Page 19 of Shattered Reign

I nodded, agreeing with his assessment. Whether I would fall asleep easily was an entirely different question, but at least trying to do so made sense. That way, I could also table any discussion of this for the time being.

I climbed into bed and moved over so Easton had plenty of room to join me. He waited until I was settled before turning the lights off and crawling into bed too. He wrapped his arms around me, and a soft, sad smile covered my lips. Being in his arms made me feel safe and protected, providing a sense of serenity that I hadn’t felt in such a long time. How nice that was, seeing as we were on a yacht of the same name.

I flipped around so that my head landed on his firm chest, where I could hear the steady beating of his heart. It was as if it was a sweet lullaby that helped me shift gears so that I was only thinking about turning my brain off. Nothing else mattered now, and I would embrace that feeling wholeheartedly, at least for the time being.

We soon fell asleep to the sound of waves crashing outside our window. I was temporarily at peace.

12

EASTON

The cool ocean breeze slid across my face as I paced along the wooden deck of the yacht I’d rented for Bianca and me. It was our temporary sanctuary that was supposed to be our saving grace after everything in the world we’d lived in had gone to hell, especially for Bianca. The sight of the picturesque blue sea was jaw-droppingly beautiful and went out as far as the eye could see. This should have been a peaceful morning, but it was anything but due to some asshole who’d managed to figure out that Bianca was in Italy.

We were near the island of Capri, according to what one of the crew members told me just moments before I stepped out there. But despite the enchanting view, there was something weighing heavy on my mind.

My eyes were drawn to my cell phone. I’d managed to grab it out of my pants without waking Bianca. My intention was to take it in case I wanted to make the call I’d been debating with myself about since last night. I glanced at my phone’s screen and noticed I did have cell service. I’d thought we might have it since we were close to the shore, but sometimes you never knew. This would hopefully make it easier for my call to connect. Well, if I was going to make the call at all.

I found a lounge chair, sat down, and quickly found Nash’s number. There was some guilt deep within my heart as my finger hovered over the button that would start it all. Bianca should be the one to tell him this because it was her story to tell.

But we’d already lost precious time since she’d kept this to herself. And I wouldn’t feel guilty about doing all that I could do to keep her safe. Having access to Nash’s resources would be nothing but an asset. If we were working on this alone, it would take us much longer to get results outside of outright using Bianca as bait for this stalker. Hell, we didn’t even know the reason why this person was stalking Bianca, to begin with.

I rubbed a hand down my face in an effort to calm down the million-and-a-half racing thoughts that were flying through it. I pressed the dial button, and the call immediately went to voice mail. I waited a beat before calling the number again.

This time the phone rang several times, and I tapped my index finger on the armrest as I waited for Nash to answer.

“Hello?” His voice was filled with sleep.

I internally winced as I cursed to myself. How could I have forgotten about the time zone difference? “I’m sorry, I forgot that it was like one a.m. there.”

While I did regret calling him this early, I didn’t regret calling him completely. It was important for him to be in the loop on this.

“It’s fine,” he mumbled. His tone told me that “fine” was the last thing he felt in regard to being woken up at this time. He yawned for good measure, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he did it loudly for my benefit. “I would be more pissed if you’d woken up Raven. Give me a second.”

I heard some rustling in the background, and I assumed it was Nash leaving his bedroom and heading somewhere else where he would have the opportunity to talk freely.

“Why are you calling me this late, dude?” His voice was now mostly clear of the grogginess it had been filled with, but it had been replaced with something else. Now it seemed as if he was curious about why I’d called, but there was a smidge of irritation there as well. I couldn’t blame him for that.

When he didn’t ask me what I meant about me alluding to the time zone difference, I took it as a blessing. “There’s something I need to tell you, but you have to promise to keep it mostly between the two of us outside of what I want you to potentially investigate.”

“How serious is this?” I could hear the gears in his head turning all the way from here.

“Very serious,” I said, and I could swear I heard my heart pounding in my chest. “It involves someone that you and I care a lot about.”

There was a brief pause on the other end before Nash responded, “You have my word. What’s going on?”

I took a deep breath and knew I needed to just say what I needed to say and get it out there because I was over the debate I’d been having with myself. “Bianca has a stalker.”

The line went quiet except for Nash’s breathing. It was the only thing that told me he was still on the line. “What has been going on? Is that why we haven’t been able to reach her? Is she okay?”

I hated that I had to spring this on him about his sister, but it was the only choice I had.

“She’s fine and has just been lying low with me due to all the news. As far as we know, it’s just been text messages, but they’ve been getting more and more specific.” I was toeing a fine line about telling him about where we were. Hell, would he say something about Bianca and me being somewhere alone together?

There was a brief pause before Nash spoke. “Funny. Something similar happened to both Raven and me too.”

I was surprised by both the revelation and his lack of questioning my intentions with his sister. Maybe he’d fully moved on from that, but what I needed to do was focus on Bianca’s safety.

It was then a new possibility appeared in my head. I wasn’t sure if this theory would be welcomed or not, but I needed to get it out there to see what Nash thought. “I wonder if all three of these instances could be related?”

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