Chapter 26
EvanAnn
Mia sits with us for lunch. When Cam finally joins us, he doesn’t have good news. The account is still active, and while he has someone trying to crack the login, there’s not much the company will do to take it down. Mia walks with me to senior acting.
“It’s not that bad, Evan.”
The page has pictures of me and the Devil’s trio. If it were just that, it would be easy to laugh off. But I read a few of the actual posts, and they were terrifying. The guys will keep me safe, but the things the poster said they wanted to do to me were graphic and violent.
A shiver creeps down my spine.
“You should tell your mom about it.” Mia walks into the classroom. “Someone’s been following you, even here at school.”
That’s the worst part. It’s not just outside pics. It’s pics in this school. Jackson couldn’t have gotten those pictures. Not on his own. Which means he either has someone here working with him, or it’s always been someone at my school. Suddenly my safe space isn’t safe at all.
When Mr. Watson walks into the room, he comes directly over to Mia and me.
“Hi, Mr. Watson.” Mia looks him up and down like he’s a snack she wants to gobble up.
“Mia,” he acknowledges, before turning to me. “EvanAnn, the faculty are aware of the page, and it’s been reported to the police since the majority of the pictures are on school property.”
“Thank you.” I’m trying not to let it get to me, but fuck. It’s like I’m already dealing with paparazzi, and this is just high school.
Mr. Watson rests his hand on my shoulder before moving to get ready for class.
“I hate to say it,” Mia says as we take our seats. “I know you think it’s Jackson, but could this be Chase? He’s been pretty fucking bitter since you dumped his ass.”
At that moment, Chase walks in with a shit-eating grin on his face. He clocks Mr. Watson before he opens his mouth though. His smug smile remains. He takes a chair next to Abby and leans in to talk to her.
Abby plays with a strand of her hair and smiles while they flirt.
“That’s so gross.” Mia makes a retching noise. She turns her back on them and focuses on me. “Seriously, though. He had to know he was losing you. Putting that shit online. Even the rose, he was there at practice. It could have been him.”
“He didn’t know about Jackson though.” No one knew about Jackson and the kiss. I kept it hidden away, trying to forget it ever happened. The first person I told was Damon.
“We should look back at the texts. Maybe they’re vague enough it’s possible you read into it what you wanted to believe.” Mia leans back in her chair. “Maybe you’ve been blaming the wrong guy all along.”
No, that’s not possible. It lines up with when Jackson found me. That obsessive look in his eyes at the game and scrimmage. Unless he was really obsessing about Mia now.
Could I have been wrong? I don’t pull out my phone.
All morning I was inundated with texts. Some from people who were concerned and others who wanted to gloat and say they knew I wasn’t as good as I pretended to be.
At the first threatening text, I turned my phone off.
I messaged the guys first so they wouldn’t panic when they saw my phone go offline.
Senior acting flies by in a haze. I do the exercises with Mia and then leave to go to my directing block. Keira catches up with me outside the black box theater.
“Hey, boss.” She knocks her shoulder against mine. “Shit day, right?”
I blow out a breath. “Not the best. Do you think Chase could be behind everything?”
A laugh bursts out of Keira until she looks at my face. “You’re serious?”
I shrug. “Maybe.”
“I mean, Chase is a good actor and decent looking, but he’s not working with a lot of brain power. Not that it takes much to stalk someone.” Keira bites her lip. “You know what? We’re good on Othello, so let’s murder board this.”
“Murder board?” I look at her like she’s lost a few screws.
“I’m serious. I do it for all my productions. It’s actually quite cathartic.” Keira opens the door to our classroom.
We find a table away from everyone else, which isn’t unusual.
When we pass Brandt, he leans in to say something to his assistant director. She giggles and glances at me before covering her mouth. My back straightens and I lift my chin. I’ll still be professional even if they aren’t.
“Okay.” Keira gets out some plain white paper we generally use for storyboarding and spreads it out on the table. She dumps a ton of different colored markers on it. Grabbing one, she makes a line across the top. “Timeline first. Starting with the most recent.”
I don’t have a better plan, so we begin with laying it out, starting with the social media attack and tracing it all the way back to when Chase noticed me in class. “We were acting partners.”
Keira sits back. “That can’t be a coincidence.”
“I think he picked me or we were the last two left or something.” I shrug. My brain already hurts. I just want to go home and snuggle with my guys and hide. But that’s not happening anytime soon. School, rehearsal, study, then snuggles.
“When were the showcase announcements for fall done in relation to the acting class?” Keira taps the marker on the page.
“Before Chase and I partnered together. At the end of the spring production.” I make a mark on the timeline as the first point, writing beneath it spring production: announcement of directors for fall.
“Right, so Chase sought you out once he knew you’d be directing.
Which maybe the intent was to show you how good he was at acting.
” Keira looks over the timeline. We put the guys on it too.
Damon’s accident in June. Olivia being the girl in the car.
“Let’s focus on this school year. You found a list of the colleges you applied for in his room? ”
“Yes, we never did figure out how he figured it out or why he had it.” I pause. “Wait, at Tom’s birthday party, there was faculty there from a few of the schools.”
“It would make sense.” Keira tapped her lip. “His dad wants you to stay with Chase, so he works to give you what you want. Make it seem like Chase is truly listening to you.
I shake my head, but it makes sense. “So what? Tom gets my list from the school and gives it to Chase to memorize for his part in winning me over?”
“It sounds diabolical, but yeah, I could see that happening.” Keira shakes her head. “What did the texts say exactly?”
I sigh and get out my phone. “I turned it off.”
“I would have too.” She nods and gives me a sad smile.
It loads and turns on after a minute. Notifications are off, so I don’t get a flood of them. But it’s still an overwhelming number of unread messages.
Keira holds out her hand. “Here. Let me. I’ll delete any that aren’t something we should report to the police or that you need.”
I give it to her, so done with this day already. She quickly goes through the most recent messages. She doesn’t open the ones from my guys, which I appreciate.
“I left the unknown ones that definitely weren’t from some asshat I know.” Keira hands me back my phone.
I go to the first unknown text. “I thought I lost you. After I replied, they said, I’m never losing you again, Evan.”
Keira adds the words below the timing of the first text. “So right after Chase left you in the woods and got taken into the police station. And after Jackson saw you at the football game.”
I nod. Now that I read them again, they’re very generic. “It could have just been coincidence with Jackson. There’s really nothing that ties him to it except the last hockey scrimmage when he showed up. He said he thought he lost me then.”
“Maybe. It’s pretty generic though.” Keira taps her lip.
“Honestly, I thought it was a cast member being dramatic.” Though not many people call me Evan.
She nods like that’s plausible. “And Chase texted you and didn’t get a reply to his number. But the person replied to your text with the never losing you again and your name because you insinuated they had a wrong number. Chase probably would have been cockier. Maybe. It depends on his motivation.”
I sigh. “Would I have even guessed it was Jackson if I hadn’t run into him at the football game?”
“That could have affected your perception.” She sighs and picks up a different color pen. “Okay, what did you receive next?”
“You can block my number, Evan, but I’ll always find you.
You’re mine. I know where you live. I watch you get in your car.
I can get to you. Don’t think I can’t. And next time I’ll finish what I started.
” I blow out a breath. “That was before Jackson showed up at the scrimmage and said things that sounded a lot like that text.”
“But it was the night after Chase found out you were living with Damon?” Keira points to the timeline.
“I mean, it’s a little odd with the blocking of the number.
But you did block the first number. It’s possible Chase sent it to scare you or so you would seek him out for protection.
You guys were broken up. He could have hoped it would help you get back together. ”
I shake my head. “Chase didn’t find out about the guys and me until later when Olivia told him at his party.”
“Or he already knew or worried about Damon having access to you.” Keira leans back in her chair.
“I mean, we know he can act, so it’s a possibility.
He has motive to want to keep you close.
Maybe he thought it would push you over the edge.
Maybe he didn’t think the guys would step up the way they did to protect you. ”
Fuck, this actually makes sense. “But Jackson—”
“Might have just really liked Mia and sucks at using his phone. Maybe he does like you, but doesn’t know how to start anything.
” Keira blows out a breath. “It could fit either of them or be neither of them. It’s possible it’s someone else who just wants to fuck with you or fuck with the guys.
” She glances at Brandt’s table. “Or wants to fuck with your play.”
“So we’ve gotten no closer to the truth than I was before?” I look over the timeline to see what I’m missing. There has to be something that makes one of these guys make sense.
“You have an awesome timeline, and we did prove it might be Chase.” Keira looks at everything. “He had the access to leave the rose. It’s possible he even let the air out of your tire on audition night, hoping you’d call him to save you. The pictures in the school. He knows your schedule.”
I hate to admit she’s right. Without all the information and just with circumstantial evidence, we don’t know who the stalker is, and the evidence can fit more than just Jackson.
Keira stares at the timeline. “If I had to say who was the stalker based on the information we have now, I’d say it’s Chase. But I also know he’s not that smart, so someone else might be steering the ship.”
“Yeah.” I rub my temples. “I wish we didn’t have rehearsal tonight.”
“At least the photos weren’t explicit. The writing is what’s scary.” Keira scrolls on her phone, and I see that the account is still active. “Could you imagine if they got a video of you?”
She shakes her head, but my breath catches. If someone knew I wasn’t in my bed, that means they might have access to the videos. Or they just guessed that Damon and I were hot and heavy.
I need to find out how secure Damon’s server really is. We need to make sure his setup hasn’t been sold to the highest bidder.