Page 4 of Archer

“He was here. At the cottage. He left—” I ran to the windows, pulling curtains and closing blinds.

“What happened?” Alexis asked. “How do you know?”

I made a strangled sound, and her quiet voice cooed across the line.

“It’s going to be okay,” she said. “Are the doors locked?”

I nodded, though she couldn’t see me.

“Find somewhere you feel safe to sit and breathe.”

I moved to the couch and pulled a pillow onto my lap, eyes fixed on the music box, as if it might lift off and come for me.

“You there?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Okay. Now, tell me what happened.”

I pressed my palm against my chest, feeling my heartbeat and rising breaths, trying to anchor myself. “Someone delivered a package. I thought it was my food order, but it was a music box.”

Silence stretched across the line.

“Alexis?”

“I’m here. I’m calling the police. I have to find your local department.” Her voice shifted from manager and friend to a mother figure in crisis mode. “Stay on the line with me. Get your pepper spray and⁠—”

“No police.”

“Police.”

I shook my head, though she couldn’t hear me. “No. No police,” I repeated. “Every time I involve the authorities, he escalates. You know that.” I stretched onto my feet and paced the living room slowly, checking windows and testing locks. “Police make reports that leak my location. That has to be how he keeps finding me.”

“Well, he’s already found you. What are you going to do? You’re all alone. On an island!”

“I don’t know.” I gripped my forehead, then moved to the front window, scanning the driveway. “Maybe I should leave. I could be back in Nashville by tonight.”

“I don’t like the idea of you making that drive alone. I didn’t like it when you drove out there and I hate it now. There’re too many opportunities for you to be forced off the road or abducted from a gas station. How far is the nearest airport? Maybe I can book you a flight.”

“Almost three hours.”

“That doesn’t help.” The sound of fingertips on a keyboard stretched across the line. “Let’s hire private security until we make a better plan.”

“Right.” I returned to the couch, exhausted. “I’m in Carolina Bay, not Nashville. They don’t even have bouncers at the local bar.”

“But they have security,” she said. “I’m sending a link.”

I checked my phone for an incoming text, then clicked the photo showing a trio of big, handsome men.

“According to this article, these guys are in your town, and they helped local authorities, state police and FBI solve a huge serial killer case last fall. They look like the real deal. Hire one of them as your private security detail and see if the team wants to help put a name to the guy who’s actively ruining your life and career. Two birds. One stone, or in this case, bodyguard.”

I skimmed the article then opened an internet browser and entered variations of content from the article until something popped up in a local paper.

Small Town Security Company Makes Big Federal Assist

…Operating from Island Adventures, the beloved outdoor excursion company of his late mother, island native Knox Hawthorne, opened Carolina Security, the island’s first private security firm, with the help of his military brothers, Archer Stone and Colton O’Connor.

I typed “Carolina Security” into the search box and nothing came up.