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A knot of dread curled in my stomach, my hand hovering over the door handle.
I swallowed hard, the lump in my throat suffocating.
I wasn’t sure how long I stood there, frozen in place, heart pounding like a drum.
Then I took a breath, forced myself to focus, and looked through the peephole.
Nothing.
A jolt of confusion shot through me, mixed with a strange sense of relief.Had I imagined it?
I waited a few more moments, my gaze flicking from the door to the silence around me.
Slowly, I opened the door, feeling more foolish with each passing second.
It felt like I’d let my imagination get the best of me, like I was becoming paranoid for no reason. I tucked my gun away.
But as I stepped forward, my foot brushed against something soft.
Instantly, my heart rate spiked again, and I jerked back, instinctively pulling away.
I looked down, breath catching in my throat as my gaze locked onto the bouquet at my feet.
Black roses.
Marcus’ favorite flowers.
My stomach dropped, nausea swirling up from deep within.
They were dark, almost too dark, with deep violet tips that gave them an eerie, almost sinister look.
My hands trembled as I reached down, wincing when the thorns pricked my fingers.
There was no note attached, but there didn’t need to be. Marcus’ message was clear—he wasn’t done with me.
COLE/ TORI
COLE
I stood in my office,staring out over the city, but my mind was miles away, right outside Tori’s place.
All morning, a nagging sense of unease had been gnawing at me, distracting me from the stack of work on my desk.
Tori was no fragile flower, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to protect her.
And Marcus? That man made me wish I was the kind of person who didn’t have to hold back.
When my phone buzzed, I snatched it up the second I saw the caller ID: Aden.
My hand tightened around the phone as I answered. “Aden. What’s going on?”
“Sir,” Aden’s voice was calm, but there was a tension in it. “I thought you’d want to know… Marcus showed up at Tori’s place last night. Left something on her doorstep.”
My jaw clenched. “What did he leave?”
“A bouquet of black roses. No note, but I think you can guess the message.”
I didn’t need Aden to tell me what it meant. Marcus also gave her black roses when he dropped by her boutique.