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“My parents would kill me if they thought I was dating someone twelve years older than me.” I shook my head once. “No, you cannot come. No freaking way—and nothing you do or say will get me to change my mind.”
Brett didn’t appear too happy about that. He sat back on the toilet and glared at me, as if his hard glare could get me to do just that. It was a good thing he looked a little silly with his hair slick with dye; the ridiculousness of it all was the only reason I could still breathe evenly.
I was suddenly way too attracted to this man, way more than I should be. Honestly, I hated it.
“But,” I paused right when Brett’s glare faded somewhat, “you are right. Maybe you should come with me this week.” With his hair newly-dyed and his sunglasses as an added protection against his true identity, he could follow me around on campus and make sure nothing happened.
When Brett’s lips curled into one of his signature grins, I added, “I want to be clear, though. Having you come with me is not me agreeing to pretend to be together. You can watch me from far away and make sure no one else is doing the same thing.”
Having him there, knowing he would be with me, gave me a sense of peace nothing else could. I’d lost track of how many times I’d walked from class to class while feeling someone’s eyes on me—and then that first call, where my stalker had asked if I’d liked my present and said that I looked worried…
My stalker obviously followed me sometimes on campus. Just because I couldn’t discern him from the crowd didn’t mean Brett wouldn’t be able to. Who knew? Maybe Brett would be able to spot him today.
What would we do if we caught him today? Where would we take him? How would we get rid of him? All questions I’d never really sat down and thought about.
“If that’s what you want me to do, all right,” Brett spoke, looking mighty haughty for God knew what reason. His fingers tapped against his knees, reminding me of how those hands had felt on me Friday night.
In an effort to take my mind off of those hands, I asked, “If you find him, how will you get him? You can’t kill him in the middle of campus, and you can’t kidnap him with a bunch of witnesses.”
“I guess I’d have to follow him once he left campus… which means you’d need to give me your keys,” Brett spoke with a wide smile. “Do you trust me not to run away with your car, Charlie?”
The real answer was no. No, of course I didn’t trust him not to run away with my car. I didn’t trust him at all. Not really. But he hadn’t left yet, and he had every opportunity to do so—so, no, I didn’t think he’d take my car and run if I gave him the keys.
“Yes,” I told him, lying just a little.
“Good. And as for what I’d do with him… well, I guess I’d have to see where he goes. Maybe break into his place and kill him there. Do you have any gloves? Leather gloves, not those cheap plastic ones.”
“No, but I can grab some.” Wouldn’t have time to get them before class today, since this hair dying business was taking up so much time, but after class, I could. Something else hit me. “Wait. If you’re with me during the day and watching the house at night, when will you sleep?”
He shrugged. “I guess I’d have to sleep before nightfall, when your parents are home. Don’t worry about me. I can function on a few hours. I didn’t get good at what I do spending all my time sleeping. It might surprise you, but this beauty don’t need much beauty sleep—”
I rolled my eyes at him. “You are so full of yourself.”
“I’m confident. There’s a difference, sweetheart.”
God, I really wished he wouldn’t call me that. I wasn’t his sweetheart. I would never be his sweetheart—or anybody’s, for that matter. But if I told him that, he’d only get a kick out of my defiance, so I walked out of the bathroom and said, “Call me when that timer goes off.”
“Where are you going?” he called after me. He didn’t get up, didn’t move to follow me, because he knew the rules: when dye was on that head, he had to stay in the bathroom. The last thing I wanted to explain was why random things in the house started to turn up stained. As it was, I already had to pack the dye box in a plastic bag and take it with me to campus and throw it out there so my parents wouldn’t see it.
“Away from you” was my answer, and that was the honest to God truth, for once.
The more I was with Brett, the more I forgot who he was, and that would only serve to bite me in the ass later. That man was as dangerous as they came, a goddamned serial killer, a wanted man. He was capable of things most people couldn’t even imagine. Having a crush on him was literally the worst idea in the history of bad ideas.
I blamed that stupid kiss.
Chapter Seventeen – Brett
Got my gloves. Also got a baseball cap to put on my head, and a hoodie from the college’s store with its ugly logo plastered on the front. Charlie had given me some cash to buy food while I was watching her on campus, but I didn’t waste it on food.
No, what I really needed was a knife. A knife that I could use to kill her damned stalker, should I see him.
The days passed without incident, and I didn’t see anyone following her. It seemed her stalker wasn’t on her twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. He picked and choose when to tail her, when to call her and torment her, and that told me he either had a life outside of his stalking, or a job.
Maybe both.
I had a lot of time to think. If I was honest with myself, I spent more time thinking about Charlie than I should, more time thinking about that dream than anything else. It had felt so fucking real.
And Charlie had no idea. She had no fucking idea what I was struggling with. It really wasn’t fair.
