“Not till we meet the devil on Halloween,” Joshua added.
CHAPTER 34
BELLE
I barely got any sleep. Even Joshua’s cinnamon tea and snuggling between Kayden and Alec in their wolf form, their soft fur covering me, didn’t work. I slipped out of the bed and into the kitchen, desperate for coffee. Joshua was sleeping on the sofa bed, looking…dead.
Vampires had always been hot to me, and when I met one in real life, they got even hotter. But sleep didn’t flatter them so much.
I gulped the cold coffee from yesterday straight from the pot. Disgusting in every way, but I didn’t care. My mind was a hot mess. I needed to give it something to start working and think straight. Right now.
The idea that Declan wasn’t around anymore was impossible to believe. Was I prone to misery or was I too much of a narcissist to believe I was no longer the center of his attention? Whatever the fuck was wrong with me, I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that Declan was gone.
Yet everything logical was telling me so.
I splashed my face with some water, loving the air on the back of neck and shoulders without all the hair. I thought I would need time to get used to it, but I embraced it with no effort.
In my robe, I went down for my mail, looking for any sort of distraction until the boys woke. I opened the mailbox, and a deluge of envelopes and subscription magazines fell onto my chest.
When was the last time any of the boys opened this thing? Seriously, I had three men, and none of them could pick up the fucking mail? I would have done it myself if they hadn’t been on my tail even to the fucking bathroom, forbidding me to step outside my own bedroom without a guard, let alone outside the apartment.
I carried whatever I could and shoved the rest back inside. I sifted through the mail. It was mostly scholastic journals, bills and a couple of fashion magazines. I might have been a teacher, but I loved my vanity fix. A thick envelope caught my attention. I opened it on my way up, and I squealed when I saw there was a book inside. Book mail was the best.
Carefully, I got it out, admiring the beautiful cover. Then I opened it, my heart leaping as I anticipated seeing my name signed by one of my favorite authors ever.
My fingers trembled before I fully opened the book as my mind raced to remember one thing. When did I order a signed paperback of this particular book?
I checked the sender address on the envelope, and everything fell off my hands, thudding on the stairs.
Sharp gasps ached in my chest, and I suspected I was about to have another panic attack as I stared at the address of my old house. Declan’s house.
Shaking, I bent down and grabbed the book. I knew I shouldn’t open it. I shouldn’t even touch it. I should just call Detective Magnolia and let her take care of the rest. But I held the cover with quivering fingertips and dared open the book.
Till death do us part.
That what was written in red ink under the book title. A heart and a smiley face next to it.
Tears streamed down my face, heavy drops smearing the ink. Still shaking, I looked around me. The feeling that he was watching me now was never stronger.
My blurry gaze fell back on the book, and I noticed a little number in the same red ink at the foot of the page. 126.
It wasn’t significant to me or to anything in our fucking relationship, so I figured he must have wanted me to see page 126 in this book. I flipped through the pages until I found the right one. There was a tiny envelope glued to it. I yanked it out and tore it open. A cellphone memory card was inside.
Looking back at the page, I found another number. I almost tore the book as I reached the aimed page. There was another note in red.
The white box.
“What fucking white box?”
I searched the pile around my feet, but I couldn’t find anything. I ran back to the mailbox and unlocked it. Rummaging through it, I found a small rectangular box. A cellphone box?
Carefully, I opened it and narrowed my eyes at the little phone nestled there. Already assembled with the memory card slot open. I placed the chip in and turned on the phone.
A video immediately played, and I flinched. It took me a minute to realize it was a video of the hair salon where I’d had my hair cut. There was some muffled sounds of…sobs, and then there was the reflection of a hand stretched on a console in one of the mirrors. My heart thrashed as the camera showed the whole arm and another hand in a black glove holding it by the wrist.
“Is this the hand you used to cut my wife’s hair?” Declan’s abhorrent voice was calm in the video. But it thundered in my skull.
“No. No no no no no.” I quivered, gasping.
