Cathryn Schneider’s office was on the fifteenth floor. When we walked in, a receptionist lifted her eyes from a computer screen and smiled. But when she saw the look on Arella’s face, she grabbed the receiver on her desk. “Arella Stevenson just walked in.” After a moment, she hung up and gave us a tight smile. “Go straight back.”
My girl led the way into her agent’s office. Cathryn, an older woman with a short blond bob, stood as we entered and came around to embrace Arella. “Did something happen?” she questioned as soon as she stepped back.
Arella held out her phone. “Someone blocked Jordan’s number in my phone, Cathryn. I…I think it was him.”
The agent released a harsh sigh and took the phone from her. “Let me call Kirtner. Have a seat, doll.” Her gaze lifted to me. “You too, cutie.”
I guided Arella over to the leather couch against the wall and sat beside her. “Him who?” I asked her softly while Cathryn spoke to someone on her cell.
Arella sucked her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment before releasing the tortured flesh, causing it to plump. Unable to stop myself, I traced my thumb over it, making her mewl in pleasure.
“Him who, baby?” I repeated when she just sat there, staring up at me.
“My stalker,” she breathed.
My blood turned to ice at those two words, and I pulled her onto my lap. “Tell me everything,” I ordered.
Eight
Arella
I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience as I sat on Jordan’s lap and told him everything the creepy stalker had done to date. The boxes with the pictures, the lotion, the dead birds. Now, it seemed he’d gotten even closer than I’d imagined, and I was scared.
If he’d been in my dressing room while I was at work, that meant I might actually know this person. It could be someone I worked with, someone I saw regularly. Someone I spoke to, laughed with, perhaps even hugged.
That last thought caused me to shudder, an
d Jordan touched his lips to my temple. One of his large hands rubbed up and down my back, while the other kept hold of my thigh, locking me in place on his lap. Like this, I felt safe. Protected. Loved…
I shook my head at that ridiculousness, but I buried my face in his chest. I knew he didn’t love me, but at least he cared enough to worry about me. Wanted to keep me safe from the man who was trying to freak me out. A man who might even want to hurt me.
Of all the people in my contact list, why had he blocked Jordan? Why not any number of other people? Hell, I had two ex-boyfriend’s numbers in there, but when I’d peeked at them and a few other numbers on the drive to Cathryn’s office, none of them had been blocked. Only Jordan.
It just didn’t make sense to me.
“Detective Kirtner is on his way,” Cathryn announced as she dropped her cell phone onto her desk. “He’s going to take your phone and have his people look it over.”
I could only nod as I sat there, my body slowly absorbing Jordan’s heat. I’d never been so cold in my life, but I barely noticed. It was as if my entire body had gone numb. But as his heat began to invade me, I realized just how scared I really was.
There were people who thrived off feeling fear. They liked the adrenaline rush they got from watching horror movies or going to haunted houses. Mom and Aunt Harper loved that stuff, but I’d never enjoyed it. It made me mad when people tried to jump out and scare me. I’d almost ripped all of Nevaeh’s hair out once when she’d hid in my closet and jumped out to surprise me one night when we were younger.
As the numbness dissipated, flashes of everything I’d been put through the past two months filtered through my mind, and my blood started to boil.
I couldn’t remember ever being so pissed off in my life, and I jumped to my feet. Jordan tried to pull me back onto his lap, but I slapped his hands away and began to pace angrily. Maybe it was his nearness making me feel safe, but all the fear this motherfucking stalker had forced me to feel for weeks was gone. All that was left was the anger.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Cathryn lean back against her desk and cross her arms over her chest, a smirk teasing at her lips.
“Shut up, C,” I snapped at her, knowing exactly what she was thinking.
“I was beginning to wonder if this bastard had turned you into a scared little kitten. I mean, seriously. It was just a few little boxes with pictures of some guy spanking the monkey. Yeah, okay, so those little birds dying like that was sad. I may have shed a tear or three for them. But I didn’t think it was enough to get too worked up over. Honestly, if you saw some of the fan mail my people have to go through for you on the regular, you would think this is all pretty tame.” She tapped her manicured nails on her arm in time to some tune only she could hear. “Glad to see I was wrong and that fiery tigress I adore so fucking much was just beneath the surface. So, while I have you here, what did you think of that script I sent over?”
Jordan snarled—actually snarled—as he jumped up. “She obviously has reason to be scared. Some lunatic is stalking her. And now she discovers that he may have done shit to her phone? He was that fucking close to her.” He stabbed his fingers through his hair, disheveling it in a way I’d always wanted to.
Watching him, I felt my fingers tingle to run through those dark strands, and I realized I was actually jealous of his own hands. Shaking off the feeling, I returned to pacing.
“He was that close…” he repeated. But there was something in his voice that had me turning to glance at him again, only to find his tormented eyes watching me intently. With a curse, he pulled his phone from his pants pocket. “I’m calling Mia. You’re getting a full detail of security right now.”
Of course, he would call Mia. Rolling my eyes, I stomped over to him and snatched his phone out of his hands. The call hadn’t gone through yet, and I quickly disconnected before she could answer. Two seconds later, a text came in.