Page 26 of Splintered Memories (Ember Hollow Romance #2)

August

E mersyn’s too-pale face stared at me blankly from across the small living room.

It was after eight in the morning. We were gathered with my brothers, plus Lark, in the living room of my house that was too small for so many people.

I hadn’t known where else to bring her, though.

Emersyn’s home hadn’t completely burned to the ground, but it might as well have with the amount of damage the fire caused.

I leaned against the wall with my arms folded over my chest. We were both physically uninjured. We were taken to the hospital to get checked out and other than a slight sprain in my ankle, we were fine.

“You spoke with the FBI?” Fox asked.

My twin stood a few steps from me, his body rigid and mouth tight with anger.

I didn’t look away from Emersyn as I nodded. “Agent Hoffner and Detective Whize met us at the hospital shortly after we arrived. They wanted to take our statements. ”

“And?” Lark said, terse and impatient. She sat next to Emersyn on the couch, holding onto her hand. “I feel like they’re acting as if they are doing something when they really aren’t. Reid even asked about their investigation and they won’t give him any information.”

My jaw worked. I couldn’t disagree with her. I had a feeling they knew something I didn’t and were keeping it sealed. “They didn’t tell us anything.”

To Detective Whize’s credit, he had seemed like he was about to throttle someone for what had happened. When they’d finished asking questions, he’d leaned close to Emersyn and swore that they would find who had done this. I only hoped that he’d make good on that promise.

My gaze bore into Emersyn as she sat there, her face eerily expressionless.

I wasn’t sure what I expected from her after witnessing her home go up in literal flames, but it wasn’t this. She was a strong woman. She was steel coated in beauty, but there was no spark in her eyes. There was no pain. There was…nothing. That scared me most of all.

“I can try harder to put pressure on my contacts in the department, but if they’re hiding what they know, they have a reason for it.” I felt Reid’s gaze on me from where he sat in the only armchair.

“Do you think they have a lead on the Shadow Stalker?” Fox asked.

Reid let out a short huff of air. “I don’t know. We can hope. I think it’s safe to say that they know something, though.”

“How?” Lark snapped. “How do you know they have something? I’m not entirely convinced they know what they are doing.”

I didn’t blame Lark for her stark distrust. After what she had been through, it was warranted. It bothered me that Alex Cohen, the former sheriff and father of the man who tried to kill her, was walking around this town as if he still owned it.

Reid reached over and squeezed her knee.

“It doesn’t matter,” I cut in, “because we are going to figure this out, with or without the police or the FBI.”

It would be easier if they’d work with us, but we could do it on our own if we had to. We just had to work harder.

I glanced away from Emersyn for the first time, meeting Fox’s gray stare. He looked about as tired as I felt, shadows lingering under his eyes. “Do you have anything more on the internet trolls?”

For the past two weeks, Fox had been working on gathering information about the accounts leaving questionable comments on Emersyn’s social media. It was taking longer than I’d anticipated because, as it turned out, she had a lot of comments to wade through.

Fox raised one shoulder in a half shrug. “I’ve been whittling the accounts down as fast as I can. Most of them are anonymous or burner accounts, which take more time, but from what I can tell, no one seems like a valid, real-life threat.” He shook his head. “Not like this.”

I wasn’t sure whether I was relieved to hear it or not.

An ache pulsed in my temple, and I massaged it with a palm, letting out a frustrated breath.

“How the hell did this even happen?” I muttered, more to myself.

“We had cameras and one of the best security systems on the market. How did anyone get near that house without me knowing?”

The thought had haunted me since my brain had cleared enough to start trying to put the puzzle pieces together.

Roman had confirmed the fire was set on purpose.

He said the place reeked of gasoline; even though the fire department hadn’t done their full investigation yet, he was confident of that.

This was the first opportunity I’d had to talk to my other brothers and figure out what happened, and where we needed to go from here.

The way Fox’s face drained of color had my gut clenching. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “I’ve been going through the footage and the security log…” He trailed off, which was unlike him.

The hairs on the back of my neck rose.

“The cameras were blacked out shortly before the fire.”

“Blacked out?” I frowned.

“Covered with something, probably spray paint. But the issue is that whoever did it knew exactly where the cameras were and how to avoid being seen by them. It was someone very familiar with the house.”

My spine stiffened. “And the security system?”

A deep line formed between Fox’s brows. “It was disarmed.”

My eyes widened. “Disarmed?”

He nodded. “It was disarmed shortly before the fire. Whoever did this knew the code and had gotten in the house by disarming the system. They probably disengaged the fire alarms, too. All but the one in the room you were sleeping in.”

Nausea roiled inside me. I looked back at Emersyn, wanting to gauge her reaction to this information. She only stared, her eyes glassy and unfocused as if she hadn’t heard a word.

Lark glanced from Emersyn’s blank expression to mine, her mouth thinning with worry. Her fingers tightened around Emersyn’s hand, as if she could hold her friend together by the simple action.

My voice was soft as I spoke next, low and soothing. “Emy?” A shred of relief hit me as Emersyn blinked. Her eyes found mine, still glassy, but I had some of her attention. “Did you give the code to the security system to anyone? ”

I’d advised her to keep it to only the two of us for safety reasons, but Emersyn was nothing if not her own person, and I couldn’t forbid her from doing anything.

She gave me three, agonizingly slow blinks before she answered. “No.” She frowned. “No one except for my brother.”

My heart sank, and as if someone had turned on the lights, Emersyn’s eyes widened.

Her lips parted in shock. “Oh,” she gasped. “Jake. I have to call him. He’ll be worried.”

She looked around herself, patting the thighs of her sweats where there were no pockets. Her panic seemed to escalate when she didn’t find what she was looking for: her phone. She hadn’t grabbed it from the house before we fled.

“It’s okay,” Lark said, before I could. “You can use my phone.”

Emersyn watched her friend as she handed over the phone. She stared at it a beat before she nodded. “Thanks.”

We were all silent as Emersyn called her brother. She didn’t seem aware of that, though. The call went to what I assumed was voicemail and she left a message.

“Hey, Jake.” Her voice trembled on his name, but she cleared her throat. “It’s me. I wanted to let you know that I’m fine. Call me back when you can.” She hesitated before whispering, “I love you.”

She gave the phone back to Lark, that blank stare shifting into raw anxiety.

I shared a glance with Fox.

Emersyn’s brother was an interesting character.

I didn’t know him well, but in a town this small, people knew most other people’s business.

Jake Hawthorn was the son of the former mayor—a good American boy, until he wasn’t.

Everyone knew about his descent into infamy, of the trouble he fell into with drugs and alcoholism.

Knowing what I know now, about what he went through growing up, I didn’t judge him. Emersyn was so proud of him for getting sober and cleaning himself up.

But Jake also had an air of instability about him. He had been around Emersyn’s house a lot recently, worried about his sister. Yet, how much did I really know about Jake?

My gaze flicked to Fox, and he gave me an almost imperceptible nod. He knew what I was thinking.

I needed more information about him. I needed to know where he was and where he’d gone, especially tonight.

Taking out my phone, the phone I had kept with me even through the fire, I sent Fox a text with Jake’s phone number and address. He slipped from the room without another word, no doubt to exit out the back door and head to the Hearthstone office and his computer.

My brothers didn’t ask where he went, just continued on as if it never happened.

Graham, who’d lingered quietly near the corner, stepped toward the group. His gaze flicked to Emersyn, who was staring down at her lap.

I crossed my arms back over my chest, appraising my brother. “What do you think?” I asked him.

He had given me a profile of Emersyn’s possible attacker like I’d asked of him two weeks ago, though it hadn’t been much help. The conclusion that he had come to was that the way in which Emersyn had been attacked didn’t fit with the Shadow Stalker’s profile.

Graham ran his knuckles along his jaw as he studied Emersyn. “I wish I could be more helpful.” The corner of his mouth dipped in a pensive frown. “I thought I had more of a grasp of what was going on here, but now I’m not so sure.”

My eyes narrowed on him. “What do you mean?”

He glanced my way. “Roman called me.”

“When?”

“Not long before you texted us to meet you here.” His hand moved from his jaw to his hair, where he gently pulled on the wavy strands. “He noticed something weird on the front porch.”

I shook my head, having a hard time grasping new information. We hadn’t slept all night and the exhaustion mixed with the shock and adrenaline was starting to get to me. “Something weird?”

Graham looked back at Emersyn. “There was a pile of paper butterflies. Half of them were burned up, but some remained. It was as if someone had just bumped them. Some had even blown out across the lawn.”

Butterflies.

Beside her, Lark’s face drained of color.

Emersyn looked up at that. Our eyes met, and something heavy, like dread, seeped into those green pools. My chest constricted with the knowledge of what that meant. The only thing it could mean.

“Butterflies are the Shadow Stalker’s calling card.”

Graham gave a solemn nod. “Unless either of you have a good explanation for them being there, whoever did this wants to give the impression that the Shadow Stalker was involved.”

Emersyn shifted on her seat.

“Do you think that he did this or not?” I couldn’t tell by his statement what he believed .

Graham’s lips thinned, his gaze still on Emersyn.

“I don’t know.” He sounded equally frustrated and intrigued.

“From all accounts, this isn’t how this perpetrator works.

He had an MO that he’s rarely deviated from.

” He stepped closer to Emersyn, and she looked at him for the first time, as if she’d just noticed he was there.

“What is it about you that would gain this much attention from him? If he is behind all these attacks on you, why?”

Emersyn didn’t answer.

Lark inhaled a shaky breath. The conversation about the Shadow Stalker had to be hard on her. He had claimed to be her father, after all.

“It should be me,” Lark breathed as a tear slipped down her cheek.

Reid’s grip on her knee tightened. “No.” He shook his head. “None of this is your fault.”

Lark bit her lip.

“I don’t know about that.” Graham shook his head. “The only reason the Shadow Stalker would go after someone is if he saw them as a threat. Lark, you’re his flesh and blood, according to him. In his twisted mind, you’re his legacy. He wouldn’t hurt you, if he had any other choice.”

Graham sounded completely sure of himself. It was a theory I’d heard months ago when we were assessing Lark’s safety risks, and so far, Graham had been right.

“He sees Emersyn as a threat,” I said. “He has to. She’s been going after him on her podcast, making video after video on him. It makes sense that he’d want her to stop. Maybe she’s getting closer than she realized.”

“Could be.” Graham nodded. “I’m not sure why he’d do it in this way, though.

Why give her warnings? Why risk going into her house that is littered with cameras and alarms to burn the place down on the chance that she’ll die?

Why not stick to his usual ways of operation and kidnap her, ensuring that he achieved his goal? ”

Lark flinched at the word kidnap. Reid stood from his chair and sat on the arm of the couch next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

No one answered the question. We all sat in an ominous silence.

Graham was right. It didn’t make sense. We were missing something.

After everything, I wasn’t sure where to go from here. I scrubbed a hand over my forehead where the headache in my temple had spread. Maybe all I needed was some sleep to give my brain a fresh start.

As if sensing my thoughts, Emersyn spoke. “I’m tired.” She looked at me; a flash of pain crossed her face as if something occurred to her. “I—I don’t know where I’m going to sleep…”

I pushed off the wall I’d been leaning on.

“You can stay here, if you’d like,” I said without hesitation.

My house was about half the size hers had been, but it was safe here.

Secure. “Or,” I continued, not wanting her to feel trapped, “you’re welcome to stay across the street at the bed-and-breakfast.”

My parents lived in a large Victorian home that they had turned into a side business after all of us kids had left the house. I’d bought the house across the street purely because it was close to the Heartstone office and convenient.

“You are more than welcome to stay with us, too,” Lark offered.

Emersyn’s gaze shifted from me, to Lark, and back again. Every move she made seemed like it took effort.

Eventually, her eyes landed on me. “I can stay here. ”

And that was all she said before she stood and walked toward the bedrooms, like she knew exactly where she was going.

I glanced at Reid and Graham. “We’ll talk again later,” I said in dismissal.

I followed after Emersyn to help her get settled in.

She was quiet as I showed her the tiny guest room with nothing but a twin bed and flimsy desk. There was only one full bathroom, but she didn’t seem put off by it. She didn’t seem much of anything.

She was detached. Hollow.

That, more than anything, sent the fear seeping down into my very bones.