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When she leaves, I turn to look over at Adam, taking in his grimace of pain again. “You should have your prosthetic looked at.”
“Thanks, Captain Obvious.” Adam glares at me, his nostrils flaring in annoyance. “I have an appointment tomorrow to get it re-fitted.”
“Good.” I nod, brushing some loose strands of hair out of my eyes. “Shouldn’t you have been good for a little while still? I thought you had it looked at a couple months ago.”
“I did. Someone tackled me in the parking lot down the street.” Adam stares me down, clearly calling me out for this fitting.
“Shit. I didn’t even think about that.” I rub my jaw, scratching the stubble on my cheeks. “In my defense, I thought I was saving your life. Trying to open his car door before it was properly checked was a dumb fucking idea.”
“How the fuck was I supposed to know that?! I don’t have the same training you do!” Adam yells, his fists clenched on the cushions beside him. “All I knew was that he wasn’t fucking moving!”
“Are you talking about Declan?” Lay’s voice carries through the room, quieting our argument instantly. “H-how did it happen?”
Both of us stare each other down, neither of us wanting to be the one to let that cat out of the bag. After a moment, I bite the bullet, turning to look at her as I deliver the shitty ass news.
“He purposely OD’d on opioids,” I answer softly, taking in the way her face falls at the new information.
“At least it wasn’t messy,” she answers before choking on a half laugh, half cry. Shaking her head, she moves to sit back on the couch with me. “I shouldn’t have said that. It’s like my brain filter is gone.”
“It’s okay. It’s understandable even,” I assure her, my hand pausing mid-movement towards her before I pull it back into me. It’s so hard to remember she doesn’t like to be touched when all I want to do is touch, comfort, and protect her. The longer she’s here with us, the worse it gets.
“If he OD'd then why did you think you were saving Adam’s life?” she questions, looking between the two of us with morbid curiosity.
“When approaching a vehicle with an unconscious person inside, especially one suspected of suicide, you need to be very careful. There’s a type of suicide that involves mixing chemicals together in a closed in car that is dangerous to anyone opening the vehicle as well. It’s a very bad way to go and can hurt or kill naive bystanders and first responders who are just trying to help.” I pause, letting her absorb the information before continuing. “He left the note at home, perfectly timed so we wouldn’t be home and find it before he followed through, and when we got there, Adam reacted faster than I did. We needed to make sure that the car wasn’t filled with toxic gas before proceeding. That’s why I tackled him before he could open the car door.”
“Shit,” Lay murmurs, her eyes wide as she twirls her wavy black hair between her fingers. “I probably would have done the same as Adam. That’s a fucking terrifying thought.”
“It is, but knowledge is power and now you know. If you approach a car and the person doesn’t respond to knocking or talking, call emergency services and let them know. Don’t ever open a car to check on someone like that, especially if you notice a bucket in the car or you suspect suicide at all.”
“You could have passed that information on before this shit show so my leg wouldn’t need to have a refitting already,” Adam grumbles, giving me his annoyed glare. After I stare blankly at him for a bit, he turns his attention to Alayna, his face softening the slightest bit. “Let’s see these notebooks, Lay.”
“Right.” She laughs awkwardly, releasing the notebooks from the death grip of her left hand. “Here’s the two I found, but I feel like there must be more somewhere. It doesn’t feel complete to me.”
Grabbing the books, I hand one over to Adam and inspect the other one. They’re simple blue, spiral bound notebooks that look incredibly familiar to me. Declan was writing in these a lot up until his death, but I honestly just assumed it was song lyrics. I thought he had found inspiration not paranoia.
Flipping through, I glance at the different dates, times, and locations. Each note contains nothing more than a few vague ramblings about whatever he felt was suspicious at the time. The one thing that stands out to me the most is that he frequently refers to whoever he thinks is behind whatever was freaking him out as J. No name, no description of him, just the letter J.
“Who did he think was following him? And why?” Adam muses out loud, his face scrunched up as he flips page after page of these same ramblings.
“J,” I state simply with a shrug. “That’s at least what I’m understanding from it. As to the why, I have no idea. None of these notes give me any idea what he thought the threat was, just that he felt threatened in some way.”
Alayna looks over my shoulder as I turn to the very last page. The very last entry to this book was about three weeks before he killed himself. It just says no longer safe, find protection for Cat and then it ends. Adam moves to see what has Alayna and I’s attention so focused on the notebook.
“When the fuck did Dec get a cat?” He rubs his stubble, straightening up and looking around like he expects a cat to pop out of nowhere.
“He didn’t,” Alayna whispers, the pain in her voice hitting me right in the heart. “I’m Cat.”
Chapter Fourteen
Alayna
“He always called me Allie Cat or just Cat when he was being more cautious.” My legs carry me from one side of the living room to the other, over and over again as I try to figure out why he thought this involved me and what he could have possibly done to protect me when he didn’t even know where I was.
“What was this threat he was worried about? Was it real or fake?” My questions fly out of my mouth so quickly, no one can even open their mouth before I’m already moving on. “What the hell did he mean,find a way to protect Cat? This doesn’t make any fucking sense!”
Riggs walks into the house as I pace back and forth for what feels like the millionth time. Rhys and Adam are both staring at me from the couch, neither of them quite sure what’s going on in my head. Hell, I’m not fucking sure what’s going on in my head. There’s a piece of the puzzle that I’m missing and it's driving me crazy.
“What’s going on?” Riggs stops when he spots all of us, his tone suspicious as he turns to glare at his buddies. “What did you do to her?”
