Page 73 of Make No Mistake

A drawer. It was slightly open. I never left them like that. I stepped to my dresser and slowly slid the drawer open, waiting for something to jump out at me. Nothing did, but I noticed my workout clothes were a mess. Things had been shoved to one side and the tops and bottoms were mixed. I never let that happen.

I glared at the drawer for a few seconds before turning and looking around again. Nothing else jumped out at me. It didn’t seem like anything was stolen, just moved.

It was all just enough to make me question. Had I just forgotten I moved my laptop or messed up my dresser drawer?

I glared at the drawer for a few seconds before turning and looking around again.

Nothing immediately caught my eye, but I had a sense there was more. Who would do this?

I changed into a pair of sweats and waited for Jay to arrive. When he knocked, I left my room. Normally, I’d call out for him to walk in, but since the attacks started, we’d been more diligent about keeping the door locked.

“Hey.” I stepped back to let him in. He dropped his backpack next to the door and pulled me in for an unexpected hug.

I wrapped my arms tightly around his middle and sucked in a breath. It was exactly what I needed, and somehow, he knew.

“What’s going on?” he whispered against my hair, not breaking our connection yet.

“Weird, random stuff.” I muttered into his chest. Now that he was here, I felt silly for freaking out over an empty sink and a few things being moved around.

He stepped back and looked me in the eyes. “Tell me everything. I don’t care how small you think it is.”

I nodded and turned toward the kitchen. “This is what I noticed first.” I walked through the apartment letting him know everything I’d noticed that had been off. I purposely avoided looking at Aubrey. I didn’t know how she would react, and I wanted to get it all out in the open before they decided to commit me to a hospital.

When I was done, I sat down on the couch and waited for their comments.

There was silence. I waited another beat before looking up and realized they were both staring at me. Not like I was crazy, that would have almost been easy to accept. No, they both looked concerned. Aubrey looked slightly afraid.

“Mac.” Aubrey reached for me. “Why didn’t you tell me all of this? You seemed so causal about the dishes and your laptop. I didn’t think there was something bigger happening.”

I shrugged. “I didn’t start pulling it all together until I saw my drawer. That’s when I knew someone was messing with me.”

Aubrey stood and walked into her room. Jay watched her leave before walking across the room and sitting next to me. “Things are going to be okay. We’ll get this figured out and stop whoever is doing this.”

I nodded but I didn’t think it would be so simple.

Aubrey came back and sat across from us. “Nothing looks off in my room.”

That’s what I’d been expecting. So far it had only been my stuff moved.

Jay met my eyes before looking to Aubrey. “Can you call Carter? I want to get a security system in tonight, but I don’t want to leave you guys alone.”

She nodded and picked up her phone.

Within an hour, Carter showed up with Brandon and Liv in tow. Aubrey let them in, and I prepared myself for the onslaught of jokes that were sure to be directed at me.

Brandon walked directly to me and pulled me off the couch before pulling me into a hug even tighter than Jay’s.

“You okay, Mac?”

I nodded against him and bit back that tears that were threatening to make their debut.

“We’re going to get this set up tonight. We’ll figure out who this is. Okay?”

I nodded again.

“You’re going to be brave?”

A single nod.

“Strong?”

Another nod.

“Smart?”

I nodded and pushed back from him. “I promise.” I looked around and was suddenly so grateful for my family.