Page 130 of Bound By Words

What scared me the most was that I kept thinking about what could have happened if Kelly and I had been here when the vandal broke in. I was already worried enough about her going back to Chicago without me.

I knew it was an irrational fear and that she had Kristine and Sam to support her, but something didn’t sit right with me. She seemed to be settling back into a routine in the few days she’d been home, but I didn’t like knowing Trent was somewhere in that city. She was being targeted whether she wanted to admit it, and I had no idea what this guy could do.

Even though Kelly had asked me not to, I’d had my friend with the Boston Police Department run a full background check on the guy, but I knew it’d take a few days. I just wanted to see if anything in his history was a red flag.

My phone buzzing in my pocket startled me, and I pulled it out, frowning at the notifications on my lock screen including an old missed voicemail, along with three text messages and a missed call from Evan all within the last fifteen minutes. I knew they were back at the house, having missed Kelly as she flew out the other day. They said everything had looked normal when they got in last night.

I was sure Kelly would call me if she’d heard differently, but I hadn’t heard from her since this morning. I knew she was playing catch-up at the office and working long hours, but I didn’t want her to burn herself out the first week back.

When the phone in my hand started buzzing again, Chase’s number scrolling across the screen, I quickly connected the call.

“What’s up?”

“Oh, thank God. You answered. Have you heard anything from Kelly in the last half hour? Evan tried to get ahold of you both, but neither answered.”

Tapping the button to put it on speaker, I opened my missed calls, scrolling through the list. Kelly had called before she’d left a voicemail but it hadn’t rang on my end. “Yeah. I guess I missed one less than an hour ago. Service can get spotty out here. I haven’t listened to the voicemail yet. I talked to her this morning on her way to work, but she had meetings all morning and met with Tom this afternoon. I was trying to give her space since I knew she was busy and hadn’t called her yet.”

“Shit,” she hissed, and her muffled voice carried through the line as she talked to someone in the background. “Where are you?”

“What’s going on?”

She took a deep breath, cursing again. “Evan and I are trying to get on flights out of Hartford tonight. She hasn’t tried to contact you again after she called?”

“No.” But I was starting to get fucking worried. I’d anticipated talking to her later tonight, but now I seriously fucking needed to get Chase off the phone so I could listen to that voicemail.

“He got a text alert twenty minutes ago that her phone had sent out an alert to emergency services. His parents got the same alert and headed into the city to see what was happening, but her phone is now going straight to voicemail.”

Bile churned in my stomach as a wave of nausea crawled up my throat. “Where was she?”

“The map showed her office building, so I guess she must have stayed late at work, but we have no idea what’s going on.”

“Fuck,” I growled, clenching my jaw. “It could be that fucker, Trent. Are there still seats left on the flight you booked?”

She held the phone away from her mouth again, talking to Evan in the background. “Yeah. Looks like there’s a few.”

“Text me the flight details, and I’ll meet you there.”

I dropped the tools I’d been cleaning and moved to the damaged door to inspect the frame. Hopefully, I had enough time to board it up before leaving for the airport. I’d intended to stay in the Airstream overnight, but my suitcase was still packed, so I just needed to take care of this and hop in the Bronco. The airport was only a half-hour away, so I could get there quickly, depending on when the flight was scheduled to depart.

“Why would you drive to Hartford from Boston?”

“I’m not in Boston. Someone vandalized my workshop a few days ago. The neighbors left a message saying the garage door was damaged, so I came down to assess things and take pictures to file an insurance claim.”

“Oh my God. Why didn’t you say something? We could have come to help you.”

“You literally just got home from your honeymoon. I should have just left it and gone to Chicago with Kelly. I had a terrible feeling all morning that something was off.”

“Evan called Em when we couldn’t reach you and he said something about text messages. Why didn’t you guys tell us what was going on?”

“Because we thought they stopped, and Kelly had to return to work so she wouldn’t lose her job. I don’t think either of us expected him to follow through. We thought he was just trying to scare her.”

“I texted you our itinerary. Do you need us to come to pick you up?”

“No, I’ll meet you there,” I assured her and quickly said my goodbyes.

Rushing around for the next half hour, I quickly screwed some plywood into the garage door frame. It’d have to hold until I could get it repaired or replaced. Honestly, they could burn the whole fucking workshop to the ground, and I wouldn’t care as long as I got to Chicago to find Kelly.

I hoped we were all just being paranoid, but as I repacked the Bronco and Kelly’s phone was still going to voicemail, I was starting to get freaked out.

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