Page 49 of Last Resort

Not a man. Another damned teenager. The kid ripped one of his headphones out of his ear with a frown. “Can I help you?”

“Were you in the building back there?” Chance asked.

“No. I stopped by because I heard the sirens, but it doesn’t look like there’s an actual fire. So I’ve got better things to do.”

Chance still had him by the shoulder of his hoodie. “How do you know there’s no fire? People were talking about smoke. Seemed pretty panicked.”

The kid shrugged. “Whatever, man. There’s no fire.”

Chance wanted to push, but knew there was no way in hell this was the stalker. He let the kid go. “You see anything suspicious?”

The kid raised an eyebrow. “You mean besides a random dude grabbing teenagers? No.”

Chance fished out a card from his pocket, telling the kid to call if he thought of anything strange. He snapped a picture of the kid’s face while he was looking at the card.

They would run him and make sure he didn’t have any ties to Stella they should know about. But besides that there wasn’t much Chance could do.

He turned and walked back to the office, calling to tell his brothers the hoodie kid was another dead end.

When he got back to the office, he found his brothers hovering around Maci’s desk.

“What’s going on?”

Luke held up a piece of paper in a gloved hand. “The stalker left us a note.”

You made me better, but I want to be the best. First one to the prize wins.

Chance didn’t know what to make of that. “Is the prize Stella?”

Brax dropped his phone to the counter. “I just talked to Dorian, and Stella is safe. No attempts on her.”

Chance rubbed his eyes. There were so many things he didn’t like about this situation. The stalker actively communicating with them, and coming into their personal space. Him making it into some sort of game he wanted them to play.

But most of all he didn’t like the fact that if Maci had been at work today she might have been at that desk when that bastard shot the window out. Might have been covered in glass.

“I need to make a call.” He needed to hear Maci’s voice.

Chance stepped into his office, dialing before the door was shut.

“Chance? Is everything okay? I was just about to leave so I can work the half day.”

Just the sound of Maci’s voice—relaxed and calm—soothed his frayed nerves. She was okay. That was all that mattered.

“You’re not going to believe this, but we’re going to need you to not come in today.”

“Damn it, Chance. I am not going to let you—”

“I promise this is not me trying to get you to rest. The front window of the office...broke, and we’re going to have to close everything early today and get it fixed.”

“Oh, my gosh. Did you throw someone through it?”

He chuckled. “You’re not here. So, no.”

She laughed at that. “Ha-ha. I’ve thought about throwing you through that glass once or twice too. What happened?”

“I’ll tell you everything when I get home. Do me a favor and make sure the doors are locked.”

She didn’t respond for a second. “Something happened, didn’t it?”

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