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Xavier shoved his hands deep in his coat pockets. Should he go after her? Explain himself? He badly wanted to. Then his phone rang. His police detective friend, Ian, was on the line.
“X!” he cried. “It’s been too long, buddy.” The two of them had gone to school together on the South Side, but now they ran in slightly different circles.
“I know, man, sorry about that. It’s been busy.”
“Getting all that tail,” Ian said.
“Right. That.” There was only one bit of tail Xavier wanted at that moment, and she wasn’t speaking to him.
“So you got a perp that is getting into your site, huh?” Ian cut right to the chase.
“Anything you can do to help me get him out?” Xavier said. “He’s been hassling a...user.” The noise in the bar almost made it too hard to hear his friend. Xavier decided to step into the alley to finish the conversation. Getting Cardinals Hat out of his system, and hopefully in jail, was his priority at the moment.
“How bad?” Ian asked, and Xavier filled him in on what had happened so far. Ian made a disappointed sound. “I don’t think anything he’s done is technically against the law, but send me the guy’s full name. If he hasn’t checked in with his parole officer in a while, that could be enough to lift him, and if you really think he’s up to no good, maybe I could get one of my guys to check in on him. See if there’s anything to find.”
“Could you?” Xavier said, feeling suddenly hopeful.
“Anything for you, X. You know that.” Xavier felt suddenly grateful to have such loyal friends.
“Thanks, man.”
Something that sounded like a police scanner went off. “We’ll have to grab a beer sometime, but right now, I gotta run. City’s on fire, as usual.”
“Okay, Ian. Thanks, man.”
Ian clicked off and Xavier returned to the bar, determined to go find Emma and explain the situation. But when he turned the corner, he found Emma and her friends were already gone.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
EMMA WENT HOME—alone, after breaking the news to Casey that she wouldn’t be his next Nost fling. Casey had tried to persuade her, but Emma was in no mood. They’d parted ways as she ducked into her own cab and headed home. Sarah, for her part, had called it an evening early as well, without taking anyone home. The whole mood had turned bleak the second Emma found out Xavier had lied to her. Well, not lied, exactly. Omitted the truth. Still, what an omission.
Emma sat on her bed in the tiny one-bedroom condo and glanced out her window, which overlooked Welles Park. Normally the pretty view of the full trees and big metal gazebo comforted her, but today she just felt isolated and alone. The leaves in the park had turned red and brown in the cool fall night, visible beneath the park’s streetlights. Emma sighed, and kicked off her ankle boots, opting to close her shades and then put on a pair of her comfiest flannel pajama bottoms. Emma swept her blond hair up in a messy bun, and grabbed her laptop as she sank into the ruffled pillows on her bed. She felt a storm of different emotions: anger, hurt, but also confusion. She opened up a Word document and did what she always did when she felt this lost: she started to write.
Turns out, the creator of Nost, Xavier Pena, uses it as his own personal playground to pick up unsuspecting women...
Then her fingers froze on the keyboard. Was that fair? Was she being too hard on Xavier? Objectively, what was wrong with the creator of Nost using it himself?
He has an unfair advantage for one, and for another, he can secretly look up profile information. The part of her that was still bubbling over with indignation wouldn’t be easily appeased.
That was reprehensible, yes, there wasn’t a way around that.
Yet, another part of her argued that he wouldn’t have stalked her if he hadn’t cared. Why else would he come find me? Warn me about Jimmy?
Emma stared at the blinking cursor on her computer screen and bit her lip. Was she angry? Sad? Yes, but she wasn’t willing to let it all go. Not yet. She’d told Xavier they were done, but in her heart, she knew that wasn’t true. And, as much as she hated it, she wasn’t done thinking about Xavier.
As if she could conjure him up with just her thoughts, her phone rang. Xavier’s number popped up. Surprised, she sent it to voice mail. Then, seconds later, a local number she didn’t recognize called. Who was that?
“Hello?”
“It’s me. Xavier.”
Surprised, she was almost speechless. “You have two phones?”
“The first number... it belongs to a burner phone.”
The words hit Emma like a fist. He hadn’t trusted her enough to even give her his real number!
