Page 47 of Inked Craving

Benjamin moved closer, hovering over my shoulder. He was a couple of inches taller than me, and I had a feeling he wanted to push me out of the way to see what was happening. “Why do you think you have a stalker?”

I turned to him, shaking my head as I tried to process everything. I wanted to scream, run after whoever the hell was doing this. When it came to work, I was better at working through problems with my mind. Yet right now, all I wanted to do was use my fists. But I didn’t think that was an option here—not with the unknown pressing in so tightly, I knew I could suffocate. Finally, I took a deep breath and answered. “Because there are wilting, dead roses with a note, and this isn’t the first one I’ve gotten.”

“Why is this the first time we’re hearing about it?” Beckett asked.

“Because I didn’t put two and two together, and it’s been nearly a year. I didn’t think anything of it at first because I thought it was a joke by one of my friends from college. But it wasn’t him, and it wasn’t frequent enough for anything to really make sense or come together.” I let out a breath. “What do I do?”

Benjamin pulled me into the house. “We’re calling the cops, we’re taking some photos, and you’re going to tell us everything.”

I swallowed hard. “Do I tell Paige?” I asked softly.

“Depends on if you want to start your relationship on a lie or not?” Archer asked. “Let’s see what happens tonight, but you should tell her.”

I nodded, looked at the guys, and then pulled out my phone. “Fuck,” I muttered.

“Who do you think it is?” Beckett asked as he shut the door and locked it.

“I have no clue.” I ran my hand over the back of my neck. “I’ve been trying to think about who it could be for months now, and it doesn’t make any sense. Like I said, I thought it was that friend from college, then maybe one of you for a second until I realized it didn’t seem like a Montgomery thing.ThenI thought it could be a competitor, but that didn’t make any sense, either. None of this makes any fucking sense.”

“You have had a few ex-girlfriends in the past,” Benjamin added.

I scowled. “Just because I’ve slept with a few women doesn’t mean that I dated women who would stalk me.”

My best friend sighed and squeezed my shoulder. “Maybe not, but let’s go through everyone anyway. The cops are going to ask these questions, too.”

I cursed under my breath but went through the motions. The authorities came and took my statement but without the other notes in hand, and given the odd timing, there really wasn’t much they could do. I’d at least done something, but it didn’t feel like enough.

All I could hope for was that this would go away, and no one would get hurt, and yet I didn’t know if that was even possible. Not with the escalation, and not with the eerie feeling that wouldn’t quite fade.

The night became oddly subdued and ended quickly after that. I got into bed, smiled at the photo Paige had sent me of Emery, and told myself that I was overreacting. Only those dead flowers, the red roses like a stain against the white concrete of my front porch, told me that maybe I wasn’t overreacting.

The next evening,I told myself that everything would be fine and that I needed to focus on the here and now—even if I didn’t quite believe that.

“Ready to go?” I asked as I stood in the doorway, watching Paige set Emery up in her car seat.

“I think so,” Paige answered, looking over the diaper bag. “Are you sure it’s okay that we’re bringing Emery with us?”

I smiled and moved forward, running my hand down her back. Paige turned to me, her mouth parted slightly. I wanted to lean down and kiss those swollen lips, but I refrained, only because I knew it would be hard to stop once we began.

“I’m not going to force you to leave Emery home for a night out when she’s so small. We’ll go to our favorite place, and they know we’re coming in. Meaning, they are prepped for us. We’ll get a table away from everyone else, and she’ll be covered. If she starts crying, one of us can pick her up, and we’ll come home. We’re just going to try it out. If it doesn’t work, then we can try something different.”

Paige smiled, though worry still filled her gaze. “If you’re sure. I know Annabelle or any of my other siblings or my parents could take Emery, but then I’d have to leave her with them, and we both know that’s just not going to happen.” She laughed as she said it, even though it was the truth—one I completely felt deep in my soul.

I smiled and kissed Paige softly, needing her taste. Tonight felt weird, and yet it wasn’t. It was as if we had just fallen into these roles, and yet we were traversing something far different than usual. This was us trying to figure out if we could make this work beyond pretending that we weren’t who we were. It would get complicated. Then again, everything we had done recently was complicated.

“I know. I don’t want to leave Emery behind, either. So, we won’t. We’ll take her out, and if this doesn’t work, then I’ll make you something fancy here.”

“Oursomething fancyis like tuna casserole, Lee.”

“If I bake it and add cheese and breadcrumbs to it, it’s practically gourmet.”

She snorted, and I leaned forward and plucked Emery’s car seat off the kitchen island. She was already passed out, all tucked into her little blanket like a burrito, looking comfortable and adorable.

Paige leaned into me as she looked at Emery. “I pumped just in case we need to feed her during dinner, and I didn’t feel like whipping out my boob in the middle of our meal.”

My gaze went to her chest, her very nice and voluptuous chest, considering she was breastfeeding.

She narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re thinking about my tits right now, aren’t you?”

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