He turned to me slowly, his eyes narrowing. “Lina. Answer the question.”
The silence stretched between us. I could feel both of them staring at me, waiting.
“There have been some messages,” I finally admitted. “Text messages. From unknown numbers.”
Knox went very still. The kind of still that made every instinct in my body want to run.
“Show me.”
It wasn’t a request. I fumbled for my phone on the bedside table and pulled up the messages, handing the device to Knox with trembling fingers.
I watched his face as he read them. Watched the color drain from his skin. Watched his eyes go dark with a fury so intense it made the room feel smaller.
Congratulations on the baby, Luna. Such a shame if anything were to happen to it.
You’re going to pay for every single second of suffering you’ve caused me, Luna.
“When did you get these?” His voice was barely above a whisper, but there was nothing soft about it.
“The first one was a few days ago. The second one was yesterday.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I was going to. I just... I didn’t want you to worry. I didn’t want you to go crazy and lock me in the house and triple my security and...”
“You mean exactly what I should have done the moment someone started threatening my pregnant mate and our unborn child?” He thrust the phone toward Hunt, who took it and scanned the messages with a grim expression. “Jesus Christ, Lina. Someone has been threatening you for days and you just kept it to yourself?”
“I thought I could handle it.”
“By handling it, you mean ignoring it and hoping it would go away?”
“I didn’t know it was serious! I thought it might just be some random person trying to scare me. I didn’t think they would actually do anything.”
“They burned a baby blanket on our doorstep and stabbed a note into our door promising to hurt our children. Does that seem like something that’s going to just go away?”
“Obviously I know that NOW, thank you very much.” I glared at him, some of my usual fire returning despite my exhaustion.“Hindsight is a wonderful thing, Knox. I made a judgment call and it turned out to be wrong. But standing here yelling at me about it isn’t going to change what happened.”
He opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again. His hands clenched into fists at his sides and I could see him struggling to control his temper, to remember that I was lying in a hospital bed and probably shouldn’t be stressed out any further.
Hunt cleared his throat. “Do you have any idea who might be sending these, Lina?”
“No.” I shook my head. “The numbers are blocked. I don’t recognize them. I’ve been trying to think of who might hate me enough to do this, but I can’t come up with anyone.”
“The messages mention suffering you’ve caused them,” Hunt continued. “Is there anyone who might feel that way? Anyone who might blame you for something?”
I tried to think, but my brain felt foggy and slow. “I don’t know. I honestly don’t know who would do this.”
Hunt and Knox exchanged another one of those looks. The kind that said they were having an entire conversation without words, and I wasn’t invited.
“What the hell was that?” I demanded. “You two keep looking at each other. What do you know that I don’t?”
Hunt’s expression shifted into something that clearly said tell her already as he stared at Knox.
“It was nothing,” Knox said quickly. Too quickly.
“It’s obviously not nothing. Something is going on and you’re both keeping it from me. I’m not an idiot, Knox. I can tell when people are lying to me.”
“We don’t have enough information yet to...”
