Page 23 of In Her Shadow

“I’m not going anywhere.” Katelyn rests back on the couch so Eloise can rest her head on her lap. “I’m surprised it’s me you want. Wouldn’t you prefer to have yourboyfriendhere?” Katelyn smiles sarcastically as she strokes her hand over her friend's hair.

“I don’t know if we’re there yet.” Eloise wipes away her tears and gives a tiny hint of a smile. “But I don’t want him to find out about this.” Suddenly, she looks scared again.

“Girl, he’s your stalker, likeness is, he already knows.”

“I’m being serious, Katelyn, Ren can’t know.”

“Why?” Her friend asks the question I’m desperate to ask myself. I hate the idea of Eloise keeping something from me, and I don’t care if that makes me a hypocrite. How am I supposed to keep her safe if I don’t know what's going on?

“Because, Ren…” She closes her eyes and stops herself from continuing.

“Eloise.” Her friend looks concerned.

“He’s dangerous,” she admits, ripping my heart right down the centre.

“And I know what you're thinking…” She stops Katelyn before she can start. “Don’t ask me how, but I know he would never hurt me. I just don’t think I can say the same for someone else.” I watch her wait nervously for her friend's reaction.

“It's nothing less than your boss deserves,” Katelyn tells her, “but if that's what you really think. You should be careful, you don’t know this guy, and you trusting him the way you do is just as dangerous as he is.” Katelyn’s words sting because they are true. She gets back to hugging her friend, while I click off my phone and dwell on them as I drive straight back to the warehouse.

I park my car in its usual spot, dragging down the metal door to keep it hidden before heading upstairs and opening my laptop. The first thing I do is check the camera footage from Eloise’s office. I've hacked them enough times to know that they store forty-eight hours of footage, so I should be able to get a better idea of what happened to her earlier. I can feel my heart beating faster, my rage is boiling over, and as I look out my window across to Eloise’s apartment, seeing her friend comfort her makes me wish it was me.Ishould be the one with her in my arms, telling her everything's okay. I stop rewinding through the footage when I see Eloise bursting out of one of the private office doors. She looks rushed and distressed, and I zoom in on the hunched-over, middle-aged man who calls out after her. Paul Connor…Chief fucking editor of On Trend magazine. I have his details on file, along with all the other people who are close enough to her for me to need to know about.

I have his address, I have his credit report, and when I decide to look a little deeper and check his criminal record, I find a few police reports, too. Turns out Paul has been accused of rape three times in the past ten years. Each time, the charges havebeen dropped before they reached the courtroom. The man's history, and the way my girl was shaking when I saw her on the screen, tells me something else about Paul Connor….

He won’t be making it into the office tomorrow.

ELOISE

“Ren, what are you doing here?” I jump out of my skin when I open the door and see him standing in the hall.

“I thought you might like some company on your walk to work.” He smiles.

“That's nice.” I fake him a smile, because I don’t want him to sense something's wrong. It feels so comforting to see him; it takes all my strength not to wrap my arms around his neck, cling to him, and start bawling like I have all night. But, instead, I calmly close the door behind me and follow him down the stairs. I don’t even bother to ask how he managed to get up here; with Ren, nothing would surprise me.

I hardly got any sleep last night, my stomach has been in knots since I woke up, and now that he’s here, I realize that seeing him is what I really needed. The idea of having to go to work today makes me feel physically sick, especially knowing what the likelihood of bumping into Mr. Connor will be. I know Katelyn is right, I shouldn’t be the one who hides away.Hewas in the wrong, which is why I’m going to be heading straight to the HR office when I arrive.

“How was work last night?” Ren asks once we’re outside.

“It was fine,” I lie, because if Ren knew the truth, this situation would get a whole lot worse. Mark’s friend really did get his fingers broken, Katelyn confirmed that for me last night. I can’t even imagine what he would do to Mr. Connor if he knew the truth.

“You want to do something tonight?” he asks, surprising me when he takes my hand in his. I don’t know why it’s such a shock; we’ve done far more intimate things, but having him hold my hand as we walk just feels so…intimate.

“What's wrong?” he laughs. “Something strange about a guy holding his girl’s hand?”

“Your girl?” I check I’m hearing him right.

“That's what you are, right?” He stops and turns toward me, “Or do we need to find another dark corner so I can remind you of who you belong to?” Stepping into my space, he looks down his nose at me and turns those knots in my stomach into butterflies.

“Yeah… I mean, NO!” I shake my head and pull myself out of the dream-like state he’s got me in. “I can’t be late for work.” Just the thought of it makes me flustered, and after all that happened last night, the last thing I should be thinking about is sex. Even if I do know that having Ren touch me would make me feel so much better.

That’s the worrying thing about all this.

It’s too much, too fast.

“Don’t you think the whole boyfriend-girlfriend thing is a little strange? I mean, aren't people supposed to date before they make that kind of commitment?” I think we both need to get a sense of reality.

“We can do whatever you want, just so long as you call yourself my girlfriend while we do it.” He smirks at me, and when I nudge him hard in the shoulder, his arms wrap around me and restrict me, making me giggle instead of panicking. “Youwant me to come upstairs with you?” he asks. Bringing me back down to reality with a heavy thump when I realize we’re standing outside my office building.

“No, why would I?” I snap back at him suspiciously. He never asked me if I wanted him to walk me up yesterday.

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