AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But before he could corner the guy, the baggy-clothed figure strode straight past us like he’d just realized he was late for an important meeting. Rafael sucked his breath in with a hiss and marched after him, shooting a wary glance around the store in case anyone noticed our pursuit.
We burst past the doors only a few steps behind my stalker—just in time to see him jumping into the back of a car with a wave of his phone at the driver.
He must have called an Uber surreptitiously while he was in the store and waited until it arrived before he left. Fucking hell.
The car pulled into the street. There was nothing we could do but watch it go, unless we wanted to end up in a jail cell.
I gritted my teeth, resisting the urge to stomp my foot in annoyance, and spun toward Rafael. “Who the hell is he? How do you know him?”
Rafael sighed, his narrowed gaze still fixed on the back of the car as it cruised off down the road. He spun on his heel and motioned for me to walk with him.
“Let’s get back to the apartment and see what he got up to there. I’ll explain on the way.”
I wrapped my arms around my chest as we set off. “I’m ready to hear it.”
Rafael grimaced. “That prick’s name is Martin Haggard. He ran with the gang in Austin for a few years back when you were a kid, but your mother got fed up with him pretty quick. He was too unhinged, too unpredictable—lashing out when it wasn’t called for, making trouble in our own ranks. He crossed some line, and she told him to get his ass out of town. I heard he went north, but not specifically where.”
My heart sank. “All the way to Canada, apparently.”
“Seems like it. Maybe he ended up doing business with those amateur thugs near Hobb Creek and that’s how he happened to see you.” Rafael shook his head. “Maldita sea! The shittiest possible luck.”
So, my stalker really was a literal psychopath. Wonderful.
I suppressed a shiver. “Why do you think he’s harassing me? It doesn’t seem like he’s told my mom that he’s seen me—she’d have tracked me down herself by now.”
“No doubt. Who knows, with him? I always got the impression he didn’t even care about the money—he just liked doing whatever he could to make people squirm… or scream. And I doubt he has fond feelings toward your family after your mother ran him off.”
Fuck. And this freak had stumbled into my new life? Into Jasper and Niko’s orbit?
It was even worse than I’d been afraid of.
“You don’t need to worry,” Rafael said firmly, as if reading my thoughts. “I’ll track Haggard down, find out if he’s mentioned anything about you to anyone else, and end this.”
The cool certainty in his voice settled my nerves. Then he glanced down at me, and something shifted in his expression.
“Do you want to be a part of that? Of ending him? It’d be your right, after what he’s put you through.”
It probably didn’t say anything good about me that a flutter of affection passed through my chest at the offer. Rafael was proving that he did recognize me as an equal force in our relationship—even the darker side of it.
I hesitated, turning the question over in my head as we reached the apartment building and clambered up the stairs. “I’m not sure. Scaring him off would have been one thing, but this… I don’t know if I want to get my handsthatdirty again.”
Rafael clearly intended to kill the asshole. It sounded like doing so would benefit all society. And a part of me longed to at least watch the jerk suffer the way he’d tried to torment me.
But I’d hoped I could put the murderous side of my old existence behind me completely. I’d only killed a few people under my mother’s orders, and each of those times had left me feeling sick both physically and emotionally.
“You don’t have to do anything,” Rafael said. “I can take care of it all on my own. I’m happy to. But I wanted to give you the option.”
“Thank you.” I exhaled in a rush. “Let me know when you figure out how to find him, and I’ll make a final decision about how involved I want to get then.”
It was clear as soon as Rafael unlocked the door that Jasper and Niko weren’t back yet. Small mercies. Although they’d have gotten an alert too, so we’d have to tell them something.
Rafael flicked on the light and took in the space. “Motion detector is where it should be. Looks like he didn’t notice it.”
I couldn’t see anything out of place at first glance around the living room. No dead animals or obscure messages.
I eased over to my bedroom and braced myself as I shoved open the door. But my crumpled bedspread and my half-unpacked suitcase looked completely undisturbed.
A noise of consternation reached me from the opposite direction. I dashed over to find Rafael making a disgusted face as he fished something out of the refrigerator into a plastic bag.
