Page 108 of Love Notes & Lifelines
“What’s going on between Tabby and Leo?”
I shake my head. “I’m not sure. There’s a lot about Sailport Bay I don’t know anymore. But if that’s where we’ll be, I have no doubt we’ll figure out Sailport Bay.” I kiss her nose. “You can always call to check on the girls, Stella. You don’t need my permission. Now sleep.”
She kisses me gently, lovingly, casually, as if we’ve done it for a hundred years, and that familiarity is something I’ve longed for my entire life and didn’t even know it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
STELLA
Beck’s phone rings,followed immediately by mine, and a second later his front door opens with a crash.
“Beck? Stella?” Elijah calls from somewhere in the apartment, and I feel the mattress shift as Beck stands.
It’s a rude way to wake up and I’m struggling to shake the cobwebs from my mind. Too many sounds are hitting me at once. My phone goes to voicemail and rings again with a number I don’t recognize. But Beck is already speaking in hushed tones on his phone, so I get to my feet and walk toward the family room.
“Elijah? What’s going on?”
He takes in my appearance and a smug sort of appreciation takes over his features.
“Elijah?” I ask again.
“Right, sorry,” he says, tugging on his earlobe.
“What’s going on?” I peer over my shoulder at Beck’s raised voice and my phone rings again in my hand. It’s not even five in the morning, and alarm bells make my palms sweaty.
“Google Carolina Counting,” Elijah says on his way to the kitchen. Metal and glass clatter while he pulls out coffee grounds from the pantry and starts a pot.
Thank God. I need caffeine, but I do as he asks. Carolina Counting says it’s local news for the Carolinas, but truthfully, it’s a gossip site similar to Page Six or TMZ for locals, with an occasional political article thrown in on slow days.
I don’t even type in the entire name before images fill my screen.
Images of Silas, Beck, and me from last night. I flick through them one after another—shock rendering me immobile as I scroll.
“He set me up.” I cover my mouth with my hand when vomit threatens. My heart thrashes and every internal organ shivers and shakes with the first signs of a panic attack. He must have been wearing a camera. When his bloodied face appears in an awkward selfie in the next photo, I know it’s true.
“For fuck’s sake, Elijah. You couldn’t have warned her?” Beck spits while taking the phone from my hands and guiding me to the sofa.
“What’s going on?” I choke out as Beck’s phone chimes again. He glances at it briefly, his expression so cold I swear the temperature in the room drops twenty degrees. His body twitches as anger consumes him like the moment the superhero learns who killed their parents.
I’m witnessing the physical representation of a man out for revenge, and this time, I’m on his side.
Elijah stands behind us and leans over the back of the sofa, so Beck lifts his phone and we all read the text message.
Unknown Number: I warned you to tread carefully. You just never know who I have at my disposal.
Unknown Number: (Photo Sent)
I gasp at a bloodied photo of Silas. “Who—Who sent that? Didhesend it to you? Is he threatening you?”
My world spirals. I can’t allow him to come after Beck and the girls.
“Not him,” Beck says in an icy tone that covers the room in frost. “Danica.”
My lips press together, and I tug at my already bruised wrist. “But how?—”
“What did you tell Caleb and HR about yourself when they hired you? How did you explain your previous employment?” Elijah asks gently.
It all throat punches me. Caleb knew I left the private school under duress.
