Page 21 of Branded Souls (Ember Hollow Romance #3)

Skye

I ’m not dying.

The mantra replayed in my head on a loop as my heart hammered, ramming against my ribs like it was trying to break through its cage. I hadn’t calmed down since I’d heard the voice of my father on that phone, and I was still trying to convince myself I wasn’t going to have a heart attack.

Physically, I was okay. I wasn’t bleeding. My heart would slow eventually—it had to.

Fox pulled into the parking lot of Hearthstone Security.

Glancing over at him, it was clear he was still livid. A muscle worked in his jaw, his shoulders tense, fingers gripping tight around the steering wheel.

He hadn’t said much after I told him what happened on the phone, but the blaze of anger in his eyes told me all I needed to know.

He’d taken my phone and discovered there was some kind of tracking app that had been hidden.

We decided to head to the office where Fox could set up a new, secure phone for me.

We were also meeting with some of his brothers to talk about what had happened.

I’d also called Ash. He deserved to know that our father might be back in the area.

The gravel crunched beneath the tires as we coasted to a stop in front of the security office, headlights cutting across the familiar shape of my brother. I opened the door of Fox’s SUV as he cut the engine and climbed out.

Ash stood beside his truck, arms crossed. For a moment, his expression was unreadable—calm, maybe even a little curious—but the second he caught sight of my face, his posture shifted. He pushed off the truck, brows drawing tight.

“Hey.” He moved toward me. “You okay? You sounded weird on the phone.”

I forced a smile, bracing against a gust of chilled, evening air. “I’m fine,” I said too quickly.

He didn’t look convinced. “What’s going on?”

My gaze flicked to the office building behind him—Hearthstone Security and Investigation was tucked behind the bed-and-breakfast like a quiet outpost.

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. My throat tightened, the words sticking behind my teeth.

Fox stepped in smoothly. “She got a call from your dad about an hour ago,” he clipped. “He threatened her.”

Ash froze. His mouth parted, like he hadn’t heard right. He stared at me, eyes boring into mine, as if confirming the truth by the look on my face .

“He called you?” His voice was quiet, coated in disbelief. “How? Are you sure it was him?”

Fox had filled me in on the conversation with Ash earlier today. My father had been missing for the last seven years.

Missing, but not gone, it seemed.

“I’m pretty sure.” I nodded slowly. “It was his voice… He spoke the same way, not just the tone but the cadence.” I shivered, swallowing down the nerves. “And he knew that I—” I cleared my throat. “He knew that I pick at my skin.”

I raised my hand, fighting the shame as Ash took in the raw and cracked skin around my nails. This was something I didn’t share with people, and I hadn’t struggled this bad with it in a long, long time.

Ash’s face paled. His lips pressed into a tight line, and he turned to Fox. “What are we going to do?”

Fox jerked his chin toward the security building. “Let’s head inside. I’m meeting some of my brothers. We’ll figure something out.”

Ash looked between us. A flicker of worry passed over his features—maybe a touch of anger. But he nodded.

Fox let us inside the office. The place was nice.

It had a modern feel, with little elements of the older building that it had once been—exposed brick in places, wooden beams in the ceiling and black metal accents.

I vaguely remembered a run-down building in the woods at the back of Fox’s yard, long ago.

It was hard to believe it had turned into this.

The front was an open lobby with tall glass windows. Through a door was a hallway lined with the individual offices of each brother. Ash and I followed Fox as he led us to a conference room toward the back of the building .

August and Emersyn were inside. The only other Ramsey brother there was Graham, who did a coy double take when he saw me.

It had been a long time since I’d seen Graham.

He had filled out since I’d last seen him, his jaw more defined, his hair slightly longer with waves falling over his forehead.

He looked put together in a dark pair of pants and a navy button-down shirt.

He had a pen, but nothing to write on that I could see.

He gave me a subtle nod as I followed after Fox. “It’s good to see you, Skye.”

I forced my shoulders back, telling myself that I wasn’t going to play the shocked victim, not in front of all these people. I had to get a handle on myself. I could do this. I was a professional. This was all another case…just another story.

At least if I pretended that it was, it would be easier, right?

“Good to see you, too,” I replied.

I turned my gaze to August and Emersyn. She gave me an encouraging smile, though I could see the worry in her eyes.

I took a seat in the chair beside Fox, and Ash sat next to me. August and Graham’s stare lingered on my brother.

“This is Ash,” I said, unsure they recognized him.

To my surprise, August’s body stiffened. Graham shifted in his chair, not making eye contact. Neither of them looked particularly happy to see him. That was strange.

This wasn’t the time to ask questions about that, though.

“Hey.” August gave my brother a curt nod.

Ash lifted a hand in a casual wave .

“Skye thought it would be a good idea for Ash to come,” Fox explained, “since he was the last one to speak with her father before he disappeared.”

“You haven’t heard from your father in years?” Graham twirled the pen between his fingers.

Ash nodded. “Yeah, that’s right.”

“You filed a missing persons report at the local police department—the day after you last spoke with him, correct?” August said, his voice a little too clipped.

I glanced between August and Ash, wondering whether August was in a mood today. What did he have against my brother?

“Yeah, I did,” Ash confirmed. “I’m sure you know by now, since I already told Fox this, but we argued the last night I saw him. He was drunk. Maybe the most drunk I’ve ever seen him in my entire life, which is saying something.”

Ash shifted in his chair, jaw clenching. “I left the house and I went to Callie’s. I was there late in the night until she closed. You can ask her. When I got home, my dad wasn’t there. I don’t know where he went, but I never saw or heard from him again.”

“Until now.” Emersyn’s stare locked on mine. “How are you?”

“I’m fine.” It was an automatic response. “I’m shaken up, but okay.”

Emersyn’s mouth thinned, a look of doubt crossing over her face.

I needed to try harder, needed to pretend that I was at work, convincing an audience with my smile.

“Do you have any idea why he would contact you like this?” Emersyn asked.

My gaze momentarily darted to Fox. “No. I haven’t had any contact with him since I left his house when I was eighteen. ”

“But he knows where you are,” August said.

“Someone was tracking the GPS on her phone.” Fox’s tone was venomous. “I should have checked her phone earlier. If someone was willing to mess with her computer, why wouldn’t they have gotten to her phone?”

“How did they get to my phone?” I wasn’t much of a tech person. I knew enough to get by, but the stuff that Fox did was beyond my scope of comprehension.

Fox gritted his teeth. “If they had control of your computer, and if your computer is connected to your phone, they could have gotten remote access from there. Or they could have gotten hold of your phone somehow.”

I grimaced. “I don’t think I’ve ever left my phone unattended.”

Fox shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. You’ll have a new phone now.”

“Do you think it was Charles messing with all your tech?” Emersyn asked.

I started picking unconsciously. “I have no idea,” I said. “He was just a cop. He had a computer, sure, but this seems like advanced stuff.”

“We can’t rule out that he could be working with someone,” Fox added.

“Do you know anybody who could do things like this?” I asked my brother.

Ash looked at Fox. “Just one.”

Fox narrowed his eyes. “Your father didn’t have any colleagues or friends who were into tech?”

Ash frowned, his gaze drifting off to the side as if in thought. “I mean…not that I know of. He didn’t have a lot of friends, maybe on e or two I could name off the top of my head. He didn’t share a lot about his life with me.”

August was taking notes on a tablet. “Could you give me those names?” he asked. “And do you have the computer he had at the time he disappeared?"

“I can give you the names,” Ash said. “But I don’t have the computer. He must’ve taken it with him. Some of his things were missing, too. Clothes and personal stuff. He packed a bag.”

August nodded and jotted something else down.

“I still don’t understand why your father would call you and threaten you like this,” Emersyn said. “Especially after all this time? Why now?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

“He wanted you to stop looking into Jane Doe, right?” Graham chimed in.

“I don’t understand why he would care…”

August and Fox shared a look. The two of them almost had a secret language of their own. Like they could understand each other without speaking.

“You’re trying to figure out if Jane Doe could be your mother,” August said. “We can only assume he knows that. If he is the one who hacked your computer, we can guess that he knows everything you’ve been doing and working on since you got back to Ember Hollow.”

The hair at the back of my neck rose. It was one thing to have a stranger invade my privacy, but for some reason, the possibility that it was my father felt like a slap to the face. As if he hadn’t put me through enough growing up, he was trying to dig his claws into my life yet again .

“Could he have been keeping tabs on me since I left the first time?” I asked, my voice sharp. It wasn’t only fear pumping its way through my veins—it was anger.

“It’s a possibility,” Fox admitted.

“Have your devices ever been hacked before?” August asked.

I picked at my skin, ignoring the flare of pain as I tore at my nail beds. “Not often, but I’ve had…fans who have gone too far.”

“You’ve had stalkers before?” Fox asked sharply.

“I don’t know if I’d go that far.” I shrugged. “I’ve had one or two people start to go over the line. Nothing that was dangerous. I don’t think I’ve been hacked like this before. Not that I’ve noticed.”

August wrote something else down. “Have you ever had any reason to believe that your father was ever following you?”

I shook my head hard. “Definitely not.”

“Charles comes across as someone who needs control.” Graham leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs.

“No shit,” Ash grumbled, rolling his eyes.

The sarcastic tone didn’t bother Graham as he continued. “What I mean is, it’s surprising to me that someone as controlling as your father simply let you leave and never tried to contact you again…”

I glanced at Fox. “He didn’t have much of a choice.” The day that I left, Fox had been there. He made sure that I was able to leave that house without being hurt. “I was legally an adult.”

Graham nodded. “I understand. And he might not have ever tried to find you, but he doesn’t seem like the type of person to let go so easily.” He dragged a thumb across his chin. “Did your father let your mother leave as easily as you?”

My stomach clenched. Ash fidgeted in his seat. I hated to admit that I remembered next to nothing about the night my mother left. Even though I was seven, all I remembered was that one day she was there, and the next morning when I woke up, she was gone.

“I don’t remember much about that time,” I confessed.

A steady, warm hand settled on top of mine. I startled, looking up at Fox. He wasn’t looking at me, but he wrapped one of his hands around mine, pulling it closer to him and stopping my incessant picking. I hadn’t realized I was bleeding again.

My cheeks heated from shame. But there was also something else, a small fluttering in my chest. Fox squeezed my hand, a silent sign that I wasn’t alone.

“But did he obsess over her leaving?” Graham continued, having not seen the small act of kindness from Fox hidden under the table. “Did he try to follow her? Call her? Any hint in his behavior that he was trying to find out where she’d gone?”

I shook my head. “Not that I remember. He always called her a coward for leaving. Told us that she didn’t love us. But he never acted like he was trying to find her. He talked like she was gone forever.”

Graham looked at Ash. “What about when Skye left? Did he act similar to when your mom left?”

Ash’s body went rigid. I couldn’t imagine what it had been like in that house when I’d left him alone with that monster.

I’d never forgive myself for it.

Ash cleared his throat before he spoke. “It was different when Skye left.”

I flipped my hand over in Fox’s so our hands were palm to palm, and I squeezed back. “How was it different?” I asked, voice strained .

His eyes tilted toward the ceiling, brows drawn tight together. “He didn’t let me leave the house for weeks after…” he began, and my heart felt like it was tearing in two. “He told me that you weren’t going to get away from him forever.”

A hush settled over the room. Fox held my hand so tight it ached.

“Did he know where Skye was?” Graham asked gently.

“I don’t know. I never asked. But sometimes he would leave for days. He never told me where he was going, but he’d lock me in the house so I couldn’t leave.”

All the breath left my lungs. It felt like I was drowning. I reached for my brother with shaking hands.

He flinched when I wrapped my hand around his. Then, he relaxed. “It’s not your fault,” he said, voice low. His words meant only for me.

But it was. “I shouldn’t have left you.”

“You needed to save yourself first.”

The words echoed in my mind like the strike of a gong. Maybe eighteen-year-old Skye had needed to find a way to save herself, but she’d done it in the wrong way.

“That’s not an excuse,” I whispered.

Ash didn’t reply. Or perhaps he hadn’t heard me. He focused his attention on Graham. “I think it’s a safe bet that he was keeping tabs on Skye in some way.”

Graham nodded. “But there’s a reason why things were different between Skye leaving, and your mother…” he said cautiously, as if giving the information time to sink in.

The truth had been there this whole time. Maybe I’d always known it was a possibility, but had never wanted to acknowledge it.

Something cold settled inside my chest .

“He’s threatening me because he already knows who Jane Doe is,” I said, my voice lifeless. Monotone. “He knows that it’s my mother, and he doesn’t want me looking into her death because he’s the one who killed her.”