Page 25 of Thanking Her Brother's Best Friends

Alex Reynolds, ex-LAPD, and a man with a relentless taste for justice, shook his head worriedly as he handed me some files. "Selene, have you considered changing base?"

I stepped into the balcony and gazed at the overcast sky. It would rain tonight. In the distance, the lapping waves of an endless stretch of water reminded me of how false my purported sense of security was.

"Oliver's school is in this district. And I've put him through enough already. I won't change homes just because I'm being stalked."

"This is more than just being stalked," he replied, his tone still even. "Even with your arsenal, you have had your delicates stolen from your last home."

He was right. This was what prompted me to move to the penthouse Ollie and I lived in now. I had fortified it with every last security detail I could put together.

"Did you find out anything about the panty-thief?" I asked instead, not wanting to remember the day he'd told me my missing underwear was no mere coincidence.

CCTV footage had captured stills of a man escaping my apartment after shuffling through my clothes cabinet.

"Not yet," he replied, casting his eyes away in response to the way I referred to my stalker as a panty-thief. "But this is not the first time a celebrity has been harassed by crazy fans. The fingerprint analysis was inconclusive."

I sighed and turned my face away from him. Out on the balcony, I pressed the switch on a remote, and ambient lighting sprang up, breaking through the pitch-black darkness that was rapidly descending on us.

A strong wind was beginning to take hold.

As the lights came on and cast the rooms in a warm, balanced glow, our unmoving shadows sprang against the walls.

"Don't lose out on hope," he said. "We can't give up just yet."

"I have no intention of giving up," I replied, my tone biting. I began shivering against the wind. All notions of safety I had built after moving to this penthouse suddenly felt like an illusion.

What if I couldn't keep my son safe?

I pressed the remote again. The lights went off. I did this a few times, my eyes wandering on the juxtaposition of rich, brown wooden panels cast against the ivory sheen of marbled floors. What good was this fortress if it would not help me protect my son?

"What if something..."

I could not bring myself to finish the words. I could not imagine something happening to Ollie because it would finish me. It would be akin to someone pulling my heart out of my throat and making me watch as they ripped it from vein to vein.

"Nothing will happen to your son, Selene." Reynold's tone was as gentle as he could make it. Which was saying something, because he was, as they said, Boston's Slow Killer.

He could be anything you needed him to be, from a gatherer of evidence to a hit man, if situations warranted it.

No wonder he had a resume that was as formidable as the Atlantic on a stormy night.

"I would still suggest moving to another place until things... grow calmer."

"Why should I go?" I almost shouted back at him. "I've built my whole life from scratch here!"

"And it is in danger," he replied, his blandness cutting through my terror like a razor-sharp knife.

"You're not being very helpful, Reynolds."

"I would say that is because you have hired me to be realistic, Selene. The list of people who could wish you harm is endless. We cannot begin and end with a definitive set of names because you are worshiped across this country and abroad.”

He sighed. "Do I need to tell you more about what unhinged fans are capable of?"

He really didn't. I already knew what people could do. I'd seen celebrities get gunned down simply because they believed in a philosophy that did not match that of a fan. Or because they refused to sign an autograph. The world was a ruthless, cruel place.

And amid all of it, I had my sanctuary in Oliver—a little haven of safe, nurturing love. I would do all I could to keep it intact.

"The paparazzi caught hold of me outside a restaurant today." I finally said what had been going on in the back of my mind all day. "They told me Dave is back in Seaport and was spotted near here."

Reynolds raised his thick brows. "Last I checked on him, he was only here for a few days. But I will look into this. Are you worried he could try to disrupt the peace of your home?"

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