Page 91 of Seven+Four

The sensation of dread increases. Uri’s fingers lace with mine as he pushes me slightly back. He takes out the switchblade, and without letting go of my hand, cuts the tape on top of the box. Two dead birds are inside. One has a broken neck, the other hasits chest covered in blood—the crimson color looks so stark over the yellow, delicate feathers. It’s horrible.

The note inside says,Me and You.Us.

Uri is already talking with Rami on the phone when my coat starts buzzing. I jump, not knowing how much time has passed with me staring at the heartbreaking sight. My afterglow is gone, replaced by horror and fear. I fumble to get my cell out, trying hard to erase that barbaric and vile vision from my mind.

Unknown

I’ll be seeing you again soon.

Again? Who is it? Is it the stalker? I suddenly feel eyes on me. I know it’s an irrational thought triggered by fear and helplessness. I’m suddenly out of breath. Where did all the air go? I let go of my phone as my eyes turn unfocused. Am I going to die? Yes, yes I am. My body feels cold and rigid. Now I can’t feel it anymore. The blood stopped flowing in my veins. No. I…

Blurry hazel eyes are suddenly in front of me. Large hands cup my face. Warmth. A voice buzzes in my ears. It becomes abruptly clear the next moment.

“I decide when you go, Sari.” Uri. An immense wave of relief washes over me, wetting my cheeks with tears.

“I own you. You’re mine.”

I nod, or I try to.

“Eyes on me. Stay awake and take my breaths in your lungs.” Mouth to mouth he gives me life again. “Yes, Baby Blue. That’s right, don’t fucking stop.”

When the panic attack abates, Uri wraps me in his jacket and, holding me in his arms bridal style, carries me to the car.

He doesn’t let me go. I’m on his lap, in the safety of his arms. My cheek is lying on his chest. I can hear his heart beating fast…from anger or maybe fear. My trembling hand is fisting his sweater, I’m scared he’ll let me go, unreasonably so. Tears are stuck inside my throat and intermittent shivers keep shaking my body.

“Talk to me,” I whisper brokenly. His deep voice always drags me back when I’m drowning in one of my panic attacks.

Just as I think he didn’t hear me, he asks, “Do you know why I bought our lake house?”

Did he sayour?

“Because in spring, Baby Blue Eyes will bloom all around the property, and I want to see you standing in the middle of it all…again. I want you to look at me like you did that day and hear me say you belong to me, knowing this time you’ll understand the real meaning of it.”

I sigh. Every word he utters reaches my soul, latching around it, bonding me to him for eternity.

“That look of desolation on your face appeared in my dream that very night. Fearful, periwinkle eyes above pale cheeks. We were separated, as I ended up in the group home and you at Meg’s house, barely seeing each other.”

“We were in no state to interact with other people,” I say softly.

His chin brushes over my head as he nods. “I’ve always been very rational, it’s an innate trait. A boy showing up in my dreams hadno particular meaning. But you weren’t just any boy. You were mine, and you kept visiting my dreams for a month.”

“Is that why you started sneaking inside my room after that?” I ask. He’d walk fifteen minutes from the group home to Meg’s and slide under the broken wooden fence on the east side of the house every night for six months just to watch me fall sleep.

“That was just the tip of my obsession with you. Whoever this stalker is, they are amateurs. They have no idea who they are up against.”

eleven

SARIEL

They caught my stalker. They caught my stalker. They caught my stalker.The statement keeps echoing inside my head as I enter the restaurant on hesitant feet. Only one bodyguard outside today since I’m with the others, and life keeps going.

I stayed shut away in the lake house, too scared to go outside, for almost a week. I dove into my work. I took the cowardly way out again—so much for not being the weak link in this family. But the memory of those lifeless, innocent birds almost triggered other panic attacks while the sensation of feeling exposed hasn’t faded away.

It took only a day for Rami to find out who the stalker was. Two weeks prior to my lecture, new CCTV cameras were set up all over campus and also in the faculty lounge after two students from that university were found beaten and raped near Chicago. Nobody knew about the new security except for the dean of the university and his assistant, Dr. Dench. Rami found out about itwhen he hacked their emails to help Hunter who’s working on the case with the police.

Margaret Smith. That’s her name. My stalker was an intern working at Bear-Stone Labs, the same intern that Sandy kicked out of my lab more than a week ago. I shiver at the thought, now seeing that encounter in a completely different, dangerous, and creepy light.

Rami got her on the security footage entering the faculty lounge at the University of Illinois with that box in her hands thirty minutes before my lecture. After that, it was easy for Serena to locate her through facial recognition in the vicinity of all the places where the stalker left a package in the last month. After a very thorough background check, Rami discovered that she was also working as a volunteer in an emergency room. That is how she got a hold of the muscle relaxant that killed the guard, which is usually used in hospitals to relax the respiratory muscles before intubating patients.

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