Page 12 of Stalker's Valentine

“Thanks,” she whispered, and we ended the call.

Within the hour, the four of us were at Coral’s house drinking and binging on tequila, pot roast, pizzas Raven brought, and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream pints Olive brought after she told us everything.

They had been growing apart for a while and they’d been stuck. It had been time for them to move on. It felt like there was something else, something Coral didn’t tell us, but I knew when she was ready, she would.

Needless to say, we ended up having a slumber party. Raven, Olive, and I kept a close eye on Coral. We might have been the younger ones, but it didn’t make us any less overprotective. Especially when one of us was hurting.

I’d left in such a hurry to get over to Coral’s place, I never noticed the package at my door. Or the fact I’d left my door unlocked from being in such a hurry.

Or at least that’s what I’d thought.

merritt

. . .

I tooka step inside her place, carefully shutting the door behind me, and breathed in.Deeply.Somehow, even with knowing she wasn’t in her bedroom sleeping, breathing the same air as her, it made everything that much better. Her house smelled good. Like freshly baked cookies and Scarlett.

The living room was pitch black, but I didn’t need light to know her space. I’d been watching it closely since Oleg’s crew had popped by and installed cameras for me. One in each room and hallway except for the bathroom.

I walked around looking at the walls. Even through the darkness, I didn’t miss the way she had decorated the place. It was cute. Paintings and pictures hung on the walls. Pictures I wanted to be in one day.Soon, cutie. Soon.

I started my way down the hall but stopped in the kitchen, and I smiled. It smelled like an incredible meal had been prepared. By the soaking CrockPot next to the sink, I knew she had made it. I could picture our future so fucking clearly it made my chest ache. Coming home to her, to the warmth of our home, a home we’d share one day.

Not that she had to cook for me. Hell no.

But that warmth and heart of a home? It would be all her.

And I couldn’t wait to be surrounded by it. By her.I can make her love me,a voice whispered in my head as I started my way down the hall to where I knew her bedroom was.

She was at her sister’s house while one of Oleg’s guys sat outside and waited. It was fucking sick of me, creeping around her empty house knowing where she was at all times, but fuck, since Oleg had set up the cameras and gave me a way into her place, I’d been like an insatiable beast.

I couldn’t get enough of her. Watching her. Listening to her hum while she worked or joke around with her sisters.

Not to mention the fact that for whatever fucking reason, she’d stopped coming into the brewery.

Tonight had been no different, with the exception of her sisters not popping by either. I’d heard Bash comment that it was the first time since New Year’s Eve that no Trejo girl had popped in. That’s when I made up some half-assed excuse to leave and rushed out to watch the footage. A big part of me worried she’d somehow figured it out. That maybe she had found the cameras and was telling her sisters.

But that wasn’t the case.

From what I picked up from the one-sided conversation I’d heard, something had happened to the oldest and they were all rallying around her. It made me happy they had that kind of support from one another. I knew how important it was.

But it still didn’t stop me from sneaking into her empty house at the dead of night.

I couldn’t be close enough to stare at her while she shared a meal with her family, but I could do this. Being in her home, surrounded by her things, somehow made it feel like her arms enveloped around me.

“You’ve fucking lost it,” I growled at myself just as I crossed the threshold of her room. My dick hurt from how hard it was. Iwanted nothing more than to whip it out and come all over her sheets. Mark her bed like my own. Like I would with her body.

But I’d promised myself I wouldn’t come again. Not until it was with her. And fucking hell, even if it made me hurt, it was a promise I was going to keep. Because the first time I had her, I would not only claim her, but I had bigger plans.

Plans that would leave her nice and bred. Tied to me for eternity.

With that in the forefront of my mind, I walked over to her dresser. Right there on top of the vanity was what I’d come for. The last line I knew there was no turning back from. I reached into my pocket and took out the almost identical packet. Switching her birth control with sugar pills didn’t make me second-guess my actions in the slightest. Not a fucking shred of remorse. That’s how far gone I was.

Slipping her pills into my pocket, I looked up and caught sight of myself in the mirror. I hardly recognized the man in the reflection. I had no idea how it was possible, but I had lost my fucking mind.

I was a cursed man and knew it.

All the men in my family were. We were destined to lose the love we find. We had generations of men before us as examples. But like my grandfather, my own father, and even my uncles, I was going to ignore it. I was going to ride the wave of whatever had taken me over. The beast in me was in charge, and we both wanted one thing and one thing only.

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