Page 19 of My Secret to Protect

No going back now. I’m here. Time to put on a show.

Be A Doll and Keep The Noise Down

Bree

It’s been a few days since I came back from Grandma’s, and the distance gave me a false sense of security. I started to forget, with a couple of nights of sleep and Grandma’s cooking, just how scared Nolan had me. I came back to a quiet house, a quiet phone, and a feeling that my exhaustion had been making me a little dramatic.

I spent the afternoon with my family, catching them up on how Grandma is, as well as the gossip from her little community, and cuddling the babies before going home, feeling happy and refreshed. I let myself into my house, took a shower, put on some clean pajamas, lit some candles, and poured myself a large glass of wine. Then, my cell vibrated.

Unknown:Princess. Where did you go?

Then again.

Unknown:You can’t just disappear on me like that, Bree. It made me feel crazy!

And again.

Unknown:Don’t do that again, Breanne! I was worried about you.

I froze as I stared at the messages on the screen and watched as another arrived.

Unknown:You do not leave Forest Falls. If you leave again, I will hunt you down like the prey you are, and I promise I always find what I’m hunting. You’re in my sights, Bree, don’t make me pull the trigger!

It was the worst message. The most terrifying. I spilled the red wine onto my gray carpet in my haste to put it down and run to the bathroom. I locked the door and climbed into the tub, and that’s where I woke up, terrified and alone, not knowing what I needed to do to make this stop.

‘Bree, you okay?’ Missy asks, pulling me out of my fog as we sit in my living room, drinking iced tea. I wanted to sit on the porch, but Missy wanted my air conditioning.

The weather is nice, hot, and sticky, but I like it. The sky is so blue on days like today that it doesn’t seem real. No matter how many of these days I’ve had in my life, the blue of the sky never seems any less impossible. It calms me, and right now, I need calm, but the needs of my pregnant best friend are greater than mine.

‘Yeah, I’m good.’ I smile softly at my friend.

‘You’re still not sleeping.’ It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t answer. ‘Why don’t you go see a doctor?’

I shake my head, no. ‘I’ll be fine. It’s just a phase.’

‘Bree, I don’t…’ She’s cut off by the loud rumbling sound of an engine that approaches and comes to a stop outside, and Missy being Missy, she has to take a look. I watch as she stands to peek out of the window.

‘Marissa, get away from my window.’ I shake my head and force a small laugh. ‘Jesus, you fit into this town like a hand in a glove.’

She laughs. ‘Breanne, I am expected to know the comings and goings. My clients rely on me.’ She returns her attention to the window. ‘Oh, my god.’ Her words come on an exhale. ‘Honey, isthatyour new neighbor?’

Word got around that the cottage next door had been sold and everybody has been waiting to find out who to. Whoever it is will have a fridge and a freezer full of casseroles before the weekend is out. I know it. The women of Forest Falls talk, and they won’t be able to help themselves getting a look. It was the same when Cara arrived. Missy too.

‘Bree, get over here.’

Pushing myself up from the couch, I join her at the window, and she grabs my arm. ‘Man, you are so nosey.’ I chuckle as I stand to take a look. ‘Wow,’ I say with a slight sigh when I see the size of the man with his back to us as he reaches into the back of his pickup. He’s tall and wide and,God, so muscular.

‘Yeah, wow,’ Missy repeats excitedly, but I can’t tear my eyes off the man.

He’s unloading boxes, wearing a black t-shirt that shows just how large a man he is, as well as all the tattoo-covered skin of his arms. It lifts as he stretches up to raise the boxes, showing a strip of skin above the well-worn jeans that he’s wearing very,verywell, and he has on boots—good god, he’s hot. Then he turns around, and I swear my heart stops.

‘Oh my god,’ I whisper, breathless, as I step back from the window, and Missy turns her attention on me.

‘Bree, you okay?’

Rushing for the door I head outside to see for real with Missy hot on my heels behind me, and I freeze on my porch.

‘Ohhh puppy,’ Missy calls out as he opens the truck door, and an excitable rottweiler jumps down and runs around the yard. He waits for the dog to relieve itself before he starts to play with it, a beaming smile stretched across his face. ‘Oh goddam, come on.’

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