Protecting Her - Alexis Noelle Page 0,45
no more.”
He laughs as we pull into his driveway. I see a car pull behind us, realizing it’s probably Ryan. My mind races thinking about what he could have found. We all walk into the house silently, before heading into the living room. I sit down on the couch; Hunter sits next to me, and Ryan sits across from us.
“Alright, sorry to do this tonight, I know it’s a shitty day for this kind of news. I had a guy I know look into a few things that I had suspicions about. I know who has been harassing you and how. I haven’t reported it yet because I wanted to bring it to you first.” Ryan stops talking. He rubs the back of his neck with one hand while avoiding eye contact with either of us.
“Ry just say it.” Hunter’s voice has a slight tinge of annoyance mixed with anxiousness.
Ryan looks up at me and seems to take a deep breath. “It’s your mother.”
Chapter Twenty Two
Hunter
What the fuck?
“What do you mean?” Sam asks beside me in disbelief.
“I mean that for whatever reason, your mother has hired someone to stalk you. Some notes were left by her and some by the other person. The attack at the beach and the shot fired were not your mother.” Ryan looks over to me. “I found out who the other person was.”
“And?” My fists are clenched in anger at the fact that her mother has been putting her through hell.
“It was Detective Marks.”
What the fuck! Rage builds inside of me at the realization that the asshole who was supposed to be helping Sam figure out who her stalker was, was doing it the whole fucking time. Not only that, but he was trying to make it seem like it was me! “Why the hell would he be involved?”
“She needed someone to help her, someone who knew how to not get caught and someone with connections. Marks has some pretty bad debt so Audrey was paying him off to help her get to Sam. After you started becoming a problem, they were going to try to pin it on you, hence him coming down on you so hard and provoking you. Now like I said, I haven’t reported this to anyone yet, I wanted to come to you two first to see what you wanted to do.” Ryan looks up at the two of us, who are in shock.
“How did you find out all of this, Ry?”
“I have a tech guy in my unit. He found a consistent stream of deposits from your mother to an account over the time of the stalking. That account linked back to Marks. The next part took him a little longer but he traced a dummy email that Marks had been using to his IP address. There were communications between him and your mother, planning the notes, and also trying to pin it on Hunter so your mother could get him out of your life.” God, I hate her bitch of a mother. I have never met anyone more deserving of a goddamn ass kicking.
I look over at Sam, who is as white as a ghost and seems like she is about to get sick. “Are you okay?”
She shakes her head. I can only imagine what this is doing to her.
“I am going to let you all absorb this new information. Call me if you need anything and I’m sorry I had to be the one to tell you.” Ryan stands and I follow him to the front door.
“Thanks for helping us figure this out man.” I shake his hand.
“No problem. Let me know what you guys want to do and how she is.” He walks out and I go back into the living room to check on Sam.
She’s gone. I run upstairs, checking the bedroom and bathroom, thinking maybe she wanted to lie down or take a shower, negative. My blood runs cold, as my heart begins to beat out of my chest. “Sam!” I call her name a few times.
Where the hell could she have gone? That’s when I see the slightest movement in the backyard. She’s sitting on one of the swings looking completely broken and lost. The people I had bought the house from had kids and I never bothered to take the stuff they had down. I walk outside and even though I know she hears me, she doesn’t look up from the ground. I sit down on the swing next to her, not