“Where are they taking him?” I ask as James and I head in one direction, and his military friends head in another with Leonard.

I’m happy to have my jeans on again, though I’m still in the corset Leonard generously provided.

“They’ll get him all cleaned up, dressed, looking appropriate for his confession. They might even drop him off near a station.”

“They’re not going to actually kill him and...dispose of him, are they?”

“I told them not to.”

“That’s not exactly reassuring.”

“Why? Do you care? After what he did to you?”

“Well, he wasn’t going to kill me...”

“How do you know for sure? The guy’s a lunatic! You’re telling me the actions he took were of a sane person? And he didn’t just lose it—he was methodical, calculating. He tried to make it look like it was me stalking you the whole time. I’m not sure what the end game was.”

“I guess so it looked like you were in on my elaborate, desperate scheme to get to the next level of fame.”

He gives me a curious glance.

I fill him in on what Leonard told me. He just shakes his head.

I’m still pretty sure Leonard had no plans to go as far as murdering me—he just wanted to humiliate me, discredit me in every way possible. And he was happy to have his longtime friend taken down with me.

I wonder if he knew James had a crush on me for a while and he kind of wanted to get back at him too?

A tremor runs through me, making my body shake a bit.

“You okay?” James asks immediately, his concerned eyes flickering to me.

“Yeah, I’m just...it’s all so weird, you know? I realized dude had issues, but...” Something occurs to me. “You’ve known him for fifteen years or so—did he do anything over that time that made you go, This dude could go psycho on a girl someday?’”

His mouth opens as if to speak, but then it’s as if he’s actually thinking about it.

“This girl he liked in sixth grade—he cut off one of her pigtails when she firmly let him know she didn’t like him.”

“Huh.”

“But that’s childhood shenanigans for you. I know people who’ve done worse. I saw a girl do it to another girl—just snipped off her long blond braid.”

We’ve reached the car, but none of us move to enter it; instead, we stand near the driver’s side doors.

The engine’s running and all the tinted windows are up, as if ready for a quick getaway.

“Is there anything you know of that happened at home? Something maybe in his family life...”

James is shaking his head again. “You met his mom, right? Totally normal. Unlike mine. Not only that, she clearly loves her kids worked many jobs to provide for them before striking it rich. His dad had no interest in him, but a lot of people I know come from single-parent homes. Most don’t go on to kidnap and humiliate their exes on a criminal level. Plus, he reaped the benefits of his mom eventually marrying a loaded man, so he actually transitioned to a pretty privileged adult life.”

“Talk about a sense of entitlement gone wrong,” I joke.

James doesn’t crack a smile. “Leonard obviously has a screw loose, honey. Don’t waste any more time on him; he can’t reach or hurt you anymore. You can be sure of it.”

I decide to let it go and he walks me to the passenger side of the car. But before he opens the door, I turn back to him.

“The bodyguard...”

“Had issues with me I underestimated,” he says, his body language suddenly drooping a bit. “I’m so sorry, Angel; I was supposed to protect you and I managed to deliver you right to...”

“Don’t worry about it,” I say quickly, hating to see how pained he is. This is really agitating him. Plus, it’s obvious we both had serious blind spots. “You made me feel safe the moment you returned to my life. And you found my stalker in record time, even delivered me from his lair. You did save me, James, in more ways than one.”

Shit. What did I say that for?

“What do you mean?” he asks.

His voice is so full of hope, it melts me.

“I was about ready to withdraw from the world in a way and you plucked me from a hardening shell. I can’t imagine not having you around. You’re like a friend to me, but way more than that.”

He grabs my hand and squeezes it.

“What are you going to do now? Are you up for another tour soon?”

“No, I’m pretty sure I’m done with that. Now that things have changed a bit between us, certain other options look a bit more attractive.”

“I don’t want you to go back to Afghanistan or Iraq or wherever-the-fuck, I want you to stay here with me,” I say firmly, emotion bubbling up in me.

He stares at me, the corner of his mouth tugged into a slight grin.

“I’ll do what I can, Angel. I don’t want to leave you again either; I love you.”

My chest bursts with joy.

“I love you too, James. Stay with me.”

“Yeah, I didn’t have to hear any of this,” a guy sitting in the back of the car says after bringing down the window a bit.

I jump and James bursts into laughter. I join him as I realize there’s no threat.

“Sorry about that, Aaron,” James says, finally opening the passenger door for me and closing me inside before heading to the driver’s side.

“Boy, do you and I have a lot of work to do,” Aaron says to me after our official introduction.

* * *

Once Aaron’s done showing me the many, many ways I went wrong handling my identity and information online, I feel a bit overwhelmed but somewhat comforted that steps are being taken to correct my mistakes.

I must’ve sounded so clueless to him—pretty much everything he said to me was a revelation.

I didn’t realize those apps got all that info!

Your general location is attached to emails?

So even if it’s a business account under your business name, it makes your real name and address available to anyone who sends money?

“It’s amazing you don’t have leaked nudes yet,” Aaron said at some point.

“Well, I haven’t taken any, so…” I shrug. “And anyway, one of my lax security measures helped me to be located quickly!” I smile wide and give a double thumbs up.

None of the guys like my joke.

James gently reminds me that some of our more intimate activities were observed through my computer’s camera.

By the time Aaron leaves the two of us, my head is spinning with all the info—I had a lot of holes to plug. No pun intended.

Aaron promised to be back tomorrow with more security assistance.

I lock up and head toward James, sitting on the couch.

“Let’s see—schooling by a tech expert, additional special forces manpower, the cost of travel to a psycho’s lair—I can only imagine how high my bill is now. What do I owe you for all of this?”

“You know you don’t owe me shit—never did. Keep your measly grand, but you can cook for me anytime you like. And I definitely want dates, which I’ll cover.”

“Boy, I suppose you want sex too.”

“I love you, Angel, and I want to take care of you, look out for you, keep you safe. That’s it. And if that earns me some p…”

I shove him playfully before he can get the word out.

He grabs me and pulls me onto his lap.

“So you’re staying in this apartment?” he asks. “If you need a place to stay for a while, remember, I do have lots of space in my condo, especially now that Butch has…vacated it. Which reminds me—definitely need to change the locks there.”

“Well, now that I know this place hasn’t been sniffed out by some crazy stranger, I’m okay with it.”

“I’ll have eyes on you at least until Leonard has been put away. After better vetting, of course.”

“Guess that’s fine. I won’t feel safe until I know he can’t reach me anymore.”

“And you’re in much better shape now that Aaron has set you up with a bit more than the basics. You’ll have a solid handle on everything in no time. Plus, you have a special forces soldier madly in love with you, one connected to scores of America’s finest. You’ve got a lot of people on your side, Angel, and I’m glad to see this crazy shit hasn’t scared you away from living your dream—I love seeing you so happy doing what you’re doing. I also get to keep parts of you to myself. I’m good with that.”

I bring my lips to his for a quick peck.

“Obviously, you’re welcome to stay here overnight every night if you want, but for now, I’ll keep my own living space.”

He smiles at me. “And I’m happy to have you in mine whenever.”

* * *

James and I took a shower, soaping each other while playing around, feeling each other up.

The activity made me slick between my legs, my core yearning to take in his obvious, massive erection.

He was such a fine specimen with all of his bulges and hard, masculine planes dotted with water droplets, and I felt so lucky this muscular military man had fallen in love with me.

His erection was still raging as we left the shower, though he told me he was happy to just hold me in bed since it had been such a stressful day for me.

But I insisted I was okay—not particularly damaged or traumatized—so he made love to me gently, the slower pace torturous but delicious, his cock plundering my pussy with long, deep strokes.

He dug into me passionately while placing light kisses all over my face, my neck.

I needed that intimacy more than anything—it was the perfect salve for today’s emotional boo-boo.

He fell asleep after blasting his finish inside me and now I’m here in the silence, reflecting on everything that happened over the past several days, playing over certain parts in my mind while he breathes deeply beside me.

I think long and hard about what to tell Kiara since she’ll need an update on the whole thing.

Ultimately, I settle on telling her that my ex-boyfriend was behind the messages, planning to leave out everything that happened once Butch turned on me in order to preserve the narrative James built for Leonard.