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“I’m only coming for a short time. One night. Maybe two. I want to appease Everleigh. If I show her I’m fine, she’ll stop worrying.”
“If you say so.” Easton carries the suitcase into my room. “Bed or floor? Don’t tell me. I know. Floor.”
“Yes! Suitcases carry germs. I don’t want that on my bed.”
He opens it for me and straightens, resting his hands on his hips. “Now, what has you paranoid?”
I scoff and dig in my underwear drawer. “Forget it. You’re already teasing me.”
“I’m not. I’m serious. It was a bad choice of words. What has you concerned?”
I pause, my back to him. “I can’t be sure. My mind could be playing tricks on me after what happened, but I just remembered…”
“Yes?”
“I might have seen the man who attacked me before.”
“What makes you think that?”
I glare over my shoulder. “I knew you wouldn’t believe me, and right now, I don’t trust my brain, so maybe I am paranoid.”
“I believe you. I’m just trying to get information to help me understand.” His tone is gentle.
I gather a few pairs of bikini briefs and toss them into the suitcase.
He frowns at my selection, then eyes me, his brows raised expectantly.
“I’ve been locking up the office, and a couple of nights ago, when I closed the blinds to the front window, I remember a tall, shadowed man standing across the street. I remember thinking he’s huge—like, Thor huge. He wasn’t walking, just standing still, and facing the office. No one stands still around that part of town.” It’s the business district. “People race up and down the sidewalks on their phones often and in a hurry. Anyway, it was late, so I told myself I was being paranoid, like I get sometimes, and went about my business closing up. When I left, he was gone.”
Another memory returns, and a chill slips down my spine.
“You just shivered. Are you cold?”
“No.” I stare blankly at the suitcase. “I just remembered something else.”
“What?” He steps to me, his hand at my elbow.
“Vanessa said she almost ran into a huge man when she was bringing back coffees the other day. She said he was like a brick wall, and she hadn’t noticed him standing outside the agency because she was focused on carrying six cups of coffee and not spilling them, which she did a little when she dodged hitting him. She kept saying how rude he was for not even trying to move out of the way, especially given how much space he takes up. She has a thing with individual space.”
“Hang on.” Easton raises his hands. “This guy has been hanging around your office?”
“Maybe. It could be someone else.”
“Or it could be him and he’s stalking you.”
I laugh, partly from disbelief and partly from fear. “Why would a stalker follow me? I’m not wealthy.” I make decent money doing marketing for Tim’s business, and I live in a nice condo, but only because Tim and Mom bought me the place for earning my degree in digital arts and a minor in art. “I’m not an heiress to a family fortune. I’m not a celebrity or of any value. I may be dainty but I’m tough. I fought that man and even punched him in the dick.”
Easton bursts into laughter. “You…punched him…in the…dick?” He chokes out between his hysterics.
“Yeah. It helped stall him from the chase. My defense instructor always said to run and scream, but if you can immobilize your attacker somehow, too, do it. I figured he couldn’t chase me if he was holding his dick and in pain, so I went for it.”
Easton’s face is bright red from laughing so hard. “Sadiecakes. There is no one in the world like you.” He throws his arm around my shoulder. “My little badass fighter. I’m going to get you a boxer’s belt.”
My lips hike up on their own accord. “I guess it is kind of funny. Not at the time, though.”
“Definitely not at the time. But the possible sighting of him has me concerned. Did you tell the police about that?”
“I just remembered now. How could I?”
