"And what about Amalia? She's in a wheelchair for god's sakes, how can she really defend herself if he comes after her looking for me? I can't be responsible for her being attacked again, again, Emmett! If it hadn't been for my selfish need to get Raphael in prison that night at the club, he wouldn't have gone after her. God, it's happening all over again. I can't protect anyone, not myself, not Amalia, not you, and I can't-"

"Lydia, breathe. It's not your job to protect me, or anybody else, that's the police's job. He won't be able to touch you, or Amalia, and I can take care of myself, you don't have to worry about me."

"He shot his best friend, Emmett. He killed a person in cold fucking blood and who knows what set him off, but that could be you! He's already shown that he is a killer, what else do I have to prove to show you that you need to be worried?"

"I am worried, for you, but not for myself."

Ugh! He was so impossible. If he didn't want to take his safety seriously then I would have to find out a way to make him.

"Put yourself in my shoes. How upset would you feel if someone was coming after you and I refused to acknowledge that I was in any danger?"

"I would just take you everywhere I went and if we had to be separated then I'd make sure you'd have security on you. That's the beauty of having money, I can hire protection."

"Protection and security won't deter him. He's clearly sick in the head, if he's determined he could get a shot off even before the best security teams could stop him."

Emmett scooped me up in his arms and I melted against his embrace, my head leaning back against his chest as we waited until the detective on the case showed up. I wasn't sure how we had fallen asleep the night before, Emmett barricading the door per my request with a chair underneath the doorknob and the dresser pushed up against the only window in the room.

The knock sounded and I flinched, eyes wide in fear as they reached Emmett's calm features. How could he have been so put together in this moment?

It was my parents and Lucas, not the detectives yet.

My mother was the first to pull me into a suffocating hug, followed by my brother and father while Emmett stood off to the side to give us some space. Our relationship had changed drastically, simply from that one family intervention that Emmett had forced upon us.

I guess I just realized that Emmett didn't have anyone to be there for him unconditionally that was blood related, well, besides his dirtbag uncle but that was besides the point.

I realized how good I had it, a living family that was willing to put in the work to put the past behind us and apologize for all the wrong doings committed and I was the only one holding us all back from healing.

Healing sounded a lot harder to do in that moment, from all of my other festering wounds that surrounded my sealed up scars in my gaping chest cavity filled with the remnants of my past.

"What do we know yet? I called the station and they won't tell me because you're over eighteen."

Even though my father was a police officer, he didn't have much pull up in a state where he wasn't even employed.

"Nothing yet, just that he's in the state, armed and dangerous, and is possibly coming after me. Great, right?"

"Lydia, now is not the time for joking."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and my phone rang at that moment so I ignored my mother's comment and ran to it, sighing in relief as I noticed Amalia's name on the screen.

"Amalia, thank god. Where are you?"

"Uh, just getting back from a job interview at a call center, why?"

"Okay, go straight home and lock all the doors and barricade them or something, and don't answer the door for anyone unless I call you and tell you I'm at the door. Christian escaped police custody and he's been spotted in the state and they think he's coming after me so you could be in danger too."

"He's here."

"Amalia get out of there!"

No this couldn't be happening again.

"Yeah, the interview went well, I think I'm going to get it. I'm right outside my building right now, yeah my boyfriend's waiting up for me. I know you don't approve, but she moved out months ago, we're just not close anymore. Yeah, I'll stay on the phone with you until I make it to my apartment, the city is pretty unsafe, I'll give you that."

Amalia stayed on the phone with me pretending I was her mother on the other end of the line, throwing out different phrases that might throw Christian off the scent while I muted myself and put her on speaker phone, Emmett already dialing 9-1-1 to get them over to my apartment building to make sure that she was safe.

"I have to go over there and make sure she's okay, he's there for me!"

"Lydia you are not leaving this apartment."

And then there was another knock at the door, the detective and his partner streaming in behind him.

I immediately felt more comfortable around the female detective and gravitated towards her while explaining the situation they had just walked into.

The amount of fear that slithered into my veins as Amalia told me he was there was incalculable, and the detectives gave her props for sliding in that she wasn't close with me anymore to try and make it known to Christian that using her to get to me wouldn't work.

They said that since I was living at Emmett's I was safer, especially considering the extra security the building came with, but that didn't mean that I was in the clear, not in the slightest.

There would be a patrol car stationed outside of Emmett's building and Amalia's, and my parents were instructed to try and switch hotels, just in case he had caught on to where they were staying. This was suddenly a top priority case, a known murderer on the loose and stalking and terrorizing others in the city, they hadn't been able to beat the media and his face was plastered everywhere on the news.

"You don't have to worry, we're going to catch him, especially if he's being this reckless," the female detective reassured me, and it wasn't unlike the situation where I had been questioned in the interrogation room the first time Christian had gotten to me.

They had sent in the woman to question me and she was kind and polite, unlike the man they sent in after her who was trying to poke holes in my story when there were none.

I didn't trust men easily, and those that I did trust were few and far between.

"So where do we go from here? I go to law school, and I already had to miss some classes because of health issues. I can't miss anymore without having to retake the semester which puts me behind."

The woman pushed her dark hair behind her ears, her brown eyes lifting to mine in concern.

"Then that might just have to be something to consider, I'm afraid. Your safety and life are more important than passing this semester at college."

"Hopefully it won't come to that, though? I mean, she is at Harvard, and well that is a very prestigious school."

For once I didn't mind my mother butting in like that.

"You could probably attend school, just make sure that she's never alone, that might deter him from approaching her. I see you're in good hands with Mr. Scott here, so that shouldn't be a problem. Now, we need to go over some specifics."

As the detective went over the 'specifics', mainly the ways in which they planned to catch him, she asked me if I wanted to press charges for stalking, and that if I did decide to do that, then it would only add to the stack of charges against him and make it more likely for him to be convicted on multiple counts, keeping him in jail longer.

"I want to press charges."

He needed to be punished for what he'd done to me back when I was just a child, but this was the second best option.

She discussed the course of action following my charges being pressed and suddenly she got a radio patch.

"Sorry I have to go and call my boss. I think we've covered everything, just remember, do not go anywhere alone and if he attempts to contact you and draw you out then you need to call us immediately. We won't be able to ping his cell but you could pretend that you're willing to meet and we could stake out the location and get him that way."

"So she would be bait?!"

"It's not as bad as it sounds but-" she cut herself off as her dark almond eyes flicked back down to the radio strapped to her belt loop.

"Yes, essentially she would be bait, but she would never be allowed anywhere near the spot he suggested, we'd most likely use someone close in height and weight and disguise them as Lydia and draw him out that way."

"Oh okay. Thank you for your help."

"Of course. Stay safe, Miss Montgomery."

She closed the door and safe was the farthest thing that I felt in that moment.