Katie nods slowly. “But I still don’t get it.”
“The relationship was getting stale,” Norah says softly, looking at her. “You two were… normal. Things were going good, so the blogs weren’t talking about you guys as much.”
“And he wanted them to talk real fucking bad,” I suggest, hating that it’s all coming together.
Katie looks sick. “It was him the whole time? He was terrorizing me?”
“I think so,” I say. “From the very start. I bet he was doing shit before that, too.”
Norah sighs. “I hate to admit it, but it makes sense. Still, you want to ruin his career. I mean…” She trails off.
“He did that,” I say, stepping toward her. “You saw the motherfucker. He did that. He intended for it to be found. He wanted to embarrass you.”
“I dumped him,” she says.
“Doesn’t excuse it,” I respond, getting pissed.
“Enough,” Norah snaps, glaring at us. “Both of you, enough. Nobody wants to do anything stupid right now, okay?”
I glare at them and turn away. “Fine. I can take care of it.”
“Graham,” Norah warns.
I shrug my shoulders.
“Send it to his manager,” Katie says suddenly.
We both look at her. “What?” Norah asks.
“Send it to his manager,” Katie repeats. “It doesn’t have to go public, but if his manager sees that… they’ll leave us alone. And I bet he’ll never do something like that again.”
I snort. “The fucker’ll do it again. He doesn’t give a shit. Sooner or later, he’ll forget about getting caught, or at least he’ll be more careful.”
“I don’t care,” Katie says. “I’m not ruining his life over this. Send it to his manager.”
Norah sighs. “Okay. We’ll send it.”
I grunt my disapproval but I don’t speak up. I know this decision is over my head and I’m not the fucking person in charge here. That’s Katie, and if she wants to show mercy, then she’ll show mercy.
I didn’t show mercy. Always thought mercy was for weak motherfuckers. But now I see that maybe it takes someone special to be able to go down that path.
I walk toward the door. “Guess you two have it all under control,” I say. “I’ll see you later.”
I leave the room and head down the hall. I’m annoyed that Jasper’s not getting what he deserves. I want to drive out to wherever the fucker’s staying and beat him so badly he fucking bleeds. I mean, imagining the fucker followed us around? He actually came to another city, followed the tour, even after getting dumped, just to fuck with Katie.
It makes my blood boil. I’m so pissed when I get back into my room and I don’t know what to do with myself.
But there’s a knock at my door. I open it up and Katie looks back at me.
“Can I come in?”
“Yeah.” I let her past and close the door behind her. “Norah sending it over?”
“Yeah.” She chews her lip. “Look, I know you don’t like this.”
“He followed us here,” I point out. “Just to hurt you.”
“I know,” she says softly. “But I just can’t do it. Can you understand that?”
“No,” I say. “I want to chase him down and fucking kill him. I could do it, I’ve done it before. At least I want to beat him so bad he never thinks your name again without feeling pain.”
She walks up to me and kisses my lips softly. “I know. It’s what I like about you.”
“Fuck, girl,” I whisper, grabbing her and pulling her against me. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”
“I know.” She kisses me again.
“I’m falling in love with you. Hell, I am in love with you. I don’t know when it happened.”
“Probably around the same time that I fell for you.” She looks up at me. “I love you, Graham.”
“I love you.” I kiss her hard, pulling her tight against me, heart racing.
The kiss feels like it lasts for hours, for days. We break apart and she’s a little breathless, cheeks pink.
“You don’t need a bodyguard anymore, you know,” I say softly. “The stalker’s taken care of.”
“I think we can find a way to keep you around,” she says, grinning.
“Yeah? You want me to just be the guy in your entourage that fucks you every night?”
“Sounds good to me.”
I laugh and kiss her. “Fine then. I ain’t going anywhere, not ever, if you don’t want me to.”
“And I never will want you to.” She whispers the words, sending chills down my spine.
We kiss again, holding it this time, and I feel weirdly at home, like I never have before.
Out in the desert, I felt alive. But here, in this room with Katie, I feel at peace. And I feel like I’m at home.
That’s a feeling I never thought I’d have, but here I am, living like a new man.
I don’t know what she did to me. I don’t know how I’m feeling this. But I love her, and she loves me, and I’m never leaving her side.