Another message came in at that moment and I read it before Hendrix could snatch it away. It said that she missed when we used to hang out at the viewpoint when it was just the two of us and that if we didn’t do it again soon, she’d have to find someone else to hang with.
Hendrix read it and made a face. “She always so fucking weird?”
It was then or never. Either I told him what I thought or I tried to handle it myself.
My brothers joined us at that moment, all of them with their chests puffed out and anger on their faces. Chip ruffled my hair like I was five and shook his head. “We saw that guy try to pick-pocket you, Darbs. We chased him down, but he didn’t have anything of yours.”
Hendrix swore. “You saw it?”
They nodded. “Bro, you didn’t? That’s why you don’t sleep with your fucking clientele. Too busy checking out her ass to notice the man slipping his hand into her pocket?”
Hendrix shoved his fingers through his hair and gave a few orders to Harding and my brothers. “See if you can get anything off of this, Harding. They wanted her to have it for a reason. Chip, Jimmy, Gaines, see if you can find that asshole again. He’s working for whoever has been stalking Darby.”
“Aaron Gadberry?” Chip growled out.
Hendrix just threw his hands up. “Sure.”
When they were all gone, he pushed me into Harding’s seat and knelt in front of me. His face was a mix of guilt and anger. “He’s right, you know? When that asshole touched you, I didn’t see his hands because I was too busy thinking of ways to beat the shit out of him for touching you. I’m not doing my best, Darby. I’m too damn distracted by you.”
“Sorry?”
“No, I’m sorry. I crossed the line and I knew I shouldn’t have. I like you, though. I should’ve waited until this was all over. Until this thing is over, I have to be focused. I can’t slip up. You could get hurt, Darby. You could die. I can’t let that happen. I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to you.”
I blinked back tears of frustration and my own guilt. “Are you…breaking up with me?”
A quick grin transformed his face and for a second I was devastated by how handsome he really was. “I think we’re skipping a few steps there, but we can sort it out later. I’m just telling you I have to pull back right now. Not because I want to. Not because I don’t want to take you pretty much constantly. But because I need to keep you safe.
“Which leads to the second part of this conversation. You have to trust me with stuff. I can’t do thatI can’t keep you safeif I don’t have all the information. I know that you’re used to working alone, but you’ve got a team for this one. That means you don’t keep stuff from me. You tell me right away.”
The guilt was threatening to rip my chest out but I couldn’t help but read into the messages. I knew it was the stalker; whether it be Laster or not, I wasn’t sure. Jennifer and I had always referred to my house as the viewpoint. He was telling me to come back to my house, alone, or he was going to hurt someone else. I couldn’t help but think of Jennifer. With him using her name and the name of a place she and I used to talk about, it had to be.
I had to go alone.
Looking him in the eye, hearing him ask me to trust him, and doing exactly the opposite wasn’t as easy as it’d been at first. “I told you everything, Hendrix.”
He smiled at me again and pressed his lips against my head. “Thank you. We’ll handle this, okay? Together.”
I nodded and tried to stop the tears from coming. “I need to use the bathroom.”
He nodded and walked with me towards it. “I’ll keep an eye out.”
I knew he was speaking from the guilt he already felt with what happened at the studio’s bathroom. It made me feel even worse for what I was going to do. “It’ll be a minute. I got my period and have to get things sorted.”
He made a face before he could help it and nodded. “Take your time.”
I went in and let the door close before rushing over to the window on the other side of the large room. I’d been to the precinct before to talk to Harding so I was well aware of the window. It took me a few seconds to get it open, but then I was out of it and dropping to the sidewalk outside.
I ran without looking back, headed for a cab I could see waiting at the end of the street. I cut in front of a woman trying to get in and shoved a wad of money at the driver. “Drive. Just go!”
Just like that, I got away from my brothers and Hendrix. I knew that Hendrix wasn’t going to forgive me for what I was doing. It tore me up to think of the tenderness he’d gifted me being gone for good. I couldn’t look back, though. It was time to end whatever game the stalker was playing. What none of them realized was that I’d swiped one of Chip’s many guns.
*
The cab took forever getting to my house. I had him drop me off at the bottom of the hill and climbed up, sticking to the shrubs and trees beside the road. I wanted to try to have some element of surprise.
I was fooling myself if I thought I could do what I had to do without nearly peeing my pants. I was terrified. My blood pressure had to be sky high and I was worried that I would get nervous diarrhea and really embarrass myself.
Before I could even get to the side door, it opened and I looked up to find a battered Aaron Gadberry staring out at me, eyes blackened and face covered in cuts. I screamed before I could stop myself and took a step back.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, little rabbit. I have a special guest of yours sitting out on your balcony, waiting to hang out. She’s going to be so lonely if you run.” The voice came from behind Aaron, low and menacing.
I was walking into a holy terror. I knew it and I still couldn’t stop it. I walked up the steps and grabbed the door to keep myself from falling over.
Aaron’s eyes were glazed over and I could see then that he was being held up by straps tied to a metal dolly. He looked rough. I hadn’t seen him in years, but it wasn’t good. Even fresh out of jail, he’d looked better.
He was wheeled aside and I stepped into my house, fear paralyzing me as the man with the mask stepped forward. “Come on, little rabbit. We’ve got some stuff to talk about before the show starts. Maybe you can cook for me the way you did for that bodyguard of yours.”
I edged my way around the wall, staying far away from him. “Who are you?”
With glee, he pulled the mask off and grinned at me. He also lowered his voice back to its normal pitch. Laster stood, looking out at me, seemingly as happy as he could be. “Did you guess?”
I swallowed and shook my head. “Ricky told me.”
In the blink of an eye, his hand flew out and connected with my face. I went flying to the floor and grunted as I tasted blood. From where I was I could see out onto the balcony and there was Jennifer, a rope around her neck, tying her to the balcony railing. I scrambled to my feet and ran to her.
Her mouth was taped but her eyes were wide and she looked behind me just as a hand grabbed my neck and dragged me back inside.
“That’s for later! Don’t try to spoil my show.” Laster threw me down next to the couch and pulled out a knife. “Sit down, Darby. We’ve got some talking to do.”
I glared up at him, anger and fear mixing to make something volatile. “You stabbed yourself?”
He grinned. “Yep. Pretty convincing, too. Hurt like a bitch, though. It still does. It’ll be what saves me, though. When they find us all here, I mean.”
“What are you talking about, Laster? Why are you doing this?”
“Oh, come on, Darby. It isn’t some long, thought-out reason. I’ve followed you since the Gadberry fiasco. You have a way of turning a story to gold. I wanna be gold, Darby. I want to shine.” He laughed. “That, and I kind of wanted to bang you.”
I shivered. “You’re already famous. What else do you want?!”
He sat down across from me and I was very aware of the gun pressing into my back. Tucked into my pants, I could grab it at any second and end everything. I needed to know why, though.
“Famous is easy these days. Everyone is famous. Instagram or Twitter. Whatever. I want to be bigger. Surviving an attack that kills you, Darby, that’ll be what makes me a household name. People will talk about the daring little writer who pushed Aaron Gadberry too far.”
“There’s no way you can get away with it. Ricky is already telling people it was you. No one is going to believe that Aaron over there killed anyone. Not only is he a coward, but you tortured him nearly to death.”
“He’s going over, too. The rocks below will explain everything. Jennifer will hang, you will bleed to death from the hundreds of stab wounds I plan on inflicting.”
“That’s it, huh? You’ve got it all figured out?”
“I do. I planned on killing you from the beginning. I needed you to die. At first, I thought I’d let Ricky do it and have Aaron take the fall still after faking an attack on myself. Then, you kept rejecting me. It started to get a little fucking personal, Darby!”
He was insane. I could see then that the creepy faces he made daily at me were the real Laster and the normal ones the mask.
“You don’t have to do this, Laster. You can just end it. Let everyone go and get the help you need.”
He laughed. “I’ve worked much too hard to just let it all slip away. You’re going to suffer, Darby. That’s just the way it has to be. I’m sorry, but you’re going to die.”
I pulled myself onto the couch and then rested my hand behind me so I could grab the gun. “I’m not.”
He shrugged. “Fine, I’ll kill Jennifer first.”
When he stood up to go to her, I pulled the gun and cocked it. The clicking sound was like a bomb going off, it was so loud. “Stop, Laster. I’ll shoot you and then everything you planned will be for nothing.”
He turned to face me and raised an eyebrow. “This little rabbit has claws, huh? No, that’s fine, really. I don’t mind that you’re trying to fuck up something I’ve been working on for months. Go ahead, do your thing.”
I held the gun steady, the way I’d learned during shooting practice with my brothers back in Kansas. “You can stop this all, Laster. It can end peacefully.”
He jabbed the knife in Aaron’s direction. “Does that look peaceful to you?!”
I winced as he screamed and he took the chance to run at me. I fired the gun and watched as a bullet lodged itself in his shoulder. It stopped him in his tracks and sent him spiraling.
“What the fuck, Darby?! Why did you shoot me? What’s wrong with you? I have a plan and it doesn’t involve being shot. Jeez! Are you trying to ruin everything?”
I shook as I watched him unravelling. Somehow the look in his eyes was even crazier than before. He swung the knife around as he talked and his voice had dropped to something whiney and pitiful.
“I can’t believe you, Darby! After all the effort I put into you! I was going to get you fame, too! You don’t want to be famous? You would just look me in the face and spit at the gift I’m trying to give to you?!”
When he ran at me again I shot him in the leg. I didn’t want to kill him. I would if I had to, but I didn’t want to have that on my conscience. “Stay back, Laster!”
He’d dropped to one knee and was glaring up at me through eyes that weren’t focusing on anything. “You stupid little bitch! You’re ruining everything!”
I circled him and put myself between him and Jennifer. “I’m getting really sick of being called that today.”
“That’s all you are. You’re nothing but a pathetic little bitch who happened to get lucky. What was I thinking. You don’t make gold. You make shit! Look at me! You’re ruining me. You’re going to ruin me, Darby! Don’t you care?!”
I edged backwards until I was halfway to Jennifer. “Jen, it’s going to be okay. Just hold on a little bit longer, okay?”