A dead girl.

Her hair was blonde and she looked to be no more than six or seven years old. The edges were ragged and worn from time or rough handling so the picture might have been a few years old. The bleeding hole in her head had me fighting back the need to vomit. I inspected the card but didn’t see any sign of a signature or idea of who the card came from. My mind raced to figure out who the card could have come from and how it got here.

The break in!

It was the only thing that made sense. Since then I have argued over the reasons why someone would break into an occupied house. They did it to leave this note. I searched the picture for a clue but came up empty. I was sure I’d never seen the girl before so why would someone leave me a picture of her corpse?

When a realization centered in my mind the envelope fell from my hand and drifted to the floor. This would mean the break in wasn’t random. Oh shit. I picked up the card and flipped it over to inspect the back and read the words that sealed my fate.

This is your only warning.

Chapter Twelve

Regret and nervousness had me looking over my shoulder once again. “I shouldn’t have come. Why did I let you talk me into this?”

“Calm down, Lake. It’s Saturday and it’s just a football game. He probably won’t even be here. But if he tries to bully you we’ll leave, okay?”

How did I tell her that it wasn’t bullying I was worried about? That Keiran was using sex and death threats to torment me now? I agreed to come out here because I owed Willow and I missed her. Besides Keiran said he was going out of town. He didn’t say when he’d be back but I assumed it was for the weekend because I haven’t heard from him since he left me stranded in my house.

The house that had been too quiet and the guilt that was weighing in on me, not to mention the creepy birthday card all also caused me to break out of my cage. The house I shared with my aunt used to be my safe haven, but Keiran had managed to turn that against me as well.

I still haven’t told my aunt about the break in after she called again to check in on me. With her tour, I didn’t want her to worry or worse, cancel, so I put it off for now. Besides, I still believe that if she was gone she was safer where Keiran couldn’t get to her.

“Okay,” I finally replied as we entered the gate. There was no going back now, I thought as I released a heart breath. “But aren’t you avoiding Dash?”

“Yes, but I refuse to let him keep me from living.” Willow was right of course but it wasn’t that simple for me.

Keiran now controls every aspect of my life. Actually he always has. Every decision I’ve ever made for ten years began and ended with how best to avoid him, even though he always found me. Just like I knew he would tonight. I came because I owed Willow. Despite her understanding, I know it hurt her.

The area around the football field was crowded with what seemed to be the entire town as well as surrounding towns. Bainbridge usually had a great turnout because our school’s athletics are the best in the state. I’d only ever been to one game before and that was when Keiran was in juvie and Willow begged me to go with her.

“Do you see the crowd? Maybe you won’t even run into him, if he’s even here.” But what about the hundred or so other people in the past who would run to tell Keiran whenever I was in the vicinity? How did I dodge them all? “Sheldon wants us to meet her at the concession stand. She said it’s urgent,” Willow said looking at her phone with a frown.

It took us a while to maneuver through all the people but we finally made it to the concession stand that was also crowded by people. The smell of popcorn and hot dogs greeted me as we approached. Sheldon was standing there in her green and white cheerleading uniform with a bottle of water in her hand.

“Hey Sheldon.”

She looked up and quickly walked over to us. “Keiran is here and much worse, he knows you’re here. He’s coming for you.”

I stared at her, wordlessly. I wasn’t surprised. I knew this would happen. I didn’t understand it but I wasn’t surprised.  “But we just walked in,” Willow stated, looking at me apologetically.

“You know Keiran has his goons posted everywhere. They probably spotted you and called him the moment you stepped foot in the parking lot.”

“I should go,” I finally replied.

“You shouldn’t have come in the first place,” his deep voice said somewhere behind me. Willow and Sheldon jumped in surprise and I slowly turned around to face him. He was in the shadows, leaning against the back of the metal stands and dressed in a red, long-sleeve shirt and black jeans. He looked mouthwatering.

He swaggered over to me, grabbed my elbow, and walked away with me without another word. It took a second for me to realize that it wasn’t to the exit. I looked back, helplessly to see that Keenan and Dash had also appeared out of nowhere.

Keenan looked like he was chewing out Sheldon and I knew it was because she was helping me.  Dash had Willow pinned against the wall of the concession side. They were hidden in the shadows but a little glimmer from the stadium lights allowed me to see that he had her hands pinned above her head and he was saying something to her.

They quickly disappeared from sight as we rounded a corner so I focused my attention back on Keiran. His face was set in a hard mask and his shoulders and back was tense as he walked. The sound of the game—and the witnesses—seemed far away when he led us a short distance away from the stands.