Page 14 of Wizard

She pointed at her doorbell and muttered, “I have a camera.”

Not in the mood to be soothed, I just grunted in response. Placing a hand on her stomach, I urged her to move backward until I was able to step inside.

She backed up a few feet more and crossed her arms over her chest, sighing, “Violet tattled, didn’t she?”

I closed the distance between us and glared down at her. “She shouldn’t have had to, Thea. You should have told me yourself.”

“Why would I tell you?” she argued. “It’s not like you’re my boyfriend. I just agreed to a first date last night!”

If I hadn’t been so monumentally pissed, I would have taken a second to appreciate that she wasn’t intimidated by our size difference, especially with my gritty personality and exterior.

“Last night mighta been our first real date, baby, but if you think you haven’t been mine since the day we met, you’re lying to yourself.”

She remained stubbornly silent, and I nodded. “That’s what I thought.”

After a slow, deep breath, she spoke. “It wasn’t a big deal before. Just some flowers and poetic notes. It seemed harmless enough.”

My brow rose to my hairline. “Ignoring the fact that those actions were signs that this fucker was a stalker. They were being delivered to your fucking house, Thea. That alone should’ve sent you to Echo or the police.”

She frowned and jammed her hands onto her hips. “They won’t deliver flowers to a PO Box, Baylor. I have a service that delivers those kinds of things so I don’t have to give out my real address.”

It was a solid explanation, but it didn’t sit right with me. “Let me see the note,” I muttered, stalking past her into her bright, open living room. My computer bag was slung over my shoulder, so I set it on the coffee table before taking a seat in a comfortable armchair.

She stared at me in confusion, and I canted my head. “The note, baby,” I urged again, trying not to sound quite as gruff. I must have succeeded because she dropped her arms to her sides and walked toward the kitchen.

The two rooms were separated by a bar with two stools tucked in from the living room side.

As I opened my laptop, I heard a drawer opening and papers rustling. Then I glanced up when her footsteps headed in my direction. She held out a notecard and a printed sheet of paper.

“Thanks, baby.” I set the items down next to my computer, noting the name of the nursery where the flowers had been ordered from. “This is the one from today?”

“Yes.”

Glancing up at her, I asked, “Where are the rest?”

“The rest?” she echoed.

“Might think I don’t know you, baby, but you’re very wrong. Even though you didn’t want to believe it, somewhere deep down, you knew the person sending you shit could be a stalker. Where are the other letters?”

Thea blinked at me, obviously startled by my accuracy. Finally, she mumbled, “In the drawer.” She turned and hurried back to the kitchen while I did some unethical shit and broke a couple of laws to get the information I needed.

She handed me a manila envelope when she returned, and I set it next to the other note. Then I gave her a pointed look. “None of the deliveries were sent to your PO Box, Thea. They were sent directly to your address from the store.”

“How could you possibly know that?” she asked, her tone skeptical. “Besides, they didn’t all come from the same shop.”

I’d hacked what I needed to make an intuitive leap to the other nurseries and checked all the deliveries sent to her address. “I’ll explain it later, but for now, I just need you to trust me.”

“Okay,” she whispered as she sank into the chair next to mine.

I smiled in approval and picked up the note she’d received after lunch. As I read, my expression turned into a dark, murderous scowl.

The stalker warned her that he was watching and had been waiting for the right moment. Now that she was “whoring” herself out to another man, he threatened to harm her if she didn’t break it off. Then he ended it by softening his language and telling her about all the sex scenes she’d written that he couldn’t wait to do in person rather than just dreaming about it. Some of the shit he wrote was explicit, and the paper nearly crumpled in my hand from my tight grip.

“Gonna kill this motherfucker,” I gritted out through clenched teeth.

Thea’s voice was hesitant when she commented, “Somehow, I don’t think you’re bluffing.”

I turned my gaze to her face, shuttering some of my homicidal rage so I didn’t scare the hell out of her. “Never bluffing when it comes to your safety, baby.”

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