26. Sarah
‘Your mum is really interesting,’ Theo said as they drove away from Sarah’s parents’ place.
She scoffed. ‘That’s just a nice way of saying she’s weird.’
‘No. I really like her.’ He shot her a grin.
Sarah rolled her eyes. ‘My mum is… not great at picking up on social cues, so if she ever gets too… weird… just tell her to back off, okay? She won’t be offended.’
‘Okay, but just so you know, I didn’t find her weird. I mean it. She’s interesting. I feel like I could have a really long conversation with her and not be bored in the slightest.’
‘Oh, God, please do not get her talking. The woman won’t shut up.’
‘I’m keen to know more about the warrior thing… and the royalty?—’
Theo’s phone rang through the hands-free system, interrupting him.
‘It’s Dan.’
‘Take it,’ Sarah said.
‘Hi Dan. I’m in the car, and you’re on speaker phone.’
Sarah wondered whether Theo gave his manager a head’s up so he wouldn’t say anything to offend her. She got the feeling Dan the Man-ager didn’t like her. She smiled at her own little private joke. Dan the Man. Ha.
‘Theo, I need you to come into the office.’
‘What? Why?’
‘There’s a hiccup with your next shoot.’
‘O-kay,’ Theo replied slowly, glancing at Sarah. ‘I’m busy right now?—’
‘It’s urgent,’ Dan said, cutting him off. ‘I need you here like, ten minutes ago.’
Dan disconnected the call before Theo could say anything.
‘It’s fine,’ Sarah said, not bothered… okay, she was a little bit bothered. But she wasn’t upset at Theo. She’d been looking forward to spending the day with him. Now it looked like he’d be tied up with work. ‘Just drop me off at my apartment, and I’ll grab some stuff. I’ll meet you at home later.’
He smiled softly when she called his apartment home. It hadn’t felt strange for her to say it. In fact, it had kind of felt great.
‘I’m concerned about…’ He faded off. Neither of them wanted to mention the stalker thing. She could understand that.
‘Gabe will be home,’ Sarah said, trying to reassure him. ‘And I’m pretty sure Bodie’s at work.’
‘What about the other one?’
‘Casey? No idea. But he’s usually not there during the day.’
Theo was quiet for a bit. ‘I’ll make it as quick as I can,’ he eventually said, twisting his hands on the steering wheel. ‘And take a taxi or an Uber. Don’t catch the bus.’
‘Yes, sir,’ Sarah said, rolling her eyes.
She had a choice. She could make a big deal about Theo getting overprotective, or she could just accept it. If the situation was reversed, she would probably act the same way. He was doing it because he cared about her, not because he was a control-freak. If she was really honest with herself, she would have to admit it felt nice for him to care so much. If she was just going to her brother’s place—without the threat of a stalker—and he behaved like a jealous jerk, that would be different. But the situation was what it was. Her stalker was a threat. They didn’t know if he would ever become violent, but that didn’t matter. The stalking was enough of a psychological trauma to deal with, and Sarah was glad she had Theo to lean on.
She reached across the car and took one of his hands, threading her fingers through his.
‘Thanks,’ she said simply.
‘For what?’
‘For caring.’
He squeezed her hand, and she sighed. Being the eldest in a family that was sometimes a little kooky meant Sarah had grown up fast. She’d learned early that she had to control her life and her environment. The consequence of that was she rarely asked for help. It was just easier to deal with it on her own. But she was slowly learning that having other people to lean on wasn’t a sign of weakness. She was also learning that not everyone she depended on was as unreliable as her mother.
Sarah wavedTheo off and then dug around in her bag to grab her keys. She let herself into the lobby and then pressed the button for the elevator. While she waited, she scrolled on her phone. The post Theo had done about his haircut had gone bonkers. It felt like that happened months ago, but it wasn’t even two weeks. They were still getting notifications from Theo’s post because he’d tagged the salon in it. She’d need to get back into the shop to do some investigation to see if that kind of exposure had translated into clients or not.
The elevator dinged, and Sarah got on, pressing the button for her floor. She made notes on her phone about some possible marketing ideas and wondered—briefly—how much it would cost her to hire Theo for an official shoot. She laughed out loud. He would be way out of her price range, and there was no way she would ask him to do it for free.
The lift deposited her on her floor, and she walked down the hall to her door. She let herself in and toed off her shoes. It was something Theo did, and she’d unconsciously picked up on the habit of removing her shoes when she walked into a house.
‘Hi honey, I’m home,’ she called out as she walked into the living room.
Casey looked up from his phone at her, a guilty expression on his face.
Not who she was expecting to see, and by the way he tossed the phone away, not what he was expecting either.
‘Where’s Gabe?’
‘He’s in the shower,’ Casey replied and then grinned at her. ‘I meant to ask you the other day. It’s okay for me to crash here for a few nights, right?’
‘Why do you need to crash here?’ Sarah asked, noticing his open gym bag on the floor. Did that bag contain all his worldly possessions?
‘I’m between apartments.’
‘What does that mean?’
She felt bad for him, but she still wasn’t comfortable with him living in her apartment, even if she wasn’t going to be there for a while.
‘I mixed up the dates on my lease,’ he said, slapping himself on his forehead. ‘Like a moron. So it’ll be a couple of days before I can move into my new place. Gabe said it would be okay to stay here…’
Not the puppy-dog eyes. Jeez. How much of a sucker did he think she was?
‘I’ll need to talk to Gabe.’
The phone he’d tossed earlier rang, and Casey ignored it.
‘Someone’s calling you,’ she said.
He glanced at it and then looked away. ‘That’s Gabe’s phone.’
Casey walked past her to go into the kitchen, brushing her shoulder as he did. It felt… weird, but was that just because she had a boyfriend?
Gabe’s phone continued to ring before it went silent, the call going to messages. Sarah frowned. Wasn’t that the phone Casey had in his hand when she walked in?
Sarah crossed to the couch and picked up the phone. Gabe didn’t even have it locked. Anyone could access it.
She swiped across the screen and looked at the text messages. Had Gabe given someone her phone number? Or… had someone gotten it out of his phone without him knowing? Had Casey gotten her phone number from Gabe’s phone?
‘What are you doing with my phone?’
Gabe stood behind her in nothing but a towel wrapped low around his waist.
‘Put some clothes on,’ she snapped.
‘I was going to, but then I saw my sister snooping in my phone.’
She held it up to him. ‘Did you give my new phone number to anyone?’
‘Of course not. I’m not an idiot.’
‘Then how did—’ Sarah looked around. Casey was standing in the kitchen with his back to them, but she knew he could still hear them. She leaned closer to Gabe and hissed, ‘then how did the stalker get my new number?’
Gabe’s eyes widened. ‘What the fuck?’
Sarah made a shushing sound. ‘Why do you think we came home early?’ Her voice was a whisper.
Gabe’s jaw ticked. ‘I didn’t give your number to anyone. I even saved it under a different name in my contacts.’
‘You don’t even lock your phone,’ she accused. ‘Anyone could have seen the text I sent you with the new number.’
‘Your stalker is not one of my friends,’ he said, keeping his voice low, but still definitive.
‘Did you know Casey used to work at Salt Coffee?’
‘Yeah, why?’
‘Did you know it was my regular coffee shop… before?’
Gabe rolled his eyes. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. He’s not the one.’
Sarah wanted to believe him, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something weird about Casey. Yes, she could very well be projecting, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
‘I’m going to be staying with Theo for a while,’ she said, picking up her bag. ‘I’m just here to grab some clothes.’
She walked into her room, and Gabe followed her. ‘How do we know he isn’t the stalker?’
‘Who?’
‘Theo.’
‘Now who’s being ridiculous?’ Sarah shook her head.
‘Are you at least going to tell me where he lives? And if the stalker has your new number, I assume you are going to be changing it again, so I’m going to need that too.’
‘So you can leak it again? No way. If I need to talk to you, I’ll call Mum.’
‘Sarah.’
Sarah stopped her packing to turn and face her brother.
‘Gabe.’
‘How am I supposed to protect you if I don’t know where you are?’
‘You not knowing where I am is probably the best protection I could have.’
Gabe looked hurt at her words, but it was the truth. If Casey was the stalker, then Sarah didn’t want to give him any opportunity to get her new number and address.