly as possible since there was a crowd gathered around watching as the firefighters put out the blaze. Any one of them could have been the man who had started the fire. Adam had been smart enough to roll video from his phone of the crowd. They would analyze it later.
And Jake had just stood there watching Serena, feeling his whole soul falling apart. He had to figure out how to reach her. No matter what happened, he couldn’t let her go. He knew that now. Even after all the shit he’d gone through, he couldn’t let Serena get away. He hadn’t been in love before, and it was so much more important than his own pride.
Chitwood frowned and leaned forward in his seat. “Yes, I think I understand that now. I, for one, don’t think Miss Brooks would go so far as to burn down her own home to get a small amount of publicity. Speaking of publicity, the press is asking questions. It will be on the news this evening.”
“Keep her name out of it,” Jake said. The last thing he wanted was for the story to break. It might have been Lara’s plan, but Serena herself had made it fail by refusing to play along. She’d called the cops and ignored the press. She’d guarded her privacy. It was the only damn thing she had left.
“At this point we’re simply saying it was a fire. I wish we had a witness, but apparently there was a big block party going on at the other end of the street.” Chitwood looked down at his report. “Tell me something, Mr. Miles, did you get anything off the CCTV tapes?”
Adam sighed and gave the cop a regretful shake of his head. “No. I’m still looking. It can be so hard to tell. Did your experts find anything?”
Their experts hadn’t met Lara Anderson. She would look like just another woman walking out of the library, talking on her phone. Jake had found her on the other library’s CCTV tape, but she’d had her face down in that tape, a scarf wrapped around her head. Adam had only identified her from her hand bag. There weren’t many suburbanites walking around carrying Chanel. He and Adam had decided to not let the cops in on this piece of their investigation. They had the same tapes. If they didn’t reach the same conclusions, it was their damn fault. Besides, it would only muddy the waters since Lara didn’t have anything to do with this. He’d called Ian, and Lara had been with him all afternoon, crying and trying to figure out how to help her client. If she was still working an angle, Jake couldn’t see it.
“No. I think that’s a dead end.” Chitwood closed his folder and looked at Serena with now sympathetic eyes.
Jake wanted nothing more than to reach over and thread his fingers through hers. “Has the fire marshal determined how the fire was started?”
Chitwood sighed. “Well, we’re sure it’s arson, but there are protocols. He’ll file his report in the next few weeks. We have a lot of evidence to sort through.”
“Of course.” Serena sat back, her eyes vacant. “I understand. Do you know how long it will be before the insurance adjusters can get in?”
Hernandez walked up behind his partner, his eyes narrowing. “It could be a while, Miss Brooks. Your insurance agent is going to want a full report. They don’t just pay out because the house burns down. They need to make sure you have a legitimate claim.”
Oh, Jake really wanted to punch Hernandez in the face. Asshole. He wasn’t going to give an inch. “You know where to find her. If you have any other questions, call me. She’s not going to be answering her cell phone any longer.”
Chitwood nodded. “I think that’s a good idea. It’s very clear this person isn’t going to go away. He seems to have a point to make. Tell me something, Miss Brooks. Have you thought about pulling back from work for a while? Maybe putting off the release of this new book? It might quiet him down.”
Now Jake wanted to punch the shit out of Chitwood. “She’s not putting off the release of her damn book. She hasn’t done a goddamn thing wrong. She’s trying to work in a legal profession, and she’s not going to give in to someone who is trying to intimidate her.”
Chitwood held up his hands. “It was just a suggestion.”
Hernandez frowned. “It was a good suggestion. He’s just trying to keep her alive. But, hey, if her little books are more important than her life, then she should go for it.”
“Hernandez!” Brighton yelled from his office, his face red. “My office. Now.”
Hernandez stiffened and then turned and walked to his boss’ office.
Chitwood leaned forward. “Forgive him. He’s very conservative. He’s Catholic. He thinks your books are pushing the Mormon faith. I’ve tried to explain to him that your books have nothing to do with religion.”
It was time to get Serena away from these people. He stood. “Thank you. Please keep in touch.”
Adam stood as well, his entire body stiff. He looked like he was ready to throw a punch, but he seemed to contain it. “We should get our charge home. And her book is coming out on time. She’ll be signing at the opening day party. I have some friends in the press who would love to know if the Dallas Police Department cares about stalking victims. I suspect I’ll see you there.”
Chitwood gave them the fakest of fake smiles. “We wouldn’t be anywhere else. We are taking this seriously, gentleman.”
“Serena.” Jake turned and waited for Serena to stand. She did it, but she moved in a way that worried him. She moved, but there was no spark of life, no animation. She was like a zombie, shuffling along, going where he told her to go, doing what he told her to do. She’d completely shut down, and that was a problem.
She looked up at him. “I know I shouldn’t, but could I go to the bathroom, please? I didn’t actually make it to the one at the restaurant.”
Chitwood stood, gesturing toward a female uniformed officer. “Leah? Could you escort Ms. Brooks to the bathroom? She shouldn’t be left alone. Check the stalls before she goes in.”
Leah, who was called Officer Nelson from her badge, gave Serena a smile. “Of course. Right this way.” As they walked off, she leaned over, and Jacob could barely hear her words. “I heard you’re a writer. That’s so cool. Hey, do you happen to know Melissa Schroeder? I love her books. What do you write?”
Adam followed the women, planting himself outside the bathroom door.
“So, are you coming out of your pout?” Jake asked because he was really sick of dealing with delicate moods.
“Fuck you, Jake. And yes, I’m coming out of my pout.” He stared at the door. “I don’t know what I’d do if she died. Look, I admit it. I want to run. I don’t think this will work because I don’t think she’s going to let it work, but he torched her house. The least I can do is make sure this asshole goes down. I owe her that much.”
“You’re not willing to fight?” It was incomprehensible to Jake. How could he just let Serena go? A spark of anger lit him. “You got me into this relationship.”
“And you got us out of it,” Adam spat back.
Ah, th
ere was the real reason. “I said I was sorry. I said a bunch of things I shouldn’t have said. I took everything wrong. I was an asshole. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to make the mistake of walking away now.”
“I told you. I’m not walking away. I’m here. I’ll do my job.”
“Your job is to love her. It’s both our jobs. Don’t you see how this is going to go? If you both go to your corners, it’s going to fall apart.”
“It already fell apart,” Adam growled his way.
Jake was past frustrated. “Then we fucking put it back together. Goddamn it, Adam. You know, maybe you’re right. Maybe you should let Liam come back in because if this is the way you’re going to be every time something goes wrong, then I don’t want you in this relationship. I’m going to get her back, and I need a partner, not some whiny asshole who can’t get over his daddy issues.”
Jake hissed at the sharp shock of pain as Adam reared back and punched him right in the nose. Fuck. He hadn’t forgotten how to hit. And it was the second time that day that someone he gave a shit about had popped him. It was a shitty, shitty fucking day. He felt his nose.
“I didn’t break it.” Adam leaned against the wall.
“Hey, is there a problem?” A uniformed officer stopped and stared at both of them.
“Yes,” Jake replied, wincing at the pain in his nose. Adam hadn’t broken it, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt like hell. “My partner is an asshole. But you know what? He’s been that way since we went through basic together. It shouldn’t come as a surprise.”
“Ah, family matter. Well, my partner’s an asshole, too, but what are you going to do? He’s your brother, man.” The cop walked off, shaking his head.
Adam was his brother. Adam was the only family Jake had left. His parents never thought to call. Jake had to find them if he wanted to talk. His brothers had all moved on. And Jake was Adam’s only family.