Page 92 of Vicious Desire (Fallen Royals 4)

My phone vibrates on my nightstand, dragging me from sleep.

I grope around for it and flip it over. It takes a second—more than a second—to register the name on my caller ID.

“Hello?” I answer.

“Hey.” Eli’s voice is husky, almost too quiet.

I roll over. I put the phone on speaker and tuck it—and my head—under the covers. It’s habit. I do it without even thinking about it.

“Why are you calling?” I ask. The glow of the phone illuminates my little hideaway. “It’s the middle of the night.”

“I couldn’t sleep. Were you?”

“Yes.” I close my eyes. “He came out of surgery just fine.”

He hesitates.

“It wasn’t worry over Noah that made you call.” It isn’t a question. I guess, even after all this time, I can still get a feel for him through the phone.

“No.” He exhales. “That photo…”

“I’m sure it’s just a prank. Heard from Amelie lately? Maybe she’s bored.” I force a slight chuckle, but it sounds wrong in my ears. “There isn’t really anything we can do about it, anyway. What’s going to happen will happen.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it, Ri.”

I wince.

“We could tell Masters. He doesn’t have a vendetta against your family, so if you give him the evidence—”

“I’ve seen too many movies where stalkers are escalated—”

“Riley.”

I pause.

“Is that what you think this is? A stalker?”

Well, shit. I click the volume on the phone lower, paranoid that Mom can hear me. She’s probably taken her pills and gone to sleep, but I can’t be sure. And I don’t want her to freak out on me.

“I don’t know. There’s a video…”

He makes a strangled noise.

“Someone was following me in the fog. They recorded me calling out, getting knocked by the other jogger… They laughed. I ran the whole way home—minus my fall.”

“I’m coming over,” he says abruptly. There’s movement on his end of the line—rustling and a door closing, creaking steps.

I sit up. “What?”

“Jesus Christ, Riley. You have a stalker? And only your mother is home with you? Yeah, no.” Keys jingle. “Be there in five.”

The call ends, and I’m left staring at my darkened screen.

Shit.

I glance around my room, and I’m shocked at the butterflies that erupt in my stomach. Eli is coming here. To my house. To my room.

Unless he stays downstairs, but I sincerely doubt that.

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