Page 24 of Save Them

“That’s okay,” Rhys answers, his tone authoritative and strong when addressing Jarrod. “Let’s get this going, though, so we can get Alayna home and away from this place.”

“Right. Alayna,” Jarrod turns to me, pulling out his notebook and motioning to the police officer behind him. “This is Officer Kleiman, he’s going to be working with me on this today. Can you walk us through what happened?”

Nodding, I start my story from when I approached the parking lot to now, including the breakdown but without the intimate details of it. The guys look on, offering me encouraging touches and glances every time I start to choke up or stammer over my words. When I get to the phone call, though, they tense up, looking over at me with alarm. Of course in all the aftermath, I fucking forgot to bring up the call.

“You changed your number recently, though, didn’t you?” Jarrod questions, looking up at Rhys for confirmation. At our nods, he furrows his brow in confusion. “Have you given it out to anyone since you got it?”

“My friend Juliette has it, but I called her from the new number so she grabbed it from her caller ID. I also gave it to the woman who owns the old Hopped Haus down the road because I was meeting her this morning to have a look at it,” I answer hesitantly, still running through my memories to see if I gave it out to anyone else. “I think that’s it aside from these three. I haven’t had much of a chance to speak to anyone else.”

“What was the woman’s name? We’ll touch base with her and make sure she hasn’t accidentally given it to anyone, as well as your friend Juliette. If neither of them have, we’ll have to explore other avenues for how he’s finding out your phone number.” Jarrod turns to mumble something to Officer Kleiman before turning back to me. “Now, you said he threatened Rhys, Riggs, and Adam? What did he say exactly?”

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I avert my gaze from the guys because saying this out loud is going to be hard without looking at them and imaging it at the same time. “He said that while the red petals looked good where they were, he thought that my boyfriends’ blood would look even better splattered all over my car. In his words, though, we aren’t at that point in our relationship yet. Soon, but not yet.”

“What does that mean?” Officer Kleiman asks, his tone judgemental and rude. “Were you in a relationship with the man stalking you?”

Rhys steps forward, his hands fisted at his sides. “You better watch your fucking tone, Officer. No, she wasn’t in a relationship with him and still isn’t. Keep assuming shit, and I’ll make sure your fucking career ends today.”

“Rhys, step back. I’ve got this,” Jarrod mumbles, turning to the officer in question. “I let you be here with me as a courtesy to you, but do not test my patience. I gave you the rundown of the situation, so your question is highly inappropriate. I will ask the questions, you just write the notes silently.” Turning back to look at me, he apologizes quickly before jumping back in. “Thank you for running us through everything that happened. We’re going to follow up on a few of these leads like the staff in the coffee shop and the woman who owns the building and see if we can’t find a way to get this guy.”

“Thank you, Jarrod. We appreciate how thoroughly you’re looking into this.” Rhys shakes his hand firmly then glares over at the uniformed officer. “Let us know if there’s anything else you need. Do you have any more leads on what happened with Adam?”

“Nothing. It’s a complete dead end no matter which way we look at it,” Jarrod answers, shaking his head in annoyance. “We can’t even say whether it is or isn’t connected with what’s going on here. Whoever did it covered their trail well, and we just don’t have the resources to continue trying to figure it out. That said, we will find this guy. We’re fairly certain it’s this Jennings guy, and sooner or later, he’ll slip up enough for us to find him. Just keep vigilant until we do.”

“We will,” Riggs says gruffly, his face displaying just how frustrated and annoyed he is with this whole situation. “Are you guys keeping Lay’s car for evidence, or should we swing by and pick it up in a little while?”

Jarrod checks his watch then looks over at my car. “You should be okay to swing by in a few hours and grab it. We’ll grab whatever evidence we find and be out of your hair. It looks like most of the evidence is outside the vehicle. I’ll give Rhys a call when we’re done.”

“Sounds good,” Rhys acknowledges Jarrod for us as Adam helps me down from the tailgate. He smiles down at me, his worry and frustration making it a little sad to look at.

Adam helps me up into his truck as Riggs and Rhys say goodbye to the police. They give us a wave before heading over to Riggs’ car to head back home. Adam taps on the radio, some old school rock filling the space and setting me a little more at ease. It’s quiet between us, neither one of us really wanting to talk after everything that’s happened in such a short amount of time.

This morning I was full of hope and happiness, so ready to start on my new adventure of creating my dream bar. Now, I’m scared and angry all over again. Each time I get back up and tell myself that the old me, the one that was constantly made into a victim, is gone and I’m going to be stronger and better, life bitch slaps me back down. It’s getting so fucking exhausting.

That said, there’s still one thing that’s changed about me that even life fucking me over can’t destroy. I’ve learned what it’s like to love again. It’s no longer going to be me up against whatever shit life is throwing at me, it’s going to be me andthem. The three men that have shown me it’s okay to be vulnerable, it doesn’t take away my strength. The friend that’s shown me kindness goes a long way in life and love is a strength not a weakness. And to the man who’s gone, but never out of my heart, who taught me how short and precious life is when he took himself away from us. It’s all of us, and the lessons they gave me, against the world, and I will be forever changed because of them.

Chapter Fifteen

Alayna

Blasting music in the kitchen, I set out everything I need to make pumpkin white chocolate muffins. It's been a week since the coffee shop incident, and I'd like to say I haven't been in a depressed haze, but that would be a lie. Sure, I've gone to town on my new punching bag and gone for what feels like a million runs with Rhys or Riggs. It's all been done as a way of coping, and honestly, I'm tired of doing the same old shit that I've always done.

This morning when I woke up and saw the yellow and orange leaves outside Riggs’ window, I decided it was time to step out of my box a little bit and do something different. I'm going to be a basic bitch today and make pumpkin muffins, drink a pumpkin spice latte, and listen to my early two-thousands playlist. Instead of releasing pent up emotions, I want to just let go and forget those emotions exist at all.

All Starby Smash Mouth starts, bringing an instant smile to my face as I start dancing around the kitchen. This was one of the songs I would blast with Declan out at the dock, just me and him and my portable CD player that I got for ten bucks at the GoodWill store. So worth the money since it gave us something to do when we were hiding away from the house of horrors.

Singing the chorus loudly, I mix together the dry ingredients for the muffins. My wavy, black hair is in the messiest bun ever on top of my head, and I have zero makeup on my face. My black leggings and ripped, vintage The Offspring shirt has flour and egg on it, adding to the look of ridiculous, hot mess that I’m clearly going for.

The music keeps going, moving from one throwback hit to another, each one bringing my mood higher and higher until I’m dancing around the kitchen, shaking my ass toLowby Flo Rida feat. T-Pain. The muffins are baking in the oven, the music loud enough to cover my awful singing, and the iced latte in my hand is low enough to stop spilling with every ass shake.

“Do you think she knows we’re here?” Adam’s voice rings out across the kitchen. I spin around in shock so quickly I slip on the kitchen tiles, falling right on my ass and throwing my drink all over myself. “I’ll take that as a no.”

Adam and Riggs walk around the island, both of them staring down at me with wide eyes. My shoulders shake with silent laughter as I sit soaked in pumpkin spice latte, muffin ingredients, and who knows what else. If there was a picture in the dictionary for disaster, it would be me at this moment.

“Are you okay, Lay?” Riggs asks, moving slowly towards me as if I’m a feral animal. “Do we need to take you to see a doctor? That was a rough fall.”

Shaking my head, I hold up my hand, releasing a high-pitched squeal of laughter instead of words. “I—I’m okay,” I wheeze out, finding it really hard to stop laughing. Adam’s chuckles soon join my own and send me even farther over the edge. Once Riggs also joins us, it just goes downhill from there. Lying on the ground in a puddle of cold coffee, I laugh until my stomach hurts and tears fall down my face to join the mess underneath me.

Coming down from the laugh high, I let out a content sigh and sit back up to look at Adam and Riggs. “I’m sorry. I’ll clean this all up once my muff— SHIT! My muffins!”

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