Chapter 39

The riddle occupied my mind all day, filling me with an anxious sense of dread that followed me through everything I did. The slightest loud noise made me jump in fear that it was him coming to make good on his promise. I didn't even know what he really wanted, to cut the chord on my relationship with Kieran? That could have meant so many different things but the main tone rang through: he wanted me to break up with Kieran. Although I knew that there was absolutely no chance of that happening, the pangs of guilt and fear still shocked me to my core when I thought about how I could prevent any future attacks from him if I just did what he wanted me to do, but I refused to give in to his demands, if he wanted to hurt me and lure me somewhere he would have to try harder than that to get me to crack. I went to sleep that night with racing thoughts and an uneven heartbeat, but the next morning wasn't any better, seeing as though it was a Friday and it had been a while since I'd received the note. He was anything but patient. I tore his name out of my head as soon as it surfaced like batting a pesky mosquito from my face. I refused to allow him to invade my thoughts and emotions for the rest of the day. Kieran's sleek black car pulled up in front of my house the minute I finished brushing my teeth and putting the finishing touches on my outfit, and I smiled to myself with the way the butterflies began coursing through my stomach. If there was one thing that I could always count on with Kieran, it was the way that he could make all of the terrible thoughts and anxious feelings dissipate within seconds of being around him, or even seeing him from a distance. Racing downstairs after grabbing my things, I gave my mother a quick peck on the cheek and hugged my dad before running out the front door, realizing that I was in a bit more of a hurry to see Kieran than I would have allowed myself to believe earlier. I was so glad that I could just casually kiss my mom on the cheek again without fear of her immunocompromised system getting the best of her and allowing her to catch illnesses quicker than others. It was something that I had taken for granted in the past and I certainly wasn't going to do that ever again. I reached Kieran's car just as he made his way around the hood to open my door for me, and for some reason, I couldn't wipe the silly smile off of my face. The trees seemed a bit more vibrant, although their green foliage couldn't compare to the delicate and radiant green that always shone back at me when I looked into Kieran's eyes. The sky was a more brilliant hue of blue than I had ever seen, and the sea salt on the breeze tickled my cheeks as the sun's effervescent rays beat down on my forehead and arms. It felt like I was on top of the world with Kieran beside me. Nathan was just a simple little pest that could be batted away quicker than a fly, and I intended to treat him, and his presumptuous, malicious threats as such. He couldn't hurt me unless I gave him the power to do so, and I refused to relinquish anymore power to him, it was time to reclaim my life and the happiness that I deserved to feel after all of the trauma, pain, and pure heart-wrenching torture that he had put me through. Enough was enough. Kieran leaned down to give me a gentle kiss on my lips but it was enough to alight my insides with an electric fire that licked up and down my stomach, the butterflies replaced with something stronger, something instinctual and almost ancient. I reached my arms up and intertwined them in his silky ink hair and his arms wrapped around my waist, bringing us both impossibly closer together, but I wanted more. I wanted more of his time, more of his presence, just more. I knew that I loved him with my whole heart, that was something that couldn't ever be denied. He had reached inside the deepest depths of my pain and pulled me back from the brink, and it wasn't because he was the first person I opened up to about what happened to me. It was because of the safe and secure atmosphere that he always exuded whenever he was around, the strong sense of security that he gave me no matter the circumstance. It was how he was always there for me whenever I needed him, even in the times that I didn't think I needed him at all. I thought back to that first night on my roof when I was having my panic attack and he was there, giving me not only a much needed distraction but it was something else there, too. It was like he knew exactly what I was going through and knew just the right things to say to keep me from having a complete and total meltdown. Perhaps he did know what I was going through, he had been through pain and trauma in his life as much as I had with the death of his mother and then his father moving on to Jake's mother, making them family for life. He understood me in a way that no one else had, and that was the key. He didn't try too hard or push me too hard, he was just simply there and that was what made all the difference. He pulled back from our embrace all too soon but the electricity still sizzled and danced in the air like a living entity between us, and it was all I could do to not pull him back down into another air stealing kiss. "Wow, what was that for?" he asked me, as out of breath as I was. "Everything." "Well, remind me to do 'everything' every day," he added with a chuckle and a wink my way and I was putty in his hands. I smiled and shook my head at him, taking in his white t-shirt and dark skinny jeans clad figure, I realized I needed to buy the man at least one button up shirt since tees were his signature look. His arms did fill out the shirts nicely though, and put his muscles on clear display for me to ogle whenever I wanted. "So hey, remember how I invited you to dinner with my grandparents?" "Yeah..." I dragged out since it sounded like he was about to drop a major bomb on me. He opened my door for me and motioned for me to get inside before making his way around the small sports car and finally answering me as he slid into his seat. "Well, they're in town and I hate to spring this on you since I never gave you an actual day, but the dinner is tonight, don't hate me!" I couldn't help the giggles that escaped me after taking in his sheepish expression. "Oh, but what ever will I wear?" I asked in a high pitched, girly voice. This earned me a good chuckle from him as well as he turned the key and the engine roared to life, causing a few small birds on the ground by the light poles to flap their wings in fear and take off in front of us. "Seriously, you're not mad?" "Not in the slightest, but I am serious about one thing, though," I told him. "Oh yeah, and what's that?" There was a glint in his eyes and I could tell I was amusing him. "What am I supposed to wear?!" We laughed and made jokes the rest of the way to school, and I almost hid the fact that I got another 'note' from him on my phone before we even made it to the school. It was a picture of a small family, a mother, her husband and their daughter as they were all playing at the park. It looked like one of those generic photos that you see in picture frames before you take it out and put your own photo inside. It had come through on my Instagram account, from an account that I didn't even follow, but upon closer inspection it was just a ghost account that I suspected Nathan had created, and for the purpose of sending evil threats without it being traced back to his normal account. The picture had text written underneath it, and it was all I could do to keep the heart palpitations from ricocheting around in my chest at its meaning. I was fine, everything was fine. He couldn't hurt me unless I gave him the power to do so. I always had Kieran with me, he couldn't hurt me. The words on the picture, however, showed me a way that he could hurt me, however. Maybe not physically, but emotionally, and I didn't know which of the two was worse. "The ties that bind most often are the ones that blind. Family is very important to me, isn't it to you as well, Care? Meet me tonight at the location I described. Come alone, or the ties that bind will not be the only thing that I sever. -N"