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She looked at the daisy in her hands and took a deep breath, doing her best to accept that Cody was stalking her.
Sean said, “The good news is that when confronted, most stalkers will sulk but stop their harassment. Lorenzo has a lot to lose; he’ll back off.”
“You’re probably right,” she said quietly.
“You going to be okay?”
“We were friends. I thought so anyway. How could I be so wrong about him?”
“This isn’t about you, Lucy, I don’t have to tell you that. It’s about him.”
In her head she understood that, but her heart told her she was an idiot to have trusted Cody for so many years. To have dated him. Slept with him. He’d been so good to her.
I will not cry.
Sean stopped his car in front of her narrow house. “Come here,” he said, taking her hand, kissing it, then kissing her lips. “We’ll fix this. I promise. I know it hurts, but you’re strong, Luce. I’ll talk to him—”
She frowned. “He’d see that as a threat and dig in his heels.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Stalkers aren’t always reasonable.”
“He gets out of line even an inch, we go to his boss. Right now, we don’t have enough. While you and I think the message was disturbing, he could argue that it was innocuous. So we put him on notice and go from there.”
“Okay.” She was still worried about Sean confronting Cody, but right now she couldn’t explain to Sean that she needed to be the one to talk to Cody about the flowers and unsettling message. She knew exactly what to say.
“Neither of us is going to let that guy intimidate you,” Sean said, then kissed her again. “You’re okay?”
“In many ways, I’m relieved it’s Cody. I know him, and while I don’t understand what he was thinking, I can handle the situation much better than an unknown variable.”
They went inside. Though she had agreed with Sean, it didn’t make sense that Cody would send her flowers, then accuse her of conspiracy to commit murder. What possessed him?
Kate was sitting by herself at the dining room table with a beer and stacks of papers in front of her. She looked up at Sean and said, “Did you find who sent the flowers?”
“Cody Lorenzo.”
Kate stared in stark disbelief. “Cody?”
“That’s what the florist said. Paid cash.”
“That fucking bastard. Dammit! I need to talk to him—”
“I am going to do that,” Sean said.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Kate said. “Considering…” her voice trailed off, but her eyes went to Sean and Lucy’s clasped hands.
“Kate, with all due respect, I can handle Lorenzo.”
“What about me?” Lucy said, frustrated. “This is between Cody and me. I’m not saying I’m going to do something stupid and confront him in a dark alley, but I think I need to be the one to talk to him.” Sean opened his mouth, but Lucy cut him off before he could speak. “I understand your reasons, and you’re right, except that I’ve known Cody for three years, and I can find out what’s going on.”
“You’re not seeing him alone.”
“I’ll invite him over here. You both can be in the kitchen eavesdropping, but I will talk to him. Agreed?”
Neither Sean nor Kate liked the idea, but then Kate said, “Lucy has a point. Cody has been a friend of the family for a long time.”
“Fine,” Sean relented, but didn’t sound happy.
