Page 45 of Midnight Whispers

He takes a quick glance at me and shakes his head. “No.”

Nero offers no more information. It’s clear that even if I pry, he won’t fill me in.

“Anyway, after my dad died, though I wasn’t heartbroken in the least, it still fucked with me. I didn’t have anyone other than my brothers, and I realized that I’d never known a parent’s love. I started… fixating on people. I don’t really know why. If I went to a psychologist, I’m sure they could tell me, but by the time I was in the middle of high school, it ramped up. I met this girl… Farrah MacIntyre.”

My forehead wrinkles. “That name sounds familiar.”

He nods. “You probably know of her father, Senator MacIntyre.”

My eyes widen. He’s always in the news, and it was thought that in the next election, he’d be one of the front-runners for the party’s nomination for president.

“We met and became friends, and I was into her but never pursued it because I…” He glances at me before staring back at the road. “I got off on stalking her.”

The words rush out of him, and I piece them together in my head.

My eyes widen, and I pull my hand away, linking my hands in my lap. “What exactly does that mean?”

The corners of his mouth tighten. “I’d watch her. Incessantly. She had no idea.”

“Is that what you were doing with me? Is that why you were in the motel parking lot tonight?”

“Yes.” His voice is a pained whisper. “But I set boundaries. I never followed you home.”

My head rocks back as thoughts swirl through my head, chasing each other. Thankfully he never did find out where I lived because then he’d know that I was Maude’s stepsister. The coating of guilt on my skin thickens even more. I should tell him who Maude is to me. But somehow fear makes the words die on my tongue.

“I’ve been watching you from afar since the first night I saw you dance.” There’s shame in his tone, and though I want to comfort him, I don’t.

“Why me?”

He turns onto a desolate country road, the only light around us is his headlights shining ahead. “I honestly don’t know. There was just something about you and the way you danced that drew me in. I couldn’t get enough of you.”

I frown. “But you never stayed after my dance. You’d watch and leave.”

He nods. “I was trying to keep myself in check. I was becoming more and more obsessed with you, and that’s why I only allowed myself to watch you dance, and I’d force myself to leave. Until that night in the VIP…”

I shift in my seat, thinking about the way he knew what to do to my body to take me to heights I’ve never reached before.

“After that, my obsession with you grew, so I stayed away. Until I saw you leave the bar that night and invited you to stay at Midnight Manor.”

I glance away from him at the mention of that night and change the subject. “And my birthday… why did you stay away after?”

He sighs, and I turn to him. “Same reason.”

“What happens if your obsession becomes too much for you?” I ask in a soft voice.

“I don’t know, but I fear it will be similar to what happened in high school.”

My stomach pitches. “Which was?”

Nero swallows hard. “My stalking escalated. Soon I was breaking into her house when she wasn’t there to go through her bedroom. I started leaving her anonymous notes. I’d watch her while she slept. One night I was watching from outside, and she snuck a guy into her room. I lost it. As though she was cheating on me when we had no commitment to each other except the one in my head. I’d convinced myself she liked my attention. I crawled in through her window and attacked him. You can imagine the fallout.

“When I saw how terrified Farrah was when she heard about the extent of my stalking and that I had been the one leaving her the notes, watching her sleep—I’ve never been so ashamed. My brothers bailed me out. To this day, the Voss family is still one of Senator MacIntyre’s biggest campaign contributors. After everything went down, I promised my brothers it wouldn’t happen again, and after all they did to protect me from our father when I was younger, I owed them that. And I stuck to it.” He turns his head to meet my gaze. “Until you.”

So many emotions are whirling through my chest like a tornado. “Pull over.”

His head whips to look at me again. “What?”

“Pull. Over.”

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