Page 25 of Mending Scars

They know where I work? Holy shit.

Darting my hand out to grab my office phone, I knocked it off the receiver, then scrambled to pick it up. I pushed the button for the receptionist’s desk and Amanda answered, “Yes, Miss Marlow?”

I tried to keep my voice steady. “Amanda, who just called for me?”

“I don’t know, ma’am. When I tried to take a message, they said that they’d call back and hung up.”

Fuck.

“Was it a man or a woman?”

“It was a man. Why? Is something wrong?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “No, everything’s fine, Amanda. Thank you.”

I hung up before she could respond. Panic clawed at me, constricting my chest like it used to when I thought about Kaleb. My head throbbed, and I struggled to breathe. Clenching my eyes shut, I tried to pull myself free of the demons inside me.

Breathe, breathe, breathe.

Inhaling and exhaling deeply, I blanked my mind, then refilled it with thoughts of Ryker—my light in all the darkness that always tried to smother me.

I played his voice in my head.

I love you, Warrior. I’ll never let anything happen to you.

The tightness in my chest faded.

Ryker will keep you safe.

Opening my eyes, I stared at my phone.

Maybe I should get a new number.

That would stop the texts, but the person knew where I worked and could call my office incessantly to harass me that way.

Fuck.

I decided I was going to tell Ryker everything—this phone call took things to a more serious level that I wasn’t capable of handling by myself. I needed him.

I sent him a text asking to meet me on my lunch break at the police station so that we could follow up on my report. He didn’t see the point until I’d told him about the strange call I’d just received.

Ryker was there when I pulled into the lot of the station. When I parked next to his truck, he got out and came around to my driver’s side to meet me. “Hey.” He leaned down and kissed me.

I linked our fingers together. “Hey.”

He gave me a forced smile before leading me inside and up to the front desk. He cleared his throat to get the attention of the officer behind the desk, who had his back to us.

The officer swiveled around in his chair. It was the same asshole that had taken my report. “Can I help you?”

Ryker released my hand and placed them on top of the counter. “Yeah, my girlfriend said she filed a report a couple of weeks ago and we wanted to check the status. She’s been getting threatening text messages and calls.”

The officer stood. “Have you received a call from the station?”

“No.” I moved to stand next to Ryker. “But—”

He rudely interrupted me. “Then, we’re still working on it.”

Ryker’s body tensed as he tightly gripped the counter. “Well, it doesn’t look like you’re doing anything but sitting here on your fat ass eating donuts.”

---