“That would be my fault. Those men are working with a rival of mine. Jaco Marcas. Someone with whom I have some trouble. I have been tracking this rival, following his men, collecting information. And during one of the nights where I was investigating him, I came across you, and I started stalking you.”
“Stalking?”Is he being serious? Why would he stalk me?
“For lack of a better word,” he shrugs. “I had my private investigator look into you; I wanted to learn everything aboutyou. I followed you for about a week before I orchestrated us bumping into each other and introduced myself. After the dinner we had, I meant to pull back, and I did, sort of, but I think my curiosity in you sparked the attention of my rival. They are after you because they see you as a weakness of mine. Someone they can use to get at me.”
“But…okay… but… why did you start stalking me in the first place?” I ask.
My head is spinning with questions, but I need to ask them one at a time.
“Because I wanted to make sure you were safe. And because I thought you’d seen something…I had to make sure I was wrong.” He reaches over and gently pulls a leaf from my hair.
“Seen what?” I ask.
He clears his throat.
“The full truth, Simon,” I demand, reminding him of what I want.
“I was talking to one of my enemies. It got rough. I thought you’d witnessed the interaction, and I didn’t want to leave you exposed to that kind of violence. Especially if you were going to report it to the police. Things get messy when people report mafia business to the police.”
“I didn’t see anything,” I whisper to myself, trying to remember, but nothing comes to mind.
After a moment of silent thought, I look up at him again.
“So, you stalked me because you wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to tell on you,” I sigh.
“That’s how it started. But it was quick and easy to confirm that you hadn’t seen anything. After that…I was just fascinated by you. I couldn’t stop.”
“Fascinated?” I mumble, becoming more and more overwhelmed by everything.
He nods. His dark green eyes pierce into me, and I know without doubt that he has told me the truth. My heart is racing under the intensity of his gaze.
The truth.I mean, he confessed to stalking me. Calmly. As though it is perfectly normal. And he accepted that it’s his fault that these men are after me, and he told me about his lifestyle and his mafia involvement.
And how I fascinate him.My heart flutters wildly, but the unexpected compliment hidden in there is overshadowed by everything else.
My stomach churns with anxiety as everything suddenly becomes too much.
My breathing catches, and I set my unfinished drink down on the coffee table.
“I’m, um, I’m going to shower. I need time to think about all of this.”
“We had a deal, Blair,” he says with a dark edge to his voice.
I stand, looking down at him.
“I know. I’m not going to try and escape.”
His eyes soften, and he nods. I turn away from him and head upstairs, wondering how in the world my life went fromnormaltothis. And what normal even is anymore.