“So, these emails are coming to your personal account.”
“Yeah, but any decent hacker could probably find it.” I shrug. “I mean, I would think. I really didn’t think it was a big deal.”
“It’s a big deal,” he replies and paces away from me. “That night that I didn’t come here after work? Remember?”
“Yes.”
“I’d been working a stalker case. The girl was obsessed with this guy. He was married, had kids. Didn’t want anything to do with her. She was crazy. So, we arrested her for harassment, and I told him to get a restraining order.”
He looks outside again.
“That morning I left, I got a call from Matt. He was at the guy’s residence and thought I should come since I was working the case. I got there . . .” He shakes his head. “I got there, and the guy’s wife was dead. Stabbed. I won’t describe the rest of it to you because I still can’t get it out of my head. It haunts me.”
He turns to me.
“The stalker was dead, too. The guy came home from work and found the stalker slicing up his wife. Shot her in the head. My point is, the wife’s dead, Starla. She’s dead because her husband didn’t think it was a big deal and didn’t report anything to the police until it had gone too far. Your life is too precious to fuck around with this.”
“I’m sorry.” I wrap my arms around his middle and press my face to his chest. “I’m so sorry you went through that.”
“Bad days happen,” he reminds me. “And I’ll be damned if I let that happen to you. It’s a big deal, and we’re going to get to the bottom of this.”
“Maybe it’s all for show?” But we both know it’s not.
“Maybe.” He sighs. “Grab your laptop. We’re going to the office. I want my tech guys to look this over, and not just through a forwarded message. I’m also taking the letter on the table for prints. They might be able to find something on it.
“What scares me the most is that they’re following you. They followed you shopping with Meredith, and us out for dinner. I haven’t seen anything suspicious.”
“I haven’t felt like I’m being watched.” I rub my hands up and down my arms. “Until now. Now, I’m creeped out.”
“That makes two of us,” he mutters. “Come on. Let’s do this.”“This is no big deal,” Levi says two days later. He’s leaning against the doorjamb of my bathroom, watching me primp. “They’re going to love you.”
“I’m meeting your parents.” I stare at him in the mirror as I hold my curling iron, waiting for my hair to curl. “Of course, it’s a big deal. I could just stay here while you go celebrate your dad’s birthday.”
“No.” He shakes his head and walks up behind me. His hands glide from my hips, move up my sides, and cup my breasts. “You’re not allowed to be alone.”
“There are two cops outside now.”
“No way.” He kisses my neck, and when he pulls away, I let the curl out. “You already know everyone there.”
“Except your parents.” I shake my fingers through my hair, smooth on some lip gloss, and then turn out the bathroom light. “Okay. I guess I’m ready.”
“You’re gorgeous.”
“I’m nervous.” I shrug a shoulder. “And I never get nervous.”
Once we’re in Levi’s car and on the road, I glance in the side mirror.
“Your guys are following us.”
“They’re following orders,” he confirms. “Another guy will go watch the house while we’re gone. Just in case.”
“I would say this is too much, but I don’t think it is.”
“Did you get another email?”
“How would I know? You made me give the guy at the office my password, and I’m not allowed to use it.”
“You opened a new email,” he points out, and I roll my eyes.
He pulls into his parents’ driveway and cuts the engine, but rather than getting out of the car, he rubs his palms up and down his thighs.
“I thought you said there was nothing to be nervous about?”
He smiles at me. God, he makes butterflies take flight in my belly.
“I’ve never brought a girl home before.”
Before I can answer, he hops out of the car and hurries around to open my door.
I’m staring at him with a dropped jaw.
“What?” he asks.
“Never?”
“Never.”
He takes my hand and leads me to the front door. He walks inside without knocking.
“Hey, girl,” Lia says with a smile. “Come on in. I already made you a lemon-drop martini.”
“I don’t usually drink,” I say but take the glass from her. “But I’ll have just one. For courage.”
“You’re going to be great,” she whispers before Levi leads me through the spacious house to the kitchen.
“Mom, Dad, this is Starla.”
“Oh.” Levi’s mom stares at me in surprise, and then a huge smile breaks out over her face as she hurries over to hug me. “Well, hello.”