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“No, she left already.”
“Em, what the fuck?! That’s not normal.”
I swallow roughly, my palms sweaty as I scan my eyes over the card again and cast my mind back over all the weird things from the last four years. “There have been other… things.”
“What do you mean other things?” Hadley’s tone is dead serious.
“Gifts. Notes. Phone calls.”
“What?! Why have you never told me about this?”
“I didn’t think it was a big deal. I’m still not sure that it is.”
“Since when? When did all this start?”
“I don’t know, freshman year.”
“Freshman year?! What the fuck, Emilia?”
I sigh, already regretting saying anything to her. “Calm down, Hadley. I’m sure it’s nothing. Probably just some crush who never found the balls to actually speak to me. What does any of it matter now, anyway? I’m done with college. Whoever this weirdo is will be moving on too.”
A noncommittal grunt is all I get in response, although I still cling tight to the knowledge that this will be the end of it all. When I’m no longer on campus with this guy, where he can most likely see me all the time, he’ll move on. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
Convincing myself of that, I tear the card into pieces and dump them in the trash. Grabbing the last of my belongings, I don’t even look in the direction of my trash can before exiting the room, determined that I won’t let the creepy envelope or weird quote be the last memories I have of Halston.
“There will comea time when you believe everything is finished. That will be our beginning,” Kai repeats thoughtfully. “Sounds like whoever this is thought things would change between you and him after graduation.”
“But how?” I question, my voice coming out a pitch higher than usual. “I was dating Richard, and we were both moving to the same city.”
There’s an empathetic understanding in Kai’s gaze when he looks at me. “I don’t know, but college wasn’t the end for him. If anything, he planned to take things up a notch.”
“But until yesterday, there hasn’t been anything. No gifts, no notes, no phone calls. Nothing.”
Kai shrugs, clearly not having an answer. “He was maybe planning or lying in wait. My guess is, Richard’s plan to propose forced this guy to act.”
I swallow around the lump of panic in my throat. “So what happens now?”
“Your sudden disappearance will most likely cause this guy to spiral. Hopefully, he’ll make a mistake, and we’ll be able to find out who he is.”
“And if he doesn’t? Make a mistake, that is?”
“He will. The level of his obsession with you… not knowing where you are, not being able to contact you or see you. He’ll be driven to do anything and everything to find you.”
“Well, that’s not absolutely terrifying,” I mumble, my eyes darting toward the window, half expecting some creep to be peering in at me.
I practically jump out of my skin when Kai reaches out to place a hand on my knee, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “You’re as safe here as you can be. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
I force a small smile to my lips. “How do you know about all of this?” I wave my hand toward the textbook and laptop. “The inner workings of stalkers?”
He smirks, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “It’s my job to know.” Ending the conversation before I can ask him anything else, he pushes to his feet. “I’m starving. How about some lunch?”
More than ready to forget all about this psycho for a while, I let the conversation drop. “God, yes, I thought you were never going to feed me.”
Chapter7
HAWK
“Don’t forget, essays are due next Friday,” my macroeconomics professor calls out at the end of class, making me sigh. We’re only a month into the semester, and senior year is proving to be the toughest year yet. I’m already bogged down with assignments. As much as I’ve surprisingly come to enjoy college, I’ll be glad to be done with it. Juggling studying and working at Nocturnal Enterprises can be challenging on the best of days. Now, throw in Emilia’s untimely reappearance, and I can already tell this year is going to be a headache of epic proportions.
