Page 43 of Iced Out Mate

“This is the first direct threat against you. It makes my blood boil to see how bold this lunatic has become.”

“Does the timing of this have something to do with who they are? Do you think they know what happened between us tonight somehow? Or that we went to Hunter for help?”

“There’s no way. No one else has been in here except you and Emmy.”

“Then how did that dove get in here?”

Miles looked down at the dead bird. He shook his head. His shoulders slumped. The bloody note held carefully at the edge of his fingertips, as though he’d contract an illness simply from holding it. “I… I don’t know.”

“Do you have a doorbell camera?”

“Yeah, and it didn’t go off. I would have gotten an alert on my phone if it picked up movement.”

“Any cameras anywhere else?”

He pointed behind him, down another hall. “The yard, but that also didn’t go off.”

“Let me see.” I held my hand out for his phone. He supplied it, unlocking it as he handed it over. The security camera app was on his home screen. I tapped it and scrubbed through the last thirty minutes of both angles.

Nothing.

I looked back down at the dove. It appeared so peaceful in its death, even covered in blood. I crouched down. Hunting for some kind of clue. Anything. That’s when I spotted a metallic glint in the bird’s chest. I leaned a little closer. It was a bullet. But it was the tip of the bullet, and there had been no entry wound on the other side.

“Check this out,” I said. “Someone put that bullet in its chest. They didn’t shoot it.”

Miles crouched next to me. He made a sound. Moved to touch it. The second his fingers grazed the bullet, I heard a loud hiss from the touch and a surprised curse from my side.

“It’s silver,” Miles said even though I already knew.

That drove the threat home even further. It was a clear message. A single silver bullet to the heart or head would instantly kill me. No regenerating from that. Curtains down. Lights out.

My chest tightened, my lungs constricting. I tried taking in a deep breath but the oxygen wouldn’t flow. I couldn’t breathe. I sucked in short, raggedy puffs of air, trying to stave off the panic attack. But my brain wasn’t getting enough oxygen. Alarm bells rang louder than before. The edges of my vision began to blur and darken.

A hand between my shoulders brought a semblance of calm, although my anxiety continued to drive the train. He moved to gently massage the back of my neck. It was the spot that could both turn me on and calm me down.

Tonight, it was very effective at doing the latter.

The black borders started to fade and my breathing began to regulate. This wasn’t ideal, and I wasn’t happy about being a target for this person who clearly had some kind of magic and vendetta against me, but at least in this moment, I was safe.

Miles rubbed the back of my head. The anger that had flared in his gaze was replaced with concern. “Go and get in the shower. I’m going to clean up what I can and then get in with you.”

I shook my head. Already, I could tell I didn’t want to be apart from Miles. Too much had happened today. I couldn’t let my thoughts keep swirling, and being around Miles helped with that.

“Where are your towels and bleach?” I asked. The panic had subsided. I didn’t want to give it the mental space to return. “I’m down to help. It’ll keep my mind busy.”

“With the wrong things. Go.” His tone deepened. I knew he was trying to protect me but I wasn’t going to back down on this. I didn’t mind bumping heads with him.

“Towels and bleach. And maybe some Febreze and a candle. And a bottle of vodka.”

He stood silent for a moment before his lip twitched into a smile. “Towels and bleach are in the laundry room right over there, same as the Febreze and candles. No vodka, but I do have tequila.”

“Even better. Tequila first, cleaning after, then shower and sleep. Please.”

“Yes. Please.”

We threw back our double shots of tequila before I helped gather up the cleaning supplies. Miles delicately put the dove in a ziplock bag and placed it inside his freezer. Hunter would likely want to examine it. Next, we preserved the note as well in another ziplock, setting it inside the bottom drawer of the dresser in his bedroom. When that was done, we got to work cleaning up the blood, scrubbing it off the floor, rug, and walls, taking extra care with the wallpaper. Hydrogen peroxide worked well to remove it without damaging the wallpaper, which was good because I didn’t want any remnants of this night on his walls.

It took us over an hour to remove the bloody scent. By then, exhaustion was nut-checking us both. Yawns bounced between us as we dumped the bloody towels into the trash and took them outside. I stayed a moment longer with Miles at my side, both of us checking for any signs of an intruder. It only smelled like the pizza we had delivered a little bit ago, the box still sitting at the front door.