What was really weird, however, was the uptick in my stalker’s appearances.
With each week that passed since his defiling of my car, he’d gotten bolder.
He’d started to make even more advancements in how he fucked with us.
One week, he’d come on our bedroom window.
The next, he was sending me nudes.
And no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t find him.
He was a ghost, and Bram was getting to the point where he was becoming obsessed with my protection. He was even considering taking time off of work so he could help me.
Wake was spending more time with us, exhausting all of his avenues, too.
But it was like the man that was doing all of these things was skilled in the art of being invisible.
The one and only time we’d gotten close to catching him in the act, he’d gotten away and become even more careful.
Which was now why I had a guard following me around twenty-four seven, except to the bathroom in my own place of business.
That was the only way that Bram could physically go to work and get stuff done with any peace of mind.
And since I loved him, and loved our baby, and knew that this was the best way to keep me safe, I’d allowed the guard.
Hell, Bram and I had even gone to the sheriff at this point, though a fat lot of good it’d done.
Which led to now.
It was the weekend, and as far as I knew, there wasn’t a single brother, uncle, or parent coming down this weekend.
And Bram and I were beyond excited.
Because, not that I didn’t love that his family was trying with me, I was seriously in need of a weekend with my husband.
A husband that’d done everything in his power to make me realize that he would take care of me, and my heart.
Not that the weekdays together hadn’t been great, but both of us had to work, both of us were extremely tired, and both of us went to bed at nine o’clock. Leaving us about three hours to spend with each other before we went to bed. And a lot of those hours were spent cleaning up, or cooking, or doing something in general.
I was now fully convinced that I would be staying with Bram after our child was born.
I was also fully convinced that, although I loved Florida, we needed to go back home.
I wanted to have our child in Texas, where his family was near.
Where my family was, too.
The Crows, once they put their mind to something, knew how to get what they wanted.
And what they wanted was me.
Me to be a part of their family.
Which was why I’d be talking with Bram tonight about going home.
I knew he loved his job, but he loved his family more.
I also loved my job, but this wasn’t the place for me.
I could do my job in Texas just as well as I could do it here.
And though I loved Dutch, I loved Texas and the Crows more.
So going home it was.
“KD, you ready?” I asked my bodyguard.
His real name was Kyle Davis, but I’d shortened his name to KD when he’d said he would rather be called ‘Davis’ than ‘Kyle.’ And, because I’d loved teasing him, I called him what I wanted, which was a variation of the two.
Even though KD was more than professional at all times, it was still fun to jack with him, just to see if he’d come out of his crusty, hard shell.
Which, apparently, was never going to happen.
KD was one of Wake’s friends. An ex-con that Wake had met while in prison. Apparently, according to Wake, KD had been in prison for murdering the man that’d beaten, and paralyzed, his big sister.
Which was A-okay in my book.
“Been ready,” he answered coolly. “What about you?”
I gave him an eye roll and headed to the desk where I kept my purse during the day.
I’d just pulled it out of the drawer when I bobbled it, and all kinds of shit poured out.
Practically getting to my knees to gather all my shit, I didn’t see the blinking light at first.
I’d grabbed my pens, a couple of tampons that I hadn’t had to use in months, and my ChapStick before the blinking red light caught my eye.
“What is…” I looked over at the wires that ran out of the blinking black box and felt a sick sort of realization hit me. “KD?”
KD, at the sound of my voice, looked up where he was already bent over, helping me pick up my things to the side of my desk.
“Yeah?” he asked.
I felt my voice quiver as I said, “I think there’s a bomb connected to the underside of my desk drawer.”
There was a long, thick silence and then a curse.
“Son of a bitch,” he whispered.
We were up and moving before I’d consciously told myself to move. That likely had a lot to do with KD, though.
Honestly, I’m not even sure it was my feet making me move.
The explosion rocked the entire office.
Pieces of glass, dirt, and debris filled the air around us, and we hit the ground so hard outside of my office that I physically heard my kneecap crack.
The deafening boom filled the air, and then… nothing.
• • •
I’m not saying that life was going to take me down forever with hit after hit, but the bitch definitely had hands.
“Damn,” I heard. “That’s certainly unfortunate.”
I blinked open my eyes, more than aware that something bad had happened.
“Think your bodyguard might’ve done more harm than good when he tried to save you,” I heard said.
I blinked a few more times, trying to get my eyes to focus.
“Over here,” I heard.
I looked that way and instantly regretted it.
My head exploded in pain, and I felt warmth start to track down the side of my forehead.
“There you are,” the man said.
I blinked a couple more times until the man that was doing the speaking came into focus.
“Ahh.” He smiled.
The man that’d delivered us our food months ago was kneeling beside me.
He appeared to be in the middle of what looked like a warzone.
“Hello,” he chirped. “Glad that you finally got to make it back with us.”
I swallowed hard past the nausea and felt the whirl of my baby in my belly.
Oh, holy God.
The baby.
Harker.
Was he okay?
Moving was a good thing, right?
“Us?” I croaked.
“Well, me.” He shrugged. “I think your bodyguard is alive, too. But I am currently kneeling on him.”
I looked down and saw an arm peeking out from whatever piece of wood that the man, the food delivery guy, was standing on.
What the fuck?
“Move off of him,” I hissed.
The man didn’t.
He did, however, shift his weight to look at me sideways as if I was an interesting creature.
“You don’t know who I am, do you?” he asked.
I blinked.
My brain was foggy, sure, but was I supposed to ‘know’ him?
I didn’t think so.
“I guess nine years is a long time.” He shrugged. “Or more like ten now. The last time I saw you, your husband punched the shit out of me in the parking lot of the courthouse.”
Pieces started to fit together like a puzzle I couldn’t quite figure out.
The courthouse parking lot the day of my brother’s trial. Bram punching the man that Amon had hired to ‘follow’ me. The guy leaving saying I wasn’t worth the pay.