Page 57 of Breakaway
"Let's get the transport loaded," Reese whispers to me as my shadows scatter over her skin, checking for any injuries she might've sustained.
They make quick work of it, mumbling to one another that she's fine, that they kept her safe. I keep my thoughts about that to myself, though they can all hear them. They're just choosing to ignore my thoughts about how dramatic they're being.
"Come on," Reese says, patting my chest. "Let's help the others, and you can make sure I'm okay once we're back on your ship."
Who am I to deny such an easy request? Even my shadows stop their worrying, instead now focused on doing exactly what Reese wants so we can get her alone in our bedroom again.
"I went through everyone in that building's mind," Kolos says as he pulls off his headband just to shake out his curls and return it. "No one in the building had anything to do with what was done to your door. At least no one who was in the building while we were there. I'll head back down later in the night and go through everyone again."
"Marr got an image of who did it, and we're trying to get approval for a face identification." I wrap my arm around Reese and pull her closer to me. She's still in her pink outfit, but she did agree to let me drape a blanket around her since the ship is on the cooler side.
"He was familiar to you?" Isha asks, looking at each of us. "Did you show Reese?"
"Marr did before we left," Reese says. "He didn't look familiar to me, but then again, it's not like he really gave the camera a good look at him."
"Generic, pale human," Kolos says with a shrug. "There are millions of them. I doubt it was her actual stalker, either. If it's like how he dropped off the letter, he paid the man to write that on your door."
"You're probably right." Reese groans as she drops her head into her hands. I glare at Kolos for making her feel worse, but he just shrugs because it's not like he's going to sweeten his words and make the situation out like we have it all figured out.
"You don't ever have to go back," I say to Reese, hoping to reassure her. "In a few days, you won't even have to stay on this planet."
"I'd stay until he's dealt with," Isha interrupts. "What you don't want is someone with a lot of money chasing you down in space."
"Isha's right," Kolos adds.
They're just trying to be helpful, but what we don't need to do right now is worry Reese even more with talk about her stalker following us out into space.
"I know you don't want to hear it," Kolos glares at me with the same amount of irritation I'm giving him. "But she needs to know the facts of the situation."
"It's okay," Reese says to me, her voice soft and soothing as if I'm the one who needs to be coddled right now and not her. "I know, no matter what, you'll keep me safe. But Isha and Kolos have their thoughts about it, and I want to hear."
I press my lips more firmly together, but don't say anything else. It's true that I can keep Reese safe if her stalker ever gets close enough to make himself known. The more difficult part is that we don't know if or when he'll do that. Knowing he's on Earth, probably somewhere around where she lives, is at least a start in being proactive in dealing with him.
"Zill already knows what I think we should do," Kolos says, holding up his hands as soon as he says it, his shadows lying limp on the ground in a puddle like they're not even alive. He smirks, though. Of course, he's smirking.
"We're not doing it," I tell him, my voice low, dangerous.
"What does he want us to do?" Reese asks, looking between Kolos and me, seeing his amusement and the lack of my own. Realization hits her quickly, and it makes me want to fight with Kolos some more. "Would this plan involve me being bait?"
"Of course it does," Kolos says, his eyes brightening as his smile grows. "Look, there's one thing that man wants and it's you. Well, he probably wants Empress, but you get what I'm saying."
"Stupid plan," Isha says with a shake of her head.
"Thank you," I say.
Isha looks at me as if she didn't say it for my benefit and continues. "Your plan might've worked before Reese started flaunting her new boyfriend, but there's no way she's not in an irrational amount of danger now."
"What?" Kolos asks, his smile starting to slip. "You think it's going to be the whole if I can't have you, no one can type of situations?"
"Oh, well, I don't like that," Reese mutters just loud enough for me to hear.
"I think if he knows it's a trap, he'll look to take them both out," Isha says and then moves over to slide into the booth across from Reese and me. "Look, the guy is probably wealthy or using all of his funds to do this. Who knows how desperate and deluded he is? I wouldn't risk her safety like that, not when we don't know anything about whoever's stalking her."
"I wish I knew who it was," Reese says with a sigh. "It's so much creepier not knowing and thinking it could be anyone out there."
"We'll find him," I tell her, pressing my lips to the side of her head. "Like Kolos and Isha said, it's better for us to find him while he's still here on Earth. If he has any sort of wealth, he'll be able to follow us out into space. If he's infatuated enough, we don't know how long he'll hold out hope on a chance to get you alone."
"I wonder if Mauve still has all of my fan mail," Reese says more to herself than to anyone else, but it piques all of our interest. She seems almost startled when she looks up and we'reall staring at her, waiting for her to continue. "I get a lot of it, but she has people who filter through it. I get the nice letters and the homemade gifts. She does something with all the other stuff."
