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Phoebe was Bayou, our president’s, wife.
“Then hopefully she finds something,” I admitted. “Because I’m ready for this to be over and it hasn’t really even started yet.”
“Five bodies means it’s very started,” Castiel disagreed. “One of which happened weeks ago now.”
That was very true.
Very, very fuckin’ true.
“I don’t know what to do,” I admitted. “Do I let her go back to work?”
“Slowing things down might make him a little more rational,” Castiel admitted. “If he sees her going back to normal routine, then maybe he’ll lose the vengeance act and simmer the fuck down, giving us time to figure things out.” He paused. “Or, when we slow it down, things will change and he’ll think that now that he has her back, he might as well take her.”
“What makes you think he’s going to try to take her?” I asked carefully.
“Well, I don’t think it was ever his plan before,” he admitted. “but now? Now that he’s gone about a week without knowing where she was, I think that he’s not going to ever let that happen again.”
I felt sick to my stomach.
“How long do you think that this has been going on?” I asked, not wanting to hear the words, but knowing I needed the answer.
“Since I was sixteen,” Jubilee said softly, coming up beside us. “I told you before that it felt like someone had been watching me since my accident.”
“What do you mean since your accident?” I asked softly.
“Well, it started when I no longer had Annmarie there. Like, the feeling that someone was there, watching, but I couldn’t see them. Fast forward to that week that you got skunked. That Monday, I’d gone to the grocery store. I felt like someone’s eyes were following me all the way through the grocery store. Then when I got out to my car, there was nobody in sight, yet it still felt like they were there.” I shook my head. “I don’t really know how to explain it. Just the presence, I guess.”
I closed my eyes, hating to think that she was right, but knowing in my heart that it was true.
It must’ve been going on for a very long time.
I had every confidence that Jubilee knew exactly what she was talking about.
My eyes met Castiel’s.
“He has pictures of her on his desktop,” he admitted. “Some of them come from years and years ago. The night that she went to prom. The night that she graduated high school. The night that she went to your basic training graduation. The night that she went to your wedding. Etc.”
Fuck.
That was what I was afraid of.
“Son of a bitch.” I scrubbed my hands over my face.
“You were in them, too,” he said. “Basic training graduation. Graduation. Everything y’all ever did together is documented. That’s when the pictures get weird.”
“What kind of weird?” I asked curiously.
“The kind of weird where he started to superimpose himself over you into your pictures when y’all were together,” a woman’s voice came up from behind me.
We both turned to look at the blonde standing behind us.
I stared at her with confusion.
How had I not heard her walk up? Or drive up?
Then I realized she’d been sitting at the curb since we’d arrived, because I noticed the only other vehicle was the one that was currently parked a house down from mine.
“Lovely,” I admitted. “What now?”
“Now, we continue to dig. I’m Janie, by the way,” she said. “Anyway, saying that, out of all those pictures he took you out of and put himself in, I still haven’t gotten a clear view of his face. And he signs all his stuff—emails that I’ve been able to find, as well as a few financial documents—after someone that we know isn’t him.”
“Who is it?” I wondered.
“Some random doctor off of television. Gregory House.”Chapter 20You gonna cry or act like a boss?
First of all, I’m going to do both.
-Text from Jubilee to Zee
Jubilee
I could tell he was pissed.
And not at me.
I contemplated getting rid of my own pissed off attitude long enough to tell him I was sorry, but I couldn’t find it in me to be the bigger person right now.
One of the reasons was because I had a stalker that’d been stalking me since I was sixteen.
Secondly, because I wanted my fucking food at my fucking house, and he wouldn’t let me get it. I was hormonal. So, sue me.
And finally, because I was just goddamn pissed at the world.
I tugged on a pair of sweatpants that I’d luckily thought to pack when we’d originally left Bear Bottom and sat down on the couch to gather up my socks and slip them on to my feet.
“What are you doing?” Zee asked.
“I’m going to go run,” I told him. “I haven’t gotten my long run in, and I need it. And before you say anything, no, I’m not going to allow you to stop me from going.”
