She couldn’t answer that. Not at all. But she did know one thing.
This perpetrator wanted her gone, and his note and present claimed he was willing to go to extreme lengths to make it happen.
7
Mia’s colorless face when she rushed past Ryan tightened his chest. He started to follow her. Russ clamped a hand on his arm and drew him toward the box. Russ picked the note out of the box and held it open for Ryan to read along.
Sever your claim to Evergreen Resort or I’ll sever it for you.
Ryan turned from the warning of cutout letters similar to the note at the post office and looked into the box. A bloody severed hand lay on a bed of tissue paper.
No. No.He slammed the lid.
Wait.Had he seen right?
He opened the box. The hand was made of rubber. Fake blood dripping down it. A very good fake. Mia likely thought it was an actual hand.
“She didn’t hang around long enough to discover this isn’t real,” Ryan whispered to Russ.
“Real or not, we need to end this party,” Russ said in a low voice. “I’ll clear this place. You stay here to make sure no one touches this box.”
Russ stepped into the room and clapped his hands together. “Okay, folks. This party wasn’t a good idea so soon after Mia got out of the hospital. She needs to rest. I suggest we all go on home.”
His official sheriff’s voice stirred the guests to speculate on what had happened but didn’t get their feet moving.
Ryan faced the hallway Mia had run down, and it was all he could do to stand guard over the box and not go after her.
“C’mon, folks. Let’s give Mia some privacy.” Russ strolled through the family room and herded the guests toward the exit.
The minute the door closed behind the last guest, Ryan bolted down the hall. He knocked on the bathroom door. “The hand isn’t real. It’s one of those fake rubber ones.”
Silence. He could almost hear her thoughts. The same thoughts weighed heavy on his mind. Fake hand or not, the person sending the letters made sure Mia knew he wouldn’t hesitate to harm her if she didn’t comply with his demands.
* * *
Ryan’s words sank into Mia’s brain. The hand wasn’t real, but the sender had made his point. Vividly. Terror had engulfed Mia for the time she’d believed it to be real. That fear lingered.
The letter conveyed the sender’s intent to keep after her until she left, raising the ante each time she ignored him.
She stared at her reflection in the mirror for the second time in as many days. Who was this woman peering back at her? Was it her? Oh, the physical appearance with a few added scrapes and a long suture was the same but gone was the confident woman she’d become. The wall she erected to keep pain and hurt out was crumbling. Fast. She hadn’t felt so vulnerable since high school and then she had Ryan to turn to. Sure, he would let her turn to him now, but she wouldn’t put him in that position.
She had to admit the person threatening her had won. For now. The insecurity looming large on her face, and her tight gut proved that.
Well, no more.
She pushed back from the mirror. She wouldn’t let years of hard work disappear in less than a day. She would take charge of her life again. Find the person behind these threats. Nothing would deter her from completing her uncle’s wishes that she spent a year at Evergreen, and then she would return to Atlanta to resume her real life.
That was exactly what she would do.
She pulled her shoulders back and marched into the family room.
She spotted the empty table where Jessie had been so excited about opening the brightly wrapped box, and her heart skipped a beat. Poor baby. Mia had scared her when that was the last thing she would want to do.
She forced her gaze from the fearful sight to Bandit, who lay on a plush bed in the corner. Across the room, Ryan leaned against rustic pine cabinets in the kitchen, a phone to his ear. Russ and her visitors were nowhere in sight, and the offensive box was gone.
Russ had likely taken it with him when she expected him to wait and grill her again.
Ryan waved her over.
