Page 77 of Stalker

“Here.” I pulled her thick black bathrobe from the back of her bathroom door and put her arms into it.

“Just ignore him,” She started, reaching up to her blindfold, but I pulled her hands away and she started wringing them together in front of her. “I have to get dressed.”

“You don’t have time.” I pushed my legs into my pants and did them up, followed by my shirt and boots. As I stood back up, I heard the slamming of his car door out front.

“I’m not answering it.” She grabbed me as I moved by. “I can’t, Dane.”

Her fear was palpable, and I stopped, staring down at my Puppet. She was terrified.

“Why are you scared?”

Tyson chose that time to start banging on the front door, making his presence known.

“I can’t—” She stammered, “Don’t make me open that door.”

“Has he hurt you before?” I growled, and she shrunk even more into herself. “Peyton, answer me.”

“Please be quiet,” She whispered, “Maybe he’ll leave.”

Tyson’s puny fist hit the door again, and she shook, wrapping her arms around her body.

I pulled her into my arms, and she clung to me like a raft in a hurricane as Tyson started ringing the doorbell on repeat, echoing the noise through the space. “Go into the bathroom.” I took her by the elbow and led her into the bathroom. “Lock the door behind you.”

“Dane, no.” She gripped my shirt, trying to pull me inside with her. “Please don’t leave me.”

My chest erupted in agony at the proof that was written through her body language suddenly that I had somehow missed. She was afraid of Tyson and it didn’t have to do with physical violence. Not with me standing next to her.

No, something else was amiss. And suddenly, her freak out in the corn maze when I forced her to choose to send a video of her being fucked to him made so much more sense. Fuck, I was so stupid.

Over my fucking dead body would he ever go near her again.

“I’m not leaving this house or opening the door,” I pushed her back and then leaned down to kiss her forehead, tapping the blindfold. “Take this off when you lock the door.”

“Please,” She cried, but I shut the door behind me, and almost instantly she locked the bolt. She was that afraid.

I opened my phone and hit the only person I both trusted and hated, as he was my only option.

“Peyton!” Tyson’s voice rang out through the house and I fought the urge to go break his fucking face in. But I couldn’t do that without revealing myself to him and exposing the fact that Peyton had been with me. And for whatever reason, she was terrified of that, so I had to find a way out.

So I called the next best thing. “Bro,” Tamen’s voice echoed through the phone as soon as he answered. “Who is he?”

I could hear the alarms in my office going off in the air around him through the phone, no doubt drawing him into my space.

“Peyton’s ex. Get rid of him.”

“Like permanently?” He asked, and I could hear him running through my house toward the guest house, “Because I’m itching for some bloodshed in the woods, it’s far too boring here.”

“Not permanently, but feel free to use physical persuasion to get him to fucking leave.”

He chuckled as he shut the house door behind him. “Let me guess, you’re saving that pleasure for yourself.”

“T.” I growled, hoping Peyton couldn’t hear me through the door. I’d blow my whole cover.

“Is she safe?” He asked.

“Yes.”

“Got it, Boss.” He said and then I heard him yell out, “Yo, wrong house pizza boy.”

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