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“What have you done? You have that look. You only get that look when you are about to surprise me with something insane. I don’t even want to walk in the house!” I say, letting out a laugh. Grabbing me, he tugs me through the door and I squeal.
“Look!” he spreads his arms, motioning to the completely furnished rooms.
“Oh! My goodness! Cole! You had all our stuff brought home, here… to our home! Are you serious?”
I stand stunned at the incredibly amazing and sweet gesture. I was dreading having to move, I honestly just wanted to walk in and be settled and he just made my dreams come true.
“Are you mad? I know you may have wanted to decorate it yourself, but you still can. I will dutifully move any couch you want. I just wanted to see you comfortable.”
Smacking a kiss on his lips, I look directly into his eyes and say, “Race you to the bedroom.”
We take off up the stairs, forgetting our fatigue and stumble through the door. I’m beyond giddy and I don’t even take time to look around the room. Instead, I am hurled onto the bed by my husband. I scream out, laughing loudly as he jumps on top of me, covering me with kisses. We kiss and caress and make love before he gets up out of bed and heads out of the room bare-assed.
“I’m headed for water, would my girl like some as well?”
God,I fucking love it when he calls me his girl.
“Yes, I’m in need of some serious hydration.”
With a wink, he walks out of our room and I can hear him pad down the stairs. I stretch out my limbs and relish in this moment.
Alex is alive, Cole and I are happy and living in our new home, any suspicions about his involvement in Carter’s murder seemed to be losing ground and Foster is in love with my best friend. My life is insane. Perfect, really. Instinctively, I look around for that other shoe to drop again. Getting out of bed, I see my bag on the floor and my phone is lit up. I walk over and rummage through to grab it and see three missed calls from an unknown number. Oh man, I hope these aren’t from Jack because if they are, Cole is going to close the whole building down. I don’t hear Cole coming, so I decide to take a peek at the messages Jack left. Swiping my phone open, I can feel my heart start to beat quicker. I think I’m more nervous that they will be something so terrible that I will have to show Cole. I start reading the first one.
Hey thanks, I appreciate the olive branch. Maybe we can catch lunch sometime?
Then the next.
Or not, whatever. I thought this was a friendly but apparently, we are more of a one and done kind of relationship. Ha ha… no worries, I’m sure your boyfriend wouldn’t appreciate us having lunch anyhow.
I shake my head seeing where this is going and scroll down to the bottom message.
I should have known you were still such a cock-tease. After all these years, all this time and you still haven’t figured out that turning your back on the wrong person will never work in your favor.
Holy shit! I don’t even know what to do. Staring at the phone, my mind is wandering, bouncing off a thousand fears. My mind scrambles to make sense of everything as I re-read the last message.
All these years? I haven’t known him for years, what is he talking about? Cole was right though, he is psycho and something isn’t adding up. All I can think to do is find Cole. I turn to run out of the room as Cole walks in chugging a water bottle.
“Whoa, baby, what’s up?” He steadies my shoulders as I hold out the phone to him. Taking the phone from me, he walks over to the chair and throws on his sweatpants.
“Look. It’s… I don’t even know. Oh my God, Cole, you couldn’t have been any more right! I’m totally skeeved out, but the part that has me freaked the most… look, he writes ‘years,’ Cole. I haven’t known him for years!”
He keeps one hand on my shoulder pulling me close to his chest as he reads the messages. We stand in silence as he reads and strokes my back. Setting my phone down, he reaches into his pocket, pulling out his phone and hitting dial.
“Foster, we need to talk, I think we are more on target than we thought. It’s Jack… all of it. It’s him. I know it! Come to the penthouse. I will meet you there. We need Alex to try and remember. I left her belongings at the penthouse, we can start by checking out her phone. Call your friend and share the new information I’m sending you now. I sent you a text with messages to Mia’s phone from him. See you in twenty.”
I look up to Cole for an explanation, because I’m seriously reeling right about now. I know we all think Jack is sketchy, but this is too much and I’m not sure how to process all of this information. If I’m being really honest, I’m more afraid that Jack will finish what Carter started and the thought is leaving me paralyzed.
“Don’t.” Cole’s voice pushes past my daze and pulls me back into the present.
“Huh?” Shaking my head, trying to shake off my thoughts.
“Don’t,” he repeats, keeping his eyes trained on mine.
“Don’t what?” I respond with barely a whisper.
“Don’t start thinking about what could happen, because the only thing that will happen is the end of this nightmare. You are safe, Mia. No one will ever lay a hand on you or I will end them. Do you understand?” To accentuate his point, he grabs both my shoulders and gives them a reassuring squeeze.
All I can do is nod. My entire body wants to believe him, but at this very moment, I’m not even in my right mind. I can feel the other shoe dropping. I feel that horrible gut feeling that tells me things will not end well.
