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Within a second, she pulled back. A gasp tore past her lips, and she stared up at me with two round, horrified eyes.
“Oh, no!” Her hand flew up to cover her mouth. “What have I done?”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Was she worried about my sister finding out? “I could give you another demonstration if it helps you remember.”
“No. You-you need to leave.” She turned and collected her things from the table. Her hand flew up to my side, shoving me out of the seat in the booth beside her. “You need to go. We can’t-I can’t do this.”
“What’s wrong?” I did as she wanted and shifted out of the booth. “It’s ok. Vanessa will get over it.”
“Omigosh!” Her eyes widened. She threw herself against my chest, grabbing my shirtsleeves within her fists. “No. You can’t say anything to Vanessa about this.”
She was really upset about all of this, for reasons quite obviously beyond upsetting my sister. Maybe I didn’t know her situation as well as I thought. Maybe this wasn’t just about her pissing off the one woman who already hated her. But what could possibly be at stake for Lyndsey to go almost completely berserk over one kiss?
“Hey.” I held onto her, speaking calmly to ease her frantic state. “It’s ok. I won’t say anything. But do you want to tell me what this is all about?”
She shook her head, studying her surroundings as if she expected my sister to jump out from behind a pillar at any moment. “I can’t. I’ve got to go.”
She tugged free of my grip. Her hands flew out to smooth down her hair, and she drew in one long calming breath. Lyndsey’s eyes slid shut, placing her somewhere in a pseudo-meditative state.
“Look,” she said. “There’s no reason in getting Vanessa all upset over nothing. We just got way too deep into our feelings, and I may have had a few too many to drink. But not to worry, I will call myself a cab or an Uber, or whatever is available, and go home.”
“Lyndsey,” I whispered, her name sounding like home on my lips. “This isn’t something you feel bad about.”
“It’s fine.” She waved a dismissive hand. “It was a momentary lapse in judgment. It won’t happen again.”
She attempted to skirt around me, but the corner of her carrying case hit my shoulder. The contents of her case scattered across the floor. Pages upon pages of client information and random notes she’d taken now lined the tiles of the cafe floors.
“Dammit!” She dropped down to her knees and scooped up as much in one sweep of her hands as she could.
“I’m sorry,” I said and bent down to help her.
Our eyes landed on the red envelope at the same time. Something similar to a Christmas card, though completely out of place amid her things. It was none of my business to ask. Though, the confusion in her eyes was enough to draw concern.
“What is it?” I asked, as she gingerly lifted up the envelope.
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. Fear seized her gaze as she lifted her stare to meet mine. A sharp inhale of breath raised her chest higher, and she swallowed despite the apparent pain it caused her. “It isn’t mine.”
Chapter Ten
Lyndsey
There it was.
Written in huge serial killer letters across a plain white sheet of paper in front of me. The words materialized like images in a dream, eerie, ethereal, and too bizarre to be real.
I’d torn the red envelope open as soon as I’d pulled enough strength together. I knew nothing good would come from this. Wasn’t that how every great slasher movie started? The blonde girl receives a mysterious, creepy note, and then they discover her dead the next morning.
How had the note even made its way into my folder? Had it been placed there when I was at work? At home? In the cafe? There were numerous places I could have passed by the person who delivered this note, countless opportunities for someone to slip this into my files. And yet, I would have thought I’d notice something like this before now.
“What does it say?” Hunter asked.
I couldn’t speak. My feet clung to the floor, motionless and unyielding. My knees almost bucked beneath the weight of my collapsing frame.
You can do this. You are stronger than this.
I coached myself. I would not let something like this upset me. I would not let some coward too afraid to face me personally get the better of me.
“‘Leave town or else’?” Hunter read the letter out loud. “‘If you stay in town, the fire will be the least of your concerns.’ Where did this come from?”
