Page 73 of The Rebel Billionaire

"Harrumph." That statement didn't deserve a trueresponse.

Since the subject was closed, I went back to something he'd said that bothered me. "You think Hayward isstalkingme?"

"What would you call it?" Lucasasked.

"I don't know. But my cousin Annalise had a stalker and it wasn't anythinglikethis."

"You okay with pizza for dinner?" Lucas asked out of nowhere. I checked the dashboard clock and realized it was almostdinnertime.

"Sure." Was I ever not okay with pizza? No, I could eat pizzaeveryday.

Lucas turned into the parking lot of a pizza place not far from our street andparked.

"Let's talk about this in the car, where no one can overhear," he said. "Tell me about your cousin'sstalker."

"It started when we were in high school," I said, thinking back. None of us liked to dwell on the stalker episode, Annalise least of all. "It was so subtle at first that we all thought she just had a secret admirer. She's seven years older than me, so I missed a lot of the details. But it was mostly sweet notes left where she would find them, then little presents, then longer notes that started to get creepy. They stopped for a few years after myparentsdied."

"How old was she when yourparentsdied?"

"Eighteen. She'd just started her freshman year in college, and she moved back home for the rest of the year. She was atEmory—"

"Did all of you go to Emory?" Lucasasked.

"Aiden was at Harvard," I offered. "Then when our parents died, he came home and finished school at Emory. It's an excellent school and it's a familytradition."

"Did they mind that Aiden wanted to go toHarvard?"

"No." I shook my head remembering the party they'd thrown when his acceptance letter had come in. "No. They never pushed us like that. They were so proud of him. We actually all thought that Annalise would go to RISD or another art school like Vance did. But she was close to my parents and she didn't really like being away from home. Ironic, since she hasn't been homeinages."

"So what happened?" Lucas rubbed his thumb along mine, the touch of his skincomforting.

"Like I said, the notes and presents stopped after my parents died. But only for a year. Annalise moved back into the dorm and it started again. But this time, she felt like someone was following her. I don't know exactly what happened to scare her so badly. Things were confused back then. There was a lot going on, and if you think Aiden is protective now, you should have seen him those first years after Mom and Dad were gone. No one would tell meanything."

"But somethinghappened."

"All I know is that not long after she graduated, Annalise came home one night terrified. She wouldn't leave the house for days, and then she left and she didn't come back. Now, she travels all the time. She's never home. She takes the most beautiful photographs and makes a good living selling them, but she’d do better if she had a show or got hooked up with a gallery. I think she's afraid to stay in one placethatlong."

"And they never caught the guy?" Lucasasked.

"Never came close. He was very, very smart. We knew it had to be someone local, and that seems to have held up because it stopped after she left Atlanta. That's why my thing didn't seem like stalking. What happened to Annalise was gradual. It grew so slowly, I don't think any of them realized how bad it was until it wastoolate."

"It does sound like a textbook case," Lucas agreed. "Your cousin's situation is the most common variety, but not the only one. And before we go in and get apizza—"

"And garlic knots," Iinterrupted.

"And garlic knots," Lucas agreed, squeezing my fingers, "I want a quick rundown of what happened with Bruce Hayward. Did you have any indication he might have an interest in you before the FBI wentafterhim?"

"I don't think he has an interest in me. At least not the way you mean. I was working with him on a project. He was providing materials and some staff for a joint development. As things moved forward, I became aware that he was violating the law in a number ofdifferentways."

"What ways?Specifically."

"Counterfeit materials, illegal workers . . . it was a long list. I talked to Aiden about it and we agreed that we needed to contact the FBI. We knew it wouldn't be a popular decision and might be bad for the company, but we weren't going to sit there and condone his behavior by not doinganything."

"So why is this focused on you and notAiden?"

"Because I'm the one who worked with the FBI. Aiden and I decided together, but I had the evidence, and I was in the best position togathermore."

"They fucking sent you in undercover?" Lucas demanded, his fingers closing over mine tight enough to hurt. I rubbed my thumb across his, soothing hisanger.