Page 52 of Mine to Keep

“Hmm…okay, not sure of that one, what’s the next?”

“Intimacy seeker believes their victim will love or learn to love them. Some think their victim does already love them; it’s a delusional thing. These are mostly the kinds of stalkers celebrities get, but that doesn’t mean an everyday guy or girl can’t.”

“I see. So, what do you think?”

I turned my hand and linked our fingers together. “I think it’s either rejected or intimate. It’s the only two that make sense with what we’re seeing. Aziza agreed.”

Matt nodded. “How dangerous are they?”

I gripped Matt’s hand, pulled until he was as close as he could possibly be, and looked him straight in the eyes. “Very. Any stalker has the capacity to see it to the end, however that may be.”

“Why are you scaring me?”

“How are you not scared by now?”

Matt’s brow dipped. “I am. What would you have me do, Nick?”

I cupped his face, trying to calm the anger and fear permeating between us. “I’d love it if you moved back in here, but I won’t ask that of you.”

“And what will you ask of me?”

“Let me set up more cameras. I won’t put any in your apartment, just the fire escape and lobby. I want them all facing your building.”

“My landlords won’t allow that.”

Noel snorted and I glared at him. “It wouldn’t technically be legal, what I’m doing, but no one would find out and when it’s done, I’ll remove them.”

Matt stared at me for a beat, then over to Noel. “Do you think it’s necessary?”

Noel nodded. “Personally, I’d be pushing for camerasinyour apartment. If this person gets in there and say, does some weird-ass shit like smell your sofa, they may show their face andboom, we’d get ’em.”

“Smell my sofa? What the hell?”

I gently gripped Matt’s face and turned him back to face me. “It’s a bad example, but Noel has a point.”

Matt sighed. “I can’t say yes to you putting cameras in places I don’t own. But I guess in my apartment is okay, just not the bathroom.”

“Thank you.” I kissed his lips, smiling when he relaxed.

“So, like, you can’t say yes to the other cameras…but what if you didn’t know?”

“Shut up, Noel.”

Noel and I laughed, but Matt appeared confused. I was going to put up all the cameras.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Matt

Nick followed me home,literally. He explained that he’d parked several blocks from my building so that if I was being watched they wouldn’t see him. It was very dramatic, but I was also warmed by how protective he was being.

I wasn’t dumb. I knew that Nick would be putting cameras up outside the building and likely in the lobby, but I was playing ignorant. He told me he’d take the fire escape up and while I thought that was ridiculous, he’d explained that he wanted to see how noisy it was, if I could hear him approach, and how easy or hard it would be for someone. That made a lot of sense.

As I got out of my car, I was sure to be vigilant. When the person jumped me earlier, fear had frozen me in place. There’d been no fight or flight, nothing at all—just ice-cold terror. If they’d wanted to kidnap me or hurt me they’d have had no problem.

I’d always been the person who watched movies with judgment. I’d scream at the TV, wondering why they weren’t fighting their attacker and shouting all the things I’d dodifferently. Now, I got it. You didn’t always have control. Sometimes your brain decided for you, and it wasn’t always the optimal choice.

In the lobby, I gathered my mail and took the elevator up to my floor. James was just exiting his apartment with a smile.

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