Page 7 of Ghost

TWENTY-FOUR HOURS EARLIER

“Frankie?”

“Casey? Is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me.” I swallowed hard, trying my best to push back my tears. “I’m in trouble.”

“What do you mean? Where are you?”

“I’m at a hotel in Franklin. I used the last of my cash to get us a room.” I knew I wasn’t making any sense. I was trying, but my head was all over the place. “He found me.”

“What? Nooo.”

“He was at the house when I got home from work.”

Even as I said the words, I couldn’t believe it.

I’d done everything to get away from him.

I’d moved. I’d gotten a new job. I’d even colored my hair.

It had been weeks since I’d last seen him, and I thought I’d finally done it.

I thought I’d finally gotten rid of him.

But I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Frankie sounded heartbroken as she said, “But you were so careful.”

“It doesn’t matter how careful I am. He’s a cop.” I could still feel the panic I felt when I saw his car pull up outside. My heartstarted pounding in my chest, and my hands started to shake. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think. It was like the walls were closing in on me, confining me, and I had no way out.

Because there was no way out.

He’d proven that over and over again.

I tried not to cry as I told her, “It’s his job to find people.”

“So, what happened?”

“He just showed up on my doorstep with that stupid smile on his face.” Frankie and I had become friends when I started working for her at the coffee shop. I’d worked there for almost two years, but sadly, I’d had to quit when I moved. She knew all about Dylan and what I’d been through with him, so I knew she would understand when I told her, “I told him to leave, but of course, he refused. He played it off like he’d done nothing wrong.”

“Are you serious? How can he play off stalking you, hurting you, and then, hunting you down and doing it all over again.”

“He couldn’t. He knew he’d gone off the rails, but he kept going on and on about how he’d changed and would never hurt me again.”

I knew it was all a lie. Dylan wasn’t just a man who put his hands on a woman and her kid. He was a psychopath. He decided that I was his one and only, and he refused to let me go. I would try to smooth things over and convince him that things would never work between us, but he thought he could force me into submission.

My throat tightened as I told her, “He realized I wasn’t falling for it, and he got mad and choked me, and things went downhill from there.”

“Oh, honey. I’m so sorry.”

“I don’t know what to do anymore.” I wiped the tears from my cheek as I told her, “I try to get away from him, but each time, he comes back and hurts me more than the last.”

She sounded horrified when she asked, “So, how bad was it this time?”

“It was the worst yet. He forced his way into the house and started wailing on me, and then, poor Toby came rushing in to help. He hurt him, too. This time he was on a tear like never before. The neighbor must’ve heard and pulled the fire alarm. He threatened me and took off.” I broke into tears as I mumbled, “Oh, Frankie… I—I don’t know what to do. I’ve tried everything, but he won’t leave us alone. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

"Enough is enough. We gotta do something.”

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