Page 23 of Rival for Rent
“Go ahead. I’ve been wanting to talk to them about last night anyway.”
We stared each other down, tension between us snapping like a live wire. I couldn’t keep doing this. I couldn’t think straight when he was this close.
“Fine,” I said, spinning around and stalking into the dining room. “If it’ll get you to leave, I’ll tell you.”
He didn’t make a snarky comment, which annoyed me more than if he had. I’d been ready for another round.
Hypocritical much? said a little voice in the back of my mind.You get mad when he fights you, then mad when he doesn’t?
I shoved the thought aside. Bella had sat down between the kitchen and dining room, her head swiveling like she was watching a tennis match.
“It started a few weeks ago,” I said. “I’m building a shelter and support center for queer youth. I mean, I’m helping to fund it. It’s not mine personally. But it’s important. There are so many LGBTQ+ teens who’ve been kicked out of their families’ homes, who drop out of school, never get their degrees, and fall through the cracks. Some of them leave home voluntarily, knowing they’d face abuse if they stayed. But it’s a precarious existence, couch-surfing. It’s easy for things to spiral—addiction rates go up, suicide rates go up, so does petty crime. Graduation rates plummet. Kids end up in the system because they didn’t have a stable home. Because their families didn’t love them for who they were.”
My voice had gotten sharp. Strident. I realized I sounded like I was preaching, but I couldn’t help it. I cared about this.
“I was incredibly lucky to have supportive parents when I came out. Not everyone has that. If I could give every one of those kids a family who loved them, I would. But I can’t. So theButterfly Center is the next best thing. It’s not just a shelter. It’ll provide wrap-around support. Counseling. Tutoring. Meals. Clothing. Everything those kids need to reach their potential and shine. There’ll be drop-in services too—support groups, extracurriculars, social activities. It opens in a month, and it’s going to be amazing.”
I was breathing hard when I finished, ready for Mason to smirk or roll his eyes or call it naive.
Instead, he nodded. “It sounds like it. I’m sure it’ll make a big difference in a lot of kids’ lives. But I don’t understand how this relates to needing a bodyguard.”
“Because somebody doesn’t want me to build it,” I said. “Three weeks ago, I got a weird note on my doorstep. It said to stop building the shelter or else.”
“That’s…odd.”
“Yeah. You could say that. I mean, who even writes anonymous letters anymore? This isn’t a 1940s noir film.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing at first. I figured it was a prank. Something a kid thought was funny.”
“You didn’t think it was weird they knew where you lived?”
“I’m probably not that hard to look up.” I shrugged.
He frowned. “What happened next?”
“Nothing, for about a week. Then I got a second note. Same message, more direct. Said if I didn’t stop construction, I’d ‘pay the price.’”
“Interesting.” Mason tapped his chin. “They’re using vague language. Covering their tracks. ‘Pay the price’ could be argued as a metaphor in court. Was the note hand-written?”
I studied him. I hadn’t expected this level of analysis. He was taking the threat more seriously than I’d thought.
“It was typed,” I said. “And they didn’t stick to vague threats. The day after the second note, someone tried to push me onto the Metro tracks.”
“Jesus. That’s more than a vague threat, alright. What did the cops say?”
“I didn’t go to them yet,” I admitted. “I thought maybe I was being paranoid. That someone had just bumped into me.”
“Kai.” Mason gave me a look that clearly translated to, ‘Are you fucking stupid?’
“What?” I snapped.
“I can’t believe—I mean, even if you thought that, don’t you have like, people? You’re clearly doing well for yourself. How do you not already have a security team? Or at least a fucking PA to tell you you’re being dumb and to talk to the police?”
“I have a PA,” I said. “But she doesn’t commute with me. And I’ve spent my life trying to stay out of the spotlight. A security team would only draw more attention to me.”
“You still should have gone to the police.”
