“No. Not unless you want to, Erin, because you are on the ground floor.” Jade looked to her friend.
“You know me, I love my own bed. I’ll start out down there. If I get scared, I’ll come hit the couch. Or call one of you on my cell.”
“Decker’s idea was a good one. We will all have our phones on and within arm’s reach tonight.” Harper nodded. “Anyone needs anything, just call.”
“Or we can always scream!” Jade suggested with a big grin.
“That works too! Goodnight, sweetie.” Erin gave Jade and Harper a quick hug before she headed downstairs to her room.
Jade yawned again.
“Go wash your face, get your jammies on, and get to bed,” Harper ordered as she checked the French doors that lead onto the balcony once more. She turned off the lights on the main floor except one, the light above the stove in the kitchen. She pulled Jade down the corridor.
“Get some sleep. You want to look good tomorrow for Decker,” Harper teased.
“Oh hush!” Jade laughed. “Goodnight, Harp! Sleep well.” Jade waved her hand as she started up the stairs.
It didn’t take her long to get ready for bed. Wearing a white tank and blue and white pin striped, boxer style bottoms, she neatly folded back her comforter and climbed into bed. Sam curled up next to her and purred. She purposely didn’t think about the events of the night that involved the stalker creep. Instead, she thought about Decker. She hoped he was interested in her. She was definitely attracted to him. She thought about the Soul Mate and Romance cards she’d been pulling lately and wondered. No, she didn’t want to get her hopes up. It was too soon for that. She closed her eyes. It didn’t take long for Jade to drift into slumber.
Decker entered his house to find Brody and Liam waiting for him.
“I think this creep is more than just a stalker, Deck,” Brody insisted.
“You could be right,” he agreed. “I’ll tell her tomorrow.”
“It has to be done,” Liam pushed.
“I know. I just hope Jade doesn’t think I’m nuts.” Decker grumbled as he shook his head.
“Yeah, there is always a possibility of that happening, but for their safety, Jade and her roommates need to know what he could be.” Liam put a hand on his brother’s shoulder.
“Jade is the woman Liam and I saw in our dreams, Deck,” Brody reminded him.
Liam nodded. “We’re convinced she’s your one, and that this, whatever this is, has begun, and the evil demon hunting our family is the guy from the bar.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Decker posed.
“I have a feeling it is, bro, and I think you do too.” Liam’s expression was serious.
“It could be, but I don’t know for certain yet. Either way, stalker or demon, Jade is in danger.”
“That’s true.”
“Remember the notebooks Mom and Dad had all those years ago? Mom used to say everything we needed to know was in those two books. Do we know where they are?” Brody asked.
“I only know where one is,” Decker said. “I found it when we were cleaning out their house after the accident. I don’t know where the other one is.”
“Could it be in storage?” Brody asked.
They had put some of their parents’ things in storage after they passed. They packed up some of Liam’s furniture and put the things he wouldn’t need at Decker’s house in the unit also.
“Maybe. I have the one I did find in one of the boxes in the back bedroom closet. If I had seen the other one, I would have put it in those boxes. We kept all their paperwork we found in the boxes here in the house in case we needed it for anything. We’ll look tomorrow morning, first thing.”
“We need to see if we can find the contact info for that Irish cousin of Mom’s. She was very excited when she started communicating with him, remember?” Liam asked.
“Yeah, I do remember, but I can’t recall his name after all these years. Do you still have their old computer?” Decker looked to Brody.
“I do. I kept it. I never set it up. It’s in the room I use for storage at my house. I’ll go get it in the morning and set it up here so Liam and I can look through all of Mom’s old files tomorrow.”
“It’s late and we have to get up early. There could be trouble tonight,” Liam posed.
Decker nodded. “Yeah, let’s get some sleep. I’m hoping there won’t be any trouble. We’ll talk about all this in the morning, over breakfast.”
Brody walked to the patio door and let in a black and white Border Collie. “We stopped to pick up Max. I decided it would be best if I just stayed the night. I’ll be here to help you get everything ready for the barbeque tomorrow.”
“There’s always a bedroom here with your name on it.”
“I know that. Is she a good kisser? You did kiss her, right?” Brody asked. There was a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
“That’s none of your damn business.” Decker glowered at him. He hadn’t kissed her, but he sure wanted to.
“Don’t waste your time, Brody. He’d never tell us,” Liam commented with a chuckle as he walked away.
“Good night.” Brody nodded and laughed. He called Max. The dog followed him, tail wagging.
Once in his room, Decker plugged his phone into the charger and made sure it was on. He stripped off his clothes and hung them neatly over his desk chair, and crawled into bed. His last thought was that he hoped like hell Jade didn’t think he was nuts after he told her about the curse that included an evil demon that might be after him and his brothers, and who could be the same guy after her.
Jade thought she heard something. She opened her eyes and realized Sam was gone. That was unusual. Her cat was a serious cuddler at night. The blue numbers on her soothing sounds alarm clock told her it was four-thirty. She flipped back the sheet and rose from the bed. She headed to the bathroom.
Sam was standing in the middle of the tile floor, staring up at the ceiling.
“What is it, Sam? Did a bug get in again?” Groggy from sleep, Jade bent and gave her cat a quick pat on the head. Sam’s tail was swishing madly. The window and skylight let in enough light that she could see in the bathroom at night without turning on the light.
After she finished taking care of necessities, Jade heard a series of thumps from above her as she pulled up her boxer shorts. She looked up and saw a large hand pressed against the skylight.
“What the…” Fear crashed in on her. Someone was on the roof. She had to get to her phone. She bent and scooped Sam into her arms.
Heart pounding and adrenaline pumping, she veered right to exit the bathroom door, she heard knocking behind her. She turned her head to see a shadowy figure outside the glass cinder block window. On the third floor? A distorted and grotesque face pressed against the glass blocks from the other side.
“Harper! Erin!” she screamed at the top of her lungs as she ran to her nightstand and snatched up her phone.
“Erin! Harper! There’s someone up here!” she shouted again as she ran down the stairs with a wiggling cat held tightly in her arms.
She reached the landing and nearly collided with an armed Harper after she stepped off the stairs into the hallway. Remembering she promised to call Decker if there was trouble, she found Decker’s number at the top of her recent calls and touched his number. Her hand trembled as she held the phone.
“What is it?” Harper took her distraught friend by the arm and led her into the living area where they met Erin who was holding a baseball bat up, ready to swing.
“Someone was on the roof.” Jade gulped in a big breath. “Hand on the skylight. A face pressed against the window.”
Harper turned on one of the lamps next to the sofa. She moved to where she could watch the stairs at the end of the hall.
Erin flipped the switch for the ceiling fan lights.
“Jade?” Decker answered after the third ring.
“Decker, someone is on the roof. I saw a hand pressed to the skylight.” She fou
ght a sob that threatened to escape. “As I ran out of the bathroom, I saw a shadow of someone outside the cinder block window. And a face. He pressed his face against the window.” Her words came out in a rush. She had to gulp for another breath.
“Where are you? Are Erin and Harper with you?”
She nodded first then realized she needed to speak. “Yes, we’re in the family room.” She heard him tell Liam to wake up Brody. They needed to leave now.
“Put the phone on speaker,” he instructed her.
She was trembling so hard she couldn’t press the icon. Harper did it for her.
“It’s on,” she said in a shaky whisper.
“We’re on the way. Don’t go upstairs. Stay away from the windows. Don’t open the door unless you hear my voice, but look out the window first and make sure it’s all three of us, okay?”
“Okay.” Jade and Harper said in unison.
“Decker, we’re fine at the moment. Just hurry!” Erin called out.
“Put Erin on the phone. I’m going to have her stay on the line with Liam while I drive, okay?”
Jade handed the phone to Erin. Erin set her baseball bat down. She took it off speaker.
“Liam. Yeah. Okay. She’s shaken up. Harper’s making her some tea. I’m standing right in front of her. Yeah, I’m close, less than two feet away. I’m watching the stairs. No, I can’t hear anything up there.”
Harper returned carrying a cup of hot tea. She set her now holstered pistol on the table. “I heated up some water in the microwave. It’s chamomile.”
“Thank you. Oh, I need to get dressed,” Jade said when she realized she was in her pajamas.
“No you don’t. You’re wearing a tank top and shorts, pjs, but decent ones. You’re fine, nothing is showing,” Harper told her. She added, “We’re all fine. None of us are leaving this room.” The three were dressed similarly in different colors and styles of pajama shorts and tops.
“But you left the room,” Jade countered.
“To get my holster, to make you tea, that’s different. Besides, I had my gun. Decker said not to go upstairs. So we’re sitting here until the Decker brothers get here.”
“He did say that.” Jade looked toward the stairs and shivered. “And I wouldn’t go up there alone, even if I was naked!” She managed a small laugh. Trembling, she hugged her cat to her.
The minutes ticked by. The apartment was quiet. Occasionally Harper or Erin spoke, but they were all trying to listen for sounds of anything outside the apartment or upstairs. Sam had calmed down and leaned her head against Jade’s chest. Her eyes closed and she purred loudly, until a knock sounded on the door. Sam jumped from Jade’s arms. She gracefully leaped onto the empty recliner, curled up, and laid down.
“It’s them. I’m on the phone with Liam, so I know for sure,” Erin said.
“Look out the window anyway,” Jade called out, her voice shaky and unsure as she watched Erin head down the stairs.
She and Harper heard Erin move one of the wood louvers. “It’s them.”
Jade heard the beeps of the keypad, the door opened then closed. The alarm beeped after it was reset. Low male voices accompanied footsteps as the men and Erin ascended the stairs and rushed into the living room.
Jade rose.
Then Decker was there. She found herself locked in his strong arms and hugged tightly.
“Are you okay, sweetheart?” he whispered as his lips pressed against her hair near her ear.
She nodded. “I’m better now. A little calmer anyway,” she whispered against his chest.
Decker rubbed her back and pulled away to look at her. She was pale, her eyes were wide. She trembled every now and then in his arms. “Will you come upstairs with us and tell us what happened? We didn’t see anyone from the outside as we drove up.”
She blinked, swallowed, and slowly nodded.
“Let’s all go together,” Brody said. “I’ll go up first.”
Erin nodded and picked up her bat.
Liam grinned at her. “I’ll stay behind Erin.”
Erin laughed. “Yeah, remember, I can always shove it backwards.”
Harper noticed Liam wore a holstered pistol. She grabbed her holster.
Once upstairs, Brody flipped the light switch. Everything seemed quiet until the open French door banged against the low chest along the wall.
Jade jumped.
“The alarm either wasn’t wired to this door or didn’t work. Erin told Liam you had set the alarm before you went to bed.” Brody looked to Jade.
“I did.” Jade nodded.
“It was set, I checked it afterward when I went to bed,” Erin confirmed.
Jade felt her legs grow wobbly as icy fear and probably shock raced through her as she stared at the open French door in disbelief.
Decker’s arm moved around her more tightly, his hand rested on her hip.
“I-It wasn’t open when I woke up, I would have noticed. I would have walked right by it. I checked the lock again before I went to bed. It was locked,” Jade managed to say despite the fact that she was shaking again.
Liam pulled his gun from its holster and quietly moved toward the small balcony. He stepped out on the balcony, gun drawn, with Brody behind him.
“No one’s here,” Liam said as he lowered his gun.
They heard a car engine start. Headlights came on as a dark sedan backed out from a space and peeled out of the parking lot with a squeal of tires.
“I got a photo of the license plate. We’ll have to blow it up and see if it matches the one at the Waterfront,” Brody said as he looked at the screen of his cell phone. “I can’t see the plates well enough on this phone pic.”
Brody bent to study the door lock. “It looks like it was crow-barred open. I have no idea why the alarm didn’t go off.” They stepped back in.
Liam closed the door and locked it then pulled on the handle. It swung open again. “It’s useless. She’ll need a new door and frame.”
A sound resembling a sob caused everyone to turn and look at Jade. She was pointing at the bed. There on her cream-colored pillow, lay a red rose. Something red, like blood, maybe it was blood, dripped from it.
“That wasn’t here before. My head was on that pillow when I woke up!”
“Don’t look, don’t look at it.” Decker cradled her face with his large hands. “Look at me, sweetheart.”
Jade did.
“Take some deep breaths,” he told her.
She did.
“I need you to tell us exactly what happened. Show us. Can you do that?”
A heavy sigh escaped her. She took a deep breath then nodded. “Yes. I can.”
Her voice was still shaky, but stronger than it had been when he first arrived.
“I woke up. Sam wasn’t on the bed like she usually is. I looked at the clock. It was exactly four-thirty. I went into the bathroom. Sam was standing there, near the vanity, looking up at the ceiling. I thought maybe there was a fly or bug up there. It happens sometimes. She fixates on them. I didn’t look up then.” She paused and took a calming breath. Decker moved to caress her shoulder.
“I used the bathroom.” She exhaled before continuing, “As I stood up, I heard thumps on the ceiling. I looked up and saw a hand pressed against the skylight. I picked up Sam and knew I had to get to my phone on the nightstand. Before I went out the bathroom door, I heard knocking behind me. I turned quickly and saw the shadow of a person, a man, at the glass block window. He pressed his face to the glass from outside. The face looked horrible, grotesque even. I ran to the nightstand to get my phone while I screamed for Erin and Harper. I continued to scream as I ran down the stairs. When I reached the landing, Harper was there. I pushed Decker’s number and Erin met us in the family room.”
“With her Louisville slugger, ready to hit a home run,” Harper added as she grinned at Erin.
“I don’t like guns. Baseball bats have their uses,” Erin explained.
“Until we get that door fixed and
check out the alarm system, you ladies can’t stay here. First, we need to search the rest of the house. We’ll all stay together while we do. Liam and Brody need to have a look around outside when it gets a little lighter. I’ll have that door and Jade’s room fingerprinted first thing in the morning. We’re going to get your things together. You’re coming to my house tonight. I have five bedrooms. We can fit everyone in. I swear to you, you will be safe in my home. If you’re uncomfortable with that, I can get you a hotel room, but I believe you’ll be safer with us. Brody installs alarms for a living, and I have the best you can buy,” Decker spoke. He looked to Jade. “Do you feel comfortable coming to my house?”
“I do,” Jade said as she looked to Harper and Erin.
“We can’t stay here tonight. That’s for sure.” Erin shook her head. “I’m all for staying at your place.”
“Yeah, we’ll stay with you,” Harper agreed with her.
“Try not to touch anything in here for now, okay,” Decker instructed.
“I’ll need some of my clothes.” Jade looked to him.
“We’ll get your clothes,” Decker assured her.
“I’ll help you pack,” Erin offered.
Brody went into the bathroom to look around. There was silence among them as they heard him open the closet, check the bathroom cupboards.
“There is a hand-print on the skylight. We’ll have to get prints of that somehow,” Brody called.
“Stay here with Liam and the girls,” Decker told her as he went into the bathroom to join Brody.
Sure enough, there was a big, bold, handprint on the skylight glass.
“This guy has balls,” Brody whispered.
Decker nodded.
“Decker, can you check on my fish?” Jade called from the other room.
“Yeah, no problem.”
He felt around on the tank hood, found a switch and turned on the light.
“Son of a…” Decker couldn’t stop the words when he looked in the tank and saw fish bodies littering the black sand substrate. The water had a reddish tinge to it. “Oh, man.”
“What the hell?” Brody bent to look in the tank. He checked the thermometer on the glass. “Ninety-seven degrees. That’s not good. They were boiled.” He grimaced as he touched the very warm glass and met Decker’s gaze.
Decker's Fate (The Decker Brothers Trilogy Book 1) Page 9