Aubri.
It's been two whole weeks since I married the most amazing man. Two whole weeks since my beautiful baby nephew, Fletcher; was placed into my life and at current moment, he's having the time of his life trying to eat my hair and giving me bright, drooling smiles when I remove my curls from his hands.
"Why are you trying to eat auntie's hair, Fletch? All I want to do is love you." I coo to the giggling baby in my lap. Tickling him, I decide to go look for my husband. Hoisting little man on my hip, we make our way through the spacious country villa that we all moved to after Harlee gave birth since everyone now knew which hotel we were staying at.
Sure enough, I find Liam and Harry sitting by the infinity pool, Harry with his famed and prized journal resting at his side as he kicks his feet in the water and Liam is standing at the pool bar, grabbing bottled waters. Seeing me, Harry brightens and reaches out for his son.
"Give me, you've basically kidnapped my kid," Harry jokes and I fake shield Fletcher from H's out stretched arms. Poking my tongue out at Harry, I shift the baby onto my shoulder and walk over to the cabana to get out of the sun, where both Harry and Liam join me with their respective writing tools. Settling the small baby to sleep in the outside sleeper tent, I pull my hair up into a bun and strip off my yoga pants and slouchy tee before hopping into the shallow end of the pool, since I can't swim. Kicking around for a bit, I finally notice Liam snapping pictures of me and Harry staring intently at his sleeping son in between scribbling in his journal.
"Where's Lee?" I ask, wondering where my friend and new mama has been hiding. I haven't seen much of her since she had the baby and this infinity pool is amazing.
"I sent her to the spa for a deep tissue skin massage and dead sea body scrub," Harry answers easily, picking up his fussing baby and gently rocking him back to sleep while singing something lowly under his breath and smiling when Fletcher reaches his tiny hand up to grab a finger.
Liam sends me a mischevious grin before interjecting, "yours is scheduled for later." Splashing him with water, he grabs his tablet and runs away before stopping dead in his tracks. Furiously tapping keys on his ipad, he runs his fingers through his hair before turning to face us.
"Styles," he barks out. "Pass Aubri the baby and babe, I need you to get out of the pool and go inside. Paddy is going to stay with you and we're gonna go get Harlee. We've got to go." Harry's eyes darken and he extends a hand to help me out the pool before passing the baby to me. Paddy doesn't even bat an eye as he takes in the scene and throws me a over sized tee and recieving blanket to swaddle Fletcher, who become increasingly agitated as he picks up on the tension suddenly flooding the air. Cooing and bouncing the baby, he settles a little but my own anxiety is through the roof.
Where are they?
What's going on?
Liam, Harry, Paddy & Harlee bust into the villa and Paddy double checks that the doors are locked as Lee comes over to comfort her baby. Liam wraps his arms around me before kissing my temple and whispering something in my ear that makes my blood run cold.
Looking up with frightened eyes, Harry has a protective arm around Harlee and his son, while Paddy paces the floor, lost in thought.
Its an an excruciating silence, this one is. I can hear the minutes tick by on my watch and I wonder if it was always this loud. Heartbeats sound slower and maybe its just me but I feel like the walls are caving in, just ready to swallow us up in the void that is not knowing.
How could something like this happen?
How could she have broken into our place and been creeping through all of our belongings? Liam said our apartment was completely torn apart, clothes cut up into letters that were pasted on the walls. He won't tell me what the message left was... but it's enough to have all the guys on edge. Liam said she smeared blood across my side of the bed and left a pile of burned photos of me on the floor.
Remind me to whoop her ass next time we cross paths. I've had enough of this bitch and she's not going to f/uck with me or my loved ones ever again.
She's got to go.
She picked the wrong one & she better hope for her own sake that I don't run into her. Glancing over at Lee, she nods at me.
We know.