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“Oh, did I say something?—”
“We just—we need to collect some more information before reporting anything more, but we truly appreciate your time.” She hands the microphone to one of the men handling the camera equipment, and spins around before stopping to face me once more. “Uh, take care of yourself. Maybe take an Uber home.”
Then the person watching me would know where I live.
I shove my phone into my back pocket and check my surroundings, as if I was about to jet out into traffic. There isn’t an alternate route back to my apartment building, no side road I can escape into, out of sight. No matter what I do, I’m leading this person right where they want to be and there isn’t anything I can do about it.
“Hey!” I close my eyes and continue walking, moving quicker without appearing to be in a panic. “Haley, hold up.” The muffled shoutout makes me stop walking. I take a long pause before deciding to turn around. The scuffing footsteps grow louder, and I turn before I run out of time to get out of reach if need be.
I blink a few times as I focus on Liam, holding the side of his lip. His hand is covered in blood. “Oh my God. What happened?” I run to him and pull his hand away, finding his lip split. I shove my shaking hand into my purse and pull out my small travel pack of tissues and pull them all out. “Here.” I press a ball of tissues to his lip. “My apartment is just a couple blocks that way. Come with me so I can clean you up. Who did this to you?”
“Some guy on a skateboard. I don’t know if he was aiming for me or if I just got in the way, but his fist flew into my mouth on the way by.”
“Where did he go?”
“I don’t know. It took me a second to regain my bearings and by the time I looked around I didn’t see him anywhere. There were a few of them on boards. I was heading away from the wharf when the crowd gathered around you as you were talking to the reporter. I stopped to see if I could hear what the woman was asking you but then I was blindsided.”
This could be unrelated to the text messages. Or they could have seen me talking to him and took him as a target. What if this happened because of me?
“I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault and I’ll be okay. I didn’t hear any part of what you two talked about but, I saw it ended quickly, and you ran off after the cameras moved away. You looked flustered so I wanted to check on you.”
“Will you please let me help you? I should be well-versed in first aid at least,” I say.
Liam chuckles at what would have been funny in any other circumstance. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m just going to head home and get cleaned up. You can always check on me later,” he says with a smirk.
The only relief I have now is seeing the street ahead of me clear of other pedestrians and finding no one lurking behind. Liam jolts across the street, taking off in another direction and I pick up my pace to get home, hoping I get there in one piece.
Just as I enter the cement walkway to my complex, my phone rings rather than buzzes. Out of habit rather than avoidance, I check the display, finding Willa’s face, her contact photo smiling back at me.
“Hey,” I answer, breathlessly, relieved it’s her and not the unknown.
“Where are you?” Panic rattles in her voice.
“Just outside, why?”
“I found something,” she says.
SIXTEEN
SATURDAY, JUNE 10TH 3:30 PM
I close the door to my apartment and twist the deadbolt. Sweat drips down my back and I can barely catch my breath from just walking up three flights of stairs.
“Thank God, you’re home,” Willa says, slapping her laptop shut in the living room. “You won’t believe what I found.”
“You found something?” I sputter with a huff.
“Oh my God, Hales, are you okay? You look like you’ve been running.”
I shake my head, and set my sights on the refrigerator, needing a bottle of water to unstick my tongue from the roof of my mouth.
The seconds feel like minutes by the time I pour water into my mouth. Heat radiates through every limb as my temples pulsate.
“Haley?”
With one last gulp before screwing the cap back on the bottle, I collect my thoughts of all that’s happened in a mere hour. “Someone is—someone is following me. I think. I don’t know. I’m getting text messages from an unknown number. Whoever it is, they’re watching me.”
