Page 55 of Stalker

“Better.” And then she hung up.

I sat there contemplating what I said about Dane to her. I didn’t lie; he treated me better than Ty ever did.

Even if it was in his own secretive and creepy way.

I picked up the extra phone he gave me and powered it on, holding it like a precious jewel that was going to give me the answers to every modern-day mystery.

Hopefully, at least the mystery of Dane.

The background was generic, and I opened the contacts list, surprised to find it completely empty. Text messages, the same. There weren’t even any apps visibly downloaded. One icon sat on the screen beckoning me.

Gallery.

The very first picture in the camera roll looked like a screenshot of another other, of me. After examining it, I realized it was during a video chat with a friend a few weeks ago. I was in my apartment that I shared with Tyson. I was packing my suitcase to move to Hartington.

I was grinning as I packed a pair of fuzzy sleep pants for when the weather started getting cooler.

I looked happy.

Was I happy in my life back then? No.

Was I smiling so broadly because I was making moves to get out of it? Probably.

Dane had hacked into my phone before I even made the move to a new city, it looked like that was the first time he watched me. He said he saw a picture of me and that led to him searching me out, but how would he have seen one when I still lived two hours away? None of it made sense.

I scrolled to the next photo, and the next, and then the next. They were all screenshots of my screen as I talked on the phone. My brain rapid fired back through those different conversations as I tried to remember what I talked about with friends, but it was all just useless information about what I was looking forward to with my move.

Nothing stood out as important.

The next photo, though, made my chest ache.

I was crying.

I knew instantly, looking at it, that I hadn’t been on the phone when the photo was taken. No, Dane had hacked my camera without me using it to take that photo. It was the night before I left when Tyson didn’t even bother coming home to say goodbye to me.

I sat on the couch with all of my comfort items around me, all the pieces of things that made me, me, on all sides. Yet I felt alone and alien in my own home. I never felt peace inside of that apartment like I had expected to. It had always felt suffocating.

Because it was Tyson’s.

That was the night I told Tyson that I wanted to take a break while I was gone. I didn’t want to be with him anymore because he didn’t even bother to show up and say goodbye to me. It had been the final straw that broke the camel’s back.

Or maybe it was the last drop of water that broke the dam and let all the water free to flow where it wanted to for the first time.

I scrolled past it, wanting to move past that night altogether. The next photo was of me from my computer screen the first night that Dane contacted me. I could see the arousal in my eyes as I stared at myself and my body warmed instantly, remembering that night.

The night that started it all.

I flipped through the next few until one in particular stopped me in my tracks. It was a video, but it wasn’t of me.

It was Mr. Bryce, standing in his closet with his hand on the center island in a tight fist. The camera must have been up in the corner, like a security camera. How had I missed it all the times I’d been in there?

I clicked the play button and leaned in close to see it clearly as Mr. Bryce’s fists clenched and opened multiple times on the center island before he let out an animalistic groan and reached down into the waistband of his pants and pulled his cock out.

“Oh, my god.” I paused the video, feeling like a voyeur and looking out over the pool deck as I tried to calm my breathing down. “The panties.” I whispered to myself, recognizing his outfit from that day he caught me in his closet with my panties off, taking a picture of them for Dane.

Dane had said that Lincoln had jacked off after that, and I didn’t believe him. Could he have been telling the truth?

I chewed on my bottom lip and looked back down at the screen. Before I could think better of it, I hit play.

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