Vengeance in Bloom (The Love Unauthorized Series Book 2) Page 16

  Kai slams his laptop closed. “We’re good. I’ve arranged pickup for all the things I’ll need. We’ll grab them tomorrow while we’re out getting the rest of the shit. This is a good plan. Stop obsessing. We’ve thought about everything that could go wrong. We’re set.”

  I’m not as certain as everyone else in the room and with reason. I tilt Paisley’s face to mine. “Are you sure about this?”

  “Positive. There isn’t a doubt in my mind.”

  Callen steps out from the corner of the room to add his opinion, “Burke, I think this is your only real shot at flipping the tables. I’ve watched the preparation, and from my professional standpoint, you all have thought of everything.”

  He’s remained quiet while we laid out our plan in front of him, only speaking to confirm his understanding of his responsibilities. He does this sort of thing for a living, so his approval is good. It makes me feel better.

  I nod and stand to help Teagan back upstairs. She’s also been quiet. I’m not sure if she feels helpless, unable to contribute, or nervous about everything playing out. Her body is almost fully healed physically, but she’s distant and closed off. She’s even been avoiding Kai, which is unusual. Those two normally feed off one another when something is wrong.

  I help her up the stairs. “Are you okay with this plan?”

  She sighs, seemingly exasperated by my question. “Yes, I’m good. Don’t worry about me.”

  I’m not happy Teagan was hurt, but I’m glad I don’t have to argue with her over leaving tomorrow. She knows as well as I do that she’s not in shape to be a part of the next few days. She actually seemed relieved when I told her I’d be sending her off with Callen.

  “You’re okay with being left alone with Callen?”

  “I’m okay with being left alone in general. In fact, I’d like more of it.”

  If this were a few months ago, she’d have fought tooth and nail to help us. I wouldn’t have let her, but she would have fought.

  “I love you, Teagan. I’m sorry this is happening.”

  “I love you, too. But I’m just exhausted. You don’t need to dote over me because of this. I know you love me, and you’re doing your best to end this. None of this is your fault.”

  “That’s not why I tell you I love you or why I hover. My guilt has nothing to do with how I treat you or how I feel about you. I do those things simply because I care.”

  She pulls away from me once we get into her room. It’s more than physical distance.

  “I just want to check out for a while.”

  “Don’t check out too long, okay? I’m worried about you.” I help her into bed.

  “I’ll do my best.”

  I kiss her forehead and step back from her bed. “Comfortable?”

  She’s sitting in a sea of pillows, so I don’t see how she wouldn’t be, but I had to ask anyway.

  “Yes.” Her eyes don’t reach mine, and her answer sounds forced.

  Letting those people take her was really the first time I felt I’d truly failed her. When she needed me most. When it really counted. I need her to know it won’t happen again. That she is safe.

  “I love you, kid.”

  “I love you, too.”

  “It’ll all be over soon.”

  “Will it?”

  A scream crashes through the house.

  Fuck. Paisley.

  “Stay in here. Keep the door locked. Don’t open it until you know it’s me on the other side.” I’m out the door and taking the steps two at a time. When I reach the landing, I sprint to the living room, searching for Paisley.

  “Tell me what happened.” I grab Paisley and look her over. She’s obviously frightened, but she’s not hurt.

  “It-it’s Jordan. Jo-Jordan Harris.”

  “Who’s Jordan?” I’m confused.

  “No. I can’t. I can’t. Just look,” she speaks with her eyes closed tight. Her head jerks against my chest as she tries to nod to something to our right.

  I force myself to let her go, so I can look inside the box she just indicated.

  Flowers. Tons of flower petals fill the box. Dried blood coats each one. Photos sit atop the flowers, just to the side of the severed head, a human head.

  What the fuck?

  “Someone, speak. What is this?” I reach for the pictures, but Kai stops me and hands me a pair of gloves. I put them on and then pick up the first picture, one of Paisley.

  Callen steps up beside me, and I glance at him for some sort of explanation.

  “The security team alerted us to someone on the property. When I went outside to check things out, I didn’t see anyone, but this box was by the front gate. We brought it inside, and . . . well, you can see for yourself what we found when we lifted the lid.”

  As I listen, I flip to the next picture. It’s Paisley and me at the beach. I flip again and again, and every time I do, my anger grows. All of them are of us on a beach. Paisley’s naked skin. Close-ups of her face while we lost control. Her hands on her own body. Every intimate detail of our spontaneity. I’m mostly cropped out of the pictures, but it’s obvious what she’s up to.

  Fuck, I shouldn’t have let that night get so out of hand. I should’ve protected her from this.

  “Did you find the guy who left this?”

  “The team is out looking for him, but it appears he may have gotten away.”

  Why the fuck am I paying these people if they can’t seem to do anything right? Letting whoever just left this package for us get away is a giant demonstration of their incompetence.

  I keep flipping through the photos, and finally, I come across one that causes pause. It’s of a young girl with dark hair and blue eyes. Her skin is pale, and she looks too skinny to be healthy. The girl is sitting in a small white room with some toys scattered around her. I look between the picture and Paisley, matching up the features.

  “Is this you?” I flash the picture, so she can see it, and she steps forward and takes it from me.

  “Yes, it has to be. But I’m so young. This must be from before I was put into foster care. I don’t even have any photos of myself at this age. This . . . crap, this looks like the room from my dream.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “No. I can’t be sure, but it seems like it.”

  “Paisley, the head. Is that Jordan Harris?”

  “I haven’t seen him since I was fourteen years old. It looks like him but older,” she says without taking her eyes from the photo.

  Fuck. How does this all tie together?

  “There’s something in his mouth.” Kai is already pulling on his own pair of surgical gloves as he eyes the severed head.

  I bend to get a closer look and find what Kai is talking about. We work together to pry the jaw open, and Kai pulls out a small blue-and-white box with what looks like a carving of a bundle of jacks on the lid. What does a child’s game have to do with this? He removes the lid and carefully tips the contents onto the table—a dozen or so tiny metal pieces, two bouncy balls, and a folded piece of paper.

  Kai grabs the note, unfolds it, and reads it to the room, “Paisley, Jordan Harris won’t bother you. Joe convinced him to come forward with his story, but I’ve taken care of him. Neither Braelyn nor her victims will ever be able to hurt you. Oh, and, Kai, I’ll be seeing you soon.”

  Motherfucker. I don’t fucking like this.

  “Damn right he’ll be seeing me soon. Right before I end him,” Kai says.

  Every set of eyes in the room turns toward Paisley.

  She’s collected herself, and she’s no longer crying or shaking. “Can we get rid of the head? He’s staring at me. Those jacks are a message, but I can’t think with that thing in here.”

  “And the flowers?” This is from Callen, who’s been watching carefully from his spot by the door. “Do you know what they mean?”

  “It’s always flowers. Always.” Her head whips to me, and her lips part in shock. “If we had any doubt about my dreams being memories or if
I was somehow involved with all this, I guess we have our answers. Jordan was killed, supposedly for me. There is a photo of me as a little girl in a room that looks like the one from my dreams, and now, there are more fucking flowers. If we figured out the connection between my own past and Kai’s, I bet we could crack this.”

  “Maybe.”

  I have no idea if that’s true. Maybe the guy’s just done his research, and he is fucking with our heads. I don’t want to dismiss her idea entirely though.

  “I’ll look into it and see if I can find anything,” Kai offers.

  “Hey, Callen. Can you check the delivery for prints?” I address him.

  He faces me. “Yeah, I mean, it’s not ideal, but there may be something on it.”

  Callen disappears into the kitchen, and after a minute, he comes back with a clear bag. He holds it open, and Kai drops everything from we received into it, except the photo in my hand. Then, Callen picks up the package with the head in it and takes it into the other room.

  “How could they have gotten those photos of you?” Kai asks Paisley.

  “I wish I knew the answer to that, but you know I don’t.”

  I can’t help but look from the little girl in the photo to the woman in front of me. I’m perplexed at how everything fits together. Could Paisley have an older sibling who knows where she came from? Maybe they were separated when she went into foster care. But then why the hell would he be trying to mess with her life now? That doesn’t feel like the right answer. Maybe Paisley was kidnapped at birth, and that’s why she didn’t get a birth certificate right away. The people abused her, and eventually, she was taken away because of it. But would the foster agency hide that from her? Or why wouldn’t they have reunited her with her birth parents? Could Kai’s dad have fathered another child? Could Paisley be that child? It’s possible, but we couldn’t prove it without a DNA test, and that could take weeks. Only one other option crosses my mind.

  “Paisley, has there ever been a weird boyfriend from your past? Or someone who seemed a little too interested in you? Someone who hung around your work too often? Maybe a one-night stand you couldn’t seem to shake in the morning?” The last thing I want to think about is Paisley’s sex life before me, but if it helps connect the dots I’ll have to sit through the details.

  She thinks about my question as I start to wonder how many there actually were before me. No, not going there.

  “I can’t think of anything. The only guy I ever felt suspicious of his presence was Callen, and, well, you already know that you hired him to stalk me.”

  “Protect. Not stalk,” I correct with a smile.

  “How about the game? Does it mean anything to you, Paisley?” Kai speaks up.

  I drag my eyes away from the photo.

  “I don’t know. It’s obvious that it should mean something to me, but I have no idea what. Something from my life before I went into foster care? I sure as fuck didn’t have any games while I lived at Joe’s place. Whatever it means though, this is clear; whoever this person is, they knew me when I was a kid.”

  “We’re calling off the plan.”

  I’m met with a simultaneous round of dissent.

  Kai tries to speak, but Paisley cuts him off, “And what? Wait for him to deliver the next head in a box? Wait for him to nab me or kill one of us? No. Absolutely not. I’m tired of constantly feeling like I have to be watching over my shoulder.”

  “She’s right, man. We can’t sit around and wait for what happens next.”

  I glare at Kai. Isn’t he supposed to be on my fucking side?

  “Fine. But, if I anything goes wrong, then we pull out. I have the final say.”

  Paisley

  Jordan Harris appears every time I close my eyes. I don’t know anything about what happened to him after Braelyn and I left, and I have no idea what she had done to him back then, but no one deserves that kind of death. The guy who broke into the warehouse, the man who threw the brick in the window, the guy I burned alive, Tate, Joe, and now, Jordan. All those deaths make me sick every time I think about them. I never thought I’d be involved with the ending of a life, but I can’t seem to escape it. Death is swallowing me whole.

  Kai has been up all night, trying to find a connection between his past and my own. He must be running purely on caffeine and adrenaline. Still, despite his efforts, he comes up empty-handed.

  So, we move forward with our plan.

  Today, we’re initiating phase one, and Callen has already taken Teagan away to some safe house a few hours north. We’ve been to Home Depot, some sketchy dude’s house Kai took us to for his supplies, and now, we’re pulling up to the warehouse. Burke parks, and they get right to work, unloading the car. I take a sip from my travel mug, swallowing the last dregs of cold coffee.

  Burke carries the biggest tarp I’ve ever seen and some paint into the warehouse. Kai follows with the black briefcase he picked up today, and I follow them inside. Braelyn is asleep, still tied to the chair, and her babysitters keep watch from every corner. Today will probably be the last time I ever see her. She’s so thin, her body emaciated from lack of food and movement that it reminds me of when we were living on the streets.

  When she hears us, she lifts her head and blinks the sleep from her eyes, which have dark circles under them. Burke sets up his equipment and gets to work, and Kai fiddles with his briefcase. I drag my eyes away from them, cut left, and head for the kitchen in the back.

  It shouldn’t, but guilt eats at me when I look at Brae’s physical appearance. She’s a big part of why we’re even here, but I can’t help the need to want to help her. I busy myself with making some buttered toast and pouring some juice. Then, I make a pot of coffee. I’m restless. The anxiety won’t quiet, and I end up pacing to the tune of the drip, drip, drip of the machine until there is enough for a cup. Then, I pour one for myself, collect the juice and toast, and head back to the main room.

  Kai and Burke are already busy setting things up and don’t pay much attention to me when I pull a chair up next to Braelyn. I untie one of her hands, so she can eat, which she does without a single thank you.

  “Is this my last meal?”

  There is no guilt or remorse for her part in our plan. She’s getting off kind of easy for everything she’s put me through.

  “It’s your last meal here.”

  “You’re just going to hand me over? What’ll that accomplish for your end game?”

  “Who says I have an end game? Maybe I just don’t want you here anymore.”

  She lost any right to know what’s going on a long time ago. The less she knows, the better.

  I remember the day at the table after she attacked me when I was leaving the catering job and how I told Kai she wasn’t my enemy. It’s sad because that’s exactly what she’s become. That’s on her though. I won’t make excuses for her anymore. My eyes are wide open.

  “What’re they doing?”

  “Burke’s making a sign. Kai’s getting something ready for you.”

  “What’s the sign for, and what’s Kai getting ready for me?”

  I let out a huff of air and turn my eyes toward Braelyn. She’s finished her toast, so I stand to take the dishes and tie her free hand back up. Then, without answering, I turn my back on her and walk away.

  Once hidden behind the door of the kitchen, I take a second to breathe while I wash her dirty plate. The hot water pouring from the faucet feels good on my hands. I only get a few minutes of peace before Braelyn’s boisterous voice erupts. Kai must be ready with his equipment. I abandon the solitude of the kitchen and head back out to the main part of the warehouse where I find Burke still hard at work, Braelyn cursing at Kai, and Kai standing next to her with a needle in his grasp.

  “Did you do it?” I ask, but I already know the answer.

  “No. I need her still, and she’s less than willing.”

  “I’ll hold her.”

  “What the fuck is he injecting into me? Why are you drugging me?”<
br />
  I lower the back of her chair to the ground and straddle her waist in order to get a good grip on her body. Kai kneels next to me while I hold her neck with one hand to keep her from thrashing and press down on her shoulder with my other hand.

  “We’re not drugging you. Stay fucking still, and let him implant the device.”

  “Device? What the fuck are you talking about? What’s he putting into my arm?”

  It wasn’t what Burke or Kai wanted; they wanted to just kill her. Although, with the way she’s screaming, the idea is tempting. I was the one who lobbied against it and eventually won. If anything goes wrong once we let Braelyn go, we want to know exactly where she is. She’s obviously not someone we can have loose out in the world. We’d be stupid to believe she wouldn’t become a problem for us again if she escaped. I don’t trust she’ll ride off into the sunset and never bother us.

  “Okay, it’s in. Let me check the program.” Kai rises and goes to check his computer. I keep my hold in case he needs to make any adjustments. “We’re all good. It’s working perfectly.”

  I let go of Braelyn and push to my feet.

  “What’s working perfectly? Will someone tell me what the fuck he put in my arm?”

  I ignore her questions. I’m sure she has an idea. She wants to hear the words. I find no need to give her any comfort about her future. She’s getting exactly what she deserves. Instead, I move toward the giant tarp that’s taking up so much of the floor space. Burke looks to be almost done. Large black letters occupy the white tarp. The black painted letters are bold and could easily be read from a long distance.

  “Done.”

  Kai comes to stand next to us, and we all check out the sign.

  WE DON’T WANT HER. SHE’S YOURS.