Page 124 of Guarding Over You
That handwriting.
Those thick, gouged capital letters that lookedangry.
That deliberate pressure of pen to paper like someone trying to carve their fury straight through and into her life.
No return address. Postmarked out of state, but that was happening a lot now, coming in from hubs further away.
Her throat went dry. She shouldn’t have touched it.
But she had and now it was burning in her hand.
She set it down in her lap and stared at it, her heart hammering against her ribs, the roaring in her ears almost deafening. Blaze would lose his mind if she opened it without him. But she couldn’t just sit here pretending it didn’t exist.
Sweat dribbled down the center of her back. Her pants for air came fast and shallow as she lowered her head to breathe in slowly.
She glanced at her watch. Blaze wouldn’t be home for at least an hour. Maybe longer.
An hour suddenly felt like a lifetime.
Her gaze flicked to the camera hidden above the door.
What if the person who sent it had been here already?
No. She would have gotten an alert. Would have known if they’d gotten close enough.
Still, she couldn’t shake the image of someone standing just out of frame, smiling as they imagined her finding the letter.
Her head swiveled around as if it were a spinning teacup at the carnival. No one was around. Not within sight.
Her phone buzzed in her trembling hand, and she nearly dropped it.
A text from Clay.What’s wrong?
A sob ripped out before she could stop it.
Through the blur of tears, she turned her head to see Gracie was riding her bike in lazy circles at the end of the driveway, humming to herself, oblivious. Safe. For now.
She lifted the envelope with shaking fingers and held it toward the camera.
The reply came seconds later, her screen lighting up again.Don’t open it. On the way.
Her grip on the envelope tightened.
She could feel it. The evil wasn’t in the words yet, but in the waiting.
“What’s wrong, Mom?”
“Nothing, honey,” she forced out through a smile so tight she thought her lips would crack. “Why?”
“You look funny.”
She dropped all the mail on the porch covering the letter that was causing her anxiety. Should she go in the house and wait? She was positive Clay would have told her to do that if that were the case.
“I’m fine,” she said. “Just waiting for Blaze.”
“How much longer?”
“A little bit of time. Why don’t we go in the house? How about a bowl of ice cream?”
