Page 97 of Safe With Me

I couldn’t think of who would do this to us other than Ted. Who else would be this angry to see me with someone else?

Being afraid of one ghost in the shadows was taxing enough. I didn’t have it in me to consider another one.

Jude stopped by the front door as he was about to leave, speaking in whispers into his phone. My heart bottomed out into my stomach when his head whipped to where I was sitting, his brow furrowed as a frown pulled at his lips.

My breath caught in my throat when he rushed back over to where I was sitting.

“Lila, I’m sorry. I need you to come with me back to the station.”

“What’s wrong? Did they find him?”

Any buzz from the alcohol I’d ingested for the past few hours dissipated as adrenaline pumped through my veins.

“No, but there was another note.” He shot Claudia a look over my shoulder as he motioned to the door. “So I need you to come with me.”

22

MIKE

Keith had keptme inside the station for the day as we’d gone over what had happened the past few days and searched for what Ted had been up to. We’d found no arrests or traffic stops—and no evidence he’d left Pennsylvania. As much as I wanted to climb the walls, there wasn’t much I or any of us could do until something else happened.

Cameras would take a while to install around Lila’s apartment, and although Keith would send a couple of extra officers to patrol our neighborhood, Ted or whoever was doing this had managed to stay under the radar so far. I had no idea how to find them or stop them until they made contact again.

I’d called my father after Lila left the station, although Keith had already filled him in. He hadn’t said much and hadn’t had to since all he’d warned me about seemed to be coming true, but I’d promised I’d keep him posted on what we were able to find out today, which, so far, had been absolutely nothing.

I didn’t know what to think when I found my father, Peyton, and Keely in Keith’s office a few hours later. I’d never seen my father so full of rage that it radiated off him, his jaw tight when he noticed me. Peyton kept her eyes on Keely as she rocked mysobbing sister back and forth in her arms. Keely’s wailing grew louder when she spotted me at the door.

“What are you all doing here?” I asked them as Keely popped off Peyton’s lap and flung her arms around my waist.

I crouched on the floor, rubbing my sister’s back as I swept my gaze over the room.

“Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on?”

“We were at the lake today,” Peyton said, shooting my father a look. “It’s a hot day, so it was pretty packed. We left our stuff on blankets when we went in the water, and most of us started to leave after Jude picked up Jason.”

“Okay, so what happened?” I asked, glancing at Keith. His features were as tight as my father’s, his usual cool replaced by a rigid tension that shot right through me.

Since I’d grown up with Keith and in this town, seeing the chief upset enough to show it made my blood run ice-cold.

“When they got home, we found a note in Keely’s backpack,” my father said, his voice low and angry.

Keith handed me a white piece of paper over my sister’s shoulder.

Give this to your brother. Tell him to stop playing by the lake with his new friend…or he may end up with her at the bottom.

My heart shuddered in my chest as I read the note over and over.

Threatening Lila was enough, but coming at us through my family? Who went after a kid? This wasn’t just a jealous rage. Jude had been right. This was pure hate.

I held Keely tighter and kissed the top of her head, rocking her like her mother had been doing so she wouldn’t notice me shaking against her.

“They’re going to hurt you and Lila,” she sniffled as she lifted her head, searching my gaze with red, swollen eyes.

“No one is hurting anyone. Whoever this is wants to scare us,” Keith said, kneeling on the floor next to us. “And they know how much your big brother loves you, so this was their way of being extra mean. That’s all.”

“Really mean,” Keely said, her eyes thinned so tightly into slits I almost wanted to laugh. “You’re going to catch them, right, Uncle Keith?”

I caught Keith’s face crumple for a split second before he nodded. He’d always prided himself on keeping everyone in this town safe, but Keely was his family. Knowing this son of a bitch had been watching Keely along with Lila and me had to be killing him.

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