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“It was a performance, rather than a competition. We do them to stay fit and raise awareness. It’s good practice. But—that doesn’t matter. The point is, a month after that, in Amsterdam, my sweater was taken while I was performing. And then, the notes started.”
He was quiet, and she had to pause. Apart from the police, she’d barely spoken about this to another soul.
“They were creepy, right off the bat. Menacing. Someone was watching me. Taking photos of me.” She shivered and couldn’t stop. “For a few months, it stopped, then started up again, and it was almost everywhere I went. The photos became more brazen, the most recent ones were taken in my home.” She gnawed at her lip until it felt like she might draw blood. “I’ve started to feel as though I can’t escape.” She looked around wildly, eyes on the windows and walls. “Until I came here—the middle of nowhere; the edge of the earth. Surely here, I’m safe.”
“And then, last night, you thought he’d found you.”
She jerked her head in agreement. “I was so scared.”
“I’m sorry,” he frowned. “I had no idea you were here, or I wouldn’t have forced my in.”
The apology was the last thing she’d been expecting. “It’s fine,” she was surprised to hear herself say. “A mistake, obviously.”
He nodded slowly.
“But if you stay, you’re at risk. If this person finds me here, he’s going to find you too, and the truth is,” she sucked in a breath, forcing herself to confront the truth she’d been wanting to avoid. “I don’t know what he’s capable of.”
Leonidas stood, prowling towards the windows, his back moving as he stared out, the air crackling in his silence. “So you want me to go, and leave you to defend yourself?”
“I can handle it.”
“You and your trusty rolling pin?” The words were a joke, but his tone was scathing. He turned to face her slowly and the anger in his eyes made her tremble. “You’ve just said it yourself: you don’t know what he’s capable of. What if he comes with a gun? You’d be gone before you could so much as lift the rolling pin.”
“If he had a gun, he could have used it at any point.”
“Someone like this wants to scare you. They get off on the power. You are being hunted like an animal; that doesn’t mean he won’t move in for the kill when he’s ready.”
Her pulse was thready, her stomach in knots. “I know that.” A whisper. “But I can’t…I don’t know what else I can do.”
“You’ve told Benji about this?”
She shook her head. “Not really. There’s an ongoing police investigation.”
Leonidas swore under his breath. “Run by who?”
“You mean, the detective’s name?”
“I mean which jurisdiction has authority?”
“Oh. The Met.”
He nodded, as if assimilating that information.
“But I don’t want you to get caught up in all this.”
“You’d rather I leave you to fend for yourself if this bastard shows up?”
Her throat wouldn’t cooperate as she tried to swallow. “I don’t see whyyou’dstay to defend me.”
“Let’s just say I owe Benji,” he said darkly, after a pause. “If I can save your life, I’ll consider my debt to him repaid.”
“Must be some debt.”
His expression didn’t shift, nor did he make any attempt to answer.
“Also, I’m not really sure how my conscience would cope if you ended up dead.”
“I can absolve you of that concern right now—I’m not your responsibility.”
