Page 64 of Where We Found Our Home
I know there won’t be much the cops can do in terms of evidence, but I call a friend of mine in the Austin Police Department to come to the scene and look around. We’ve told the police everything about Ciara’s past and Eddie, but they’ve given us the same bullshit the Baltimore cops did. There’s nothing proving Eddie is here in town. No credit card usage in Austin. No residence, no car registered here. No sight of him on any security cameras. The man really is a fucking ghost.
I call a tow truck and I call Shane for a ride. I text Ciara to make sure she’s home safe and remind her to keep the door locked, but I don’t tell her what happened. Not yet. I want to see her face to face for this.
Shane pulls up to Ciara’s building, and I take a deep breath about to step out of the car when he snags my attention. “By the way, man. I told Ciara what happened, and she sounded pissed that you didn’t tell her when you texted her, so watch your back,”
Shit.“What the fuck did you tell her for?”
“She low-key scares me, bro.” Fair. I thank Shane for the ride and head up to Ciara’s floor. She rips the door open before I even knock, so she must have been checking the peephole for me. She grabs me and yanks me inside before pulling me in for a hug.
“Are you okay?” she asks with her hands on my shoulders, looking me over from head to toe.
“I’m fine, Angel. I promise.”
“It was Eddie. I’m sure of it.”
There’s no point in trying to deny it. Denial gets you killed. “I think you’re right.”
“Fuck. This is exactly what I didn’t want. I hate this.”
“I know but I’m fine.” I try to reassure her but I know I’ve said the wrong thing.
“He had a fucking gun, Linc! What if he had decided to shoot you instead of your tire?”
“We will deal with this. Together.” I take a deep breath and tell her about the day of the fire where I was trapped. I might as well rip that Band-Aid off while she’s still riled up.
She gasps, pushing me away. “Are you fucking kidding me? Why didn’t you tell me about that? He’s been here for so long! Fuck, every time I felt like I was being watched, he probably was lurking around somewhere. He just didn’t make himself seen. Fuck!” I grab Ciara by the shoulders and push her head into my chest. She immediately releases a sob but then lightly punches my chest and pulls away.
“This is fucked, Linc! He’s coming after you! Just like I thought. I can’t…”
“Ciara, do not finish that sentence. You promised you’d stay. You promised to give me the chance to protect you, and I will.”
“And who’s going to protect you?”
“You.” She freezes. “You have me and I have you. That’s how this works. Don’t freak out on me now. Okay?”
She nods. It starts off slow but as my words sink in it gets quicker, more certain. “What do we do?”
I have no idea what we do next. But I do know, there’s no way in hell I’ll ever let him get near her.
“We call in reinforcements.”
Ciara
I’ve become the damn princess in the castle with everyone acting as my bodyguard by order of the king. I hate it.
I spend each day at Sasha’s writing and editing but now, conveniently, everyone in our circle has decided they want to spend all their time at Sasha’s as well. Isaiah comes to visit his sister, but his eyes are always on me. Shane stops by on his lunch break and pretends to be shocked I’m there. Kai comes in claiming to crave some of Sasha’s pastries even though I’ve never once seen him eat one. Dom stops by to “check on Sasha’s alarm system” an awful lot. Nina already spent a lot of time with me at Sasha’s, but she’s taken to spending every free moment with me now and bringing Jada and Logan along when her parents take off on yet another trip.
Nevaeh is the only one who is honest with me about her new duties. She runs into the shop behind Carter and gives me one of her infamous hugs. “Ciara! I asked Mommy if I could help babysit you today.”
Sasha sucks her teeth. “Little girl! No one is babysitting Ciara.”
“Oh, well you said everyone is coming by to keep an eye on her so I thoughted you meant babysitting.”
My grin grows even wider. At least she’s honest. “I gotta say that you are, by far, my favorite babysitter.” She takes pride in my compliment and stands as tall as possible.
“Thank you! I like being the babysitter. It’s usually me getting babysitted.”
“I bet. You should get your mom and dad to give you a brother or sister so you can practice babysitting with them.” I stick my tongue out at Sasha over Nevaeh’s head. She flips me off and then calls Nevaeh over to pick out a muffin for her snack.
