Ruby narrowed his eyes. “Me? He talks about me in those emails?”
“Yes. He doesn’t like you very much.”
Petra paled and walked over to stand behind Liam. “What does he say? Is he threatening him?”
Liam ignored her question, turning to her with a kind but frank expression. “I need to have someone look at all these emails. I need another opinion, but what I sense is, this is a frustrated and jealous guy. He’s angry you’re not honoring whatever fantasy relationship you have. Judging from the amount of emails and his tone, he’s putting a lot of energy into this, and he’s not going to stop until he gets what he wants.”
“Which is what?” Her voice trembled on the question. “A phone call? An apology?”
You. He’s not going to stop until he gets you. The word pounded in Ruby’s brain, along with the knowledge that he was one of the people standing in this psycho’s way.
“It’s hard to know what he wants, just from glancing over these.” Lies. Liam was flat-out lying to her. Rubio locked eyes with his friend.
Later, his expression said. Not now.
Liam looked back at the computer screen. “I need to do a deep background check on this guy, take apart these emails and see what’s going on. If you don’t mind, I’ll change your filter to have all his future emails forwarded to an Ironclad server.”
“You can do that?”
Liam nodded. Ruby stood with anxious energy and moved to Petra’s bookshelf, poking through novels and non-fiction while Liam showed Petra what he was changing, as well as the Ironclad email address he was forwarding them to.
“We’ll need to have all this evidence backed up,” said Liam, his fingers clicking over her keyboard. “For when we start putting a case together. But I’ll take care of that. I’ll let you know what I find, but it’s time to start documenting every call, every text. Every email. Don’t delete anything. Any suspicious packages, call me first. I want you to document every single point of contact to show the judge.”
Petra let out a quick breath. “The judge? We have to go to court?”
“We might,” said Liam. “If it escalates into—”
Rubio spun and silenced him with a look.
“If it escalates into something that crosses the lines of legality,” said Liam carefully. “With the scope of his behavior, and the content of the emails, I think you could at least file for a harassment notice. A restraining order. I’ll take care of that too.”
Ruby turned back to her bookshelf, because he couldn’t bear to see her beleaguered expression. So many Russian language books. What was that all about? Her father was Russian, but he never talked to her. And at the end of the row—a Portuguese language book. For him?
Petra’s cell phone rang. “It’s not him,” she said with relief. She excused herself to her bedroom to take the call, leaving the two of them alone. Rubio slid into her chair.
“So, he’s threatening me in those letters?” he asked his friend. “Be honest.”
“He holds no love for you. I’ll put it that way.”
“How soon can you make him stop this?”
Liam closed down Petra’s email and rested his elbows on the table.
“I’m going to work on it. Get some good investigators on the case. I need to learn more about him, see if there are angles we can tweak. If he has a spouse or an employer, we can threaten to out his activities if he doesn’t leave Petra alone. Sometimes that can discourage stalkers, provided they’re not complete psychos.”
Ruby watched Liam’s fingers tap, tap, tap on the table. “But he’s a complete psycho, isn’t he?”
Liam nodded. “He’s a psycho, yeah. I’m one hundred percent sure he’s a psychopath. How close are you two?”
“I don’t know him!”
“No, you and Petra. Are you...?”
Rubio stared at him. “Are we what? Together? You’re this world class investigator guy and you can’t figure out that she can’t stand me?”
“Can’t stand you? Anyone can see the connection between you, even on stage. But I take it you’re not in an intimate relationship?”
Ruby sprawled back in his chair and rubbed his chest. “When you stop asking stupid questions then I will start talking to you again.”
Liam pulled at his ponytail. Men with ponytails, thought Rubio. Pfft. His friend pushed back some escaped strands and glared at him. “You frustrate the hell out of me sometimes. When I was hooking up with Ashleigh you were all in my business. You had to know it all.”
“And you didn’t tell me nothing. How does it feel? Not that there is anything to tell about Petra. She doesn’t want a relationship with me.”
Rubio ignored Liam’s assessing look. “Well, whatever your relationship,” his friend finally said, “you need to watch out for her. At work, at lunch, during breaks, whenever. Don’t let her leave the theater alone, especially late at night. Even if she’s getting in a car. You never know.”
“He’s not in London, is he?”
Liam gave him a dire look. “I wouldn’t assume anything about this guy.”
They both fell silent as Petra returned from the bedroom. “My grandma,” she said. “She has the occasional crisis, when she thinks someone’s spying on her through her cable box. I should have let her talk to you,” she said, pointing at Liam.
“I would have set her straight,” he said. “People spy through cable boxes all the time.”
Petra laughed at his deadpan joke and Ruby felt a stab of jealousy. Liam had it so easy with women. Good looks, good manners, a solid grip of English, and that ridiculous ponytail hair. If Liam was Petra’s partner, she’d be sleeping with him around the clock.
“Well, it’s late,” Liam said. “I better get home or I won’t see Ashleigh before she heads to bed. She’s keeping pregnant-lady hours.” He took out one of his cards, wrote an additional number on it, and tucked it under her laptop. “You can call my cell any time, twenty-four hours, and I’ll pick up. If Paulsen sends anything else, if any more emails get through, dial my number. You won’t be bothering me. Any friend of Rubio’s is a friend of mine.”
“Thank you.” She shook his offered hand. “I hope you’ll let me pay you for all this work you’re doing for m—”
He waved her off before she could finish. “The best way to pay me is to stay safe. Don’t walk home from work without a friend, be alert to your surroundings, and report anything suspicious to the police. It’s best to err on the side of caution.”
“All right, slick,” Rubio said. “We got it. Give Ashleigh my love, okay?”
Liam shot him a look that communicated a great deal of “fuck you” and made his way to the door. As soon as he left, Ruby turned to Petra. “It’s okay,” he said quietly. “Vai dar tudo certo. Everything will be okay.”
“Vai dar tudo certo,” she repeated. “I hope you’re right. Hey, can you stay a while?” Her voice sounded strained. “Stay and have some coffee with me, or...do you want something to eat?” She headed to the kitchen and looked in her refrigerator, which was mostly empty. “I can call out for something.”
“I’ll stay as long as you want. You don’t have to feed me, or make up excuses to keep me here.”
“But I have to make up excuses. I have to keep my brain busy.” Her lower lip trembled as her hands fluttered against the counter. “I keep thinking, what if you’re involved too? What if you’re in danger? One of the first things he sent was that picture of me and you. What if—” The words choked off in her throat.
He walked over and put his arms around her to make her still. “It’s okay. I’m not afraid of him. Liam will take care of all this. Try not to worry.”
“But I’m worried,” she said against his shoulder. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.” She gave a wild, nervous laugh. “I don’t want anything to happen to me. I should have been keeping track of his emails. I was so stupid.”
“No, you weren’t stupid.” He rubbed her back, feeling an inappropriate erect
ion rising where he pressed against her. Damn her for how she affected him. He shifted back and looked in her eyes. “You didn’t do anything wrong. He’s the psycho here, not you. He’s trying to make you feel scared and threatened, I don’t know why. Because he imagines too much, and he’s a big loser. I had a woman like this once, writing, constantly, constantly. Is so stupid. One day she jumped in my car and kissed me and—” He shuddered, remembering the feel of her slobbery lips.