And he ruined it.
I laugh as I climb into the car. “You just had to kill the moment, huh?”
“Hey babe, I can’t be soft all the time. I have a rep to protect, you know.” He smirks at me as he pulls out of the restaurant.
“A rep? What are you, the Godfather?”
“No, but you can call me a God if you want. I’m sure that’s what you’ll be screaming later.” He reaches over and trails his hand up and down my thigh, sending sparks through my body.
“You are so full of yourself.”
“You’re about to be so full of me.”
“Oh my God! Do you ever not have a comeback?” I nudge his shoulder with my hand.
“No, but if you want, later I can come on your back.”
“Enough!” I raise my hands in surrender. “I give up. You win. Just please no more.”
He laughs as we pull into his driveway. I see a car pull behind us, realizing it’s probably Ryan. My mind races thinking about what he could have found. We all walk into the house silently, before heading into the living room. I sit down on the couch; Hunter sits next to me, and Ryan sits across from us.
“Alright, sorry to do this tonight, I know it’s a shitty day for this kind of news. I had a guy I know look into a few things that I had suspicions about. I know who has been harassing you and how. I haven’t reported it yet because I wanted to bring it to you first.” Ryan stops talking. He rubs the back of his neck with one hand while avoiding eye contact with either of us.
“Ry just say it.” Hunter’s voice has a slight tinge of annoyance mixed with anxiousness.
Ryan looks up at me and seems to take a deep breath. “It’s your mother.”
Chapter Twenty Two
Hunter
What the fuck?
“What do you mean?” Sam asks beside me in disbelief.
“I mean that for whatever reason, your mother has hired someone to stalk you. Some notes were left by her and some by the other person. The attack at the beach and the shot fired were not your mother.” Ryan looks over to me. “I found out who the other person was.”
“And?” My fists are clenched in anger at the fact that her mother has been putting her through hell.
“It was Detective Marks.”
What the fuck! Rage builds inside of me at the realization that the asshole who was supposed to be helping Sam figure out who her stalker was, was doing it the whole fucking time. Not only that, but he was trying to make it seem like it was me! “Why the hell would he be involved?”
“She needed someone to help her, someone who knew how to not get caught and someone with connections. Marks has some pretty bad debt so Audrey was paying him off to help her get to Sam. After you started becoming a problem, they were going to try to pin it on you, hence him coming down on you so hard and provoking you. Now like I said, I haven’t reported this to anyone yet, I wanted to come to you two first to see what you wanted to do.” Ryan looks up at the two of us, who are in shock.
“How did you find out all of this, Ry?”
“I have a tech guy in my unit. He found a consistent stream of deposits from your mother to an account over the time of the stalking. That account linked back to Marks. The next part took him a little longer but he traced a dummy email that Marks had been using to his IP address. There were communications between him and your mother, planning the notes, and also trying to pin it on Hunter so your mother could get him out of your life.” God, I hate her bitch of a mother. I have never met anyone more deserving of a goddamn ass kicking.
I look over at Sam, who is as white as a ghost and seems like she is about to get sick. “Are you okay?”
She shakes her head. I can only imagine what this is doing to her.
“I am going to let you all absorb this new information. Call me if you need anything and I’m sorry I had to be the one to tell you.” Ryan stands and I follow him to the front door.
“Thanks for helping us figure this out man.” I shake his hand.
“No problem. Let me know what you guys want to do and how she is.” He walks out and I go back into the living room to check on Sam.
She’s gone. I run upstairs, checking the bedroom and bathroom, thinking maybe she wanted to lie down or take a shower, negative. My blood runs cold, as my heart begins to beat out of my chest. “Sam!” I call her name a few times.
Where the hell could she have gone? That’s when I see the slightest movement in the backyard. She’s sitting on one of the swings looking completely broken and lost. The people I had bought the house from had kids and I never bothered to take the stuff they had down. I walk outside and even though I know she hears me, she doesn’t look up from the ground. I sit down on the swing next to her, not knowing what to say. What do you tell someone after a hit like this? I mean, I knew her mother was a bitch, but hiring someone to stalk and terrorize her? That’s a whole new level of fucked up.
“I don’t know what to say, babe. I can’t even tell you that I know how you’re feeling, cause I don’t. I’m here though. Just let me know what I can do.”
“I need to leave.”
Her words cause me to freeze. Leave? Why the hell would she leave? No, fuck that she isn’t going anywhere. “Why would you do that?” She doesn’t answer me. “Sam?” Silence.
I stand up and move in front of her, grabbing the chains of the swing and causing it to stop. Her eyes are still focused on the ground and I need her to look at me. I need to figure out what is going on in her head. I squat down, so now I can see her and all I see is pain. It fucking kills me to see her like this. Completely shattered by someone who is supposed to care for her.
“Why do you want to leave?” She shakes her head, indicating that she isn’t going to answer me. When she moves to stand up so do I. I stand in her path, determined not to let her just walk out. “I have never in my life cared about someone the way I feel about you. I know that you’re hurt but don’t push me away. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere. Lean on me. Lay all of your shit on my shoulders and I’ll carry it for you. Just don’t run away. Don’t run from me. Run to me.”
She looks up at me before sobs break through her body. She sags into me and I quickly lift her up, carrying her inside and up to my room. I lay her on the bed, climbing in beside her and holding her as she buries her face in my chest. My hand rubs circles on her back, trying to calm the storm inside of her. If I could kill her mother and that detective right now, I would.
Sam stays in my arms for the longest time. When she stops crying, I don’t think it’s by choice but because she has run out of tears. Her hands fist my shirt like she is holding on for dear life.
“Talk to me. Keeping everything inside won’t help.” I beg her to just tell me what’s going on in her head.
“Why wasn’t I enough? Why couldn’t she just love me? I mean, am I that terrible of a daughter that she holds that much contempt for me? That she would do this stuff without batting an eye? Why…why doesn’t she love me?” Her voice is strained from crying and laced with pain.
“I don’t know what the hell your mother’s problem is, but you are enough. You are more than enough. She may not love you the way that you deserve, but you don’t fucking need her. I love you. Jules and everyone else does too. You have a family now and you don’t need to put up with the abuse that she has been subjecting you to all these years. You are an amazing person, Samantha Baker.” I kiss her, not knowing how else to get her to understand.
“What do I do now?” She looks up at me, her eyes asking for guidance.
“Now, you make that bitch pay.” I pull her close to me, my chin resting on her head. I know she held out hope that eventually her mother would come around, that she would see the error of her ways and embrace her, but she didn’t.