CHAPTER THIRTY
Daisy
I watched him disappear around the corner, and I was relieved to be left alone with my thoughts. I didn’t have to fix a smile on my face and pretend everything was okay. Because what the hell?
How could Jack spring something like that on me in front of a huge crowd of people? How could he make his new character, the one I’d suggested, look like my exact replica and not expect me to be… a little disturbed by it?
Shouldn’t he have asked me first?
Because my first thought when I saw images of myself decked out as a CaveSphere warrior? I wondered if Jack was my stalker.
It was the first time it had occurred to me, so I immediately felt disloyal and tried to push the thoughts aside.
But then when I’d talked to Nia and Jelly they’d been afraid of the exact same thing.
Especially when I confessed he hadn’t even warned me that he’d used my likeness for his new character.
Now I couldn’t get the idea out of my mind.
It made too much sense. I bit my lip as I thought about him approaching Nico Salazar and telling him the only way he’d join the gentleman’s club was if he got private time with me.
Originally, I’d been flattered. But that was kind of creepy when I thought about it.
What if it had been him leaving me notes? It seemed impossible that someone as gorgeous and successful as Jack Lancaster would be a stalker, but what if he was? I’d worked at Dinardo’s Deli for years now. He could’ve seen me and become fixated.
The tomato soup incident could have just kicked everything into high gear.
I looked around his house, noticing how new and unlived in it looked.
I frowned. How long had he even had this house?
I walked around the room and down an adjoining hall.
There were no pictures on the walls in the hallway.
I peeked in the door of what looked to be a bedroom. It was empty. No furniture at all.
That was… strange. I spun around, hurrying to the next door and peeking in. Same. It was smaller, as if it could be a study or something. But it was also empty.
Looking in two more rooms produced the same result.
It was as if he’d just moved in and hadn’t had time to furnish the house. But that day back in August when he’d dropped me at Cinnamon House, he’d said he lived here. Had he been lying? Did he run out and buy a house in this neighborhood after he told me that?
I chuckled a little to myself. That was too ridiculous to even consider. I was probably just tired and way overthinking this. Still, I was suspicious.
I stepped back into the hall and poked around a bit, looking for evidence. I was hoping not to find any. There was no way someone like Jack Lancaster, if he was a stalker, would have noticed me out of all the women he could have stalked.
Except he had. And then he’d arranged the auction and contract to suit him, to make sure he would win, and he’d ignored Carmen’s instructions to give me alone time. He’d done whatever he’d wanted to do.
My heart was beating faster. I was being silly. I was more than halfway in love with Jack. I’d fallen hard for him. He couldn’t be my stalker. He would never do anything to scare me or hurt me. I knew that deep in my bones.
Yet I couldn’t stop myself from going into one more room when I noticed a slightly open door and a glow coming from within.
It was clear there was something in there.
It wasn’t empty like the rest, I thought, as I looked over my shoulder guiltily.
It felt wrong spying on him. But… I just couldn’t help myself.
I pushed the door open. The glow seemed to come from an LED keyboard that was lit up in a soothing blue color. It was part of a set-up that looked to be a home office for his game designs. At first, I saw little beyond the huge computer desk with several monitors on it. Typical Jack, I smiled.
But as I started to turn back around and leave, I saw a large blue folder with the Salazar Real Estate logo on it. It was pushed to one side of the desk. Curious, I walked over and flipped it open.
And sucked in a breath.
It was the deed to Jack’s house. And I almost wished I hadn’t looked at it. Because now I knew the date he’d purchased the home in which I was currently standing.
It was a couple of weeks after he’d driven me home and told me he lived in the neighborhood. Jack had lied. I covered my hand with my mouth. Why would he lie about something like that? I thought about him ‘running into me’ while jogging. Had that been an accident? Or something else entirely.
And suddenly it was all too much for me. The club, the auction, the house, the jogging, the CaveSphere character made to look just like me—it was all adding up to seem pretty damning.
Oh my God. I had to get out of here. I carefully put the folder back where it had been and turned to leave the room. I accidentally nudged the desk, and the bank of sleeping monitors flared to life.
There was so much light it temporarily blinded me. Slowly, my eyes got used to it, and I stared at the images before me on the screens. It appeared to be a complex security system. Jack was keeping his eye on something, but it didn’t appear to be anything in or around this house.
And then I recognized things on the screen.
“Oh, no.”
I stepped back in horror as I realized what I was looking at. The monitors showed my condo. Jack must have set up cameras inside and around the outside of my condo. He’d been watching me.
I felt sick.
And then I saw something that made me feel worse.
One of the screens was paused on an image of me.
I stepped closer, looking for a mouse to press play.
And wished I hadn’t. It was a video. The video played, cycling through screen shots of me.
Hundreds, maybe thousands of them. I hovered the mouse over the pause button to see how long the video was.
It was over an hour long. He’d taken images of me he’d gotten from the security cameras and compiled them to make a video of me.
My mouth dropped open. I noticed some of the images in the video were exact copies of the animated mock-ups Jack had done of Flora, the new CaveSphere character.
The way he’d made her look so much like me was less complex than I’d imagined.
He just took still frames and moving images of me that he already had and adjusted them to make them work for the game.
I had my answer.
I knew who my stalker was now. I backed slowly away from the bank of monitors, still watching the video.
I heard a sound from upstairs, and gasped. I couldn’t let him see what I’d found. I turned and hurried from the room, doing my best to hold back tears.
I crept towards the front door slowly. I didn’t want to make a sound to let him know where I was in the house.
I winced as I touched the door handle and turned it, opening the heavy door.
I breathed a sigh of relief. No alarm sounded, and I hurried out into the night.
I lifted the heavy skirt of my dress and kicked off my heels so I could run.
I looked around, getting my bearings. I thought I knew within reason where I was.
I didn’t think I was all that far from Cinnamon House.
I ran to the end of his driveway and stood there for a second. I wasn’t quite sure whether to turn right or left, but I was almost positive Cinnamon House was only a street or two over from where I stood. I would go there and call Carmen. She’d know what to do.
I couldn’t call the cops. Jack was friends with the sheriff and the mayor. I didn’t think they’d listen to me instead of him.
But I knew Carmen would.
I hesitated one more second, unsure of which way to go.
And that was one second too long.
“Daisy?” I heard him calling my name from inside the house. “Where are you?”
I bit back a scream, turned, and ran as fast as I could down the street. I just had to get as far away as I could and hide. Then I could find Cinnamon House once I thought he’d passed me by.
I ran, gasping for breath from fear. How could I have been so dumb?
So many things that had seemed innocuous suddenly felt like glaring red flags.
How possessive he was, how he didn’t think rules applied to him, why he didn’t have relationships, and the list went on. Tears were running down my face now.
I’d trusted the wrong person. I’d loved the wrong person.
And I had to get away from him now. I could hear him calling my name behind me in the distance, and I picked up the pace.
I ignored the feel of the rough concrete sidewalk on my feet.
It was better than the cobblestoned street.
The stones were smoother but uneven. It would be too easy to trip over one in my haste to get away.
I didn’t want to be one of those victims from horror movies who fell down every few feet and ended up getting caught by the killer.
The sound of a car behind me and the flash of headlights had me throwing myself behind the nearest hedge, not caring that the branches bit into my face and scratched my legs and arms.
“Daisy? Is that you? What the hell are you doing out here?”
I practically stopped breathing. I knew that voice. And it wasn’t Jack’s.
“Ivan?” I whispered, sticking my head out from behind the hedge. A Dinardo’s Deli catering van was stopped in front of me. I stepped out from my hiding spot.
Ivan was staring at me from the van. “Are you okay?”
I shook my head. “N… no,” I managed to gasp out.
“Daisy!” Jack’s voice came from somewhere behind me. He sounded panicked.
I sucked in a breath and ran over to the van. “Let me in, Ivan. Please.”
“Yeah, yeah, of course.” He clicked a button and the van door slid open. I practically launched myself inside.
I looked behind me and saw a male form running down the street after us. “Drive!” I shouted. Jack was still far enough away that I wasn’t sure he’d seen me, but he’d catch up quickly. He was running fast.
Ivan took off so fast at my screamed command that I fell out of my seat and landed hard on the floor of the van.
“Shit! Sorry, Daze.”
“No problem,” I lurched back up and into my seat, strapping my seatbelt across me. “God, I’m so glad you happened to be driving by right then.”
“Why? What the hell is going on?”
I looked up and met Ivan’s warm brown eyes in the rearview mirror.
He looked so concerned, and I had to fight the tears back all over again.
Why is it when someone shows sympathy when you’re feeling raw and vulnerable, you’re more likely to cry?
“I think Jack’s a stalker,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. It was hard to admit it out loud.
“Seriously?” he snorted. “No way. That guy’s been on the cover of magazines and crap like that.
” He shook his head. “I can’t believe he’s a stalker.
” Then he frowned. “Well, he is weird, though. That whole order thing where he has to have the same thing every day.” He shrugged. “Hell, maybe he is a stalker.”
I looked out the window. “I’m afraid so.” I watched as we pulled out of Estates at South and headed towards downtown. “Where are you going? Back to the deli?”
“Nah. I’ll get the van back there tomorrow. I’ve got to drop this check by the bank, and then I’m headed home. Where do you want me to take you?”
I thought about it, unsure. I couldn’t go back to the condo. Jack had it under surveillance, and he’d expect me to go there. I could ask him to leave me at Sugar. But he didn’t know I worked for the Salazars. I didn’t want to have to answer a whole bunch of questions.
Ivan had just left Estates at South, and I didn’t really want to ask him to go back and leave me at Cinnamon House. I didn’t even know who would be home tonight. Everyone was probably at work. I shuddered. Jack would know to look for me there, too.
Where could I go? I ran through all my options and finally settled on Nia’s house. “Can you take me to Nia’s?”
“Sure. Do you know her address?”
I gave it to him.
“Hey are you thirsty?” He held up a water bottle, and I nodded.
“Gosh, yes. I’ve had nothing but champagne to drink over the past few hours.” He handed it back to me while keeping his eyes on the road. I took it gratefully. “Oh, you opened it for me. Thanks, Ivan. You’re so thoughtful.”
I glanced up. He was staring intently at me in the rearview mirror. “Can’t have you thirsty now, can we?”
I smiled, drank deeply from the bottle, and leaned back in the seat, worn out. It had been a long day and an incredibly bizarre night. I closed my eyes for a second, secure in the knowledge that I was safe with a friend.