Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
The instant relief that hit me was insurmountable.
I deflated in his arms. “Gotcha,” I groaned into his muscular chest. “What happened?”
I loved Autry. He was a big beast of a sexy black man, so tall he could probably compete with Shaq, and had the voice of an angel. Literally, he could probably narrate a dictionary and I could fall asleep to him every night.
He was also former special ops, had a voice that could get louder than thunder, and a heart of gold.
He’d come highly recommended by Coffey, and we adored him. All of us, which was an impossible feat in and of itself.
“Well, I’ve literally tried and failed to get ahold of every single one of your siblings but Crimson and you. But none of them have answered. I got some mail today.” He held it out to me. “I opened it as per our agreement and found some disturbing things that I don’t feel like should be delayed in sharing with y’all.”
A feeling of dread overtook me. I wanted to know what was in this envelope almost as much as I wanted a root canal with no drugs.
As in, zero.
I had zero desire to have even more drama to deal with.
I hesitantly looked it over, frowning. “What is it?”
“It’s a self-addressed envelope to the circus. Like it was sent from us,” he said. “But in it, it has the movements of you and your sisters. Places y’all frequent together regularly, habits, likes, dislikes, interests, etc.”
I opened the envelope and found seven sheets in it. All of them with our first and last name on there as well as every single tiny detail that they found or could uncover.
“Oh,” I breathed. “What the hell?”
I pulled out the one labeled as mine and scanned the contents.
My favorite coffee shop. My favorite brand of t-shirts. My bank account info, what I spent in the last twenty-four hours, as well as a where I’d stopped by every day on the way to the hospital.
“What the fuck?” I asked sharply.
Why did this always happen to us? Was our family cursed or something?
“Exactly,” he said. “I sent all this information to Hannibal, but he hasn’t gotten back to me yet. Though he did inform me that he and Hades were going on a hike and would likely be unable to get or make any calls or texts until they got back to their car.”
My sister and her husband had turned into freakin’ trail nerds. Every chance they could, they were out in nature, and were also considering a house in the mountains of Wyoming.
The only thing stopping them at this point was lack of time.
Between Hades’ job as a photographer and designer, and Hannibal’s job in security, and their participation in the circus, they didn’t have the time to spare.
Then again, none of us really did at this point.
“Wow,” I said as I stared at the contents of the page. “They even know when I go and run.”
I didn’t run fast.
In fact, it was more of a shuffling walk.
I also did CrossFit—and was getting better at it but still wasn’t great—to keep in shape.
But the fact that it had both the places I run, and the place I’d been frequenting for workouts, sent a chill down the length of my spine.
Goddammit.
Would it ever freakin’ end?
“Did the cameras pick when it showed up?” I asked, noting the lack of post mark.
The déjà vu feeling I felt coming from Tony’s—Caristonia’s—incidents with a stalker who liked to send her ‘presents’ in the mail made my stomach hurt.
“No, nothing,” he said. “Though, I think it was dropped off by the postman himself. A package arrived, and he came in today with the package instead of delivering it to the mail room like he normally would.”
Wonderful.
“So maybe it was left in the box, he grabbed the mail that was sitting there after realizing it wouldn’t fit into the compartment and brought it to us,” I mused.
I quickly scanned the other seven, realizing that they were just as detailed as mine, if not more so.
“What would you like me to do?” he asked carefully as he gave me a squeeze and stepped back.
I took a step back from him and lifted my gaze to the windows above the atrium area where we were standing and noticed Felix staring down at me with a blank expression on his face.
I quickly glanced away, not wanting to look at him for too long for fear that I was going to have to explain my reaction to Autry, which he’d definitely notice if given half a chance.
“I guess I’ll hold onto this stuff,” I said as I tucked the papers in my pocket. “I’ll go talk to Winston and Crimson when I get the time, then take it home to Keene. Follow me and I’ll make copies so that you can take a set of copies to Keene in case you see him before I do.”