“Don’t lie to me, Angel.”
I stare out at the now empty street. “I thought I saw someoneout there. Looking up at me.”
Eli tenses. “Gia?”
“I don’t know. Maybe?”
My phone vibrates.
Anonymous:I see you.
My chin wobbles. My eyes moisten.
Eli pulls the phone from my clutches and scans the text. Then he reads the rest. With each second that passes, his eyes grow darker, his jaw tightening so hard a muscle in it pops.
Eli
All week I’ve been trying to track Emily’s ex, Gianna. I didn’t tell her that's what I was doing. She assumed I was working on my laptop, but I was doing research—obsessive, frustratingly unproductive research. Unfortunately, my computer skills aren’t high-tech enough to find her exact location.
“Why didn’t you tell me about the texts straight away?” I ask, tension radiating through my shoulders.
I didn’t think to check the spyware on her phone. I assumed she’d come to me if she got any more texts. That’s a mistake I shouldn’t have made.
Emily looks at me with wide, watery, blinking eyes. “I didn’t want to worry you.” She swallows. “And I was scared you’d lock me up again.”
Fuck.
My angel is scared of me.
Maybe not of who I am.
But of what I mightdo.
I take a slow breath. “What else have you kept from me?”
She trembles. I pull her into my arms. She stays stiff for a second before finally softening, moulding against me.
“I thought someone was following me home from work on Friday.”
“On the tube?”
She nods. “And when we were walking together.”
I hold her face, forcing her eyes to mine. “From now on, you tell me whenever you get that feeling again. No matter how silly it feels.”
Tears glisten. “I don’t want Gia to hurt me.”
“She won’t,” I say, gentler but still firm in my conviction. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
But she’s still trembling. Terrified. And every instinct in me goes feral at the sight.
I let her go only long enough to grab my laptop and pull her down next to me.
Nothing. Whoever is watching knows where my cameras are.
Her phone vibrates again.
It’s a picture of our house.