Page 57 of No Broken Promises

Restless, I can’t sleep. After Remy starts to snore, I wrap a blanket around my shoulders and go to the front porch to rock on the swing that I’ve commandeered as my thinking space.

I barely step onto the porch when I see the yellow manila envelope sitting there on my seat. My name, scrawled in a heavy hand, stares up at me as my heart starts racing.

In the dim yellow light from the porch, I look to see if anyone is there in the dark. But I can’t see anyone or anything.

The envelope crunches as I pick it up, and my breathing is shallow as I take it into the house and lock the door behind me.

“What is it?” Remy apparently hadn’t been sleeping, because he stands at the bottom of the stairs, dressed only in a pair of gray sweatpants that hug his muscular hips.

“I don’t know.”

When I spill the contents out of the envelope, I see pictures of Remy and me together, and others of Remy and Nox together running down the street. Then there are more, of just me and Nox. Or me. And they are covered in red slashes and marks, all scratching out my face. Just my face. Not Remy. Not my son. Only me.

“What the actual fuck?” My heart stutters, and my vision starts to swim as I stare at one of my worst nightmares come to life right in front of me.

“Someone’s threatening you.”

And Remy?

Remy looks like he is about to commit murder.

23

REMY

I don’t bother calling dispatch. Instead, I call Dom directly, and then Linc just for good measure. While Dom comes to us, Linc heads to his mother’s house to make sure that Nox isn’t in any imminent danger.

After sending Parker upstairs to take a bath and try to relax, which for her means to clean something, I sit down and wait for Dom. While I wait, I stare at the images in front of me and try not to scream in frustration or rage at what's been happening right under my nose.

Nox and I were running together, playing and chasing Daisy, and they had been taken that morning. Someone is stalking us, not just Parker. I don’t give two shits about myself. I’ve lived through war and hell in another country. However, Nox is just a child and doesn’t deserve any of the negativity in the world to touch his gentle head.

The damage may not be done to our faces the way it was to hers, but Parker isn't the only one threatened here.

My eyes catch on the only image where I can see both our faces, and my gut churns. Nox was staring up at me with the biggest smile I’ve ever seen. I remember the moment immediately. Daisy had run off and started rolling in the grass over and over again. And he’d stared up at me and said she was the best dog ever and that he couldn’t believe that he finally had a dog in his life.

“Danny,” I say to the man on the wall for the first time in a long time. “I don’t know what the fuck I’m supposed to do here, man. I could use a little guidance. There’s someone after her, after us, and there’s nothing I can do. If I interfere with this at all, it could jeopardize any case against the person responsible. If I don’t do anything, I’m not sure if I can live with myself. Especially if someone hurts her. I would rather cut myself into tiny pieces than let her be hurt.”

Danny, silent, smiles at me from the photo on the wall, and I curse. Thankfully, before I can talk to myself any further, someone knocks on the front door.

Parker practically sprints down the stairs, screeching to a halt with her chest heaving way too much for someone who just walked down the stairs. She has a hand on the doorknob before I even make it halfway to the door.

“Dom, thank fuck,” Parker says breathlessly when she opens the door. “Did Remy tell you what happened? Nox is safe. Linc is there and I’ve already called Rose about a dozen times. They’re not going to let him out of their sight.”

“You know,” I pipe up. “I suddenly feel like chopped liver. Parker, you know that we’re both cops, right?”

“Yeah.” Parker waves me away. “But you don’t count because you can’t work on the case and Dom can. Which means that I’m glad to see him.” She raises an eyebrow at me, challenging me to say anything about it.

I don’t because I’m not a fuckin’ idiot. We have some heavy shit going on. The only way to get through it is to man up and admit that I can’t handle it alone. That we need Dom here. Which is why he is currently standing in my living room and Linc is undoubtedly sitting at his mother’s house in his old bedroom, keeping an eye on Nox while he sleeps.

“When did they show up?” Dom stands over the images with a grim expression. “Did your cameras catch them being left? Or maybe the person who left the envelope was a courier or someone we can trace.”

Parker whirls around to face me. “Cameras?”

“Yes,” I say while leaning back on the couch uncomfortably with my arms crossed over my chest. “I had security cameras installed on the perimeter of both of our houses as well as on all the entrances and exits, including the windows.” I told her about her house, of course, but I guess I hadn’t told her about adding them to my house.

“Isn’t that something important for me to know?” The anger in her voice surprises me, enough that I don’t immediately answer her. She takes that as a sign to keep going. “I’m serious. If there are cameras… Oh.” She stops as the pieces finally click. “You had them installed after the fireball to make sure everything is okay. I remember now. Stupid head injury made me forget.” The immediate panic shifts away from the cameras and back to the photos that have shown up out of nowhere. “Well? Answer Dom’s question. Did the cameras pick up anything?”

“Is she always like this?” Dom is taking notes of the images and snapping photos of them before he takes them into evidence.

---