Chapter Twenty
Gia
I hate secrets. They never help anyone, least of all the person holding something inside. It wasn’t just the big stuff—like how Connor kept his contract with Sophia secret from Cassie. Or the medium stuff—like Cassie’s stalker secret which was about to get exposed. But even Secret Santa shit and surprise birthday parties irritated me. If you wanted to exchange gifts, then you should just do it. Same with a birthday party. Don’t force people to keep secrets for you.
But I also respected that some things had to be dealt with without other people’s interference. And so, out of respect for Cassie’s secret, I tried to get Connor to stay home and let me deal with things.
“If she wanted you there, she would have called you directly,” I argued.
He’d already grabbed his jacket and was standing at the door. “Are you driving or am I?”
Like I needed him torqueing his bad knee driving at insane speeds. “I am,” I answered, surrendering to the inevitable. “And you will follow my lead. This is a delicate situation.”
“Just tell me what’s going on.” He was walking faster than I was and I had to jog to keep up. It wasn’t easy in my heels, but then again, I was as anxious as he was to get to Cassie. We made it to my car in record time.
I still tried to keep Cassie’s secret. “If she’d wanted you to know—”
“How long has this been going on?”
I winced. His jaw was clenched, his hands were fists, and he was barking questions at me like a drill sergeant.
“Just short of a couple months.”
“Months!”
I rolled my eyes. “You don’t even know what this is. It could be nothing.”
“My sister has been calling you for…” Understanding dawned in his eyes. “Girl stuff. This is what she called girl stuff.”
Well, I’d never said he was stupid. “Is that what she told you?”
“So what is it?”
I slowed down for a stop light, cursing the delay. But in the pause, I was able to spill it all.
“She had a stalker, and she thinks he’s back.”
“A what!”
I winced at the explosion of sound. “We’ve done all the right things. Campus Security knows all about it, as does her coach. She’s in a public place—”
“We’re going to her volleyball game?”
“Yeah. She finally managed to get a decent picture of him. Up until now, he’s made himself scarce. But he’s left messages taped to her dorm room door and dropped Bobcat paraphernalia off for her as gifts.”
“Who is it? Did she send you the picture?”
“Yes.” I pulled out my phone and flipped to the image. I was working to keep Connor calm. God knew he was hyperprotective of Cassie. But honestly, I was thrilled to possibly see an end to this little drama.
“Tell me everything,” Connor said, his voice grim as he pulled out his own phone.
“Don’t bother calling her. She’s in the middle of a game.”
“I’m not.” He didn’t elaborate on what he was doing, except that I heard him texting someone. Then before I could force him to explain, he set his phone in his lap and turned to me. “Is there anything else?”
I shook my head. It had been excruciatingly hard keeping this secret from him, but Cassie had been adamant. She was as protective of Connor as he was of her.
“It started at the beginning of her season, about once a week. His notes were creepy, saying how family is the most important thing in the world. How she should make sure she talks to those who love her.”
“Family? Not about how he…wants her or something?”
“There’s a little of that, too. About how beautiful she is. How good she is at volleyball. How she looks just like her sister.”
I felt him tense at that. The cops had, too.
“We think he’s stalking Sophia, too, because he’s said some detailed stuff about her. Only generic things about you, though.”
“And you told Sophia?”
“The cops did.”
“What did she say?”
“Nothing as far as I’m aware. She laughed it off as silly.”
Conner growled low in his throat. “Of course, she did.”
I glanced at him. He was furious. I could see that clearly, but I couldn’t tell if he was also worried for Sophia. I knew he was pissed that we’d kept this from him. I would be, too.
“Cassie made me swear over and over that I wouldn’t tell you. She said she would. But then everything—the notes, the presents—stopped.”
“Until when?”
“Just a few weeks ago. Right after the win over the Rangers.”
“Yeah, that tracks.”
I jerked my gaze to his. There was a clarity in his voice that told me he was way more on top of things than I was. “What do you know?”
His expression was grim as he tilted my phone toward me. It still showed the grainy picture of Cassie’s stalker.
“That’s Sophia’s old assistant. He went MIA just before the All-Star Game, probably right after the cops told her that he was stalking Cassie.”
I frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would Sophia’s assistant be stalking Cassie?”
“To get dirt on her, to keep Cassie fragile.” He gripped his phone hard enough his knuckles went white. “I told you Sophia likes to keep track of me, how I knew she bribed a janitor at the ballpark.”
“Yeah, I thought that was crazy.”
“It is crazy.” He glared at the image on my phone. “And crazy attracts crazier. She probably ordered him to keep tabs on Cassie, and this was his creepy way of doing it.”
I pulled into the parking lot. “But why would he start up again now? Why did he come back? What does he have to gain?”
“Sophia’s attention? Cassie’s? I don’t know, but I sure as hell intend to find out.”
I pulled the car into the nearest parking spot. It wasn’t that close to the front door, but it was the best I could do. Connor was out before I could stop the car, and I was behind him a second later, running to keep up.
“We need to tell the cops.”
He didn’t even slow down. “I already have. I texted the information to Campus Security.”
So that was who he texted. Connor had probably put their number in his contacts list the day Cassie had been accepted at Butler.
“And I told them they should arrest Sophia, too, since she’s the one ultimately responsible.”
Holy shit.
He glanced at his watch. “She should be here in about ten minutes.” He shot me a look. “I texted her, too.”