Page 204 of Felonies are Forever

I’m wrecked. So fucking wrecked. But it’s karma. Turnabout in the worst possible way.

I drop down into my chair, my hands in my hair as I slam my elbows onto the desk.

“Dad? Jack?” It’s Arianna’s voice now and the conflict battles inside me. “Please, try to understand, we didn’t mean it to happen. It’s just, well, last time I went to the camp interview… You remember I stayed with Carter and Layla…”

“Don’t fucking say anything else,” I bark, all of it hitting too close to home and the battle inside of me turns into World War III.

“Please…” She’s begging, I can hear the pain in her voice. “Life is too short. I don’t want to hide what I have with—” She’s cut off by a gasp. “Jack?”

“What?” I mumble, pain raking through my chest, my temples pound.

“Where’s Layla?”

“What do you mean?”

Carter’s voice comes through. “Did you know about this guy…this fan of hers? Arianna let it slip about this TikTok and whatever last night. I was going to deal with it when I got back…but Jack.”

“What? What’s going on?”

“Dad…” Arianna’s voice is thick with fear. “I just saw a post on her TikTok. The guy…this guy that’s been following her…sort of stalking her…sending creepy messages. He just posted a picture of Layla. She’s eating an ice cream cone. Wherever she is, he’s there. He’s there in Cherry Falls taking pictures of her—posting them…”

I shove the phone into my pocket, not even bothering to hang up as I straight arm the door and hit the dock at a dead run.

ELEVEN

Layla

I watchthe drip of melting French vanilla ice cream wind its way down the waffle cone, and all I can think of is how Jack came on my face this morning and it dripped down off my chin onto my chest, trailing its way all the way down to my bellybutton.

“Layla!” Willow waves her hands in front of me. “Did you hear me?”

“No, sorry. What?”

“That guy over there, I think he’s like…interested in you or something because he’s staring and taking pictures.”

My eyes drift to where she’s looking and there’s a man standing there in a plaid dress shirt, buttoned to the top, and navy dress pants pulled high on his stomach, held in place by an olive-green sort of army belt with a fanny pack deal hanging down on the front of his pants.

“I don’t know him.” I look at the girls. “Are you sure he was taking pictures of me? Not you? Or you?”

They shake their heads.

“No. He’s not taken his eyes off you. He took a picture, then tapped on his phone, then took another. Now he’s just been staring.”

I scratch my shoulder. “Weirdo.” I breathe out, taking a lick of my ice cream, already missing Jack way more than is probably healthy.

“Shit, Layla…” Lily nods toward him. “He’s coming over.”

Tension twists the muscles in my neck as I look up. He throws a wave in the air like I’m supposed to know him, but I look around making sure there’s not someone else standing behind me.

“You’ve been having fun without me,” I hear him say as he gets close. “But it’s time to come home now…Layla.”

A chill covers me as he reaches for my arm and I jump up, twisting away, dropping my cone onto the wooden planks of the board walk.

“Now, that’s not a polite girl. You’ve made a mess.”

“I don’t know who you are, but you need to move on,” I say, stepping back but keeping my eyes pinned on him as the girls gather round.

“Enough is enough. I’ve played your games. You’ve had your fun. Don’t make this harder.” He shoves his phone into his front pocket and unzips the front of the canvas pack, pulling it down just enough that I see the clear metal of the barrel of a gun. “I saw you in that video. The one where you punched that guy. Showed me where you were, finally. So naughty hiding from me this long.”

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