Page 64 of Seven+Four
“Sari got another package,” Rami says in a grim tone. “The doorman of his building called me after I asked him to let me know if any mail came.”
“That means the stalker doesn’t know Sari is staying with you,” I hear Rague add. He’s right, otherwise they’d have sent the package to the lake house.
“Did you open it?” I walk to my car and get in. I glare at Ezra as he suddenly takes the passenger seat.
“Yes, he brought it to the base. And I’m ready to disembowel the demented lunatic.” Ollie’s voice is shaken.
“What was inside?” Ezra suddenly interjects into the conversation, leaning closer to the phone I’m holding near my ear. Does he have enhanced hearing?
“Who the fuck is that?” Raph asks.
“Ezra,” he replies. “Who the fuck are you?”
“His other psychopathic brother,” Raph counters. “We have some questions for you…Ezra.” The warning is clear in my brother’s voice.
“And I will answer them…in time.”
I push Ezra away from me, turn on the car, and activate the Bluetooth speaker.
“Are you okay, Uri?” Ollie asks.
“He’s okay…for now,” Ezra taunts them, triggering Rague’s enraged growl.
“Hey, listen up, elusive fucker, you’ll be the one bleeding if you touch so much as a dread on his?—”
He doesn’t let Rami finish. “Jeez. They have no faith in your abilities whatsoever,Uriel.” Ezra snorts.
“I meant to say, before you rudely interrupted me, that he’d be the one making you bleed,” Rami clarifies.
“He already did.” He rubs the blood away from his neck. Oh please, I simply nicked him.
“Good,” Rague grunts out.
“Where’s all this brotherly coziness coming from?” Raph asks, because making Ezra bleed equals coziness for him.
“Jealous?” I hear Rami.
“Package,” I remind them.
Ollie is the one to finally tell me. “Another message, same typewriter. ‘We belong together,you’ll see it soon enough.’”
“There was also a black ball gag and pink lipstick inside the box,” Michael adds.
“Pink lipstick?” Ezra mouths. Like that’s the only weird thing.
“What else? Talk,” I demand, getting more worked up by the minute. I grab my phone and check that Sari’s location is unchanged.
“A bunch of razor blades.” Raph sounds grim.
Fuck!
“No fingerprints. But we found a brown hair on the elastic of the ball gag,” Rami says. “I checked some databases, and the DNA belongs to Francis Moreland, a scientist working for Abbot Laboratories. He disappeared for two days, then was found naked and unconscious in a park in Norridge. He had bruises on his cheeks, around his neck, wrists, and ankles, like he had been restrained.”
“What the fuck!” I exclaim. I need to protect Sari, to keep him close, so close I tuck him under my skin. Flay myself and wrap him in it.
“I thought that guy was found dead, raped, and beaten to death,” Ollie interjects.
“No, that was another body, a university student. It was found on the outskirts of Chicago in some woods. Hunter is helping the police with the case. It’s a very disturbing one,” Rami states. “Francis Moreland is still alive, and he was drugged. They found a needle puncture behind his ear, just like the guard from Bear-Stone Labs. But in Mr. Moreland’s blood, there were only traces of a tranquilizer.” The more my brother talks, the hotter myblood turns. It’s pulsing in my veins, whispering, “Kill! Protect! Kill!”
