Revealing Annie - Freya Barker Page 0,55
with blood.
“What’ve you got?” Tony asks him.
“A note. Threat,” Keith says, looking at me with gentle eyes, before putting the baggie on the kitchen island.
“What does it say?” I ask, even as I approach and stare at the torn piece of paper, smeared with the bird’s blood.
No one says anything because we can all read.
How soon you forgot… You are special to ME.
19
Sumo
“What bird was it?”
The three of us turn to Annie.
“What do you mean?” Tony finally asks.
“In the bag; what kind of bird? Was it a finch?”
She appears to be staring in the distance, a vacant look on her face.
“Yeah.”
The rumbled response comes from Keith and Annie nods.
“I figured. The other two were finches too. I didn’t clue in until now.” She whips her head around and looks at me. “He’s reminding me what he did to David. Warning me he’ll be coming after you.” She pokes a hard finger in my chest. “See? I told you I shouldn’t have stayed.”
I open my mouth to disagree, but she is already moving to the stairs.
“She may be right,” Tony suggests, grabbing my arm when I step around him to go after her.
“Are you for fucking real?” I snap. “Where is she going to go? You hypocrites wouldn’t let your women out of sight and don’t try to tell me anything else.”
“Calm the fuck down,” Tony barks. “I’m saying she may be right about you being in danger.”
I shake off his hand and start walking to the stairs.
“I’ll take that fucking chance,” I fire off over my shoulder before I run up, two steps at a time.
She’s shoving the few belongings she brought here in her bag, which I promptly pull out of her hands and toss aside.
“Hey! What are you doing?”
I grab her upper arms and stick my face in hers.
“What the hell are you doing? I thought we went over this, Annie? I thought you weren’t going to run.”
She struggles against my hold, but I’m not letting go. I can’t.
“Are you stupid?” Her voice is panicked and pitched high. “He’s gonna hurt you if I stay!”
“Calm down. No one’s gonna hurt me, Annie.” I try to calm my tone, but she’s frantic. Tears are starting to roll down her flushed cheeks, and I recognize the wild look of hysteria in her eyes.
“You don’t know that!” she screams in my face, now completely out of control. “David said that and he ended up dead! It’s happening again.”
She plants her face in my chest, sobbing uncontrollably as she sags through her knees. Not much I can do other than wrap my arms around her and hold her tight.
“It’ll be okay, Annie-chan,” I whisper, sitting down on the edge of the mattress and pulling her onto my lap.
Over her head I see Tony peeking around the door. I’m sure both he and Keith heard her yelling. I give him a small nod to let him know we’re good and he backs out of sight. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure Annie will be mortified after.
Her body quakes with the force of her sobs and I try rocking her, mumbling nonsense. I’m almost at the point where I may have to consider sedating her, when she finally seems to calm a little.
“It was…h-hard when David d-died,” she mutters, sniffling, “I don’t think I’d s-survive if anything—”
I lightly shake her.
“I’m right here. I believe you, and so do the guys downstairs, but we need to give them a chance to figure this out. In the meantime, we’ll do everything we can to stay safe. All of us.”
Much calmer now, she nods and climbs off my lap, and I let her go.
“What about Bryce? What if he’s in danger?”
Fuck.
“Let’s go downstairs and see what options we have. For now, Bryce is safe up at the compound.”
She winces when I mention going downstairs.
“I made a scene.”
“Come here.”
She turns to me, her face a mess from crying so hard, but still so beautiful. I hold out my hand and she grabs it, moving between my legs.
“I’m embarrassed.”
“I know, but let’s go down anyway. I bet it’ll feel better if you take some control instead of waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
“Fine,” she grumbles without much conviction. “But I have to clean up first.”
“Want me to go ahead or want me to wait?”
She leans down and brushes my lips with hers.
“Wait, if you don’t mind.”
A couple of minutes later she resurfaces, still a little blotchy but looking a lot more composed. I take her hand and together we head