Page 190 of Reaper

“Hey, Honey! How’s everything going?”

I swallow the lump in my throat, hating that I’m going to ruin her good day.“Ma,”I start, and my throat tightens again.

“What’s wrong, Honey? What happened?”

“My stalker… He sent me a message and it sounds like he’s going to do something to hurt me or maybe even one of you guys. I’m in Forest Creek right now—Levi went into labor with the twins. I’m not able to keep an eye on things. I need you, Granny, Uncle Mark, and Khloe to stay alert. I don’t know what he or she will do.”

Ma curses. I bite my lip, hating that they could be hurt because of me.

“Pass on my congratulations to Levi for me, Honey. Sometime when she’s here in Junction Creek, I’d like to meet her. Now, as for the stalker, I’ll pass along the warning to Ma, Mark, and Khloe. At least we got that security system Anthony’s grandparents have in their store. We’ll—”

An alarm sound comes over the line right as a message pops up on my phone.

“Smoke!” I call out while trying not to freak the fuck out.

This can’t be happening.

It can’t be.

Not again.

Looking around, I find him staring at something on his phone before he curses. He looks up, a grim look on his face.

“The fire department’s been deployed already, Lark,” he tells me as he comes to stand next to me, showing me live stream video of the tavern.

“M-Ma, did you hear that?”

“Yes, I did, Honey, and it’s a relief. Mark’s grabbing the fire extinguishers and we’re going to head down and see if we can get a head start.”

“Stay safe and be careful. He could be waiting for you guys to approach.”

“Will do, Honey. Stay safe yourself. I’ll call you later.”

I hang up with Ma and switch over to the security screen on my phone. A moment later, Anthony looks over my shoulder watching the footage with me. We see Ma, Granny, and Uncle Mark come down from the house and start using hand-held fire extinguishers.

I can visibly tell a section of the outer wall was doused with something, because I can see the trail of liquid still running down the lapboard wooden siding and onto the stone base. He must have done that since he couldn’t leave piles of rags drenched in accelerant like the arsonist did to our house and supper club last year. That’s the reason why we decided to rebuild to go with a design that had stone from the ground up about four feet off the ground. Instead of doing a façade, the stones are actually the foundations of the buildings along with some concrete and rebar.

As I look closer at the picture, my chest tightens.

“That’s part of the exterior wall to my office. I recognize the curtains in the window.”

Anthony wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me into his chest as I continue to watch the feed.

“So far, the exterior cameras around there show no movement,” Smoke tells us and my shoulders slump in relief.

“At least he wasn’t waiting to ambush them.”

“Or he heard the sirens and decided to get out of there because there’s the fire department now,” Anthony says as he tilts his head toward my phone.

Seconds later, the firemen jump off their rig, grab hoses and run toward the fire. Chief Riggs approaches and urges Ma, Granny, and Uncle Mark to step back. It’s at that point that Chris and Sway join them and they watch the firemen work. Ma and Chief Riggs talk for a while before Erik joins them. After a bit, I watch as Erik pulls his phone from his pocket and then my phone rings.

“Erik, how bad is it?”For a moment I wonder if I should text him instead, but then I remember his hearing aids pair with his phone. Then there’s also the program Python wrote for him that transcribes what I’m saying into a note app on his phone so he can read it if need be.

“I take it you were watching from the cameras?”he asks. I can tell he’s trying for a bit of levity, but it’s not working.

“Yes, I was. I got the alert on my phone.”

“Emma said you got some sort of text from your stalker basically warning you something was going to happen.”