Page 71 of Catch Me When I Fall

Was it the house?

Were they going to take it back?

A sharp lump formed in my throat.

Michael studied me for a moment, the silence eating at me. When he spoke, his words rocked me. “Carrie, I know about the bounty hunter. I know he, for some reason, didn’t collect you when he told me he would.”

Holy balls.

I jerked back, my heart seizing. “What does he have to do with any of this?”

“I went to check on your washer this morning like you asked me to,” he explained.

I had. It was making a weird noise, and I needed to know if it needed to be replaced. When I told Sarah about it, she put Michael on the phone last night.

“Look, I’m going to replace it,” I promised him, confused at where he was going with this. “I know that—”

“Carrie,” he cut me off, his voice hard. “Don’t give a fuck about the washer. Trash it and buy a new one. It’s toast. That’s not why I came over here.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. “Then why—”

“Found a fucking death threat on your door,” he all but growled.

I could feel the color draining from my face.

Fuck. Shit. Fucking shit. Shit fucking fuck.

Since moving to Astoria, I’d received four different notes on my door written in red ink.

Now, this would be the fifth.

“There something you wanna tell me?” Michael pressed. “Did that bounty hunter threaten you?”

No. He damn near broke me, though.

“No, the notes have nothing to do with him,” I blurted before comically slapping my hand over my mouth at the sight of Michael’s fury.

“Pardon?” he asked darkly, his nostrils flaring. “Did you just say notes? As in, plural?”

My hand fell from my lips as I tripped over my words. “Well, I—”

“Carrie, seven months ago, the bounty hunter came to see me,” he cut me off again, rising to his full height. “When I asked him if you were in danger, he told me no.” I swallowed, taking a step back as he pulled a piece of paper from his pants. “Now, I have to know: did he lie to me, or did he not know about them?”

“He didn’t know,” I whispered.

Michael stared. “He didn’t threaten you?”

“No.”

“Does my wife know about this bounty hunter, Carrie?” he pressed.

I nodded as my hands started to shake.

He sighed through his nose and looked at the ceiling. When he looked back to me, he ordered, “You’re going to tell me everything.”

“Michael, it’s not that—”

“Love you, girl. You know that,” he said, trying to keep his voice level. “You’ve become like family to Sarah and me. We love you, our kids love you, but so help me God, Carrie, if you’ve had trouble chasing you this entire time and that trouble touches my wife and kids—”

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