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Caleb

M y phone ringing in the middle of the night has me springing up in my bed.

Nothing good comes from the-middle-of-the-night phone calls.

My heart speeds up with a million different scenarios running through my head.

My parents are number one. When I see it’s Sierra, I’m already out of bed when I press the green button.

“Sierra,” I say her name with worry in my voice.

“They threw—” Her voice hitches and I feel like my body has turned to stone. “Someone threw a rock through my window.” Nope, I was wrong. That sentence makes my body turn to stone and fill with rage at the same time.

“I’m coming.” I tuck the phone between my shoulder and my ear.

Rushing around to my chest of drawers and pulling out a pair of jeans.

“You are going to hang up the phone with me and call the police.” I can hear the whimper coming from her side of the phone.

“I’m on my way. I want you to call me back after you get off the phone with the police. ”

“Okay.” Her voice is shaky. “Okay.”

“I’ll be there in ten,” I tell her as she disconnects, and I call Theo as I slide on a T-shirt.

“What?” he answers with a grumble.

“Someone threw a rock through Sierra’s window,” I inform him as I put on my socks and then my boots.

“Ugh,” he says, and I can hear him moving on his side. “Meet you there. Try not to kill anyone until I get there, please.” I grab my keys and a baseball hat before rushing out the door.

She calls me right back at the same time that I’m pulling away from the driveway. “Baby,” I say and all she can do is cry.

“I’m okay,” she says, clearing her throat. “I’m just.”

“I know, baby,” I tell her. “Where are you?”

“I’m in my bedroom.”

“Is the door locked?” I ask her and she gives me a hmm. “Okay, I’m around the corner,” I tell her. “The police are right in front of me. I’m going to let you go,” I say when I pull up to her curb and see her looking out the window.

I turn my car off right in back of the police cruiser.

Opening my door and getting out at the same time that Theo arrives, he doesn’t even turn off his truck before he’s walking beside me.

“This is going to go way easier if you aren’t breathing fire from your nose like a bull.

” He looks over at one of the officers getting out of his car.

“That’s a dragon,” I retort as the front door opens, and she stands there in her robe with tears running down her face. “Baby.” I wrap her in my arms as she tries to remain strong, but I can feel her shaking.

“I’m fine,” she declares, dislodging herself from my arms. “Theo, what are you doing here?”

“Making sure this one”—he points at me with his thumb toward me—“doesn’t end up in the back of that.” He then points over to the police cruiser. “And to help with the window.”

“Hello,” the deputy says, breaking it up, “I’m Deputy Sheriff Lincoln Burke.” He looks at me, then at Sierra. “This is Deputy Phillips.” He motions to the man standing next to him. “We got a call about a window.”

“Yes,” Sierra says, “I was sleeping, and someone threw this through my window.” She walks into the house, and I follow her as I look at all the pieces of glass in the living room. Theo follows me in, taking a sweep of the room before walking to the back of the house and then to the garage.

The deputy puts on his gloves before he touches the rock, then I see the red paint across it with the word Leave . “The fuck is that?” I roar at the same time Theo is coming back into the room.

“Here we go,” he mumbles, putting down the piece of plywood he’s carrying, and coming to my side in case he has to contain me.

“You did not tell me you were threatened, Sierra.” I say her name with my teeth clenched, and when I look over at her, she closes her eyes and then opens them.

“This is the second time this has happened.” I look at Deputy Burke, trying to literally rein in the rage that is going through my blood.

“Yesterday, she got a white paper that said stop looking, and now this.”

“I’m sorry,” Deputy Burke replies. “Can I get a little context?” He looks at me, then at Sierra.

“Yes,” she answers softly. “Twenty-five years ago I was left in a cardboard box at the local fire station. I came to town to look for my birth parents.” She tells the deputy the whole story.

I put my arm around her shoulders. “I don’t know who did this or if they are the ones who even sent the note.

I’ve spoken to a couple of people about it.

I spoke with Sheriff Hadley about the case, but there was no case.

But today, I called the county to have all of the birth records for my birth date. ”

“Do you have the note?” Deputy Burke asks, and she shakes her head.

“No, I tore it up and put it in the garbage. I didn’t think anything of it.” She exhales deeply, and I bring her even closer to me.

“I’m guessing you have no cameras,” Deputy Phillips states, looking around.

“She’ll have them up tomorrow,” I inform him. “She has an alarm, but that doesn’t mean shit.”

“I’m going to have to take the rock.” Deputy Burke looks at her. “Tomorrow, we’ll have someone coming by to ask your neighbors if they heard or saw anything.”

“Tomorrow? Why not now?” I ask, and he looks over at me. “Didn’t it just happen? Shouldn’t you, I don’t know, process something?”

He smirks as he looks over at Phillips. “Why don’t you do a sweep of the property and see if there is anyone or anything out of the ordinary?

” he tells the kid who just nods his head and walks toward the front door.

“It’s the middle of the night. Chances are no one saw anything and the suspects are long gone.

But tomorrow morning when someone shows up to ask questions, they are going to be able to talk to them and see if anyone heard anything.

Hopefully someone has cameras, but until then we won’t know.

” He looks at me. “I know you’re pissed, but if we go knocking on the doors, chances are they are going to be pissed and not want to help with anything.

We are going to call it in and patrol will be circling the area tonight and tomorrow.

” He gives me a tight smile. “This is a quiet neighborhood. If someone heard anything, I can almost bet that they would have called it in already. We’ll call you if we hear anything. ”

“So you aren’t doing anything?” My arm falls from around her shoulders. “They could do this nightly if they want.”

He’s about to say something when Deputy Phillips comes back in. “Nothing,” he says, “no footprints in the back, none in the garden.” He points to the window. “They either came to the porch to throw it or just stopped their car and threw it in from the grass.”

“We’re chasing a ghost.” He looks at me. “She didn’t see anyone or anything. Not a make or model of a car.” He looks at Sierra. “I wish I could help more.”

“Thank you,” she says softly as he turns and walks out of the house.

“Well, that went better than I expected,” Theo observes, going over to the other side of the house, grabbing the broom. “Thought his head was going to explode when he told you someone would be by to ask your neighbors.”

“Not now.” I put my hands on my hips, then look at Sierra. “Someone threw a rock through your fucking window.” I point over at the window. “ Someone didn’t throw it. They did it.” I wait for it to register on her face before I continue. “Your birth parents did this, or whoever the hell they are.”

“We don’t know that,” she says softly.

“Sierra, listen to yourself.” I try to keep my voice calm.

“It wasn’t just someone. They left you a message.

Actually, they left you two messages. One was a calm one, but this”—I point to the busted window—“this was crossing the fucking line. And let’s just say for whatever reason it was a stranger, they would just throw the rock, not leave a fucking note on it?—”

“Caleb,” Theo interrupts, “this isn’t helping anyone.”

“It’s helping me,” I snap at him. “It’s one thing for them to send you a letter, but this”—I shake my head—“this is a bit extreme.”

“I agree,” she admits. “I don’t know what else to tell you.” She shrugs her shoulders. “I’m in shock, and to be honest, I was scared, but now I’m at the point where I’m getting really fucking pissed off.”

“Oh, good,” Theo snips, “there are two of them.” He sweeps up the glass before he gathers it in the dustpan and then goes for a cardboard box.

Once he is away from us, I look at her. “How are you doing?”

“I’m not talking to you right now,” she returns, and my eyebrows shoot together.

“What? Why not?”

“Because you’re an ogre, and instead of making me feel better about all of this”—she points at the window—“you are making me feel bad about it.”

“Yup, that sounds about right,” Theo interjects, coming back into the room. “Now, if you two excuse me, I’m going to need you to help me put up that piece of wood on the window so I can go home and sleep.”

“This isn’t finished,” I warn her, and she looks past me like I didn’t just tell her something.

“Thank you so much for coming out and helping, Theo,” she says softly. “It was very nice of you.” She then turns to me before she stomps up the steps. “You can see yourself out.”

“I don’t know a lot about a lot of things,” Theo starts as she gets to her bedroom door and slams it, “and I may be rusty when it comes to women and relationships, but that woman does not like you.”

“She one thousand percent likes me, or else she would have told you to take me with you.” I shake my head and walk over to the plywood. I hold it up while he nails it into place. “I’ll call Mitchell tomorrow.” I mention the guy who does windows. “Thanks for coming to help.”

He nods at me, shaking his head. “Good luck with that one.” He motions with his chin to the upstairs where Sierra is.

I lock the door after him before shutting off the light and walking up the steps. Opening the door, I find her in her bed, looking at the door. “Did I not tell you to see yourself out?”

“You did.” I kick off my boots and then toss the baseball hat onto the bench in front of her bed. “You calm down yet?”

She sits up and folds her arms over her chest, and I see she’s wearing the same thing she tried to wear to bed yesterday. “Me calm down? You need to calm down.”

“I’m sorry,” I finally say and she just stares at me, not sure what to say to that. “I shouldn’t have flown off the handle like that, but I was very fucking worried.”

“Well—” I don’t give her a chance to say another word.

“Tomorrow”—I shake my head and pull off my T-shirt—“more like in four hours, we are going to call someone and get fucking cameras all around this fucking house.” I unbutton my pants and remove my jeans, keeping on my boxers before walking to the side of the bed.

“Now, I know we said we sleep naked, but I’m fucking exhausted. ”

“ We didn’t say anything about sleeping naked. You were the one who said it.” She watches me get into bed with her.

“Turn off the lights, baby,” I urge softly, and she reaches to turn off her bedside table lamp, bringing the room into darkness. I get on my side, reaching for her and bringing her to me. “Tonight scared me,” I admit to her, my voice soft.

“It scared me too,” she confesses as she buries her face in my neck, and I’m finally able to relax with her in my arms. Kissing the top of her head, it takes a while to find her asleep, but she becomes heavy in my arms. I spend most of the night listening to her breathing until sleep finally takes me.

I arrive at the barn a little later than I like, and Emmett and Charlie are waiting for me. “You look like shit,” Emmett states the minute I get close enough to them, a sly smile on his lips.

“Yeah.” I shake my head. “Someone threw a fucking rock through Sierra’s front window last night.”

Charlie immediately stands up straight, the smile on Emmett’s face quickly erased. “I need to get her cameras.”

“I have someone,” Charlie offers, pulling out his phone from his back pocket. His fingers fly across the screen. “I’ll call them.”

“I think it’s her birth parents,” I admit to them.

Charlie’s fingers stop moving, while Emmett hisses from beside me.

“Two days ago she got a letter telling her to stop looking and then the rock that was thrown through her window in the middle of the fucking night had the word Leave in red spray paint across it.”

“Shit,” Emmett hisses, “that’s not good.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.” I put my hands on my hips. “Police can’t do shit either since there is no evidence anywhere.”

“Shocking,” Charlie says. “We’ll get the cameras up today, and if they come back to fuck with her, we’ll catch them.”

“You talk to her about dropping this whole thing?” Emmett asks me and I look over at him.

“What do you think?”

“Yeah, thought so,” he replies. “Does she have someone who she is with during the day?”

“For now,” I answer, “Theo. Except he is going to be finished working there in the next two weeks.”

“What about at night?”

“I’m moving in with her,” I tell them and their eyebrows go up.

“She know about this?” Emmett asks me, trying not to laugh.

“She will when I bring my stuff over to her house and unpack.” I look over at the barn.

“Sounds like a solid plan.” Charlie tries not to laugh.

“Only got one plan,” I explain to him, “and that is to make sure she is fucking safe.” I nod at them.

“The only thing I care about is her being safe. I can deal with her being pissed.” They don’t say anything else because I walk away from them and toward the barn, not willing to admit to them that I’m so fucking gone for her it’s not even funny.