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“No.”I swallow back the panic and fight to sound calm.“I need to speak with you right now.”
“Okay, no problem.”He pulls the phone away from his mouth.“Gentlemen, I need to take this.I’ll be right back.”
I hear rustling, and then he’s back.
“What’s wrong?”
“Maybe nothing.”I pace the room as I break out in a cold sweat.“I need to know if you’ve been notified by the court that the asshole who stalked me years ago has been released.”
“I haven’t been, no.I can reach out to your uncle Matt and see what he can find out.Why do you ask, Erin?”His voice has taken on a hard edge, and I know the alpha is firmly in place.
“It might be nothing at all.I mean, odds are that I’m just overreacting.”
“You don’t usually overreact.What happened?”
“I just got flowers at work, and the card is very much like what he used to send me.Word for word.”
“Maybe you have a secret admirer, and it’s a coincidence.”I can picture my dad pacing, pushing his hand through his hair.
“It could be,” I agree and make myself take a deep breath.Having a panic attack isn’t going to help anything here.Hell, for all I know, I might be sounding an alarm for no reason at all.“But my gut doesn’t think so, and I need to know if he’s out of prison, Dad.”
“I’m on it,” he assures me.“I’ll call you back when I know anything, but it’s Sunday, so there probably won’t be news until tomorrow.”
“Damn weekends,” I mutter.“Okay, thank you so much.I’ll have my phone on me all day tomorrow.”
“Good.And watch your back.Don’t go out by yourself.I know you can take care of yourself, but let’s not take any chances, okay?”
“You don’t have to worry about that.I’ll be careful.”
“Love you.Talk soon.”
He hangs up, and I have to sit in a chair because I’m so light-headed.Finally, when I’ve calmed down, I walk back out to Millie and find that Summer has gone.
Without a word, I grab the roses and take them directly over to the trash and throw them away.
“Uh, are you and Rem fighting or something?”Millie asks.
“No.They weren’t from Remington.”I’m embarrassed that tears want to push their way out of my eyes, and Millie’s smile turns to a concerned frown.
“Whoa, what’s up?”
Thankfully, there’s no one in the coffee shop right now, so I lean on the counter and cross my arms over my chest.
“Do you remember when I told you that I’d once had a stalker, and that’s why I wasn’t on social media?”
“Yeah.”Her eyes go round.“Oh, shit.”
“I don’t know for sure that those are from him, but he always,alwayssent me blood-red roses with a card that creeped me out.Remington hasn’t seen me today, Millie.He wouldn’t know how I look.But that’s the kind of shithewould say.”
“Yikes,” she whispers.“What do we do?”
“I just called my dad to find out if the asshole’s been released from jail.They were supposed to notify us.Dad hadn’t heard anything, but he’s going to look into it.My uncle Matt is a cop, pretty high up in Seattle, so he’ll have people he can reach out to, but they likely won’t be able to find anything out until tomorrow, since it’s Sunday.”
“So, we have to keep your brain occupied on other things for today.I can do that.Your shift is about over, but if you hang out and wait for me, I’ll take you out shopping and for a late lunch.Anything you want.”
“I’ll take you up on that.But rather than wait, I might just run over to check on Roger.I haven’t been over to visit as often as I thought I would.”
“Oh, that’s perfect,” she says.“But I’m going to walk you out to your car.”
