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PROLOGUE
About 18 months ago. . .
Luna
The courtroom is stuffy, airless. Not for the first time since this trial started, I wish someone would open at least one of those huge, floor-to-ceiling windows that they never do. But today is the last time I have to sit here, my whole body a tense, hard mass of nerves, my palms clammy as I squeeze them into fists because I can’t not do that. I can’t relax. But after today I will relax. For the first time since I met Kevin Barnes over two years ago now, I will be able to put him behind me. For a long time. I hope.
He keeps turning his head to look at me from the defendant’s bench. He’s been doing that since his trial began. Sometimes winking. Sometimes grinning. Sometimes giving me the coldest, scariest looks I’ve ever seen.
My best friend, Stacey, is by my side. She has been since the trial began. Today, Aaron, the PI I hired to help me finally get rid of my stalker Kevin is by my side too. He’s in his late forties, a mountain of a man, and I owe him my life. Both he and Stacey have been telling me I don’t need to be here for this, that the day I gave my testimony against Kevin was the only appearance I needed to make in court. But I’m not scared of Kevin, and I want him to know that. Even if it’s not the whole truth.
The judge is talking about all the things he’s accused of in preparation for finally sentencing him. He’s standing, his broad back obscuring my view of the judge. The dress shirt doesn’t hide his neck tattoo—a rattlesnake with bared fangs—but his lawyer team did try their best to make him look as innocent as a schoolboy. His dark hair is longer, parted to the side, and he’s wearing none of the earrings and studs he wore when I first met him.
It was all those studs and tattoos that attracted me to his profile picture on the dating app. I thought it was time I had myself a bad boy like the ones from the romance books I edited for a living. But after one date, I knew he was too bad for me. He sent shivers down my spine with the weird stories he told, and when he kissed me goodnight, I felt like I’d swallowed some sort of chemical. Only he wouldn’t hear of us not seeing each other again. Kept sending texts. Kept calling. Somehow he found out where I lived and started coming by. Sometimes in the middle of the night. Everywhere I went, he went. Sent me gifts. Left them on my doorstep. Flowers and greeting cards. Dead animals.
He glances at me as the judge gets to the part where he almost killed me. His eyes are colder than ice, stone-hard, and as blank as they were that night.
It was about four months ago. I’d finally felt safe enough to be outside at night, and Stacey and I went to a nightclub that had just opened up. Moonlight’s Dream. I thought with a name like that, nothing bad could happen there. But I’m a romantic fool. Always had been.
I had a restraining order against Kevin. I’d hired an experienced ex-Army PI to keep an eye on him. I thought I’d done all I could to keep safe. I didn’t drink at all that night. Just juice and water because I wanted to keep a clear head.
The place was packed. And all the dancing and the crowd made me dizzy. So I stepped out for a breath of fresh air. Alone. Stacey was dancing with a hot guy, and I didn’t want to pull her away from that.
Kevin was there. Waiting for me in the dark. Had probably been there all evening, watching me from the crowd. As soon as I stepped out of the club, he grabbed me and pulled me into the alleyway beside it, slamming me against the wall by a metal dumpster that smelled like it hadn’t been emptied in months.
“I saw you dancing with that guy,” he hissed as he slowly wrapped his cold, skinny, long-fingered hand around my throat. His other hand was pressed against my face, across my mouth and my nose, making it impossible to breathe even if I could. My heart was racing so hard I thought I would die just from that.
“You’re mine. No one else’s but mine,” he hissed as he squeezed my throat harder, slowly lifting me off the ground. I could no longer even try to breathe. “Mine.”
I kicked and lashed out with my arms, trying to scream, but he was too strong, his grip on my throat too tight. Black dots were swimming before my eyes, covering his terrible, frightening, manic face.
I thought I would die. I thought I had no more than seconds to live. I thought of all the things I did wrong. All the things I should’ve done differently.
Then a fist punched Kevin in the side of the head, and his grip on my throat loosened. I could breathe again. I could stand on my own two feet again. He was no longer towering over me but on the ground in a fetal position while Aaron, my PI, gave him a couple more kicks.
“And because of all that you’ve done to your victim, all that I have just outlined,” the judge is saying. “I am sentencing you to the maximum sentence of five years. I wish I could sentence you to more.”
Stacey whoops and claps her hands, drowning out the sound of the judge’s gavel. Aaron squeezes my shoulder, and Kevin turns to me full-on, his cold, monstrous eyes piercing me like a laser beam.
“This isn’t over, sweetheart,” he hisses. “I will be back for you. Because you’re mine.”
Then the bailiff drags him away, and I can’t move, I can’t unclench my fists, and I can’t get a breath in past the rock that’s lodged in my throat.
Aaron and Stacey help me to my feet, and somehow I slowly remember how to put one foot in front of the other. But the fear Kevin’s threat filled me with doesn’t loosen until we’re standing in the fresh air outside the courtroom, the scent of redwood trees riding on the slight breeze and birds chirping happily everywhere.
“It’s over,” Stacey says. “He’s going away for a very long time.”
“You’re a very brave woman for seeing this through, Luna,” Aaron says. “I’ll keep tabs on him and let you know when he comes up for parole.”
I take his hand in both of mine. “Thank you for all you’ve done for me. It’s over now. It’s finally over. But I can’t afford to keep you on.”
He grins. “No extra charge. It’ll be my pleasure to make sure this guy never gets anywhere near you. And if he ever bothers you again, you let me know.”
I thank him one more time and watch him walk away.
Stacey wraps her arm around my shoulders. “How about a full day of pampering at the salon and then drinks and dancing tonight to celebrate?”
“That sounds like a divine plan,” I say and smile at her.
