Page 39 of Mine to Keep

No one said anything about my lack of involvement in the dinner conversation, and even while we watched some horror movie, nobody told me to put my phone away.

The Ring camera was hopeless; nothing happened there nor on the garage one. It went to the street one. I followed it, saw Matt’s car pull into the garage.Okay, that tracks.Then I was at the current time. Nothing happened.

I was about to shut it off for a bit, knowing he was in his apartment, when I saw a motorcycle pull up on the street. It was that fucking bagger bike.

The person kept their helmet on, looked up and down the street, grabbed something but I couldn’t see, then was out of view. Where’d they go?

Two minutes later, they got back on the bike and drove away. What was that about? I did a quick scan of the garage and the Ring. They’d never approached those areas, so what had they done?

Collectively everyone groaned, and I glanced up to see a head fly across the screen.

“Unnecessary!” JJ yelled. “She was already dead!”

They all laughed except me; I was unsettled. The person had arrived for a reason, and I couldn’t see what it was.

I wanted to drive over there, but I knew I couldn’t. If I called Matt, he might go check it out…Should I call the cops? And say what, I saw a motorcycle and a person?

I hated this. I’d have to wait and see what happened. This was bullshit.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Matt

Saturday morning,I woke, showered, dressed, and decided I’d go food shopping. I took the elevator down, thinking about how happy JJ was that I said I’d stay on. I never saw Nick while I was there, and I couldn’t figure out why that made me a little sad.

When the elevator opened, I made a detour to get my mail before heading to the garage. There was a package on the floor where the boxes were with my name and address. It was far too big to fit in my mailbox, but usually the postman came up to the apartments.

“It was a late delivery, most likely.” I turned and saw a woman—I thought maybe her name was Connie—she lived on the fourth floor. “If they come too late they don’t bring them up.”

“Oh, thanks.” I tried to remember if I’d ordered anything but honestly, one-click was the devil, so it was possible.

I tucked it under my arm, opened my mailbox, took out the rest of my mail, and made my way to the garage.

Shopping was uneventful. I got what I needed for the week and returned to my car. I drove home, gathered my bags and mail and went up to my apartment. The package was making me curious, so I grabbed a knife and cut it open. There was a lot of Bubble Wrap, and then something wrapped.

It wasn’t my birthday. I was giddy for a brief moment, until I realized this was probably a gift from my stalker. I stepped away and grabbed my phone.

Officer Mendez had looked into the flowers Trinity had gotten, and the bear Darnell had received. No luck with Tony since he’d tossed the chocolates. The sender was anonymous and the flower lady and gift shop couldn’t remember who’d ordered them.

I called him and was thrilled when he answered. “Officer Mendez.”

“Hello, Officer, this is Matt York. I have a package here with no name on it, and it was in the lobby. I guess it was delivered last night when I was asleep. I started opening it but stopped.”

“Okay, Matt, breathe. I’ll be there in a little bit. Don’t touch it anymore.”

“Thank you.”

I went about putting my groceries away, glancing at the partially opened box every few seconds as if something were going to crawl out of it.

The knock on my door sounded the same time as the Ring chimed, letting me know someone was at my door. My phone showed it was the officer, so I went and let him in.

“Hello, come in. The package is on my counter.” I closed the door and Mendez went over to it.

He slipped on gloves and slowly unwrapped the gift. I wanted to know what it was just as much as I didn’t.

Mendez lifted a note and read it, showing no reaction. Then he lifted what appeared to be a glass heart.

“A heart?” I stepped forward.

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