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Alayna moves closer, tucking herself into my side and hiding her face in my neck as the two others lose their minds. They’re cussing enough to make a sailor blush and Rhys has added another hole to our walls. With my arms wrapped around Alayna, I usher her out of the kitchen and into the living room. The guys will follow when they’ve had enough time to process the information and calm down a bit.
"How did he find me there? Everything I have is through Melinda's estate," Lay whispers, her face full of confusion and fear. "I don't understand."
"I don't know, but we will figure it out. He won't get any closer to you than he already has," I vow, helping her onto the couch and sitting so she can cuddle into me again.
We're silent for a moment, both of us wrapped up in our thoughts. She makes a good point, how did he find her? Why is he doing this? There's so many big, unanswered questions and they're making me extra pissed. This guy has no right to invade her life like this and yet here he is. Pressing Lay into me, I kiss the top of her head.
“Are you okay?” I ask, trying to gauge exactly where her head is at. “Any lingering flashbacks?”
“I’m okay. I’m honestly just scared, angry, and I feel so violated. Why is this happening?” She looks at me, her big, beautiful eyes begging me for an answer that I don’t have.
“I don’t know, Lay. What I do know is that when I find who is doing this, they'll wish they were never born." I stroke her hair and rest my chin on top of her head. "We will protect you. The three of us will never let this guy get close to you."
"He's right," Rhys agrees. Riggs and him are finally composed enough to join us now. "We'll find whoever is doing this and we'll make sure he can never harm you. You're a part of us now and we protect our family."
"Thank you." Lay smiles softly at each of us, her eyes twinkling when they meet mine. "I need to make a few calls, the main one being to my therapist so I can work through some of this shit." Lay laughs lightly, her attempt at humour to cover the pain reminding me so much of Declan at that moment.
"Sounds good. We want to talk to Adam a bit more about the call." Riggs nods towards me, his scary, protective game face on. "We'll see what we can come up with to help you feel safer."
"Oh!" Rhys exclaims before she can leave the room. "Dec's lawyer called. He was wondering if you could meet this afternoon since you got unexpectedly ill yesterday. If you don't have plans I can take you for that. It's at four o'clock."
"Perfect," she throws over her shoulder. "He was one of my calls anyways. I'll come get you at four!"
With that she walks out, leaving the three of us to figure out who the fuck we're up against and how the hell we're going to take him down.
Alayna
"Hey, Rachel. How are you doing?" My mouth feels dry as I start the last phone call of the day. Including the appointments I had to make, I called all twelve of my employees to let them know we wouldn't be reopening ever.
These calls have been some of the hardest ones. These are people that have relied on me as a boss to provide them with a job and here I am snatching it away. Their livelihoods are now on the line, Rachel more than most. She came to me in desperate need of a job after her parents put her in huge mountains of debt that she’s still struggling to pay off even a fraction of four years later.
"I've been better," she responds, sounding pretty out of sorts for her. "I heard you're not going to reopen the bar?"
"News travels fast," I joke with a fake laugh, hating myself the moment it comes out. "Yeah. Insurance said that it's a write off and with it being arson, I just don't feel comfortable rebuilding."
"That makes sense. It's a bummer because I loved that job, but I get it. Can I get a recommendation letter?" Rachel sucks in a breath like she's afraid I'll say no.
"Of course! I'll email and mail you a copy of it. You were an amazing supervisor Rachel, you'll have no problem getting a new job." Pausing to consider my next words, I continue, "There's one more thing I wanted to talk to you about. It’s an opportunity to earn a bit more money while you’re job hunting."
"Oh? What's up?" Rachel sounds cautious and curious. I don't blame her, other than the bar I've never reached out to her for anything else.
"I won't be coming back and my apartment is just sitting there full of stuff. I was wondering if you would be willing to box it up and donate it or sell it, whatever you can. I'll pay you of course, double your hourly rate for as long as it takes and you can take whatever you want. What do you say?"
I give her a moment to process the request. It probably sounds insane to her, just not coming back, not even having my stuff sent to me. It's not like I can explain it’s all been touched and violated by a stalker that is seriously messing with my head. They're just things that can be replaced and I want them gone.
"Yes! Absolutely," she agrees quickly. Whether it's the money or free things, I'm just glad she's doing it.
After explaining where the key is, we say our goodbyes. I'll check in with her after a couple days and see how it's going. Pushing something like this off on her feels wrong which is why I’m going to compensate her for it so much. It’s either her, who I know and know needs the money, or a random company. This way the guilt I feel for her permanently losing her job is assuaged the tiniest bit.
Glancing at the clock, I jump up when I see it's already quarter after three and go to make myself more presentable. This meeting with the lawyer has my nerves set on edge, just like everything that has to do directly with Declan. It’s like I take a step forward in moving on and then get thrown back into the hurricane of grief with something else. I have no idea what to expect today, only that he has something for me from Declan.
It takes about twenty minutes to drive there, so after I rush through changing and releasing my hair from it’s braid, I head to look for Rhys. He’s sitting in the living room, his eyes narrowed on the screen of his laptop.
“Hey. Ready to get going? I want to make sure we don’t hit traffic.” My hands keep clenching and unclenching at my sides, my whole body on edge with nerves. Even my stomach is doing flips over this meeting.
“Yep,” Rhys responds, directing a warm smile towards me. “Do you want to drive or want me to?”
“Would you mind? You know your way around better than I do and honestly, I’m fucking nervous as hell,” I admit, biting my lip at the end to try to hide my grimace.
