Page 113 of Creep

Or to send a message, telling me to come back to him?

I blinked when my vision got blurry from staring at the screen for too long. The damage seemed to have gotten worse. I wished Leo would just turn the screen off.

“Who has been stalking you?” Leo asked quietly.

I wondered if he could hear my heart thudding harshly in my chest from the panic rising inside me.

“I don’t… I don’t know.”

I didn’t tell Leo anything about Mael—not his name or what he looked like, not that I had seen him come in and out of the coffee shop, that I had invited him into my apartment… that I had been to his apartment.

Nothing for Leo to identify Mael.

I didn’t know why I was trying so hard to protect Mael, only that I was… even if I had run from him.

I didn’t want anything to happen to him, but this? Messing with Leo’s business.

“He’s good,” Leo said. “Fucking good. Can’t even get a good look at his face. Seems he knew where all the surveillance cameras were located right before he burned them to the ground.”

I closed my eyes and looked away.

Who the hell was Mael Beckett?

“Are you sure you don’t know who he is?” Leo asked, bringing my attention back to him. He looked like he had aged over the span of a few hours.

I shook my head. “I… I don’t know who he is.”

And wasn’t that the truth? The man I thought I knew was nothing more than a lie.

A beautiful lie that I had fallen for.

But I knew that wasn’t what Leo meant.

I just couldn’t bring myself to tell him Mael’s name.

Leo’s eyes narrowed at me. This was the first time I had ever seen his eyes turn cold. Panic squeezed at my insides.

He knew I was lying.

He nodded as if to himself. I didn’t know what that nod meant, but it was doing nothing to help with the panic.

“Why don’t you go to bed,” Leo said. “It’s late. I need to head back to the office, but I’ll be back tomorrow morning.”

I licked my suddenly parched lips, standing there frozen, and watched him for a beat before I nodded and turned, walking away.

I was currently hidden in one of Leo’s safe houses. The safe house was used for his clients, who needed protection for all sorts of reasons. Like those who needed protection in ways the law couldn’t help with, and sometimes it was Leo working with law enforcement to ensure the safety of his clients.

This meant Leo had many connections with police officers, lawyers, and judges.

Most of his clients were women.

Most of them were on the run from an abusive husband.

I frowned.

I hated to think of Mael like that, but was that what was happening right now?

My thoughts drifted to all the memories of us. If he were the abusive type, he hadn’t shown that side of himself to me. But I knew that didn’t say much. It wasn’t like we had known each other all that long, but there was a part of me that didn’t believe Mael could hurt me like that… right?

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