“So he built up this whole thing in his head?”
“Yeah. He wasn’t right, Harvie.”
She nods, looking a little sad for the man as I lead her back inside and over to the couch.
“I need to make a few calls. Do you need anything?”
“No, I’m alright.”
She still looks a little shaken up, so I don’t go far as I call the cops, Wesley, Gavin, and Tank from the Diamond Kings MC to let them know what happened.
By the time that I’m hanging up with Wesley, the cops are here and I know that we’re not going back to bed tonight.
I wrap my arm around Harvie as the cops start to ask us questions. She leans into my side and as she does, it hits me that this is over now. There’s no reason for her to stay here.
Is she going to go back to New York? Back to modeling and traveling all of the time?
I look down at her and for the first time all night, fear starts to creep up inside of me.
TWELVE
Harvie
I letRule show the cops out. The sun is just starting to rise, and I yawn as I collapse onto the couch.
It’s been a long night and I’m worn out. I want to go to bed, but I’m kind of afraid to. Every time I close my eyes, I hear that gunshot, and my anxiety spikes.
I was so scared when I heard the gunshot. I had sat in bed, gripping the bedsheets as I waited for him to come back, but he never did. I had thought the worst and I needed to get to him. I know that he’s mad at me for running out there when it was dangerous, but I just had to get to him. I had to know if he was the one who had been shot.
Luckily, he wasn’t. I can’t even imagine what would have happened if he was the one lying dead on the stairs instead of my stalker.
That’s another thing that I can’t wrap my head around.
Why was that man stalking me? I said two words to him over a year ago and he took that to mean that we’re in a relationship?
How is that even possible?
The cops couldn’t answer that question either. They had run his prints, and he had done this once before. That time they had caught him outside the woman’s house and had arrested him. He was sent to a psychiatric facility for treatment and then released. I wish that he hadn’t been.
“Are you hungry?” Rule asks as he comes back inside and I shake my head.
My stomach is in knots and I know that I couldn’t eat a thing right now.
“Let’s go back to bed,” he suggests. “You must be exhausted.”
“Actually, I think that I’m just going to take a shower. Then maybe I’ll lie down.”
He nods, and I stand and head down the hallway to the bedroom. I had been hoping that he would follow me, maybe offer to join me, but he stays put.
My stomach sinks as I realize that my stalker is caught and the job is done.
What happens now? Is he going to kick me out? Say that this was fun, but it’s time for me to get back to my real life?
I don’t want to leave him. I honestly don’t even want to go back to modeling.
It’s been so much fun to be home again and to be around friends, to feel like I’m putting down roots. I don’t want to travel for work all of the time. I don’t want to live in some big city, in an apartment that I never spend any real time in.
Could I offer to stay for him? Would that be too much?