Page 41 of Spiral
I nodded.
His frown didn’t lift my spirits.
“Okay, well, that’s something to battle out with lawyers, sadly, but if we can gather enough evidence of cyberstalking, we could possibly hold that over his head if he does want to take things that far. I have some buddies in the cybercrimes department. If you want to talk with them to see if the texts can be used to possibly build a case against Leon then I’d be happy to sit in with you on your meeting. Also, if you can list the gifts with approximate dates and what they meant to you, that would help.”
“Okay.” I sounded so unsure.
“It’s totally up to you. Your call. I’m not going to push you to do anything. But remember that most stalkers don’t relent until law enforcement is involved. And even then, many are so obsessed they still can’t stop. This man seems to be quite smart. Perhaps a long talk with the cops or the Feds, who take any cybercrime quite seriously, will get him to back off. Whatever you decide, you can come to me anytime to discuss this situation. I’m always happy to pay a visit to a bully. People respond well to my little chats with them. It’s my stunning personality.”
Jamie snorted.
I had to smile.
“Thanks, I… I don’t know what to do. Claudia recorded Leon’s threat. Maybe I should call Leon and tell him not to speak to my sister ever again?” Jamie threaded his fingers into my hair, a soft touch that worked wonders. “Would that help?”
Jackson shook his head. “I’d advise not to reply to him in any form.” He pushed up from the slide onto his bare feet. “If he knows that he’s rattled you, then he’ll just do it again. Did your sister tell him never to contact her again?”
“She said she told him to take a long walk off a very short fucking pier,” I replied. Both men chuckled. A smile pulled at the corner of my mouth. “Claudia is tiny but mighty. Kind of likeBruno. Do you think he can take my dog back?” Neither of them said anything, meaning they secretly felt I didn’t have a leg to stand on. “Shit, shit, shit.”
“Let’s not panic,” Jamie said, and Jackson gave me a meager smile before heading back inside. The screen door closed softly, and a moth battered itself against the muted yellow light on the back porch.
“I’m trying not to.”
“I’m sure this will all be sorted one step at a time. I think you need to decide if you’re willing to take this to the police or not.”
“If I don’t do something, it’s just going to keep happening, or he will move on his threat to take me to court over Bruno, which will also bring our personal lives into the public light. What if all of this is public and it hits social media and my career… what if…”
“Don’t dwell on the what-ifs.”
“Ugh, I wish he would just leave me the hell alone!”
“He will. We’ll end this one way or another. Just know that if you do have to go public, I will be right at your side. Fuck Leon and his manipulations. What a massive wanker. What kind of bellend threatens to take a dog away from its happy home?”
“I love it when you get all riled up and your Brit flows free.”
“Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves,” Jamie sang with a mock flag wave. I snuggled into his side, my swing seat digging painfully into my hockey player’s ass. Even with my ass being pinched by hard wood, there was nowhere else I would rather be than in this backyard with the warm California winds moving over us, my head on my lover’s shoulder.
Seemed I had some major decisions to make before the morning light hit the Pacific Ocean.
I spentthat night with Jamie in his bed, wrapped around him, wide awake as he slept. The house was quiet, the Santa Ana winds blowing the sheers on the open window. The sound of the man I loved sleeping soundly helped me focus. Hours passed, me in the dark, Jamie out like a light, as I went over every small detail of my relationship with Leon Schmied. I watched the sunrise on Jamie’s bare back, the pinks of another glorious day in paradise tinting his ivory skin the color of a peony. Pressing a kiss to his shoulder, I eased out of bed, pulled on the same clothes I’d worn last night, and made my way into the kitchen.
Jackson was sitting at the counter, hair mussed, dressed in a wrinkled blue shirt, dark blue slacks, and a tie with tiny pink dots on it. He cradled a cup of coffee as the pot dripped steadily into a Minnie Mouse thermos.
“You look like shit,” he said casually, between slurps of dark roast.
“Right back at you,” I tossed out, then leaned against the fridge. “Would you be free today to talk to your friends in the cybercrimes department?”
He stared at me for a long minute over his cup of coffee. “I have court this morning, but maybe after lunch?” I nodded. “I’ll give Joanne and Mike a call. They’re good people. Joanne is a wild child, you’ll like her. She has little dogs, too. Carries them to parties in a purse. I asked her once if she was substituting dogs for dicks. She laughed so hard she peed herself but did, in fact, substantiate that she would much rather spend time with a poodle than ninety percent of the men she’d ever met.”
“Guess we’re the lucky ones. We’ve found some great guys.”
“Yeah, we did, but we had to kiss a shit ton of frogs first, eh?”
Boy, that was the most truthful statement I had ever heard. I still had warts on my soul from kissing Leon…
Chapter Seventeen
Jamie
