Phoenix nodded, “Seems that way.”
“What am I going to do?” I cried. My breathing was starting to accelerate. They knew my location and they tried to shoot me. Correction, they did shoot me, twice. It was only a matter of time before they tried again.
Dash put his hand on my shoulder. “Hang in there, darlin’. There’s more to discuss.”
“Okay.” I reached up and patted his hand on my shoulder. He grabbed my hand and gave it a little squeeze, but didn’t let go. Just that simple touch from his hand provided me with a world of comfort.
Phoenix eyed our hands curiously, but continued on. “Now, this can’t be repeated. Normally, I wouldn’t even talk to you about this kind of thing, but I think you might be able to help us out. Can I trust you to keep this to yourself?”
“Of course. What is it?”
“Last night, we thought you were asleep from the meds Patch gave you. We were discussing Duke. We mentioned that the detectives thought someone was trying to send a message by what they did to Duke. Dash asked what kind of message eight evenly spaced stab wounds would send…”
I sucked in a sharp breath and whispered, “Octavius.”
Dash scooted closer to me on the bed and Phoenix leaned forward in his chair. “That’s what you said last night. Actually, you said, ‘Octavius. Eight.’ Can you tell us why you said that?”
Fear was taking over and tears pricked my eyes. I knew exactly why I said that. Dash squeezed my shoulders gently. “It’s okay, Ember. You can trust us. Whatever it is, you can tell us.”
I started rubbing my hands together and my breathing picked up again. Dash ever so carefully lifted me into his lap and wrapped his arms around me. He spoke softly into my ear, “Just breathe with me. There is no reason to be afraid. No one is going to hurt you. No one can get to you. You’re safe here. Just breathe when I breathe.”
When I finally calmed down, Phoenix was staring at us with the strangest look on his face. I couldn’t quite place it and didn’t have the energy or focus to even try. I cleared my throat and began to speak. “As you know, Octavius owns the farm and the land the orphanage is on. I think he owns the orphanage, too. He’s tied to it in some way. Anyway, he is obsessed with the number eight. He’s the eighth one to inherit the farm or something like that.”
“What does this have to do with Duke?” Phoenix asked.
“The stab wounds. If you draw a line across the top to connect the top two, a line across the bottom to connect the bottom two, connect the top two and the bottom two on each side, and draw an x between the ones in the middle, it makes an eight. It’s his ‘symbol’ or something. He puts it everywhere. It’s even worked into the product labels for the dairy farm. Take a look at the barn doors sometime.”
Phoenix sat back in his chair and ran his hand down his face. “I’ll be damned.”
“Why would he do that to Duke? What message was he sending?” Dash asked.
“I don’t know, brother, but he’s a fucking fool if he thinks he can do this shit to one of my men and I’ll let that stand.”
Phoenix was angry. Like scary angry. I unknowingly scooted back a bit from him. He frowned, “Already told you, darlin’. You don’t ever have to be afraid of me. I’ll never raise a hand to you and I’ll never intentionally hurt you.”
“I know that. I really do. I guess it is just a learned behavior from the farm. When the men were angry, the women shied away and disappeared. No one ever hurt me there, but I tried very hard to stay out of trouble. I watched the adult women and mimicked their behavior. I guess it will just take time for me to unlearn some of those things.” I didn’t like that my involuntary reaction had upset him.
He patted my knee. “You don’t have to worry about anything like that here.” He turned to Dash. “Let’s go see if Byte has found anything on those names he got from Ember, Reese, and Jamie.”
Dash got up and followed Phoenix out of the room. That reminded me. Where in the world was Reese? I really wanted to go find her, but my body wanted to rest. I climbed back into bed and was asleep in minutes.
CHAPTER 17
Ember
I don’t know how long I slept, but I hadn’t been awake very long when I heard someone knocking on my door. “Come in,” I croaked.
Dash opened the door and strolled into the room. “I thought we told you to ask who it was.” He raised his eyebrow and peered at me.
I rolled my eyes, “Give me a break. I was recently shot, twice I might add, and I just woke up about five minutes ago.”
His features relaxed and he asked, “How are you feeling?”
“Better I think. What time is it?” I asked as I pushed myself up to a sitting position.
“Around 2pm. You hungry?”
“I could eat.”
