Page 19 of React

This was why he’d taken care of the neighbors next door to her Hampton’s home, an old couple who really hadn’t put up much of a fight and were now resting comfortably under the property. What had once been the guest house years before the Harrington’s took ownership, the land had been split and the multi-million “guest house” was now a property all its own and the closest vantage point to the insufferable bitch. He had to admit though, she was making this all very fun. He didn’t evenwantto kill her yet. He was having too much fun being the reason she couldn’t go out and party every night. It was a psychological game to him just as it was a mission. He wanted to break that selfish cunt in every way possible before he watched her bleed out.

His finger stopped swiping through the pictures when he came across one showing the face of her protector. The one who owned the company hired to protect her. The pictures provided to him showed her lounging by the pool, but he’d only been able to see the back of Decker Mullins’ head, and now that he could see the man’s face, he couldn’t help the small chuckle that bubbled from him. Mullins looked down right murderous as he stormed away from Lake Harrington. He imagined if he had access to a mirror anytime he caught sight of the whore, he’d have that same look on his face. Decker Mullins might not be too crushed when the plan was done and his client was dead and gone.

He deleted the string of pictures from the messaging app on the burner phone and tucked it into the pocket inside his suit jacket. Leaning back in the overstuffed chair, his gaze focused out the window on the rain falling steadily around his office. She may have spent her morning poolside in the sun, but he’d been here, working hard as rain beat down over him. Another highlighted contrast between them.

The burner phone buzzed in his pocket and he fished the device out looking down and reading the daily report on her movements from the men he’d hired for this. He could have done this all himself, of course, but he was far too busy to do wet work himself much anymore, so he could outsource to those fine hardened criminals who could be so easily bought. He had the money now to pay handsomely for anything he desired. And he desired the Harringtons dead. Sure he hated Robert, but the man didn’t hold a candle to the insufferable Lake and her need to have all the attention no matter the cost. That cost would be her life, and he was more than happy to be first in line to end it.

Time to make sure she knew he was always able to get to her. It wasn’t enough to just know what she was doing; he had to let her know she was not nor would she ever be safe. After what felt like an eternity of hatred seeping out of him for this woman, he was finally getting to the fun part of the game. Making her twist and jerk on the rope he had firmly around her neck. Huh. Maybe hanging her would be more fun than ripping her open. The slow suffocation of being pulled down by the weight of her own ego, watching her legs kick back and forth as she tried in vain to hold onto those last moments of life. A world of being the center of attention, reduced to her dying alone and squirming around all undignified. Like a fish on a hook, desperate to escape the finality of death.

Snapping himself from his highly addictive fantasy, he reached into the opposite suit pocket and pulled yet another burner phone. He held his thumb down on the power button until the object came to life. He didn’t even have to ponder what he wanted to say, quickly typing out the message that was sure to render her an emotional mess.

Hope you got enough sun. Next time, try to keep the top on. You never know who is watching.

CHAPTER 10

LAKE

The sun was low in the sky as I made my way back to the house. I’d somehow managed to doze off while sunning, and it took Jones, the man I still hadn’t gotten a first name out of, clearing his throat to wake me. Now, the slight sting evenly dispersed over my back as well as the backs of my arms and legs, was a clear sign that I’d passed a healthy glow into shedding like a lizard in a few days' time.Gross.

I padded up the stairs in bare feet, trying and failing to care about a slight burn that would have been made into an ordeal if I’d been with friends. Another glaring reminder that my priorities were vastly different than the women I surrounded myself with. I just couldn’t find it in me to care about a stupid sunburn when there was someone out there threatening to carve into that same skin. But again, I couldn’t make my brain accept my new world, having to remind myself that every defense I’d honed over the years was meant for mean girls and paparazzi, not a psycho. I’d need time to adapt and shift my world view. Or was that Fitz in my head?

Slipping inside my room, I locked the door behind me and moved toward the nightstand where my phone sat dark. I’d taken to only turning it on for business calls and reminding anyone I spoke with on that end to email if they needed me. Scout had our messaging app on my computer that was out more often than not these last few weeks, and honestly there was no one else I’d felt like talking to since being banished to my personal paradise. Spending my days not having to be “on” was actually nice for a change though I still made sure to play it up for Decker Mullins just so he didn’t get too relaxed at his job. Right, that’s exactly why I slammed my “princess” walls up around him. Just to keep him on his toes.

I’d spent enough time in therapy to recognize my defensiveness toward him. I knew he made me uncomfortable far beyond his bad attitude. I hated that man’s unending irritation with me, but beyond that I still wanted to be closer to him. I wanted to drown in his touch and his voice and his body. Yeah, I wasn’t stupid enough to not recognize the bone deep attraction to the man, but I also wasn’t going to acknowledge it. So I avoided him, pretending it was just the fact that I didn’t want to share my secrets, and not the fact that my body craved his on a primal level.

And with my irritation at myself and my unwanted attraction, I turned the phone on ready to check business messages and see if I was still safe from the wrath of Bailey and Monica. Leaving it on the nightstand, I went to the bathroom to grab the aloe gel for the burn and returned as the string of alerts chirping from my phone finally ended. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d turned my phone off before this nightmare. Now it was barely on, and I didn’t seem to mind not having the device practically attached to my hand. Snatching up the phone, I was prepared for the long list of recent notifications, but not the top-most text. It had my pulse stuttering and my breath catching. “Unknown” had taken a decidedly sinister tone when it came to new text messages. Unable to keep my hands from trembling, I swiped on the message to open it. Rip the band-aid off, right?

The sunburn was completely forgotten as cold terror crashed over my body, locking my limbs on the spot. Everything began to pitch forward and I realized just in time that I’d been the one pitching forward. Righting myself seemed to be the jolt I’d needed to return to the moment and begin almost panting in an effort to regulate my breathing. The person or persons stalking me had seen me. They’d known I was sunbathing, and they’d seen me untie my top. They’d been watching me the entire time and I’d had no idea. What happened to that innate sense of being watched that was supposed to be ingrained in a woman’s survival instinct? I’d read about it, heard about it, and now to find I didn’t carry this gene, caused me to let out the breath I’d been holding and jump at the sound. It had been a hollow moan of anguish that I didn’t even recognize as coming from me.

It took entirely too long to remember that I needed help and that help was in the form of the heavily armed giants roaming the house that had been hired for this exact job. I just needed to get to them.Stop panicking and fucking move, I screamed at myself internally. Clutching my phone in a death grip, I ran for the door and tried to open it, hand twisting and yanking at the handle as desperate fear pooled inside me. I was trapped, locked in. Locked in. With a mental smack, I grabbed at the antique key in the keyhole and turned it before wrestling the damn door open and racing down the hall as fast as I could.

I couldn’t hear anything over the sound of my heart pounding as I ran down the hall, half wondering where everyone was and half panicking that they’d all be dead when I did manage to locate them. Vaguely, self preservation warned me that running down the stairs was not going to end well, but the part overridden with anxiety gave no shits until the third to last step when I missed the stairs and was airborne. For the briefest of moments I thought about how I’d die from the fall before theUnknownperson could get to me.

I waited for the pain of the fall, the bones to break and my head to make contact with the hardwood at the bottom of the stairs. But my body didn’t slam into hard flooring, instead I collided with heat over muscle as arms wrapped around me in a steadying yet gentle grip. I almost let out a squeak of protest as I was set right on the ground floor, wanting to hoard the warmth from that strong body. I was suddenly very aware of how cold I really was, teeth beginning to chatter as I looked up into the worried hazel eyes of my hired protector. Decker was saying something, but the pounding of my pulse in my ears left me deaf to all else. At this moment I didn’t care what he was saying anyway since he’d probably be lecturing me on not running through the house like he was reminding an overexcited child.

I shoved the phone into his face and in a choked, small voice said, “They were watching me. They knew. Theysaw!” Every word growing thinner and quieter until the last was nothing but a terrified whisper. Decker looked at the phone and said something else I couldn’t hear and, after dropping his head to clearly cover an eye roll, he said something to the wall before grabbing his own phone and studying it.

I watched him with eyes I knew would look crazed to anyone else. The air stinging them was confirmation enough that they were open wide and rarely blinking, but I couldn’t chance missing his reactions. I needed his calm assurances with that hint of reprimand to tell me that this was just a prank and not a big deal, but the emotions, of which there were many, brokered no ease. Shock was quickly followed by worry only to be replaced with unbridled rage. Even when he’d handed me my ass on the elevator, he hadn’t looked so unhinged, so wild and disconnected from the tight control I’d witnessed many times. I took a wobbly step back, vaguely aware that I was shaking to the point that my legs felt like cooked noodles. My entire body was shuddering with breath-halting shakes and my knees had finally given up, buckling under me.

Just as before, I was encircled in his thick arms before I could blink, and he was lowering us both to the floor, his arms holding me across his lap. A distant voice inside informed me that I was in the middle of another panic attack and I tried to conjure Fitz’s soothing tone asking me to focus on my senses. Three things I could hear. My racing pulse was the only sound I could hear, and I took a deep breath in and held it for four seconds before letting it out, willing my body to allow more in. My pounding heart began to slow as I heard the faint sound of stomping feet throughout the house. The troops were checking every inch of the place that was supposed to be safe.

I tried to focus harder and was about to give up when another sound came to me. The rapid thumping of a heart that I had been about to chalk up to the pulse I’d already listed, but suddenly I heard the difference between sound and the feel of my pulse in my own body. With my ear pressed to his chest as he attempted to hold me together, I could hear his heart working overtime with the surge of adrenaline.

I kept my eyes screwed tight and my ear pressed to the hard ridges of his pecs and I let myself get lost in the sound, the rhythm of his pulse beating so fiercely it could have been a song all its own. I let his strong pulse wash over me, letting myself drown in the beat, imagining dancing to it. A frenetic pounding that had transitioned into an almost sensuous percussion. I could almost feel myself swaying back and forth, the solid beats accompanied by a soft voice, gently harmonizing, heating my body to the point that my skin was overly sensitive to the fingers I could feel stroking the back of my neck. Slowly coming out of my fog, I could hear his soft gravely whisper against my hair.

“You’re safe, I swear to you. I’ve got you.” Little phrases of comfort that seemed to be settling him as well. My deep shudders of panic had calmed, but I still let him stroke my neck and gently rock me in his way of halting another episode. Ah, so Ihadbeen swaying to the beat of his heart. As we rocked, the fabric of his suit jacket rubbed along the skin of my arms tucked in awkwardly against him. The amount of fabric I felt had the reality of the situation slamming away the lust filled haze of comfort being provided. I was still in my bikini and was now very aware of his hands. His right hand still stroked out a gentle massage against the back of my neck, and his left was spread across my thigh. The size of his hand covered a large portion of leg and I shivered at the zing that shot from his contact to my center in an instant. Decker's grip tightened ever so slightly in reassurance, and I could only guess that he’d thought the shiver had been from shock-induced cold. No, there had been nothing cold about that charge from his fingers straight to my core.

I was so preoccupied with savoring the heat enveloping me when a throat cleared behind me, and I nearly jumped out of Decker’s lap. When I turned and saw Fitz looking at his shoes and holding out a plush throw blanket, I felt my face heat with instant humiliation. Half naked and clinging to Decker Mullins like I wanted to melt into him was not the way I’d intended to have the others see me. Or anyone for that matter. I was getting really tired of these men seeing me at my worst.

Scrambling to stand, I managed to free my hands and attempt to haul myself up and off him quickly. In my haste and with the grace of a baby deer, I managed to smack Decker in the crotch, letting out a yelp and hopping up the second I heard his hiss of pain. Humiliation ticked up to mortification as I stepped back quickly, hands covering my mouth.

“Ouch,” Fitz whispered with a barely hidden flinch. He wrapped the blanket around my shoulders and dropped his head to catch my eyes fully. “Are you with us, Lake?” His eyes probed mine, watching for signs I was too deep in my mind to answer.

I had been before, but now I was sadly very present in this embarrassing moment. Now would have been a great time to completely check out of reality, take a break and be back for bed. If only. Instead I attempted a placating smile and nodded. “I’m here. Only had to go through one of my senses. Progress.” It was a small attempt at levity, and, thank the Lord, Fitz went along with it.

“If it was a sense of touch, I’m pretty sure you felt more than enough.” We both looked back to Decker who’d gone from cross-legged on the floor to standing rigid, dusting off his pants. “You with us too, boss? Need an ice pack?” His tone was much less caring than it had been toward me. Fitz was obviously enjoying poking at Decker and

I let out an embarrassed groan and pulled the blanket over my face. I dropped it from my shoulders as I tried to apologize.

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