Page 50 of Hear Me Roar

As she disappeared into the kitchen, Knox and Luis switched spots. Perhaps now, Liv and Reyna would have a shot at getting a word in. The topic was TV shows and the first card up wasDexter.Good ass show, by the way. If you haven't watched it, you totallyshould.

Anyway, a few minutes later, the scent of freshly brewing coffee filled the air and I perked right up, all but salivating at the thought of taking that first heavenly sip. Idly, I heard the house phone ringing, but I didn't bother answering it. Regardless of the time, it was probably a telemarketer from another country, trying to sell us some life-changing pots andpans.

"H-Hazel..." Maya's rattling voice suddenly grappled myattention.

I glanced through the small pass-through window to where she stood in the kitchen, a horrified expression painted on her face, and immediately rose to my feet, prompting Reyna to shut her cackling trap. Liv followed suit, as did the light banter between Knox and Luis, shooting four sets of eyes first to me and then to Maya, upon noting I was watching herintently.

"What happened?" I asked, amidst the abruptsilence.

Maya shook her head ever so slightly and backed herself into the counter, her chest heaving a little faster as the seconds tickedby.

What thehell?

A great sense of unease sunk its teeth into my soul like a vice, from the inside out, injecting fear and dread through my veins in the most irrational fashion; but nonetheless, I shuffled hurriedly out of the livingroom.

"Maya, what happened?" Knox questioned, his voice booming not so far behindme.

"I-it's...it's h-him," shestammered.

"Who," Ipressed.

"Him."

Panicked brown eyes darted to mine as I careened under the archway and bound up to her shivering form. Her face paled in entirety, hands shaking nervously as she wrapped her arms around herself, leaving mespeechless.

Shecouldn't...

No.

She couldn't possibly mean who I thought she meant, right? There's no way, not after all thistime...

"Listen to the message," she whispered, as though she were somehow reading mymind.

Without another word, I spun around to replay the message that had just come in, but Knox beat me to it, leaning over the granite counter of the pass-through to click the button on ourmachine.

Silence.

It was silent...until about twenty-five seconds in, when a harsh, winded breath began pouring in through theline.

What. In the actual.Hell?

I could feel Knox's eyes on me long before my bewildered gaze swooped up to meet his. Through every breath we heard, those baby blues widened all the more, sledgehammering my heart in my chest right along withthem.

What happened next, though, was the most disturbing part of itall.

"I know she's there," said a deadly, almost growling,whisper.

And then the line wentdead.

No one uttered a word. Not Knox, not Luis, not Maya. No one. I was rooted the floor beneath my feet, completely shell-shocked by what I’d just heard. After two months of her being here without issue, Dimitri finally pulled the trigger. What did this mean? He knew she was here? Obviously, he would've known she was in L.A., given the fact Karley had mailed the divorce papers just last week, but how did he know she washere,in my home? Were the divorce papers what this was about? Was he going to come after her? There were so many questions flying around in my head, I couldn't even thinkstraight.

“He's pissed and he knows I'm here. This isn't good, Hazel,” Maya finally mumbled with tears in hereyes.

My blood ran cold at the fear in her voice, at the absolute terror painted across her face. I turned to Knox, who looked far more concerned than he had in weeks, his breaths more erratic than normal. He'd been right about Dimitri all along, and all I’d done was brush off his concerns without giving them serious thought. Fuck. This was bad. There was no other way to word it or look at it. Plain and simple, this. Was.Bad.

“You think he’ll make a trip over here?” Knox asked, the baritone of his voice deeper and more lethal than I'd ever heardbefore.

“I-I don't know,” sheadmitted.

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