Page 99 of Stalkers Anonymous

“You don’t know anything about my situation,” I say, keeping my voice low but letting the edge show. “You don’t know me, and you don’t know my life. You sure as hell don’t know why I do the things I do.”

“Then enlighten me.” Tyler doesn’t back down, doesn’t flinch at my tone. “Because from where I’m standing, you look like a guy who’s convinced himself he has good reasons for crossing lines.”

“Some lines need to be crossed.”

The blatant admission slips out before I can stop it, and Tyler’s expression shifts from anger to concern.

“Jesus Christ, Cole. What have you done?”

I want to walk away, to end this conversation before it goes any further. But something in Tyler’s voice makes me hesitate.

“He’s a real threat,” I say finally. “He’s been stalking Hailey. There’s no one else protecting her, so I am.”

“How?”

I could lie. Deflect. Or I could tell someone the truth for the first time in weeks.

But he might run straight to Tracey and tell her about how fucked up I am.

“I’ve been watching him. Tracking his movements. Last week, I caught him trying to break into her apartment through her bedroom window.”

Tyler’s eyes widen. “You caught him? Were you watching her apartment?”

“I was watching him. There’s a difference.”

“Is there?” Tyler runs a hand through his hair, looking suddenly older, like I’m stressing him out. “Cole, listen to me. Call the police. Give them the information you’ve gathered and let them handle it. You do not want to be involved like this.”

“With what evidence? Everything I know came from surveillance that wasn’t exactly legal.”

Tyler studies my face for a long moment. “How deep are you in this, Cole? Be honest.”

The question forces me to stop and look at what I’ve been doing. I know I’m in deep, but I’ve been avoiding thinking about it. The problem doesn’t exist if I don’t examine it too closely.

Right?

“Deep enough that there’s no going back,” I admit.

“There’s always a way back. But the longer you wait, the harder it gets.” Tyler glances around the nearly empty gym, then back to me. “Come to the meeting next week. Tell Tracey what’s happening. Let the group help you figure out how to handle this without destroying your relationship with Hailey.”

“What relationship? She’s already suspicious. Yesterday she ran away from me when we ran into each other at a coffee shop. With the way she took off, you’d think I was carrying the plague.”

“Because her intuition is telling her something’s off. People can sense when they’re being watched, even if they can’t articulate what they’re feeling.” Tyler’s voice carries a heavy kind of sadness, like he’s speaking from experience. “You can still fix this, but only if you stop now and come clean.”

The idea of confessing everything to Hailey, of watching the trust disappear from her eyes when she realizes how thoroughly I’ve violated her privacy, makes me feel physically sick.

“I can’t lose her, Tyler.”

“Then stop doing things that will make her run away from you.”

My phone buzzes with an alert. I glance at the screen, and my stomach drops.

Shitbag Lars is on the move. His current location? Three blocks from Hailey’s apartment.

“I have to go,” I say, already grabbing my gym bag.

“Cole, wait—”

“I can’t. He’s near her building again.”