Chapter Five
Is it stalking if I mean well? If I’m just keeping an eye on her so I know she’s safe?
Is it stalking if I follow her home, just to make sure she’s safe behind her locked door before I go home myself?
Is it stalking if I… I feel like if I have to keep asking myself, there’s a chance someone would say it actually is stalking, but that’s not how I see it.
I’m watching over her. Like a guardian angel.
Sure, I’d really like to strip her off and fuck her like a devil, but that doesn’t mean I’m not a good person too, does it?
A ton of shit’s been happening lately, what with Henley getting his ass kicked a while back, and us finally doing away with the Double Ds, something that should have happened long ago.
Me doing community service because that bitch got me arrested for stalking, and there was some fucking ‘initiative’ to discourage ‘anti-social behaviour’ that I’d been drafted into, that’s really pissing me off.
It’s not the lack of sleep, no. It’s the fact that it’s keeping me from watching over my girl.
She is mine, even if she doesn’t know it. She’s mine to protect and keep safe, and besides, her sister’s a fucking hypocrite, because it is stalking the way she does it.
I couldn’t watch over her at nights, and that was starting to freak me out.
What if she was attacked in her home or something?
How does a deaf woman know if a fucker breaks in?
I’d found her address by accident after I saw her out recently.
Her sister was living with her too, which was a small comfort, because that woman was fucking insane, but her sister was safe with her at least. I think.
After I finished my manual labour at the damn motorway, and got my hours signed off, it was natural for me to just swing by her place and check everything seemed fine.
She lived too near the high street and industrial centre for my liking.
Too much foot traffic, too many people just passing by her place.
It was like inviting opportunists. I parked up down the road and walked to her place, keeping my helmet in my hand ready to twat any bad guys lingering around her place.
It was almost completely silent, being nearly four in the morning, and her lights were all off, just like the other homes either side of hers.
It was so tempting to check the windows were all closed, and my fingers literally twitched as I took a step closer, but I knew there was a camera up by her front door, and I could see a security light above it.
I didn’t want to cause her any panic if I set off anything, so I watched for a few, maybe ten, minutes, and nodded to myself like it was a job well done.
I did my part as best I could. I checked the area, and I couldn’t do more than that unless I found a way to get closer. I could work on that. Maybe if I put up a camera of my own, I could watch over the place from the site too. Grease might know of ways to do that.
I sighed and headed back down the street to my ride, but movement caught my eye down by the high street, near one of the many closed stores, and curiosity had me following.
On the offchance there was crime going on right now so close to her address, I wanted to make sure it was coming nowhere near her.
A big guy slipped soundlessly down the alley, and something about that had me on edge. Was there something familiar about his build? Was I just imagining it?
I followed slowly, stopping at the end of the alley as I spotted another familiar fucker. Jesus. It was those fucking Bennett assholes, and they were overseeing some other poor bastard getting his lights put out.
“Fuck me. I’m not getting caught spying on those cunts,” I whispered to myself, just as something sharp pressed against the back of my neck, and I froze. A knife? Fuck!
“Interesting choice of words there, man. I thought you guys liked the bosses.” A knife was scary enough, but now I knew I’d just been caught watching those fuckers commit a crime. By one of their own.
He walked me out of the alley, with that blade at my throat, and a firm hand on my shoulder. I could have tried to fight him off, but I really wanted to keep all the blood in my veins, and I knew one wrong move could have me painting the old brick walls instead.
“Check it out, boss… a little friend stopped by to say hello.”
Those two bearded fuckers smirked when they recognised me, and that’s when I realised I could have slammed my fucking helmet into this bastard’s face and legged it. Probably still would have been cut, but I’d have survived.
“Bring him closer, bruv. He clearly wants to witness what we’re up to, innit.”
I shook my head as the guy walked me forward again, putting me way too close to the bloody mess on the ground, and the big fucker grinning at me.
Oh. The one who dates that scary blonde woman.
Scary hot, I mean, but yeah, it’s not her behind me, so where the fuck is she?
That thought was unnerving enough, without what I could actually see right now.
“Marco, let that prick take a breather while we speak to our new friend here.”
The guy with the knife nudged me and I cursed as the knife caught my skin.
“The fuck? You trying to give me a shave or something?”
Their chuckles really didn’t help the situation. I was in the shit here, and all I was doing was trying to keep my woman safe. I knew I might risk my safety for her, because I’d put myself in the way of bad guys, but not like this. Anything could happen to her while I was caught up with this crap.
“I was just out walking.”
One of the Bennetts made a show of checking a watch he wasn’t even wearing, that smirk never disappearing.
“At like four in the morning, bruv? Weird time to take a walk.”
“Yeah, I’m normally balls deep in Cass if I’m awake at this time, bruv.”
“Yeah, me too.”
The fuck? Did they have any boundaries at all? I shook my head again, which was risky with the knife there, but that wasn’t going away anytime soon.
“I just got off community service, alright? Doing the fucking night shift on the motorway. It’s shit.”
They exchanged smug grins and folded their arms, almost in sync, and it was then that I realised there were way too many fucking twins in my life right now.
“And you just happened to see us, bruv? I think someone’s got a crush.”
Jesus. “I have, okay, but not on you pricks. There’s… there’s a woman.”
“Ooooh someone losing his v-card at last?”
I tried to lunge at him, and the knife caught my skin again as they all laughed. Who the fuck did they think they were with this bullshit?!
“Alright, bruv. Give me one good reason why we don’t bleed you out right here, so you can’t snitch on us.”
I lifted my hands in front of me, but that was useless as far as attempts to ward off danger went, because the knife guy was behind me. Think of something fast!
“Jeez. You guys are edgy! I… uh… I was looking for uh… like, do you need more guys to do this shit?” I pointed at the bleeding guy, who’d moved to sit up, using his formerly white shirt to mop blood from his face.
“Ohhhh you think this is a job interview, bruv. You’re looking to be an enforcer, are you?”
They both eyed me now in a way that was just as much predator versus prey, but now they were sizing me up.
It wasn’t a bad idea, to be honest. My hours had been cut, and I could always use extra money, because I could buy that pretty lady some gifts and leave them outside her door.
Plus it’d be less boring than my day job.
I loved numbers, but I hated working for ‘the man’.
Still, would it be any better working for these men?
The guy behind me lowered the knife and stepped around me. It was that blonde blade-obsessed guy, so that made sense, but was I any safer with him in front of me with them?
“Dunno, boss. He’s a bit small.”
“Small? You’re one to talk, you lanky fucker!”
He laughed, waving the knife. “I got skills, little man. You got any skills?”
“Not bedroom ones, clearly, bruv.”
“What were you arrested for anyway, bruv? You’re doing community service, and that’s because you committed a crime like a bad boy. Well, and you were dumb enough to get caught. We kinda like our employees to avoid doing that.”
Jesus fuck. I wished I’d never followed that fucker down the alley, not for the first time since I did it. How would they take to this news anyway?
I cleared my throat, trying to smooth my hair back down after my helmet probably made it look like… well, their attempts at hairstyles.
“Look, it was a mistake, that’s all. Some cunt decided I was… and I wasn’t, anyway, I was just watching over her, keeping her safe, like, and they got the wrong end of the stick. I’m the victim here.”
They eyed each other, and why was everything they did so creepy?
“Stalking, huh… Useful skill, but we don’t take nicely to men doing that shit to women.”
“That’s how you met Cass though,” the blonde guy pointed out, and received glares from the Bennetts and the big guy, “What? You did.”
“You stalked people too? See? It’s so easy to accidentally do that shit. All I do is follow her around to make sure nobody hurts her, or touches her, or something. It’s all above board. I’m her protector.”
“That she doesn’t know about?” The big guy, the one they called Marco, not that it mattered, stepped forward, a bloody hand reaching for my throat.
Claudia
She was definitely following me around. I’d starting keeping a diary on my phone, times I’d seen her when I was out and about, and there was definitely a pattern.
A pattern of creepiness. What happened to my twin?
She used to be fun and we spent so much time laughing together, and now she was just intense and… this wasn’t normal behaviour at all.