“Thomas likes to coddle the people we’re protecting. I mean, the stupid fucker once faked his own death to protect his wife.”
My eyes widened.
“But, that’s not me. I think you have a right to know what’s going on.”
“And what’s that?”
Sean moved like a ghost, never seemingly making a sound but suddenly appearing next to me. “May I?” He pointed at my computer.
I slid my chair back, giving him space, not bothering to wonder how he could log on without my password.
“These are emails that you’ve been receiving since you came back from the lighthouse. The Boss has a filter on your inbox so you never see them.”
I clicked through some of them, trying to ignore the gnawing fear that had been taking chunks out of me since Christmas. “Okay. It’s just some emails being really fucking mean and rude to me. I guess they all link back to James, right?”
Sean’s eyes narrowed as he shook his head. “Not this time. They’re coming from all over the place. Too many places for us tobe able to trace right now, but we’re working on it. But that’s not all.” Sean stood, leaning back against the edge of my desk next to me. “You’ve had death threats. A lot of them.”
“What?” I stammered, feeling like I was in a dream.
“I’vegotten death threats. Not one of the bands. Me? Worse than those.” I pointed at the emails open on my computer screen.
Sean nodded. “It’s not just James we’re protecting you from right now… the threat has gotten a lot greater in the last couple of weeks.”
He paused while the words settled. I stared at him, waiting for him to smile and tell me this was a joke, but he continued, “There was a car tailing you last week, someone broke into your house again… don’t worry, Luci wasn’t there, and there was someone waiting for you outside the restaurant today.”
I let out a squeak as I tried to hold in my fear. “I don’t understand. This was between me and James. Why would anyone else want to hurt—”
“James has tried to hire some pretty bad people to do some pretty horrendous things to you.” Sean turned his attention back to my screen, tapping on the keys, bringing up something else for me to look at. As soon as I read it, I burst into tears.
“This… this—”
“This is the dark web, Fern. Where the worst people hide and hunt. James has offered you up as a prize with a pretty high price tag for catching you.”
I read what was ultimately an advert for someone to kidnap me and deliver me to him…broken but not ruined.
Bile burned in my stomach.
“How is this normal? This is the father of my niece, the husband of my sister, a man I lost my virginity to, who I thought loved me. Why would he do this to me?”
Sean pressed his hand to my shoulder, silently reminding me how safe I was with him. “Because some people are really fucking sore losers and he lost big time, Fern. He chose your sister and lost you and instead of falling apart without him, you thrived and he hates that. He wants to break you. He tried, and he failed numerous times, and now he’s going darker… he’s getting desperate.”
My tear filled eyes fixed on his.
“But that’s a good thing because desperate people make mistakes. We can’t trace this back to himyetbut we will. We will end him, Fern. I promise. But I wanted you to know just how serious this has gotten. You don’t breathe, you don’t piss, you don’t step outside without one of us next to you. Do you understand?”
Thomas had a kindness behind his protective, authoritarian persona. Sean, on the other hand, was straight talking and fiercely honest and that was what I needed right now.
I let out a sigh. “Don’t mention this to Charlie. I don’t want him to stress about me, but I want you to make sure everyone around me is safe. I can’t have anyone hurt because of me. I’d never forgive myself.”
Sean simply nodded, signaling the end of our conversation, and I tried to ignore the pit of fear that swirled in my stomach as he left me to get on with my afternoon meetings.
Chapter 30
Fern – 1 month later
“Are you sure you’re up for visitors, Neo?”
My friend nodded as a huge smile spread across his face. I couldn’t help but feel happy that he looked more like himself than he’d done for months and I berated myself for not noticing how miserable he was before his breakdown. I couldn’t bear to think about what would have happened if we’d not realized that something was going on with him.