Page 46 of Four-ever Single

“Look, you’re making me uncomfortable,” I said sternly. “Move out of my way. Now.”

“Sorry,” he said, holding up his hands as he laughed. “Just wanted you to meet one of your biggest fans.”

I rolled my eyes as I pushed past him, desperate to escape.

“Oh, and Bella?”

I didn’t want to stop or give him the time of day. I just wanted to get back to Jones and forget I ever met this creep. But something deep inside told me to turn around.

“If I were you, I’d be careful where you go running. Not all places around town have the best lighting, and I wouldn’t want you to run into any trouble.”

I stood there stunned as he walked past me and disappeared.

Twenty-Eight

Jones

“What’s wrong?” I asked, immediately noticing the panicked look on Bella’s face as she scooted into the booth beside me.

She shook her head, eyelashes fluttering as she blinked rapidly.

“There was this guy who stopped me as I was coming out of the bathroom,” she said, still flustered. Capshaw and Kensy stopped talking, all eyes on Bella.

“Are you okay?” Kensy asked, reaching her hand over to touch Bella’s arm.

“Yeah? No? I don’t know.” She shrugged and then looked at me. “He told me I should be careful where I go running. He recognized me from my modeling stuff. Knew that I was working with Dark Vibes. He knew so much about me...”

Her voice trailed off as my temper skyrocketed.

“What did he look like?” I asked, my voice tight as I searched the room.

“He was tall and thin, maybe 5’8 or 5’9. Short blonde hair and green eyes that gave me the creeps. They were super dark, almost like the forest green color of his t-shirt.” She wrapped her arms around herself as she shivered.

“Stay here with Kensy. I’ll be back.” I gently pushed her out of the booth so I could get out. I wanted to stay there and hold her, make sure she was okay, but I needed to find this asshole and deal with him first.

“You okay staying here with her?” Capshaw asked Kensy, already climbing out of the booth.

“Yeah, we’ll be fine.”

I helped Bella into the booth and waited until Kensy came around and sat next to her before I went with Capshaw in search of this guy.

“I’ll head out front. You search in here,” he said, immediately taking the same tone he used when we went on calls.

I nodded and started working my way through, looking for anyone who met Bella’s description.

A few minutes later, I had cleared all of the tables inside, as well as the people in line to order. The bathroom was empty, and no one was lingering in the hallway. I pushed through the double doors and headed outside where I found Capshaw walking toward me. He shook his head and I felt the anger rise inside me that this guy didn’t get the ass beating he deserved for freaking Bella out.

“We should get going,” Capshaw said, not needing to say anything more.

“Agreed.”

We both knew if we stuck around and spotted the guy, the chances were high that we would beat the living shit out of him. Not only that, but what was more troubling was that this guy was watching Bella, and I wasn’t going to let it continue if I could help it. We could call the police, but not having a good enough description of him would be a waste of their time since he was already gone.

We went back inside, grabbed some to-go containers for the food, and headed back to my house.

Bella was still pretty shaken up by the time we got there, so I told Capshaw we were going to call it a night. Kensy said they understood and to let them know if we needed anything. It felt weird to be responsible for taking care of someone else, but I couldn’t imagine not being there for Bella right now.

When I went inside, she was curled up on the couch with a blanket wrapped around her. I put our food in the fridge until she was ready for it and sat down beside her. I could tell she was still struggling with what happened, so I pulled her into me and held her as she cried.

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