Page 99 of Adoring Delaney

Realization slammed into my chest, why she looked familiar. She’d changed her hair color but it was her. She’d bumped me with her purse when I was on my first date with Steve. I swallowed down the fear and she continued.

“I watched you moping in Myrtle Beach but, just like always you were too self-absorbed to notice me, despite the fact I was sitting right in front of your house. I even saw your boyfriend show up.” I wasn’t self-absorbed, I was mourning my child, you crazy bitch. “I needed to make sure you and your boyfriend would be out while I slashed your tires, so I followed you to that restaurant and you never noticed until I came right up and introduced myself. You saw my handwriting on the job applications but never matched it to the envelope I sent you. But the best was in Virginia. I know you saw me. I wanted to do it then, but I had to wait. Finally you’ll get your punishment. You’ll know my pain.”

You’ll know my pain.

Ohmygod.

I glanced down at my feet, at the pregnancy test there, and I knew what I had to do. When Derek took me, I shut down. Completely and totally in shock and fear. I couldn’t shake it and Mercy had almost died because of it.

Not this time.

No fucking way.

Fear slipped into anger and I was not going to wait to see if she was going to kill me or possibly my baby.

I was mad as fuck she’d shot at my sister and was holding me at gun point. As soon as this car stopped, I was going for it.

No way was I letting anyone hurt my baby. Not again. Not ever.

29

“Can you please repeat that?” I asked Patrick Duffy.

With nothing adding up about the letter mailed to Delaney, and Steve coming back clean, that left Natalie to check and the only solid piece I had on her was the car she was driving and the registered owner. So, I decided to call him.

And from what he just told me, I knew I should’ve called weeks ago. I’d been right. The woman was fucking crazy.

“Listen, she’s harmless. I’ve known Dana for a long time.” Yeah, Dana was her name, not Natalie. “We met in art school. She’s…sensitive.” There was nothing sensitive about her, she was plain nuts. “She’s one of those people who feels too much. She can’t turn it off, man. After her brother was murdered, she kinda lost it. But she’s better now, only gets sad every once in a while. He’s buried in Georgia. She used to drive up there once a week to sit at his grave. But she’s getting better,” he repeated like he felt the need to hammer that home. “Now she only goes up every couple of months. But his birthday’s today, so she went up a few weeks ago, spent some time with her parents.”

“And she took your car? All this time?”

“Yeah. She doesn’t have one and my studio’s in my garage. I walk everywhere or ride my bike. My car just sits, sometimes for months. So what did I care she was gonna be gone a few weeks. She’s coming back tomorrow.”

“What’s her brother’s name?”

“Derek.”

Time stopped.

Everything stopped.

Cold rage hit my soul and I knew. I knew before what happened next. I knew in gut, my heart, my soul, I was too late.

“Carter!” Jasper bellowed from the other room.

I was on my feet before my brain had caught up with my movements.

I met Jasper and my dad in the hall and I didn’t need them to tell me. I didn’t even need to see the extreme anger.

Dana Lowe had Delaney.

“Fuck!”

“Not now,” my dad clipped.

“Shots fired at my house,” Jasper started. “Three to be exact. Missed Quinn and she called it in though Brady was already on his way to tell me, he watched it all go down. Natalie got Delaney into her car and she took off.”

“Whose car? Laney or Dana?”

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