Doesn’t explain his open schedule.
Darn it. The voice in my head was right. Looking at houses didn’t quite explain why he no longer had photoshoots planned.
Ugh. Back to square one.
I should have asked him. Cornered him somewhere in the house, made sure he couldn’t squirm away, and demand to know why he had all this free time. Well, maybe not demand. Politelyask why he—
The front door slammed shut.
I sat up in bed, then called out Alex’s name.
No answer.
Got out of bed and stepped into the hallway to holler for him again. Maybe he had run out to get something to eat. I noticed a light on in the office and saw his big, bright monitor I bought him.
Web browser opened to his email.
Private.
Temptation swelled inside me. Devils on my shoulder whispering words of encouragement to violate trust and privacy and love. He had left in a hurry. Alex never left his computer on and open like this. Ever. Not that he had anything to hide.
Did he?
I warred with myself right there in the hallway, too far to read any descriptors of the email despite the size of the monitor.
Oof. Those devils knew all the right things to say in my ear. I stood, stock still, frozen in indecision. This wasn’t me. I always knew which direction to move. How to take it. Guided by my sense of right and wrong and good and bad and…
Screw it.
My little devil won. I would repent later.
I stepped into the room and up to the computer monitor.
Frozen again.
Ricky. My hand was on the mouse and scrolling before I could help myself.
Threats. Pictures. Ofus. How did he get those? He must have hacked the picture sharing site Alex had used during our first few weeks together.
I didn’t care. Let him release every picture of us into the world. That didn’t matter.
Only one thing mattered and the line in the email stayedhighlighted in my eye: “come to your apt so we can talk about it.”
Alex was trying to protect me from Ricky’s threats. But what Alex didn’t know was that I didn’t care if Ricky released those photos. All I cared about was Alex’s safety.
I was dressed and out the door in well under a minute. My car burned rubber along the driveway. I’d apologize to Hiroshi later.
?
I called the cops first to warn them of a potential stalker issue. They said they would send over a cruiser. The second person I called was Devin. He was fiercely angry but I told him that didn’t matter and that he needed to hurry and get to Alex’s apartment as soon as he could. I was only a few minutes away. Thankfully we were past rush hour and I had no problem getting into Cambridge.
I white-knuckled the rest of the drive. Would the cops get there before I did? How far behind would Devin be?
What if it’s nothing?
No, it wouldn’t be nothing. Instinct revealed the truth and I knew to trust my gut. Ricky lured Alex in by exploiting his sympathy, his need to protect me. To protect us.
I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if anything happened to him. Ricky had only hit Alex once. Of course once was enough. But did the man have it in him to go again? What exactly did he expect from Alex? On a primal level, I understood the threat. What I didn’t understand was what Ricky wanted in return.
