Page 70 of Unfinished

“Derek Wright. He’s been stalking Hannah for two years,” I said. Bill’s expression went deadly.

“How do you want to handle this?” Bill asked. I was sure he would gladly take care of Derek for stalking his daughter, but I couldn’t risk investigations into my family with the disappearance of Derek.

Despite being a bit of a loner, he did have a family that cared about him. People like Derek filled themselves with illusions about their prey. They often told others about the person they thought they loved. If Derek told his family about Hannah, his disappearance could lead to an investigation into Hannah and then into Bill, which could lead to my family.

“I’ve got it,” I said and walked away from the group into a small office.

Derek sat tied in a chair with duct tape covering his mouth and muffling anything he was trying to say. His blonde hair was messed up and hanging down over his forehead and I could see his eye was bruised and swollen.

“Hello Derek, it’s been a long time.”

Muffled noises came from behind the duct tape and I raised my hand, shaking my head at him. I began circling around him and watching him. His eyes followed me as much as they could, being that he was tied to a chair and unable to turn around fully.

“There is no need for you to talk. This conversation is one you only need to listen to. After your little warning, I started noticing you hanging around and watching Hannah. Then you sent her a note, claiming her, and I knew you were stalking her. You disappeared pretty quickly from Shermer, so I wasn’t able to give you more than the verbal warning I gave that first night. Now here you are in Pittsburgh. Stalking Hannah again and deliberately ignoring my original warning.”

I stopped walking right in front of him and stared down into his eyes as I said, “You may have left Shermer a couple years ago, but you know who hasn’t left Shermer? Your father and younger brother. Your father is still working for the post office and your brother attends Theodore Middle School. He’s getting straight A’s.”

Derek’s eyes widened in fear, so I continued talking, “Now, I’m not one to harm children, so I promise your brother is safe. However, I can’t say the same for your father. One thing that I hate in life are abusers and your father is exactly that, isn’t he?”

Derek didn’t make a sound. His expression began to turn into anger. Derek didn’t have a happy childhood and instead of trying to be something better, he was turning into a piece of shit like his father.

“Here’s what is going to happen, Derek. I’m going to teach you a lesson about stalking what is mine. After that you are going to stay the hell away from Hannah and never go near her again. You’ll go back to Shermer and live a shitty life working a shitty job. Also, you will never harm a woman like your father has. Because if you do, I will kill you.”

My fist struck him across his cheek and the other connected with his jaw so hard he fell to the side and landed on the floor. I kicked him in the stomach and he moaned out in pain. When my next punch hit his temple, Derek went unconscious.

Hannah would only ever deal with one obsessed and slightly psychotic man. That man was me. I should just kill Derek but his father would stop at nothing to find his oldest son. That would lead to investigations into Hannah and possibly bring to light my ties to her. It would put her in a hell of a lot more danger.

The men would be sure to give Derek the additional warning that we’d be watching him and making sure he behaved. If he didn’t listen to my warnings this time, I would follow through on my promise and kill him.

Walking out of the office back to the main reception area, Rion handed me a wet wipe for the blood on my fists. I wiped them clean and looked up at Bill.

“Have the guys warn Derek that we’ll be watching and have him dropped in Vegas. He can make his way home from there.”

Bill nodded and then asked, “How are things unfolding with Salvatore?”

“Salvatore doesn’t know about Pittsburgh yet and we want to keep it that way. We need to keep things quiet here until we solve that problem,” Bas answered.

“Keep an eye on your crew. No one stays alone. Including yourself,” Rion said.

“I want a minimum of three men watching over Hannah at all times and one watching her location via the tracker on her phone,” I said, and Bill smiled with a nod.

We needed to keep Salvatore focused on the east coast while also appeasing the Night Saints with their shipments. While Archer was working on the Night Saints, Bas and Rion were working on getting our men into positions in the local government, and I was in charge of handling Salvatore.

Together we handled things, but between these problems, finishing our schooling, and working for the companies we would one day take over, we were all stretched thin. We needed to rely on our teams. I knew Bill would make sure Hannah was protected from harm, but I needed to continue to provide the distractions that would keep Salvatore looking elsewhere.

I don’t always take dates to events I was expected to be at, but I did it to make sure Salvatore thought I was a player. I’d have to keep up the charade in order to keep his attention on me instead of the one person I couldn’t physically protect while we were separated.

“I want to tell Hannah what’s going on,” I admitted.

Bill’s eyes went wide and he said, “She has no clue I work for your family and I’d like to keep it that way until the danger is handled.”

“We are the Teresis, danger follows us no matter what.”

“But right now there is an increased risk. I don’t want her distracted from her schooling and worried about you or me,” Bill explained calmly and I sighed.

He was right. If I exposed her to everything that was happening, it would negatively affect her. She’d be distracted and concerned about everything going on that it would be detrimental to her schooling. I couldn’t be the cause of that.

“Fine,” I agreed. “When this situation with Salvatore is solved and she graduates, I’ll tell her everything.”

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