Page 51 of Ruin

“I don’t know. He said somebody wanted to talk to him about something-”

“You think he’s found something out about the messages?” This is the only question I have at the moment. No one seems to know anything, and it’s annoying me.

“No, because he would have told us, I think it’s normal Pit business.”

A knock on the door stops Hayden saying anymore, and we all turn to the door. Lileah is by the pool with her friends, taking up most of this beautiful weather.

“I’ll get it, then.” Miles moans as he walks to the door.

“Declan Crawford?” The man asks and Miles answers yes, and takes the envelope off him and slams the door shut in his face.

“Wait.” I rush over to the door. “Stay where you are. Don’t leave.” The guy looks at me, then at his truck. “You move. I’ll break your fucking legs so you can’t walk, and look at my sister one more time. I’ll rip your fucking eyes out.” The man’s eyes widen, and nods, turning away from Lileah and her friends. I shut the door.

“What are you doing?” Miles hands the envelope to me.

“The guy’s been given a parcel to deliver to me, right. I’ve got some crazy fucker after me. Do you think it’d be wise to know who gave him the parcel?” I shake my head at them.

“You really think that’s what this is?” Miles asks.

Ripping the envelope open, I pull out the pictures. The three of them huddle around me.

“Is he watching you?” Hayden takes the first picture from me.

“Don’t even know who the fucking guy is,” I snap at Hayden. I know I shouldn’t be snapping at them, but I can’t help it.

“They seem to only be watching you. There are no pictures in there of us.” I look through all of them. There’s one of me at school, me walking to my car, at the burger place. They don’t even have any pictures of me with Trixie. Thankfully, but she’s the one who I’ve been with the last couple of days. When I get to the last piece of paper, I open it and stare at it.

“You think your family can survive without you?” I read it out loud, so they know what’s written on it.

Hayden’s on the phone to Cain within seconds. I open the door and point to the guy. “You get in here.” He walks into the garage and looks between us. “Where did you get the envelope from?”

“I was given a locker code, went to the locker, opened it, and this was in there with your address on it.”

“And how did the person pay for the locker?” I ask.

“Cash. There was money in the envelope-”

“Take the money, give me the envelope.” Maybe there could be a fingerprint on it. “Where was the locker? Write down the exact address, the locker number, everything on this piece of paper?” I hand him a pen.

“Now, you think this person is stupid enough to put their print on something?” Miles asks.

“No, but I’m going to check.” I take the paper off the guy and tell him to leave.

Then Miles takes the paper from me. “I’ll have a look into the locker and see if I can find anything.” Cain always said it’s good to have one hacker in the family.

“Cain wants us in the office tonight,” Hayden tells us.

“Would he not want us there now?” I ask. This isn’t something that we can wait on.

“He did. He said to get there right now. I told him we’ll be there tonight,” Hayes says. He locks eyes with me. Prick. I’ve told him I’m fine, told him I’m good, and nothing is wrong with me. But the man worries too much about all of us. I think it’s more the big brother part in him.

“Thought we could have a day of just drinking and fixing your car.”

“Don’t you three have college?” I cut Hayden off, joking with them.

“Don’t you have school?”

“Wasn’t in the mood for it,” I tell them, even though I had a good sleep, my headspace isn’t in the right place.

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