Southern Heart, Madison, Natasha [the little red hen ebook TXT] 📗

"Like coming to the barn to check on her horse when you were in there." I remember exactly what he’s talking about, but I don’t tell him anything. "Every time you came to one of the Sunday dinners, she would always be right there next to you."

"Doesn’t mean nothing," I tell him.

He pushes off from the island and comes over, putting his plate in the dishwasher. "If she gets hurt," he says, his tone tight, "no one is going to save you from me."

"If she gets hurt," I say the words, the burning coming to my stomach, "someone is going to die."

I push off from the counter now and walk over to the bedroom. Sitting on the bed, I put my head back, looking at the ceiling, and close my eyes. I knew the game she was playing. I knew the signs. I just didn’t know that someone else was watching. I would always look around when it was the two of us, looking to make sure that no one was watching us. Usually, it would be just Amelia.

I’m about to lie back on the bed when I hear the crushed rocks and the sound of running. My heart speeds up, and I jump up, almost running out of the room when the front door swings open.

Her face is filled with tears, but it’s her eyes that make me take a step back. Filled with fear. Filled with confusion. Filled with all the things that they shouldn’t be filled with.

Quinn is beside me and now past me to stop her. "I saw," she says, now hyperventilating. I look over at Amelia, who is looking out the front door right and left and then closing the door.

"What the fuck happened?" I shout.

"I saw…" Chelsea starts to say, but no words are coming out. She puts her hands on her knees as she tries to get the words out.

"She saw someone," Amelia says, and the hair on the back of my neck stands up. I look over at her, and she puts her hands up. "I didn’t see him."

"Yeah, it’s me," Quinn says, and I turn to look at him holding a phone to his ear. "There is a situation at Chelsea’s." He looks over at me, the look telling me shit is about to go down. "Call your dad."

He puts the phone back in his jeans, and I finally snap out of it and walk over to Chelsea. I squat down in front of her, ignoring the pull of my bandages on my legs. "Hey," I say, and she just looks at me, shaking her head. "Just breathe," I tell her. "Breathe with me. In." I inhale with her. "Exhale." She copies me now. "That’s it, you can do it with me."

"What do you mean she freaked out?" I hear Quinn ask Amelia, and then I look over at them. They both stop talking.

I turn back to look at Chelsea. "Just breathe, baby. I have you," I say softly so just she can hear me. Her breathing starts to come back to normal when the door swings open, and her eyes go big as she turns to look at the door. I get up as Jacob, Ethan, and Beau run into the house.

"Where is my dad?" Quinn asks.

"He’s going to be here in five minutes," Beau says, rushing over and taking Chelsea in his arms. "I’m here," he tells her, and I want to brush her hair away from her face so I can see her eyes. I want her to know I’m here and nothing is going to happen to her.

"What’s going on?" Ethan says, looking around and then sees a trickle of blood run down my leg. I shake my head slowly, telling him not now.

"We might as well wait for Uncle Casey," Amelia says, and she is in Jacob’s arms as he kisses her head.

"I need water," Chelsea says, and she pushes away from her father and slowly walks to the kitchen. I follow her, and Ethan just watches us. She grabs a bottle of water, and her hands shake as she tries to bring it to her mouth.

The front door opens, and Casey comes in, putting his sunglasses on the top of his head.

"Okay, we are all here," I say now. "What happened?"

Everyone looks at Chelsea. "We went to the diner," she says. "We were sitting at the booth, and I just felt eyes on me the whole time," she says, and the blood flowing in my body turns to ice. "I kept looking around the whole time to see if someone was in the diner I didn’t know." Jacob looks over at Casey, who nods his head. "Asher came in, and I got up to order some food to bring back here," she says. Her hands shake just a bit, and she shakes them off.

"You can do this," I say to her softly. "Just focus."

"We walked out of the diner, and I just felt it." She looks at me now. "I saw a man. I don’t even know what he looked like anymore." She closes her eyes. "But he was just staring at me."

"Did you go up to him?" Ethan asks. "Did you talk to him?"

"No." Chelsea shakes her head. "A bus came by, and by the time it left, he wasn't there anymore." She puts her hands on her stomach. "I thought at that point that I had made it up." Her lower lip shakes. "I thought it was all in my head. I ran to the truck, got in, and I kept looking around, but nothing was there. It was just all in my head, I thought. But…" She looks at me. "But then when we were pulling out, I saw him again. His beady eyes were staring straight at me."

"That motherfucker!" I roar out and look over at the men. "We need to find him and end this. Do you hear me?" I walk back to the bedroom and pick up the green