Page 25 of Only The Strong

“Fuck babe, you’re naked. Can you go get dressed while I look at what this sick fuck did this time?” He rubs his hands down my arms and pulls me back so he can look into my eyes.

I nod. “He wrote on the wall and drew a face on my bathroom mirror, but I'm sure without the steam it's gone.”

Callum looks over at the writing on the wall. “Pack a bag, you’re staying with me for a while.” His tone leaves no room for arguing, and if I hadn’t come so close to meeting my stalker today, I might have; but despite the emotions warring inside of me, fear is still coursing through my veins and I think staying with Callum is the best thing for me right now.

While I'm packing my bags, I hear Callum making a few calls. One to a prospect to come get my bags and take them to his townhouse, another to an Officer Richards who apparently does favors for the club, and the last to the guy who installed my alarms. I walk into my bedroom with my bags, Callum is sitting on the edge of my bed watching me. “The police have added this break in to your file and a friend on the force is coming to test the stuff on the wall.”

I nod and step in between his legs, his hands run up my thighs and stop just under my butt. “Why didn't my alarm go off?” I rest my hands on his shoulders.

He signs and inclines his head to look at me. “Miles said the door was unlocked with a key and the code was entered.” He shakes his head. “There's no video, it was hacked and erased for the time he was in here. He was in and out in less than ten minutes.” He turns his head and kisses my arm. “He didn't have time to linger, just leave his creepy messages and get out.”

I nod, relieved that he didn’t watch me shower, and freaked out that we severely underestimated my stalker. “How’d you get in?”

He rubs his hands up and down my thighs, marginally calming my nerves. “He left the door unlocked and the alarm unarmed, he probably left in a hurry and didn't want to take the time to close up on his way out. It's not like we were going to question if he was here or not.”

I let out a breath, my voice shaking. “What’s on the wall?”

He looks into my eyes, pausing. “Blood.”

“Oh my God.” Tears start forming in my eyes again.

“It might not be human, it could be from an animal.” He hurries. I nod, not trusting my voice to speak.

23

CALLUM

I getReese back to my townhouse. Constantly checking our surroundings for anyone watching or following, I'm certain we were clear. Reese decided she wanted to go to sleep, crashing from the adrenaline rush from earlier, so I sent her up to my room to lie down. I, on the other hand, have to call Saint and update him on what's happened today.

After retelling the events of the day, Saint sighs. “Shit man, I thought this was gonna die out. I thought the attack on the guy at the bar was a coincidence and he just took credit for it.”

I lean over my phone on the counter, looking out of the window above the sink in front of me. “This guy pissed on causal obsession and fucked his way into psycho territory. We can't keep waiting for him to attack; I have a bad feeling he’s gonna hurt her.”

There’s tapping on Saint’s line before he speaks, I assume he's typing out a message. “Are you sure it was blood on the walls?”

I stare at the phone deadpanned, like he can see me questioning that dumbass question. “I’ve never used it to write messages on walls, but I’ve spilled enough blood to know what the fuck it looks like.”

Saint hums his agreement. “Are you going to go after this guy?”

“I can't let anything happen to her.” I watch the storm that's rolling in through the window, rethinking everything he’s left us and searching for clues.

I can hear shuffling and keys jingling together on his end of the call. “I called for emergency church. It’ll have to go through a vote, but you know we’re gonna stand behind you on this.” The rain starts to come down hard, and the only sound in the house is our conversation and the hum of the storm. “Stay home with the princess, I’ll make sure everyone knows how much she means to you.”

I just agree and hang up, I’m not going to correct him and sputter more bullshit about Reese and me just being friends. I know damn well everyone can see what's really been going on. We’ve just been trying to fool ourselves, but I know she feels the same way I do. I can see how she relaxes when I'm around and how she's letting me in. Trying to be just friends and ignoring how we feel is only going to make us second guess shit and drive a wedge between us, it could get us in trouble; it’s exactly why I left her alone today, and look what fucking happened. I’m not doing that again. I'm gonna tell her what she means to me and if she wants nothing to do with me then I'll go back to the clubhouse and a prospect can move into my guest room. Aw fuck, I don’t know what’s making my stomach churn more, the thought of letting a girl in or Reese wanting nothing to do with me.

Shaking off the fear, because I’m a fucking man, I head upstairs to my room. Reese is laying on her stomach in the middle of my big bed messing with her phone, wearing nothing but little spandex shorts and a sports bra. I sit down beside her, but before I can say anything she puts her phone down and looks up at me. “I think I know how he got the security code.” Fuck I didn’t want to talk about that fuck, but it was a question I was trying to figure out; I nod for her to continue. She looks down at my dark comforter and focuses on her fingers. “I texted it to Emma to have her move a package into my apartment when we went to Seattle. I also told her where my spare key was.”

I rub my eyebrow, well that answers that. “I didn’t know you had a spare key laying out. I would have told you to get rid of it.”

She interjects before I can continue. “I did after getting home. Telling her where it was reminded me I had it hidden.”

I rub a finger over my chin, thinking. “So he had his own key made.”

Reese drops her head into the bed. “And he was coming in whenever he wanted.” Her voice is muffled in the blanket.

I rub my hand down her bare back, her skin so smooth and warm. “I don't think so, the video feed hadn't been messed with until today. I think he was content with having the key and being able to stay updated through your phone, then when we cut him off he got pissed and left you a message.”

She sits up and climbs into my lap. “I don't want to talk about this anymore.” Her mouth lands on my neck, placing wet, warm kisses down my neck until she reaches the collar of my shirt. Her hands slide under my shirt and lift it over my head, she continues her kisses down my chest. I grab her under her arms and lay her back on the bed. I want to taste her so bad, and I know if I let her hot mouth anywhere near my dick I'm not gonna be able to hold off. I slide her sports bra over her perfect tits and take one pink nipple into my mouth, nipping and swirling my tongue around it. She gasps and arches her back, pushing into my mouth. I do the same thing to her other nipple and push her shorts down her legs.

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