He sets the brown box on the table, and I watch as he unties the purple ribbon around the box. The ribbons fall to the sides when he takes the top off. The sound of the white tissue paper crumpling echoes in the now silent room. When he hisses, I look over and see that it’s a giant purple heart. The letter on the top is my name in block letters. It looks like he did it with a ruler.
You have my heart. Now I’m going to have yours.
“Fucking hell.” I hear Brian hiss out and then run for his phone. I pick up the note, and the hair on the back of my neck flies up. “Don’t touch anything else,” he tells me, and my wonderful day has now been taken away from me. “Yeah, it’s me. She just got another one,” he says and then picks up the purple heart. “It’s a heart-shaped amethyst stone.” I sit in the chair and just look at the heart. “No idea. I chased him to the lobby, and then he sprinted to a waiting white van. He got in, and they peeled away. There were no tags.” I see him looking at me and listen before he asks me, “What was he wearing?”
“He was wearing jeans and a green hat, and his hands were dirty. He had black Converse on,” I tell him softly, my mind now flying back to remember everything about him. The way his eyes twinkled like he was on something, the way his lips twitched, and he almost chuckled when he finally handed me the box.
“Did you get that?” He talks to the person on the phone. “I want to pull the video from the cameras around the hotel. If he walked in here, it has to be somewhere.” He puts the heart back in the box and covers it. “Call me when you have something.” He throws his phone and comes to squat down in front of me. “Hey.”
“Hey,” I say softly.
“Are you okay?” he asks me, grabbing one of my hands and bringing it to his mouth to kiss it. Something that I would have gone crazy over yesterday.
“I thought that it was over,” I tell him. “We’ve been on the road for three weeks. I thought it was over, and he had moved on.”
“Baby,” he says softly, his hand cradling my face, “I’m so sorry.”
“I woke up happy,” I finally say, the tears running down my face. “I woke up actually happy. I was in your arms, I had just had the best kiss of my life, and I was happy to have that. Not a kiss for the big screen or the red carpet just to be in the papers. It was for me.” I put my hands to my chest. “It was mine, and he took it away from me.”
“There will be more kisses, baby,” he says, leaning in and kissing my lips softly, “this afternoon, tonight, tomorrow.”
I look down, staring at his hand on my leg. “There better be.” I lean in a touch and kiss him because I can. “It’s not like I haven’t had stalkers before, but they never went to this much trouble.”
“Well, let’s hope he gets tired,” he says with a smile, and my stomach decides it’s time to make a loud rumbling noise. “Well, then, I guess I better get my girl fed.”
I laugh and then see him pick up the box and move it to the coffee table. “I am going to ship that back to the office and see what they get from it.”
I’m already getting my plate and grabbing a waffle, then I look at him.
“Do you think he fucked with the food?” I ask him, and he stops filling up his plate.
“Go get dressed,” he says to me in a gruff way, then grabs his phone and puts it to his ear. “Rachel, we are going to plan B.” I watch him on the phone. “He got to her door, so he can get to her food. I want everything set up.” He stops talking and listens to what or whoever is on the phone. “Perfect. Send me the address.”
“Who was that?” I ask him, and he looks at me.
“Rachel,” he says, and I swallow the news. “She’s one of the guys.” He follows it up. “She got us another location, and only me, you, and Cori will know it.”
“Is that really necessary?” I ask, and he glares at me. “Okay, I know he came to the door, but do you think he will come again?”
“I have no idea, but I’m not going to sit here and wait,” he says, and his phone beeps. “Perfect. We have a car that will be downstairs in fifteen and an address. You need to take one bag, so …”