Chapter 26

26

LINCOLN

B eing back in Black Hallows is a welcome reprieve, after the torture of the last few days we spent in the Maldives. The day after the wedding, Elle and Marcus kissed Cassie goodbye and moved to a private island to enjoy their honeymoon, which put Asher on Cassie duty. I do have to admit it was a joy to see them spend so much father and daughter bonding time together, and both Jace and Logan were fighting for the spot of favorite uncle, but after days of trying, Cassie confirmed that the title still belonged to me. Yet being so close to Asher after everything that happened was painful. I wanted to touch him, taste him, and from the way Logan was drooling over him, and describing how much he wanted him every night I fucked him, I know he felt the same.

Going our separate ways when we landed was a little strange after spending a full week by his side, but he had to head back to New York, and I have to get back to work. Jace headed home with the Deckers, not ready to say goodbye to Riley and his little sister yet, and Asher and Cassie both came back to the house with me. We shared a tired and quiet dinner with one another last night, but after they said goodnight, I haven't seen them since .

Exhaustion clings to my entire body from the jet lag, but I am more than used to running on not enough sleep, so I cram in a quick workout in the home gym, to help wake me up before I head into the office. Most of my clients knew I was going to be away, so I'm not anticipating too much of a busy day, yet still I groan inwardly as I pull into the parking garage beneath the office in town, and climb out of my car.

Eliza meets me at the door, having no doubt been waiting for me to arrive, and just as I'm about to ream her out about it, I notice the extra large cup of coffee she is holding in her hand. "Eliza, have I told you yet how much I missed you?" I ask with a smile, as she holds out the drink for me.

"Not yet, Mr. Blackwell, but it is only 7:36am, so there is still plenty of time for it to occur," she smiles brightly, and I laugh, she really does fit in here perfectly.

"A whole week without me and I'm still Mr. Blackwell, huh?" I tease, following her inside towards her desk.

"You're my boss who I respect very much, and that is your name, so yes, you are still Mr. Blackwell." She rolls her eyes at me as she talks, gathering up a stack of files and mail that is clearly meant for me, and my smile instantly drops. "These are all for you, some new prospective client files to review, and all of last month's mail for you to go over. Most of it is already sorted, tabbed, and ready to be filed as you see fit, but there were a few things marked private that I left for you to open."

I reluctantly take the pile from her with a frown. "Remind me again who decided it was a good idea for me to go on vacation?" I groan, already over this day, and she laughs lightly.

"I believe it was you, knowing you couldn't miss your best friend in the whole world's wedding," she reminds me, taking a sip of her own coffee and awaiting any further instruction.

"He's not my best friend in the whol e world," I reply quickly, and not one ounce of her believes me.

"Whatever you say, Mr. Blackwell, will Mr. Donovan be joining us today?" She asks, tapping an even bigger pile of files that I'm glad are meant for Asher and not me.

"No, Ash is on Cassie duty this week, so we probably won't see him. He's enjoying his time with her, and with both Elle and Marcus still away, there isn't really anyone else to take care of her," I explain, nodding hello to one of the security guys as they enter and head straight towards the kitchen.

"Well, if he needs to come in for anything this week I'm happy to keep an eye on her. I can stick one of the guys on the desk, and work from one of the secure offices in the back with her. She'd just need some toys to occupy her," she says with a shrug, not realizing how rare her kindness is in a town like this, especially among people we actually trust.

"Thank you, Eliza, I'll be sure to mention it to Ash when I speak to him," I reply, before gesturing to my office. "I'm gonna go and tackle my inbox and all this, so hold all my calls unless it's family until lunch time, okay?"

She nods sharply, "Yes, sir." Then just as she plonks herself back into her chair ready to get back to work, I remember something.

"Oh, and this is for you," I tell her, handing her the small gift bag in my hand that contains a fancy bottle of perfume that Elle helped me pick out. "Thank you for holding down the fort," I smile with a wink, handing over the box and walking away before she can refuse it, and tell me it's too much.

When I reach my office, I dump the files and mail on the desk and fire up my computer, while sipping my coffee and contemplating where to even start on catching up. I'm not exactly someone who has ever taken a break before, so trying to get back into the swing of things after a vacation feels a little weird, even for me.

I spend the next two hours catching up on emails, because despite my out of office being on, it seems my clients can't read very well. Then I make quick work of going through the new prospective client files and splitting them up between who can be dealt with via email and who I think needs an in-person meeting. Once all of those are dealt with I move onto the mail, and Eliza was right, she really did tackle most of it so that it's easy to file, leaving only a few pieces marked private or confidential for me to go through myself.

Just as I begin that, my phone rings and I see Logan's name flashing across the front of it, and I smile as I answer. "Missing me already?" I ask, opening the first piece of mail and scanning it slowly.

"In your dreams, hacker boy, I'm just calling to see when your cock is next free," he purrs, his tone going straight to my dick even though we fucked every way possible over the last seven days.

"Oh is that right?" I muse, tabbing the piece of mail in front of me and adding it to the relevant pile before moving onto the next. "Maybe my cock needs to come and remind you who you belong to."

I can hear his smirk through the phone as he replies, "I just checked mine and it says property of Asher Donovan, how strange."

I laugh as I rip into a brown envelope addressed to me by name and marked private. "You're going to pay for that joke the next time I see you," I warn, pulling out something printed on a thick card with a note attached to it with tape.

"I hope I'm paying with my cock," he teases, that usual lightness in his tone that always brings me out of the dark, but I'm barely listening to him now as my eyes scan the page in front of me .

There is writing scrawled across the card in thick black letters that reads…

Are you a fan of my work

Superman?

Because I'm a fan of yours…

The words have me frowning in confusion, but it isn't until I rip away the note and stare down at the photograph that I'm sitting up straight in my chair. Staring up at me is a picture of the abandoned cabin in the woods, the one where I take my victims. As in, the cabin that no one knows about, as in the one I chose because it's in the middle of nowhere with nothing around for miles. I spent months watching it before I decided it was perfect, because no one ever went anywhere near it. So what the fuck is this?

Logan says something else, but I don't hear a word as I interrupt, "Hey, can I call you back, something important just came on my desk."

"I'll come on your desk," he claps back, clearly not sensing my serious tone.

"Logan," I warn gently and he sighs.

"Fine, call me when your desk is clean, baby." And then he is gone, and I'm staring down at the note and photograph, as my anger stirs to life.

This is a threat. It isn't just a note and a photograph, it's a warning. From who? I'm not sure, but I'm sure as hell going to find out.

I grab the envelope it came in and flip it over, checking for anything I might have missed. It just has my full name scrawled across the front and a red stamp with the word ‘Private', which mean s it was hand delivered rather than mailed. I'm on my feet and storming from my office before another thought can even enter my mind.

"Eliza," I shout, startling her a little. "When was this dropped off?" I ask, holding up the now empty envelope for her to see.

She looks just as confused as I feel, as she looks between me and the envelope. "Is that from the mail I gave you?" She asks, and I nod. "Erm, I'm not sure, any time during the month of November. I collect it all as one like you requested, whereabouts in the pile was it?" She questions, no doubt grappling for an accurate answer for me.

I think back to where it was, knowing I went through all the tabbed stuff first, but Eliza always keeps things in order, it's one of the main reasons she guaranteed her job here so quickly. "It was second from the top after the tabbed ones," I explain, and she nods again.

"Okay then it must be from sometime during the first week of the month," she starts to explain, but I am already walking off towards the CCTV office.

I burst inside and find Sebastian watching the cameras like he always does, and before he can even open his mouth to greet me I bark, "I need all the CCTV footage from the 1st until the 7th of November pulled up, focusing solely on when anyone came in and dropped off anything with Eliza."

Seb just nods, and starts tapping away, firing up all the monitors on the wall, and digging into all the files I need to find the footage I requested. I dip out to make some coffee, and then tell him to find somewhere else to be so I can do what I need to do. There are no questions asked as he leaves the office and closes me inside, and I spend the rest of the day trailing through every second of footage.

I'm not sure how much time passes, but I know it's enough for Eliza to go home for the day, and the security guys to leave too, lo cking me inside. I go through endless cups of coffee, as my eyes remain glued on the screen, examining it frame by frame until I can find something. I'm almost ready to give up and go home for the night when I spot it, the envelope.

The man enters casually, a pile of stuff in one hand and a coffee in the other, without a care in the world, as he strides over to the front desk where Eliza is sitting. He smiles at her, putting down his coffee and reaching to the top of his pile, plucking off the familiar envelope. I click the screen to zoom, just to double check, and sure enough, there is the envelope that is now sitting in front of me. He says something to Eliza, but I don't hear what, and she nods, taking the envelope from him and depositing it into the mail tray she keeps behind her desk, and then he is leaving.

I flick between the different cameras in the office until I find one with the best angle, and then I am zooming in on his face and capturing a screenshot of it. It takes a few tries to get the perfect one, but once I have it, I email it to myself and rush back to my office. Once there, I use a program on my personal laptop to enhance the image until it isn't grainy anymore, and then I run it through the best facial recognition software I have access to.

After inputting a few parameters to narrow the search, I let it run, and then all I have to do is wait. I check my phone while I do, noting the multiple missed calls and texts from Logan, Jace, and even Asher, but I ignore them all. The only thing that matters right now is finding out who this man is.

It takes about twenty-minutes to finally get a hit, but when it pings, it surprises me. Not because it found the man I'm looking for, but because the man it found is a name I know, or I guess I should say, knew , because this man is now dead. He is one of the men who was murdered in town a couple of weeks ago, but it wasn't me w ho killed him.

So who did? And why was he killed after sending me this message?

My eyes flick back to the note and the photograph, and the only thing I know for sure is that the cabin is now compromised, which means there is only one thing I can do.

Grabbing my phone I dial my brother, and it rings a few times before he answers. "Linc?" Jace asks, and it's evident from his tone of voice that I have just woken him up. "Is everything okay?"

I don't really want to bring my family into this, but I know Jace is the one who will do this with no questions asked, and I really need someone to have my back, just in case.

"I need your help," I explain, and I hear him instantly moving on the other end of the phone.

"Whatever you need, man," he agrees instantly, before I hear him again a little quieter, "No, Red, everything is fine, go back to sleep, I just need to go out for a while." It's only then my eyes flick down to the clock on my computer screen, and I note it's almost 2am, and I curse inwardly for calling so late.

"I'm going to send you a location to meet me, okay?" I reply, not wanting to give him more information than he needs.

"Send it and I'll be there," he replies, and I hear the opening and closing of a door on his side of the phone.

"Thanks, brother," I say softly before I add, "And Jace?"

I hear another door and then the soft whistle of the wind, and I know he is outside on his way to his car. "Yeah, brother?"

My eyes flick back down to the photograph and I take a deep breath as I explain, "Something needs to burn."

There is a slight pause before he replies, "Understood."

Then he is gone, and I am on my feet and heading out to erase the only place that has brought the monster inside of me any true peace. A monster that now recognizes it has a new enemy to hunt, and it isn't going to stop until it's feasting on their dead corpse.

Looks like it's time for another battle.