Page 36 of Act Like You Don't Care
“You boys stirred him up pretty well,” was the first thing my father said. “Your mother is calling the perimeter crew now, but I want you to be absolutely sure you don’t let the client out of your sight, got it?”
“What’s up?” I said lightly, ignoring Tam as best I could. This was going to be an unpleasant conversation. I’d have laid money on it.
“The ex-boyfriend, fiancé—whatever—it wasn’t him. Lots of evidence that he was nowhere near California for the pig.”
“That doesn’t mean he didn’t send the letters. We might be conflating two people here.”
“We’re not,” Dad said grimly. “There’s another letter. We’ve scanned it, your mother will send the copy on to you before she turns it over to the police.”
“Are they getting more involved now?”
Tam twisted against me, tugging on my shoulder to get my attention. “What happened?” he mouthed.
I held up a finger and tried to catch up with Dad’s answer.
“—more patrols around the neighborhood of the condo. They’re recommending he start wearing kevlar when he’s out, just in case.”
“I’m not sure if the studio will go for that. We still have filming to finish. I’ll ask. Are you sending a vest up?” Tam’s body went tense against mine. I shushed him before he could start interrupting and went back to arguing with Dad. “Do you have an indication he’s not still in L.A.?” Tam’s eyes widened, then he reached for my phone with a determined expression. I shook my head and frowned, which didn’t help—he simply frowned back and mouthed, “Let me talk to him.”
But sometimes miracles do happen, even if you aren’t in a movie. The assistant director called for Tam to come get in the car to be taken to the next location and he had to go, though the glare I got as he stomped off would have scared off a ravenous mountain lion, no problem.
“Dad,” I interrupted him. “We’re moving to a new location. Is the letter in my email yet?”
“Hold on.” He yelled for my mother, the sound muffled. Then he was back, “She’ll send it now.”
“Thanks. Don’t agree to anything until I’ve seen it, okay?”
“When did I die and leave you in charge?” he snapped back. “I’ll send you the updated security plan so you can walk him through it. If you have anything to add, we can talk about it later. For now, you stick to the plan.”
“Yeah, okay. Just, let me see the letter, okay?”
“She’s sending it now.” Dad went silent for a moment, then added, in an apologetic tone, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped at you. It literally landed on my desk fifteen minutes ago and the whole office is in an uproar. The studio is talking about canceling the production, or putting it off, anyway.”
Shit, thatwasserious. Maybe getting them to agree to the vest wasn’t so big a stretch. Getting Tam to agree to it, though, might be more difficult. “Let me read it.” Someone was waving at me, pointing me toward another car with an empty seat. “I have to go, Dad. They’re waiting for me. I’ll call you in a few minutes.”
“Do that. We have everything covered here. Let me know if you want more personnel over there in Kentucky. There’s a few local outfits that I can call. They won’t be what you’re used to working with, but they can provide backup and extra eyes.”
That was good news. “I’ll look and see and talk to the perimeter.”
We ended the call, I grabbed my backpack with my laptop in it and hooked it into my phone’s data plan on the way over to where they would be shooting the interior shots of the convenience store.
The image was a quick scan, a little crooked, but the text was clear. The writing was more ragged in this one, but the loops on the g’s and the endings of n’s and m’s were all the same.
Why do you not listen,Thomas? Has that city of heathens gone to your head? I remember you when you were your true self, gentle and proper, obedient to your alpha. It shall be that way again, Thomas, on my duty as an alpha. I cannot allow you to make these choices that will damn you to eternal torment. It is the purpose of the alpha to control the omega’s wayward nature if they cannot control themselves. If you cannot control yourself, then I must do so on your behalf, or fail in my duty as an alpha.
Once you have come to terms with your proper place, you will see how much happier you are. And if you cannot learn to give up these unseemly ways, if you have traveled too far down this road to Hell to be saved in this world, then I will save you in the next. For the soul is eternal, as are the fires of Hell. Better a brief agony than an eternal one. I love you, Thomas, and cannot bear to think of your suffering, both in this world and the next. Let me help you. Please.
The next paragraphturned my stomach with a graphic description of just what our stalker thought Tam would need to endure to be cleansed of his un-omega-like sins.Shit.Escalation on a scale we didn’t often see. At least he’d warned us, though it was impossible to say where he might think to strike. Definitely a Vinist, though. But who else would call Tam by his birth name?
Probably all of them.
I locked the computer and leaned back in my seat, but there wasn’t any time to think about it before we pulled up down the street from where the cameras were being set up.
Tam glanced up at me from his huddle with the director, then promptly turned back to Dominic again. I couldn’t be sure if he was still miffed with me, or if he was just turning that incredible focus of his back onto his work. With Tam, it could have been either.
I found a chair a little out of the way and pulled open the updated security plan before I started touching base with the perimeter crew.
Tam
