Page 73 of ILY
Leaf makes a choking noise and stares at me with wide eyes. ‘You two know each other?’
My shoulders sag, and I nod. ‘There might be more that you don’t know.’
Leaf stares at me hard, then replies, ‘Start talking. Now.’
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
LEAF
‘What’s going on?’Denver asks, looking between me and Thorne.
Clearly, the presence of an FBI agent in the restaurant isn’t alarming to him, which tells me that either he knows about what’s going on with me and Michael or Thorne lied to me again about why he’s in town.
Thorne takes a deep breath, but before he can lift his hands, I wave at Denver to get his attention. ‘How do you two know each other?’ Denver, at the very least, will tell me the truth.
Denver glanced at Thorne, then shrugs. ‘I had a stalker a couple years ago.’
My eyes go wide, unsure I understand. There isn’t an exact sign for this, so he signs something more likechase, though his lip movements tell me otherwise.
I fingerspell for clarity. ‘Stalker?’
Denver nods and looks a little distressed. I hate doing this to him now, especially after whatever the fuck just happened with his date, but it feels like a hurricane just erupted in my head.
Thorne lifts his hands. ‘I was called in. It was a few years ago, right after I found out I had Ménière’s. It initially started with cyberstalking, and then the person started sending him photosshowing they were in town. It ended up getting threatening, and the police couldn’t manage it, so the FBI stepped in.’
Well. Holy fuck. I’m still technically new in town, so that was before my time, but I had no idea this was happening to my friend. Denver never gave off the impression that he was fending off some internet psychopath.
‘Did he go to jail?’ I ask.
Denver hunches his shoulders. ‘No.’
I sigh and turn an accusing gaze to Thorne. ‘Well, why not?’
Denver shoots him a look as if to say he’s welcome to explain.
Thorne cracks his knuckles. ‘Fuck, can you interpret? I’m no good at this.’
Denver eyes Thorne. ‘You haven’t been practicing?’
‘Not as much as I should, and I don’t know all the legal jargon.’ Even this is not signed as well as it should be.
Denver nods and peers over at me. Well, fuck, here I am on a date and interpreting. Thorne had better make it up to me.
‘Fine, go on. Talk, and I’ll interpret.’
Thorne looks mostly sorry but opens his mouth and begins to explain. “The sheriff’s office didn’t consider him a threat, so we struggled to get the phone company to comply with a records request.”
Denver looks freshly pissed. ‘The number he was using was from an app that generates…’ His brow furrows in confusion as he searches for the right terms.
“It’s like an online burner phone,” Thorne clarifies. “It’s not like the movies, so it takes a while to trace an IP to find out where all the numbers are coming from. By the time we got the warrant, the texts and photos had stopped.”
“So you didn’t find him?” I ask aloud and in sign.
Denver shakes his head. ‘They found him, but they wouldn’t arrest him for stalking. The DA said they weren’t sure we’d beable to prove it in court, so they brought him up on harassment charges.’
‘How’d he get your number?’ I can’t help but ask.
Denver’s ears turn pink. ‘He was at one of my shows. He was charming. I liked him.’
