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“It was a Mr. Jarrod James,” I sneer, throwing a disgusted look at the door. “The guy is a complete creep.”
“What the fuck did he want?” Rhys asks, moving into the living room to check past the curtains in the big window.
“He wanted you and I told him you were indisposed. You didn’t need to deal with him on top of the day you’ve already been having.” I rub a hand up and down his slightly damp spine. “He also wanted to flex that he knew Declan and I looked just like he described me. Blech!”
“Wait, what? He said that you looked just like Declan described you?” Rhys turns to me, the look on his face sending a shiver of fear down my spine.
“Yeah. He said my name pretty much as soon as I answered the door as well. It was super creepy.” I shudder, shaking the image of his smile out of my brain. “He gives me bad vibes.”
“I wonder if he also enjoyed hearing those stories about you,” Rhys snaps, his whole body shaking with anger. “Jarrod James just might be our fucking stalker J.”
Motherfucker. It seems way too easy for it to be him, the answer just falling into our laps like that. You would think that he would cover his tracks better or not just give himself away in a two second conversation. However, in my experience, the answer right in front of your face is usually the right one. This isn’t an unsolved crime documentary, this is real life and that means, I may have just met the man who destroyed my bar, violated my stuff, and thinks he has some sort of sick right to me. If it is, he’s going to wish he was never born.
Chapter Twenty-One
Alayna
Rhys has been in a bad mood since his ex-partner showed up three days ago. It has the rest of us on edge, walking on eggshells around the house. Adam and Rhys went out this morning to check out the storage facility and grab the notebooks and shit. That sounded like it would add too much emotional baggage for me and not something I wanted to do today, so I stayed home. Riggs claimed he needed to do some stuff around the house today, so he stayed behind with me. Although, I’m pretty sure he just didn’t want me to be left alone.
There’s been no further word from J or Jarrod James and that has the guys even more cautious than before. He’s escalating and none of us know what to expect next. It can only get significantly worse after something like Arson.
Juliette has been messaging me recently, trying to get me to hang out with her. I’ve been blowing it off, knowing I won’t be very good company right now. She took the first couple excuses, but not anymore.
“Please! It’ll be good for you to get away from all that testosterone,” Juliette begs into the phone, I can practically see her pout through it. “We’ll stay at my place, order some good food, make virgin margaritas, and watch something. It’ll be chill and we can have some girl time.”
She has a point, it may be good to get out of this house. Other than for shit like the lawyer’s office, I haven’t really been out of the house for a while. Maybe what I need is to be around someone not connected to all of this tragedy and bullshit.
“Okay, fine. Just remember that I don’t normally do the whole friend thing so I will probably be shit company,” I warn her.
“You’ll be great! Just wear something comfy and we’ll eat and drink until we can’t breathe then just hang out,” she responds excitedly. “It’ll be fun! See you in a couple hours!”
Hanging up the phone, I glance down at my yoga pants and baggy t-shirt and decide that it’s good enough. Juliette said dress comfortably and this is as comfy as it gets besides my birthday suit which I don’t think she would appreciate. The guys on the other hand…
“What’s going on?” Riggs asks, walking in the kitchen like he wasn’t just eavesdropping from the living room.
“I’m going over to my friend, Juliette’s house. She thinks I need some time away from all the testosterone in this house,” I say, wrinkling my nose like I smell something bad. “I think she’s right. Your testosterone stinks.”
Riggs playfully glares at me and starts moving around the island with a glint in his eyes. Narrowing my eyes back at him, I walk in the opposite direction as him, not trusting him one bit.
“What are you doing?” Never looking away from Riggs, I keep moving away from him. There’s a mischievous smile pulling up the corners of his lips.
“Nothing,” he says innocently, as he walks not-so-innocently towards me. “I’m just going to show you how not stinky I am.”
With that he lunges for me, his long legs eating up the space between us before I can even yelp. My instincts kick in as my head flies forwards into his nose. He grunts, loosening his hold on me and dropping to the floor. A pain is blossoming on my head, but that’s nothing compared to the guilt filling me.
“Shit, Riggs! I’m so sorry.” I drop to my knees in front of him, grabbing his face to examine his nose for damage. “My instincts kicked in and I just reacted. I even knew it was you and you didn’t mean me any harm, but it’s hard to override my reactions sometimes.”
“It’s okay, Lay. That was my fault,” Riggs says, his voice a little nasally as he wipes a small trickle of blood away. “I’m glad you have those instincts. I hate how you developed them out of survival, but I love that you have them. This was all on me, I should have known better.”
“Let me get you some ice,” I murmur, not accepting his attempts to take away some of my guilt. “You’re starting to bruise a bit under your left eye.”
“That was a solid hit,” he responds, pride in his tone. “You did good, Fighter.”
Rolling my eyes at his smile, I wrap a bag of ice in a dish towel and hand it to him. The doorbell rings, both of us looking towards the front of the house with cautious and confused expressions. The guys, I’ve learned, don’t like random visitors showing up and it’s become so much worse since the stalker shit escalated.
Riggs moves me behind him as we make our way to the door. While I understand his protective nature, I still don’t like being relegated to the back like a helpless female all the time. I took care of myself for a long time before coming here and that hasn’t changed. I leaned on them and let them take charge when I was feeling vulnerable, but I can and will still take care of myself. That letter from Declan reminded me how much I’ve fought and overcome on my own, even if he felt he had to kill himself to have others protect me. It shows that he really stopped knowing anything about me. I’m not the little girl he had to protect and save, I’m a grown ass woman who saves herself.
Riggs opens the door to a young courier with a small cardboard box in his hands. The young guy looks at Riggs, his face paling as the big guy glares down at him from his giant height. Pushing past his arm, I move to take over before the poor guy shits himself.
