Page 5 of Catching Flynn

“Anything weird?”

“Just... little things.” Flynn’s hands moved as he talked, gesturing toward…he wasn’t sure. “Like notes taped to my door.”

“Notes saying what?”

“Creepy stuff. ‘I’m watching you,’ that kind of thing.” Flynn’s laugh sounded deranged even to his own ears. “Found one taped to my apartment door last week. Cops took a report. Probably filed it under ‘Five Crayons Short of a Rainbow.’” Was that how the saying went?

Zack stepped closer. “That’s frightening.”

“I don’t know.” Flynn shrugged. “Who said you had to have every color?”

“I meant the stalker.” Zack frowned.

“It’s annoying, mostly.” Lie. It was downright terrifying, but he didn’t want to look like a complete wuss in front of his new brother. “I’m careful. Don’t go out alone after dark, check over my shoulder, all the cliché things scary movies teach you.”

“And the cops won’t believe you?”

He sounded just as shocked as Flynn had felt the first time the fuzz dismissed him.

“Would you?” Frustration crept into his voice. “I don’t have a shred of proof. For all they know, I’m just some lunatic missing his crayons.” Why was Flynn suddenly obsessed with crayons?

The muscles in Zack’s jaw flexed. “That’s bullshit.”

“Welcome to my life, where bullshit is the house special.” Flynn rubbed his palms against his jeans. “But hey, at least now you know your half-brother comes with free drama and—I’m gonna stop talking about crayons.”

“My boyfriend used to run a security firm.” Zack spoke quickly, like he’d been thinking about it the whole time Flynn was talking. “He’s good at this stuff. Protective services, surveillance, all of it. He could help.”

There was always a barrier. “I can’t afford—”

“Can I talk to him about this?” Zack was already pulling out his phone. “He heard when you said you had a stalker, but he’ll want details.”

Flynn felt like either vomiting or passing out. Both? Colton would question him. The notes, the constant prickling sensation between his shoulder blades, the ritual of testing his doorknob.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” he said, which was code for absolutely not but he didn’t want to seem rude. “That’s a lot to dump on someone you just met.”

Like you haven’t been dumping on Zack the moment you opened your mouth.

“He won’t mind.” Zack’s thumbs were already dancing across his phone screen. “Trust me. It’s his thing.”

Flynn almost laughed. He’d learned early that letting anyone past his walls was like handing them a loaded gun. Point it wherever you want.

And he had so many soft targets.

Chapter Two

Colton wasn’t in the bookstore when Flynn and Zack returned. He’d been sitting in his truck.

Now he was heading inside. Heavy boots on old floorboards, confident strides that said this man had never second-guessed himself in his entire life.

Flynn second-guessed himself all the time. Made life interesting when you never knew which choice you’d settle on. Most of the time he picked whipped cream over sprinkles, but his brain occasionally surprised him.

Colton rounded the corner, all shoulders and height, dark hair slightly mussed like he’d been running his hands through it. The guy gave the room a once-over before his eyes settled on Flynn, making him feel like he was being stared at by something way higher up the food chain than him.

It wasn’t exactly fear he felt. More like when you spotted the popular kid from high school at the grocery store and your first thought is, “Crap, where’s the nearest exit?”

“This is Flynn,” Zack said with a smile, like he was presenting a shiny toy he’d just found on some random playground. “My half-brother.”

Flynn felt like either vomiting or passing out. Both? Talk to Colton. About his stalker. About the notes and the feeling of eyes on him constantly and the way he’d started checking locks three times before bed like some kind of paranoid shut-in.