by BJ Harvey
I hope he gets home soon.
About twenty minutes later, I hear Brax at the door. I jump up and open the door for him, almost crushing him in a huge hug.
“Whoa, babe. I missed you too” he mumbles as he tries to catch his breath back while holding me up.
“I’m sorry. I should’ve told you sooner, but a delivery man brought around an envelope when you were gone and I signed for it without thinking because I thought it would just be documents from my lawyer,” I explain, talking way too fast but my voice getting shakier with each word.
He puts his hand on my head, pulling me tight into his chest as he talks. “Babe, calm down. I’m home now. Now slow down and tell me what happened.”
I take a deep breath, trying to settle my heart rate, but it’s not working. “I had documents delivered to me by a UPS man, so I signed for it and he left. Then I got a text message from an unknown number saying how they hope I enjoy my delivery, so I messaged the number back asking who it was, and they replied with this.”
I show him the last text message I received. He tenses up immediately then gently pushes me away from him, before storming into the kitchen and grabbing the envelope.
I rush after him and put my arm on his to stop him. “Are you sure we shouldn’t just go to the Police, hon?”
“Nope, I’ll handle it,” he says gruffly. “I’m sick of this shit happening to us,” he grumbles under his breath, grabbing a knife from the kitchen drawer and carefully opening the envelope, making sure it doesn’t get ripped. He looks inside first before pouring the contents onto the bench. A folded piece of paper and an old newspaper cutting fall out. I take a step closer to have a look with him, he reaches down and takes one of my hands in his, entwining our fingers and holding on tightly. He’s letting me know that he’s here with me, whatever we find.
He grabs a dish towel and uses it to open up the newspaper cutting. It is dated four years ago, reporting the murder of my parents and sister. A sob escapes from my mouth the moment I see the faded family photo in the clipping. The media were given that photo by the Brightlight public relations department after the murders occurred. It was plastered everywhere I went, it was like a graphic reminder of everything I had lost. Seeing the photo again now is just as hard as it was back then.
I feel Brax put his arm around my shoulders, holding me close. I wrap my hands around his waist, unable to control the tears as they start falling. I feel him reach for the note while he holds me. He curses under his breath when he reads what it says.
“W-w-what does it say?” I stutter.
All of a sudden he folds the note up and carefully puts it back inside the envelope with the newspaper clipping.
“Sweetheart, I don’t think you need to see this.”
Hearing the angry tone in his voice, I lift my head up from his chest to look up at him. “Yes I do, Brax. I need to see everything.”
I feel his whole body shudder at my demand.
“Okay, but I don’t know what it means. Maybe you will.”
I look at the letter which Brax has pulled back out and opened up on the bench. I gasp in shock as I start to read it.
“You should have died with your family.”
It’s all I manage to read before my eyes roll back and I’m suddenly swallowed up by darkness.
“Elle?”
“Elise?”
“Baby, can you hear me?” I ask, trying to rouse her.
She fainted after reading the first line of the note. What kind of sicko are we dealing with here? Obviously someone who gets their kicks from scaring innocent people half to death! This goes way past what we were expecting from Brimstone or even Evans. The threat against Elle has just reached a whole new level of danger.
Luckily, I manage to catch her before she falls to the floor and quickly carry her into our bedroom, placing her on our bed. I’m starting to worry. It has been a couple of minutes and she still hasn’t come to. I give her a light shake again and I hear her moan my name.
Thank God!
“Elle, I’m here. You fainted, sweetheart. Are you okay?” I ask, cupping her cheek and gently rubbing her hair away from her face as she slowly regains her focus.
“What happened?” she groggily asks.
“You fainted. You read the note and fainted. You had me so worried.”
“The note!” she yells, sitting up straight on the bed. She looks to me and suddenly starts shaking again.
“Baby shh, calm down.” I move her into my lap, try to placate her. She burrows into my chest, wrapping her arms around me as I stroke her back.
She looks up at me. “Who would send that?”
Her eyes are begging me for an answer which is the only thing I can’t give her right now.
“I don’t know but I’m going to damn well find out, hon. This has to stop,” I say quietly. I lie her down and crawl into bed beside her, moving in close and curling my body around hers.
We lie like that for a long time, just holding each other, Right now it is the only way to comfort her that I can think of. I feel totally helpless for the first time in my life and I hate it. I need Shay to hurry up so I can talk to him. These threats against Elle are escalating. Whoever is doing all of this obviously knows her cell number and address, and knows how not to be tracked. This means they’ve done it before, or else they’re very smart. For all I know, the fucker could’ve been posing as the delivery man, just to get his kicks.
Where is Shay when I need him?
I’m on my way back from Boston. I sent a text to Brax with my new cell number just before I started heading home and I’ve made it about halfway back so far. I hear a text come through on the burner phone, knowing it’ll be Brax since he’s the only one with this new number. I pull over at the next rest area to see what he wants.
Brax: Another note and a newspaper article were sent to our apartment along with anonymous text. Elle was so upset she fainted.
Shay: Shit. Who would do that? Brimstone or Evans? Black Honda guy? Take your pick. What did the note say?
Brax: “You should’ve died with your family” and had a newspaper cutting of when her family died.
Shay: Shit, and she saw it?
Brax: Yup. The psycho had it delivered to our door.
Shay: She okay?
Brax: Shaken up, but better now. She just blacked out right in front me after reading it. Scared the shit out of me.
Shay: I’m about an hour away. I’ll swing by as soon as I get back. Will make calls, check movements etc.
Brax: Thanks, bro. I appreciate it.
Dammit. It can’t be a coincidence that this happens when I’m out of state. I highly doubt it. I’m starting to think that we’re being watched just as much as Elle is. It’s almost as if somebody knew I wasn’t watching the apartment today. As much as I don’t want to consider it, I’m starting to smell a rat and Brax will be, too. We’ve both had a bad feeling about this whole situation for a while, but now it seems like a real possibility that someone is double crossing us.
I start thinking about what has happened over the past few weeks. My GPS wasn’t tagged going out of state this morning. I know this because Evans’ men wouldn’t have gotten me to Boston unnoticed if it had. Brax wasn’t notified as per protocol, and now this note arrives. We haven’t even heard back whether anything could be found on the previous two notes, either.
My gut instinct is that these notes have Evans’ name written all over them, but today he was busy entertaining me. Brimstone? By all accounts he is pretty mad right now that Elle won’t sell the company to him, but would he stoop this low? Would he try to scare her in her own home? Maybe Mr Brimstone needs some further investigating.
I pull over and make a call to my LA contact, asking him to start digging into Harry Brimstone’s financial status, former business contacts and history. If there is any connection between Brimstone and another person of interest in this case, Brax and I need to know about it. I want to know everything about the guy so th
at we know exactly who and what we are dealing with. We know he’s connected to Evans somehow, but that doesn’t explain how he’s getting his information about us.
I speed up as I head back towards Brax and Elle’s apartment. I need to see Brax.
Chapter Twenty
Shortly after 7 p.m. Brax gets up and orders some takeout for us. I get out of bed and curl up on the couch with a blanket. He had to pop out to pick it up so we have locked the building up to help me feel safe while he is gone. After the package and the text message, I’m frightened and don’t want to be left alone, but Brax felt that I should stay home on the couch, especially after fainting earlier.
Despite the events in my past I’ve never felt scared about anything in my life, until now.
Alone, yes.
Sad, yes.
But never scared. There has never been a reason to be wary of anything, but right now I’m scared shitless. It seems there is a man out there that wants to hurt me. He knows where I live and somehow knows my cell number. The biggest fear I have is that Brax will get hurt, or leave, or decide that I’m too much of a burden. I’m trying not to be needy, to appear independent and strong, but the last few weeks have worn me down.
The only good thing has been that the creepy guy in the black Honda hasn’t been back. Maybe by confronting him and seeing him—by looking directly into his cold grey eyes—he has gotten the message that I won’t back down.
I hear my phone beep, jumping me out of my thoughts. I grab it and see a text.
Unknown: It’s Shay. Let me in, darlin’.
Elle: Only cause it’s you.
I push the door release button by my front door and lie back down. A few moments later I hear Shay come in, sighing when he sees me curled up on the couch. He sits down on the edge beside me and I sit up and hug him. I can’t stop the tears from falling all over again. He wraps his arms around me and holds me tight.
Brax told me that Shay knows about the package and the text messages. He wanted to tell Shay in case he could help us in some way. I don’t know how he’d be able to help us, but right now I’m so freaked out about someone wanting to kill me that I honestly don’t care who knows. He murmurs in my hair about being safe and how they won’t let anyone hurt me ever again. Sometimes he reminds me so much of Brax.
“You okay, sunshine?”
“Yeah, I’m alright,” I reply with a small smile. “I’m glad you’re back, though. Brax was going insane.”
He cracks up laughing. “Brax can be like a controlling parent sometimes. He must know where I am at all times.” We both start laughing at that. Brax is overprotective, but I’ve always found it endearing.
“What happened to your eye?” I ask, noticing Shay has a blackened eye.
“I got lippy with someone and this was their way of replying,” he says with a chuckle.
I get off the couch and start walking towards the kitchen. “I’ll get you an ice pack for it.”
“Thanks. When’s Brax getting back? I’m starving,” he says, making himself comfortable on the couch.
“Do you ever stop eating, Shay?” I ask with a grin, as Brax walks in with two bags full of food.
“Oh, Brax, you know your way into my heart. A man bearing food is just what I always wanted,” Shay says, holding his hands to his heart in jest. Brax just grins at him as he puts the food down on the counter. I pull out three plates and soon enough, we’re all sitting in the living room, watching some mindless reality show about strangers put into a house to live together. I catch a couple of weird looks being exchanged between Brax and Shay, but figure it’s just their way of communicating.
About an hour later, the day’s events take their toll and I start feeling really tired.
“I’m going to head to bed, babe, see you in there,” I say, bending down to give Brax a kiss. “Bye, Shay. Thanks for coming over,” I say, roughing up his hair with my hand as I walk past, earning a chuckle.
I walk into our bedroom and take my clothes off. I get changed into my tank top and pajama shorts before pulling back the covers and settling into bed. As soon as my head hits the pillow I’m out for the count, dreaming of dance floors, showers, and photo booths.
I know it is safe to talk when I check on Elle and find her sound asleep. Stressful days will do that to you.
“Okay, man. Any idea what the hell is going on?” I ask Shay as I walk back into the living room.
“I’ve been thinking about that ever since you called me. We can narrow it down to three people, Evans, Brimstone, and the guy in the Black Honda. Evans was busy with me in Boston, although it’s not totally implausible. He has enough minions to do his dirty work if required.”
“Yeah, and he wants us to be his new ones, remember?” I add, seeing Shay shake his head in disgust.
“He may be your father, bro, but that’ll never happen,” he says strongly.
“You don’t need to tell me that. I escaped him before, I’ll escape him again.”
I promised myself when I joined the Army that I would never stoop so low as to work for Evans. Having a criminal mastermind and corrupt cop as a father is not something I’d wish on anyone. We share blood, but that is the only thing similar between Michael Evans and myself. Oh, and a half-brother down in Charlotte that I haven’t spoken to in over eight years.
“Well, we know Brimstone is pissed off that Elle won’t sell Brightlight to him and that was always the number one reason she was in danger to begin with. Her decision could’ve been the catalyst for him to step up his game.”
“And as for the Black Honda guy, I’ve haven’t seen anything suspicious for a while, but he is the unknown entity. We know nothing about him, we can’t even ID him,” he recalls, “So I think we need to focus on Brimstone at this point. I called Lamar in LA and he is checking into Brimstone. I want to know everything there is to know, especially to see if any info was missing from the file Gibbons gave us.”
“Good point. It’ll be interested to see if he’s met with anyone of interest. I’m sure if he’s planning something, he would’ve slipped up somewhere,” I add, seeing Shay nod in agreement.
“But like Evans, Brimstone doesn’t do his own grunt work. I’ll have to get Lamar to try and get one of his underlings to flip on him. It’ll give us a far better position that where we are now.”
I ponder that option. “That would seal it for us, but I don’t see that happening any time soon. I don’t know what to do about Elle, though. I can’t be with her all the time and keep up with my classes and work the case.”
“I’ll cover her when you can’t, you know that. She’s like a sister to me now, I won’t let anything happen to her,” Shay says emphatically.
“I feel so bad that I left you at the bar alone, man. I lost focus. She was all I was thinking about last night.” I’m frowning now, I haven’t been able to let go of the guilt all afternoon. I’m disappointed in myself, Shay should never have been left there alone. Then there is the fact that Evans is my problem, not Shays.
“B, it’s okay. We agreed that you had the night off. God knows you guys needed it, especially after what’s been happening around here. I probably didn’t need to see what went on before you went into the booth, but oh well. Lucky your girl’s hot, aye?” he replies with a cheeky grin.
I know he’s ribbing me, but damn if he doesn’t know the right buttons to push.
“Pervert!”
“You know it!” he laughs.
“I talked to the boss this afternoon.”
“Gibbons?” he asks with a weird look on his face. I haven’t told him about my suspicions yet.
I frown. “Nope, the big boss. He’s not too happy that your GPS wasn’t tagged leaving the state. Nor was he happy that I dropped the ball and wasn’t with you.”
“It’s not your fault, Brax. I’m a grown man and I said you had the night off. It was me that sent you home in that cab, remember?” he says, getting agitated. “But as for the GPS, I was wondering the same thing. They k
nocked me out and moved me in my own car. It should’ve been flagged straight away.”
“Yeah, I told the boss I should’ve been called. As soon as I realized you were missing, I checked your GPS straight away. It didn’t take me long to work it out.”
I can tell Shay doesn’t like the conclusion he is drawing. “Who was on last night, B?”
“Gibbons.”
The name of the one person we never thought we’d ever have to doubt. I can see that he’s just as disturbed about this as I am. HQ is supposed to have our back.
“Shit,” Shay says when he realizes what that means.
“Hey, boss. What’s up?” I ask as he walks into the control room.
“You tell me, Gibbons. Shay was kidnapped last night, his car taken out of state with him in it, and somehow it wasn’t tagged?” he says, getting angrier the more he talks.
“Oh, shit. Is he okay?” I ask, trying to keep my face as blank as possible.
“He’s fine. Brax tracked him as soon as he realized he was missing and Evans let him go unscathed. It seems Evans just wanted to send a little message to Brax.”
“I’m glad he’s okay. Not sure why the GPS didn’t get picked up, but I’ll follow up with Leo. He was on with me last night,” I explain, desperately thinking of ways to get out of this.
“It’s on you, Gibbons. Fix it,” he says sternly before turning around and storming back into his office. Damn Brax, bringing heat down on me again. Maybe Harry is right. It’s time Brax learns a lesson in respect.
“I’m taking my break,” I say to George, the newbie working the control room with me, as I rise to my feet and grab my burner phone. I walk outside and put the phone to my ear, dialing the number I have now memorized.
“Hello?”
“It’s me. We need to start things moving along. I’m getting heat at work,” I explain.
“Okay, well do it then,” he states grumpily.