Page 60 of Shadowing Her Stalker

“We talk all the time.” Zarah smiled smugly, pulling her long ponytail over her shoulder with her free hand and stroking it as if she was settling in for some girl talk rather than holding Cara’s loved ones at gunpoint. “I know he feels like he can’t let things evolve as they stand now, but together, we’re going to take LYYF to the next level.”

Cara could only hope Zarah had forgotten there was a special agent with the Arkansas State Police staying with them.

“What about Chris?” Cara asked, anxious to keep her engaged.

“Chris won’t be a problem. Everyone knows he’s going to take the money and run the minute he can cash in.” She tipped her chin up. “You and Chris never cared about what it took to keep the company going. Tom is the brains behind it all.”

“Tom doesn’t create content,” Cara pointed out.

Zarah gave an indelicate snort. “Like it’s difficult.” She rolled her eyes. “I’ve been helping you churn that stuff out for years. Besides, I’m a better actress. I’ve booked more roles than you have in half the time in Hollywood.”

“I talked to you this morning,” Cara said, stalling for time. “How did you get here so fast?”

The younger woman rolled her eyes. “It’s not like it was difficult to figure out you were stalling. Plus, TSA’s system is ridiculously easy to hack. I’ve been waiting to see if you boarded a plane going anywhere. When you changed your flight, I booked one to Dallas. When you didn’t turn up, I hopped a flight to Springfield, Missouri, and drove down.” She pursed her lips. “I guess it’s pretty enough with the trees and all, but there’s not much around here.” She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “And it’s so run-down.” She glanced over at Paul Stanton. “You might get more people to visit if things didn’t look so...poor.”

Paul opened his mouth to protest, but Cara spoke first. “So what do you expect to happen here today?”

Without missing a beat, Zarah pointed the gun at Cara’s mother’s chest. “I expect you to sign over your partnership.”

Her father half rose from his chair and Paul Stanton bumbled forward with a hearty “Hey, now—”

Zarah swung the gun from one man to the other and they both subsided, hands raised. Moving closer to the table, Cara placed herself between Zarah and her mother. She was the target here, not her parents. Cara had to make certain Zarah kept her eye on the prize.

“Who am I signing it over to? You?” Cara asked, trying to keep her tone curious rather than accusatory.

“Yes. Sign it over to me, and I will let Tom know we can be together now. Equal partners,” Zarah said with a decisive nod. Her pretty face brightened. “I mean, it’s not like this is what you wanted to do with your life, right? And if you still want to be involved, maybe we can pay you a salary or something.”

Cara glanced down to see her father staring at her intently. He cut his eyes to the window, and it was all she could do to keep from looking over. Wyatt must be out there.Please let him be out there.She needed to buy time.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” she said softly.

“What was?” Zarah asked, squinting as if confused by the non sequitur.

“All of it. The doxing. The messages. All the...stuff.” She closed her eyes, willing herself to hold it together as the pieces fell into place. “You did it.”

“Oh, that,” Zarah said with a dismissive laugh. She shrugged. “I put some info out there, but the rest... I didn’t have to do much.”

“Except have me kidnapped,” Cara interjected.

“Oh, well, technically, you paid for that yourself. Good thing you never look at your account statements, huh?” She wrinkled her nose. “Anyway, didn’t go as expected. He was only supposed to take you somewhere and scare you into signing.”

“Now he’s dead,” Cara said flatly.

“Yeah, well, not my fault. He shouldn’t have taken the job if he couldn’t handle the pressure.” Zarah exhaled in a put-upon whoosh. “I guess I learned a good lesson on outsourcing.”

Cara fixated on the gun dangling from Zarah’s hand like an afterthought. She didn’t look like she had much experience handling firearms. She certainly hadn’t been taught how to handle one safely. She was waving what looked like a small nine millimeter around like it was a water pistol. And what if Wyatt came through the door and startled her? She could accidentally shoot any one of them.

Drawing on every acting lesson she’d ever had, Cara forced herself to look into Zarah’s eyes with what she hoped were eyes filled with hope and optimism. “You know this was never what I expected to do with my life,” she began, faking a quaver into her voice. “I don’t know how I got this far off track.” She bumped her mother with her hip, signaling the older woman to scoot her chair away. She pointed to the folder on the table. “What is this?”

“It’s an agreement to transfer your partnership shares,” Zarah said, her customary chipper efficiency slipping back into place. “And you’ve always been really nice to work with, Cara. I’m not going to leave you high and dry. Once the public offering goes through and prices are up, I’ll cover you. In today’s cash value, of course,” she added.

“Of course,” Cara murmured.

Out front, Roscoe gave a woof of greeting and they all turned. Zarah swung the gun around when a floorboard creaked. “Sounds like your hot cop is still hanging around after all,” she said, turning back to press the muzzle into the dusty folds of her father’s Carhartt jacket. “Tell him to join us,” she called out in a louder voice. “But be sure to tell him I’m holding your sweet daddy at gunpoint.”

“Wyatt, if that’s you, Zarah is here and she has a gun,” Cara called out robotically.

“I’m coming in, and I amnotholding a gun,” he announced before stepping into the doorway, his hands raised. To Cara’s disappointment, he wasn’t lying. There was no sign of a weapon in Special Agent Wyatt Dawson’s hand.

---