But… Tatum Rivers wasn’t just some girl.
I blew out a breath as I banished those thoughts. It was never going to come to that anyway. She hated us both with enough ferocity to eclipse the idea of something more with her. In fact, I felt like we were all just treading water here. It was our senior year and the country was in lockdown. We might have been able to keep her while we were here, but then what?
When the world went back to normal, it would become impossible to watch her at all times. To make sure she didn’t run. And she would run. She’d run hard and fast and far. So this time we had with her now was precious.
“I might get this one framed,” Kyan mused, trying to bait Monroe again.
“I think it rather spoils the art to know that it was taken by some little rat who was jerking off in the bushes while he watched you with her,” Saint drawled. “Imagining your fingers inside her were his tiny cock instead and trying to convince himself that he could make her scream even louder than you were. In fact, you’re most likely holding something out of his handmade porno collection. How many times do you think he’s ejaculated all over a copy of that image?
“Jesus Christ,” Monroe snarled as Kyan dropped the photo, rubbing his fingers together like he wanted to be sure they weren’t left sticky from touching it. “Why the fuck would you say that?”
“Because it’s the truth,” Saint said in a bored tone, but his eyes flashed with rage. “Some little fucker has been trailing our girl, photographing her in her most intimate moments. Stealing her panties to get the scent of her for himself. Following her in the dark and fantasising about doing god knows what to her.”
“We could inform the police,” I suggested half-heartedly.
“They are notoriously fucking useless when it comes to stalking,” Monroe muttered. “Unless this asshole actually attacks her, there’s fuck all they can do. And by then it could be too late.”
“Besides,” Saint added. “We have this campus locked down. We don’t need police officers coming in here and risking them bringing the Hades Virus with them.”
“And I want to catch this panty thieving asshole for myself,” Kyan said darkly, lifting his hunting knife from his belt and twisting it between his fingers. “And when I do, I’m going to beat the shit out of him and cut his fucking balls off for good measure.”
I instinctively cupped my balls as I eyed the sharp point of the blade, but no one disagreed with his idea.
“We do it slow, though,” Saint said, his eyes riveted to the hunting knife which we’d all used to kill a man. “The same way he stalked our girl. We catch him, beat him shitless and then we start up a tireless mission of pain and misery. We turn up wherever he is at random times and punish him for what he did in a new and torturous way every day.”
“You’re assuming we can hold back on killing him when we find him,” Monroe growled.
“Well,” Saint said slowly, leaning back in his wing backed chair. “Accidents happen of course.”
“So we all know the plan, then?” Kyan questioned.
“We move as soon as I’ve confirmed a few things,” Saint said and I knew he wouldn’t be pushed into deciding exactly when now, but it would be within a few days, I could feel it. None of us wanted to leave this much longer. This stalker needed to be dealt with. Savagely.
“I can’t fucking wait,” I said with a grin.
“I’m going to get some homework done,” Saint said, rising to his feet and heading over to the dining table where his new laptop lay waiting for him.
“You’re seriously going to do some fucking studying?” Monroe asked incredulously. “When we’re all hyped up to go hunt down a stalker?”
“If you have excess testosterone to vent then I suggest you and Kyan go and beat each other up until you exhaust it,” Saint replied mildly. “I can collect Barbie from her study date while you go get sweaty together.”
“Only if you’re prepared for me to beat the living shit out of you,” Kyan warned as he pushed himself to his feet and Monroe grinned at the challenge.
“I’m going to enjoy wiping the floor with you,” he replied and the two of them headed off together, continuing their posturing as they began shoving each other and dicking around, hurrying to get to the gym and the boxing ring where they could play their little fighting games to their hearts’ content.
I leaned back in my seat with a sigh and snatched the Xbox control into my grip as I prepared to settle myself in for the evening.
But before it had even booted up, I was tossing the control aside again. All of this stalker shit was putting me on edge. I’d made the absolutely terrible mistake of Googling famous stalking cases last night, meaning to get an idea about the kinds of things we could expect this sicko to do next so that we might be able to get ahead of him. There were lots of different accounts of all kinds of fucked up things. But there was a theme. Boy meets girl. Girl is waaaay out of his league. Boy won’t take no for an answer. Boy starts following her, photographing her, turning up everywhere she goes, stealing her things, her underwear, feeding his obsession. Then…well, then it just gets darker and darker. Boy can’t take the idea of her rejecting him anymore, confronts her, demands her love, her body. And then, when she refuses again…
Nope.
