“I guess we’ll find out,” Ella said as she got up. Reese and Maycie were right on her heels.
“It’s a delivery guy,” Maycie said as she looked out the window.
“Oooh, I think Axel sent you flowers,” Reese said with a little jump of excitement.
Ella opened the door, then signed a paper, and accepted the long skinny box. She walked into the kitchen and set it down, looking at it suspiciously.
“I swear if you don’t open that up right now, I’m going to,” Maycie said as she grabbed her knife and brushed off the pumpkin guts.
“Fine,” Ella said as she slit the bindings and opened the box. At the exact same time, all three girls jumped back with a screech.
“Is this somebody’s idea of a joke?” Reese said, a shudder passing through her.
“If it is, it’s not at all funny,” Maycie said.
“I think it’s another message,” Ella said with disgust.
Sitting in the box were a dozen dead roses with maggots crawling all over them, and written on the lid of the box was the message “Everything Dies!”
“Let’s get it the hell out of here,” Maycie said, the first one to recover as she pushed down the lid and lifted the box, holding it away from her body.
Ella and Reese followed her to the back door, where all three girls looked around before opening it, and then they tossed the box next to the garbage can.
“You need to report this,” Reese insisted.
“And say what? I was sent dead roses?” Ella said, feeling foolish.
“Maybe they can lift some prints,” Maycie reasoned.
“I just messaged Axel,” Reese said, holding her phone.
“What? Why in the world would you do that? And how do you have his number?” Ella exclaimed.
“He gave it to me last week, and made me promise to tell him if anything happened,” Reese said, a little sheepishly.
“Great! Now, he’s going to freak out on me again,” Ella said with frustration.
“Or maybe he’ll just keep you alive. We’re staying with you tonight,” Maycie said as the women moved back into the house.
Ella knew it’d be useless to argue. Besides, she needed her friends there. Maybe, just maybe, Axel wouldn’t go off the handle quite as bad.
Yeah, and pigs really could fly.
“What’ve you been doing to keep busy?” Axel asked as he sat back and enjoyed his predinner drink, his eyes glued to Ella. It seemed he couldn’t look at anything other than her when the two of them were together.
He was still furious that she wasn’t taking the threats and harassment seriously, but at the same time, he knew that continuing to harp on it would only push her away. After his initial yelling match with her three nights before, he’d discovered it was much more effective to simply keep her where he could see her at all times—of course, without her knowing he was doing that.
“I’ve been doing a lot of grunt work at the office,” she said with a sigh, sipping her glass of wine.
“Ah, the necessary paperwork. It’s the worst thing about the job,” he said. “I’ve gotten in trouble more than once for turning in my reports late. I just don’t understand why the boss needs it typed out. We’re interviewed after every case with someone else taking notes.”
The routine conversation actually helped to ease his nerves. Someone was going to a lot of work to keep Ella frightened, and he was trying hard to keep as much of it from her as possible. Felix’s men hadn’t given up yet, but they’d never dealt with someone like him. Axel always caught the bad guy.
“Because when you’re writing it down you may remember something you forgot to mention in the interview.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what the boss says. I still think it’s annoying.”
“We can both agree on that. I did have fun on Sunday with the girls. Well, until that package arrived,” she said, making him tense all over again.
“Had you just invited me in the first place, I could’ve grilled the deliveryman and possibly gotten evidence against Felix,” he said, then wanted to take it back. No use harping on this subject again.
She was silent for a moment as she sent him a stern look. “Rule number one, no men allowed during girl time.” He had to admit he was grateful she had people in her life she could trust without question.
“Your girls like me,” he pointed out.
“Yes, they do. I think it’s because of your muscles, certainly not your charm.”
“Ouch!” Dramatically he held a hand to his heart and leaned back, trying his best to look hurt. And just like that, the tension evaporated.
“Oh, get over yourself,” she told him with another laugh.
“Well, since you so rudely excluded me from pumpkin carving, I think you have to accompany me to another Halloween event this evening,” he said with a wink.
“What event?” Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him with suspicion.
“Just a place I saw the other day that looked fun,” he said with a shrug.
“I’m going to stop you right there. With the twinkle in your eyes, I’m not trusting you one little bit, so I’m not agreeing to go anywhere until you tell me specifically where it is.”
Axel couldn’t keep the smile from his face. When she wore that expression, the one that told him she was putting her foot down, she looked adorable. She was going for fierce, but she couldn’t pull that off no matter how hard she tried.
“Fine. It’s a really great-looking haunted house,” he said as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation, feeling like a kid. “I haven’t been to one in ages, not since college, and then, we were running it, so that’s not nearly as fun.”