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Don’t think like that, I told myself firmly, crunching my way up a white gravel path to the main greenhouse’s door. What mattered now was getting answers, both for me and my father. Whoever attacked him had to have some sort of connection to Cobee since he was the first stalker, and the second one started up mere hours after Cobee quit. Whether he knew it or not, HEG’s head groundskeeper had answers that I needed.
“Hello?” As the humid warmth of the greenhouse’s atmosphere enveloped me, I slung my purse’s strap across my torso and changed my face into a mask of friendliness.Not threatening at all, nothing to see here. “Anyone home?”
“Yeah, just a sec.” A mellow tenor sounded out from near the back of the large greenhouse, and from out of the hydroponic rows of seedlings, a thin man with a John Deere cap emerged. His Fu Manchu mustache was darker than the mousy blonde hair bushing out in wild disarray from under the cap, and his brown eyes framed in nonexistent pale eyelashes widened almost comically when he saw me.
Someday I’d have to play poker with good ol’ Cobee Bruno. It’d be fun taking him to the cleaners.
“Hi, Cobee. Remember me? I’m Eden Steadfast, Tru’s daughter.” I smiled to show how innocent I was while I continued my approach. “Do you have a minute? And it is Cobee, right?”
“I… Yes. Yes. Um, wait. No.” He flapped a rail-thin hand at our surroundings. “My name is Cobee, but I don’t have a minute because I have, um… plants. These plants right here, and they’re plants that need work. My work. I work onplants.” He all but shouted the last word, proving to me that he hadn’t changed much from the time he couldn’t figure out how the greenhouse door worked.
“That’s perfect, since it’s plants I want to talk to you about.” I came to stand a few feet from him, still smiling. Toying with the likes of Cobee probably wasn’t fair. Then I recalled the deep, raging fear he’d spawned with all his sick threats, and how he’d murdered a poor, innocent cat just to get to me. Toying with this cat-killing bastard was the very least he deserved. “As I said, I’m Tru Steadfast’s daughter, Eden. Hi, by the way.” For funsies, I waved at him.
Like an idiot, he waved back while his mouth worked. No sound came out.
Heh. “Anyhoo, I just came from the hospital visiting my poor father. And Cobee, my friend, do you know what I saw when I got into his room?”
Cobee’s mouth snapped shut with an audible teeth-click before he shook his head.
“I saw a ton of showy flower arrangements and Get-Well balloon bouquets, which is great, of course. My father is so loved by everyone he meets. But I didn’t see anything with his favorite flower, the peony.” I had no clue what my father’s favorite flower was. I doubt he’d ever even given it a thought. But for now, this easy-going chitchat suited my narrative, in much the same way it suited the spider to welcome the fly into her parlor. “It’s like nobody even cares enough about my wonderful dad to learn what his favorite flower is, and that’s just heartbreaking. Don’t you think it’s heartbreaking?”
His jerky nod nearly dislodged his John Deere cap. “Heartbreaking. Yep.”
“Oh, I’m so glad you agree with me.” I stepped closer, my hand coming to rest on the top of my bag. “So? Do you have any peonies?”
“I…” Cobee looked around the greenhouse as if searching for an exit. “I know we have flowers. Roses. We always have roses.”
“No roses, if you don’t mind.” I conjured up a faint shiver. “Not only did everyone else on the planet send my father acres and acres of roses, but also… well. Not to get too personal, but I’ve been having some…” I rolled my eyes and laughed, letting the sound cover the faint noise of my purse being unzipped. “This is rather embarrassing to admit, but I’ve been having some stalker issues. Apparently whoever’s been doing it believes that I like roses. For the record, Cobee, I donotlike roses.”
He seemed to have stopped blinking. I don’t think he even breathed.
Good.
“I don’t really have a favorite flower, but I do know for a fact that I hate roses. I hate that they’ve been weaponized to unnerve me. I hate that they’ve been used as a calling card of my own personal terrorist. I hate that whoever’s been doing this to me has turned a thing of beauty into a symbol of my never-ending torment. I find that unforgivable. Don’t you, Cobee?”
Cobee’s face lost all color.
“I also find it unforgivable when someone dares to threaten me with being skinned alive, or taking pictures of me while I stand in line at coffee shops, taunting me with how close they got to me,” I went on, my voice almost a purr. If I kept at it, I’d have him wetting himself and begging for mercy in a matter of minutes. Something to look forward to. “And I really,reallycould never forgive someone who kills a cat just for the sake of draping it on my car to terrorize me. That cat mattered, Cobee. It wasn’t born just so it could be slaughtered. Honestly, how much of a sick monster do you have to be to do something like that?”
My phone rang, and he jumped nearly a foot.
“Phone!” he yelled, pointing at my purse with a finger that trembled. “Y-you have a phone call, M-Ms. Steadfast. You should get that.”
“Oh. All right, if you insist. If you’ll excuse me a moment.” Not taking my eyes off him, I reached past my BB gun and plucked up my phone.
Luke.
Of course.
Just when things were getting good.
“Hi, honey.” Then I placed my hand over the microphone and shot Cobee a wink. “It’s my boyfriend. Don’t go away, won’t be a minute.”
“Eden.” Luke’s insanely calm tone gave me all the warning I needed. “What are you doing at HEG?”
In that fraction of a second I tried to figure out how he’d become all-knowing. Then it hit me—there had to be a tracking app included in the security package PSI had downloaded into my phone when I’d first become their client. “Sweetheart, Dad doesn’t have any of his favorite flowers in his room, can you imagine? I thought I’d have the best luck at HEG’s greenhouses to find what I was looking for, so here I am.”
“Fuck your stalker,I’mthe one who’s going to murder you as soon as I can get my hands on you,” he remarked in that same terrifyingly calm tone. “Please tell me you didn’t ditch your bodyguards.”
