Page 100 of As The Shifter World Turns

100

MOVING SUCKS—AND NOT IN A FUN WAY

Martin

“Is that necessary?” Neil asked for the third time as I was putting motion detectors on the windows of our new house. Heck yeah, it was necessary.

That creep might not have been there for Neil, but that didn’t make Neil safe… or Charlie for that matter. Charlie was our weakness, and if Len was up to no good he’d use that to his advantage.

And if was a big old question mark, but that didn’t mean I was going to risk it. Neil and Charlie meant too much for me to gamble with their safety. And then there was Toby. He might not have been seen by the guy but that didn’t mean Len hadn’t come back or potentially been there earlier.

And maybe I was just paranoid, but I’d rather be overly cautious than to have someone I loved hurt.

“It will help me sleep at night.” And I didn’t want it not set up before we moved.

It was move-in day and in another hour the guys were going to show up and help us get everything where it needed to be. Archer and Ivor offered to watch the kids, which was great. Sure, Toby could be a helper with lugging things over, but I was a nervous parent today.

“The guys are gonna be here soon. How can I help?” Neil got me and my nerves. Goodness, when we first met he thought I was a potential threat. I can look back on it now and chuckle, but at the time it had to have been horrible for Neil and it was for sure confusing as heck for me.

“Maybe use the flashlight on your phone to light up where I’m screwing?”

He did and we were able to get some of the shelves up before Daire, Micah, Ryder, and Anthony showed up to help.

We had everything packed and had all of the furniture in by lunch time. We ordered pizza and went to Archer and Micah’s place to eat. It was great to spend some time with the kids and take a rest. Once upon a time this amount of manual labor would’ve been nothing, but today it had me lagging. Of course, the added stress wasn’t helping.

Daire did add all the security measures Neil asked him to at Sunshine Manor, but I think even he thought we were being over the top. But after his behavior when it came to Charlie, he wasn’t going to argue. I hated that he did that, but I was confident he wouldn’t be that thoughtless again.

“Dad, can I go and unpack my room?” Toby asked, sauce on his chin. I wanted to reach over with a napkin and wipe it up. It was a dad thing to do. But Toby was getting to that age where he didn’t want dad helicoptering over him, so instead I pointed it out and let him fix it. It wasn’t a big thing. Not a huge milestone, anyway, but it felt like I was giving him a little more responsibility as silly as that sounded.

“I think it’s best if you wait here.”

“Or I could help carry my boxes and then stay there and unpack,” he insisted.

This was another thing that I needed to let go. There would always be someone in the house, most likely. And for a few seconds if there was a moving backlog, he’d be fine.

Still I was nervous.

“Want some help?” Ivor said. “I love arranging things.”

I wasn’t sure how true that was, but I appreciated it.

“Really? My new room is soooo big. And there are even built-in shelves.” I wanted to ask about the kids. It wasn’t fair that Archer had to watch all of them. But then Ryder swooped in about needing to check something on his phone for work and offering to watch the children.

“If you don’t mind losing a helper?” he tacked on at the end.

“I don’t. Thank you.” I suspected he was making an excuse about work and wanted to babysit. For so much more than his help moving, I’d have to touch base with him later and let him know how much it meant. It was difficult letting go and allowingToby to grow up. And really, I was dragging my feet. But I was trying and I had to hope that was good enough, for now anyways.

We cleaned up and went back to lug some more stuff. This time it was easier. Everything pretty much could be carried by one person. It was a ton of trips but they were pretty fast and aside from a few boxes of books that were packed too full, everything was easy to manage.

“Dad, I’m going to start unpacking.” Toby set a box on his bed. “If you need more muscles, call me.”

“I’ll do that. But I think we have the heavy stuff all moved over.” Micah had called him Muscles. He was going to be Muscles forever now .

“How are you holding up?” I handed Neil some water. It was tepid, but given all the dust stirred up by moving and our sweaty bodies, it still felt amazing going down.

“Good. Anthony and I got all the things from 2B I needed. That feels good. I think we really only have the kitchen and the bathroom left.” Which was a ton, but progress.

“It will be nice to sleep in our own bed in our new house.” I brushed a piece of dust off his face.

“Or we can go to a hotel and not have to make the bed or unpack when we are done.” I wasn’t sure if he was joking or not. It didn’t sound like a horrible plan. Getting things over here was one thing. Getting them here and then unpacking them? That was quite another.

“Let’s see where we’re at. I bet Toby is unpacked before our bed is even made.” I downed the rest of my water.

It was nearing four when we got everything moved over, which I thought was really good time. Of course, my body shouted at me that it was past midnight.

“I guess I’ll head out,” Anthony said. “Unless you want me to clean the bathroom or something.”

I couldn’t tell if he was looking for an excuse to stay or if he was being nice.

“You don’t have to. You’ve done a lot already.” Neil leaned into my side.

“I know but I—” He was cut off by his phone ringing. “Just a second.” He took it out of his pocket. “Crap. It’s the bank.”

He answered the phone and it didn’t take long for his face to go pale. Money problems sucked. Only when the phone dropped to the floor, something felt off.

“Anthony?” Neil bent down and picked it up. “Was that the bank?”

Anthony shook his head.

“Do you know who it was?” Neil set the phone down and led Anthony to the couch.

Daire stepped out of the master bedroom with Micah, broken down boxes in hand.

“Is he okay?” Micah asked me. I didn’t know and I just shrugged.

“It was the same. The same as the others,” Anthony finally said. “They don’t say anything but there’s music in the background. Always a different number.”

“Did you tell someone?” Neil was sitting beside him, giving him comfort and I just stood there feeling helpless, not sure what to do.

“The police say crank calls aren’t illegal and even if they were, the number is spoofed so they can’t track them.” He sucked in a deep breath. “Not sure why this one bugged me. Maybe because it’s the real name of my bank, but I need to chill.”

Chill wasn’t what he needed. Vigilance was.

Eventually Micah and Daire took him home, Daire promising to add extra security to his place. Anthony needed more than some cheap cameras and bolt locks. He needed to get this asshole to stop. It would be much easier if they knew who it was and could get them arrested.

If I were boiling down what I hated about my mate’s job, it was this. The safety issues. I’m sure he thought it was connecting with others, but really it wasn’t. It was knowing he could potentially let another fucked up person into his world, one that would do him harm.

We went to work unpacking, neither of us wanting to talk about what had happened. As predicted, Toby was done first, Ivor promising to help him pick out new curtains to fit the room.

We weren’t planning on unpacking it all, but we needed at least the bedroom done.

“Want help, Dad?” Toby stood in our bedroom doorway. “I’m really good at it.”

I started to say no, but Neil cut me off. “Can you grab my red duffle? I think it got put in Charlie’s room. Can’t miss it. Bright red like a fire truck.”

“It’s my makeup and work clothes, but it’s locked,” he said after Toby ran off to fetch it. “And it will help him feel useful.”

I had such an amazing mate. But as he’d be continuing to work in the manor, I wasn’t sure why the bag of stuff was here. Probably got caught up in the chaos.

Toby came back only a few minutes later, unable to find it. Both Neil and I went to help and found nothing. Neil was beginning to freak out and working so hard not to let Toby see it.

“I’ll go back to the apartment to see if it’s there.” I’d searched 2B a few times, but maybe I missed it. Please, let me have missed it. “Why don’t you two order Thai for dinner while I’m gone?”

Toby was all in on that and I hoped it would distract Neil.

I jogged outside and ran straight into a man. What the hell? “Who are you? Why are you here?” I blurted out.

“You ran into me, asshole,” he bit back. “All I want to do is catch my ride and first they tell me they can’t come to my shitty date’s address because it doesn’t exist and then when I finally find a place they will come get me, you run my ass over.”

Before I could apologize, a car with a rideshare sign in the window pulled up.

In this scenario, I was the asshole.

“Sorry man.”

“I am officially claiming this block a no go zone,” he grumbled climbing inside.

I needed to chill. Everything about him standing there was normal but my brain went straight to thinking something terrible was about to happen to my family. It wasn’t a healthy place to be .

I hurried along, going back to 2B, and then our basement apartment in Archer’s house. I searched every room, closet, cabinet, and even the freezer just in case someone was spacing out and put it there.

Neil’s bag was nowhere to be found.

Maybe I didn’t need to chill after all.