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One step at a time, I reminded myself. I was closing on the house the day after we got back from Croatia. My team was vetting contractors this week, making sure that the people I was bringing in to replace the windows, change the locks, and beef up the security system weren’t security risks themselves. We still didn’t know who was behind the threats, and I didn’t want anyone even remotely connected to aLavigne Beautycontractor at my house.
“Hey,” Cami murmured, leaning in. “Don’t worry. She doesn’t even know what getting marriedmeans. No weddings on Daniel Tiger or Paw Patrol so far.”
“I’m not worried,” I murmured back.
“No?” Cami asked, tilting her head and looking at me. “Because you got really quiet.”
I opened my mouth, but before I could say anything, one of the guys I’d brought was at my elbow. “You have a minute, Mr. Campbell?” His eyes slid to Emma and then back to mine, telling me without words this wasn’t something to talk about in front of a kid.
I walked away with him, making sure my other guy was still on Cami and Emma. Cami looked after us curiously, so I made sure my face stayed carefully neutral. It was hard though, because what my guy was telling me was that another threat had been received. And this one had been mailed directly to my place.
Rage coursed through me. I’d promised Cami she would be safe there, but somehow, some way, this asshole knew where she and Emma were. And if he knew where they were, there weren’t enough deadbolts and security features in the world to make me feel like they were safe there anymore. It looked like the timeline for moving into the house would have to be accelerated.
“What did the note say?” I asked, forcing my voice to stay pleasant in case any of it carried over to my family.
“The longer you hide, the worse it will be.”
I nodded as if he’d just given me the weather report, my mind whirring as I noted the messages were getting shorter, terser. Never a good sign. After he assured me that the FBI was working on it, I walked back over to Cami.
She walked a few steps away from Emma to meet me, her face expectant.
“It’s nothing,” I said flatly. “Just work shit.”
Her eyebrows went up. “It doesn’t look like work shit.”
I didn’t respond. I was too busy thinking about my next steps. Forget the LAPD and the FBI, it was time to take matters into my own hands. I’d tried to stay on the legal side of the law, but I was ready to blow past that line now. I wasn’t going to let my family stay in danger when I knew how to get in touch with the kind of people who could do what the law couldn’t.
And I’d make whoever was sending these threats regret they’d ever been born.
24
CAMI
Landon’s silence and stonewalling shouldn’t have bothered me, but it did. It bothered me enough to slip away and call Casey. Forgetting about the time difference, I accidentally woke her up.
“It’s fine,” she yawned when I gasped, apologized, and told her I’d call her back later. “I’m awake now. I’ll just do an earlier morning workout than I planned. What’s up?”
I felt foolish as I told her why I was calling. Was I being silly? Immature? “It just…bothered me,” I finished lamely, feeling like both of those things.
“You’re using vaguage,” Casey said, using her made up word to describevague language. One of the themes of her inspirational speeches was that you had to be very specific about what you wanted, and that began with the language you used to express yourself.
I blew out my breath and tried to drill down on my feelings. “First, he acted so strange when Emma mentioned marriage, and then he hardly talked to me at all after his security guy came over. It made me feel…hurt.”
“Why?”
“Because he just shut down. He didn’t laugh or anything. It was like he thought it was the worst idea in the world.” My heart thumped underneath my palm, sadness and anger making it beat faster. “And then he seemed pissed, but he wouldn’t tell me why.”
Casey paused. “Who do you want right now? Best friend Casey or mentor Casey? Because mentor Casey is going to tell you to stop going down speculation highway, but best friend Casey–” she trailed off, waiting for permission to continue.
“I want best friend Casey,” I said reluctantly, knowing I was about to get a harsher dish of cold hard reality than mentor Casey would have served up.
Best friend Casey didn’t disappoint. “Cami, he’s been completely honest with you from the beginning. He can’t give you what you want. I told you not to fall in love with him because we both know how it ends. You get hurt.”
“But maybe it’s different this time. You should see him with Emma.”
“If it’s so different, why did he shut down?”
I shook my head, the pain radiating through my whole body now. “I don’t know.”
