Page 38 of Give Me Peace

“I’m twenty-eight.” Loch smiles tightly. He’s practically sweating bullets, worried how she might feel about their age difference.

And why might that be, you cocksucker?

“Twenty-six,” I tell her, tugging on the hem of my sweatshirt she’s wearing.

“We’re twenty-three.” Kash grins with the admission. “But I’m nine minutes older.” Krew rolls his eyes, more than used to his twin’s need to tack on that bit of information every chance he gets.

“And now you’re the baby of the group instead of me.” Kade jokes, ruffling Saylor’s hair to further prove his point. She looks thoroughly unamused but he just grins, as if he finds her annoyance cute.

There’s a lull in conversation, so I start cleaning up the mess from breakfast and run the dishwasher. I’m just about done wiping the counter down when the mail we picked up the other day catches my eye. It’s usually junk, but the edge of a postcard peeking out from the pile makes me pause. I toss the rag in the sink and dry my hands off before grabbing it. The front reads, ‘Greetings from Fargo, North Dakota’. I rack my brain, trying to remember if we had a client anywhere near there recently, but no one comes to mind. I flip it around, thinking it might’ve been placed in the wrong box or something, but stop short at the name it’s addressed to.

Saylor Radley

In the blank area to the right, ‘see you soon’ is scrawled in red ink, a sequence of coordinates just below it. I think I blackout for a moment. Pure, unadulterated fear seeps from every fucking pore on my body, closely followed by rage. Loch catches my eye, having picked up on the sudden shift in my emotions, but I look to Saylor and shake my head just the slightest. His back straightens, a look of worry flashing across his face before he schools it. The last thing we need is to freak her out.

“I’m going to run take a shower if no one needs me for anything right now?” She slides off the stool, looking between us for an answer.

“You’re good, sweetheart. Take as long as you want.” Loch smiles, and off she goes, her tiny little feet padding across the tile floors. As soon as we hear the soft click of her door, he rounds on me.

“What’s wrong?” I hand him the card, my jaw clenched too tightly to respond.

“Fuck,” he swears angrily. “What the hell is this?”

“What’s happening?” Kade questions as the twins close in. Loch hands it over so they can see for themselves.

“The fuck,” Kade whispers, his eyes flitting over the writing rapidly, trying to make sense of it.

“How would anyone know she’s here?” Loch starts pacing. “Denvers said he was going to scrub any connection she had to us. Which shouldn’t have been more than Ro and I being listed as next of kin at the hospital.”

“It’s not foolproof,” Krew answers. “And I think you’re forgetting that there are plenty of people who saw the both of you with her. Not just during her stay, you left together, as well.”

“Goddamnit.” Kade grabs the back of his neck, his face tilted toward the ceiling.

“This is why we have a PO box. The house is listed under the trust, so theoretically, it shouldn’t be able to be traced back to us,” Krew offers, but words like ‘theoretically’ and ‘shouldn’t be’ aren’t really working for me at the moment. Loch pulls his phone out, swiping through it quickly before placing it to his ear.

“Denvers,” he greets. “Gonna put you on speaker, but I need you to keep your voice down.”

“What’s going on, Calloway?” His words are clear, just loud enough for us to hear.

“We received a postcard addressed to Saylor. I’m sending you a picture of it now.” Loch snaps a photo of both sides, then texts it to him. The vibration sounds through the line the second he gets it.

“Jesus Christ,” Denvers sighs. “When?”

“We picked up the mail two days ago, but I just noticed it this morning,” I answer with a wince. He grunts but doesn’t chew our asses out like I expected him to.

“Have the wonder twins ran these coordinates?” Denvers asks.

“Negative. We wanted to call you first,” Loch tells him, cutting off whatever smart remark Krew was gearing up to make.

“Looks to be a wooded area along The Red River. I’ll touch base with local authorities and have them check it out. Keep your phone on you,” Denvers demands, hanging up without so much as a goodbye.

“I’m going to see if Saylor wants to spend the day at the beach. She needs to be away from here whenever he calls back,” Kash rushes out. “I don’t want her to accidently overhear anything.”

“I’ll go, too,” Kade offers. “Meet you out back in a few.” The two of them head in their respective directions to get changed. If anyone can keep Saylor occupied, it’ll be them.

“Let’s hope she’s up for it,” Krew chimes in. He must be blanking on the way Saylor’s eyes lit up when she realized the beach was basically her new back yard. Of course, she’s fucking up for it.

Chapter Twenty