Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
No.
Hell no.
I wasn’t going to lose this for anything in the fucking world.
I jumped down the stairs three at a time and took off in a sprint, fueled by pure adrenaline. If the police weren’t here yet, fuck it. If the guy had a knife or a gun and he tried to hurt me, fuck it. Something had to happen. Something had to give Theo answers. And if it had to be me, so be it.
The hooded figure was fast, but I was faster. As he sprinted in the dark thicket of grass, he weaved around trees and shrubs, clearly seeing that I was after him.
He had no chance, though. Every moment of my life had been in preparation for something like this. And there was nothing more important to me than ensuring Theo’s safety, finally, for good.
My sides seared like hell as I ran faster than I ever had, narrowing the gap between us. I reached out to grab him, missed, and swore under my breath. My legs burned but I took off, channeling every bit of strength I had into launching my body forward and tackling him to the ground.
“You motherfucker,” I muttered as we collapsed to the ground in the grass, his head pushing up against the edge of a bush. The dry branches scraped my face and it stung as I felt hot blood begin to trickle down the side of my face.
“I do all of this for Theo!” he shouted, his voice sounding strange and alien. I was shocked by how fast he’d been considering that he was about half my size. He lashed out at me, flailing like a cornered feral animal. I felt as his teeth came down over my jacket.
“Are you trying to bite me?” I grunted, pushing him down with all of my weight.
“I need to talk to him! We’re meant to be together! I’ll fucking kill you! I’ve seen you in the pictures, Theo doesn’t need a bodyguard, he needs me—I just want to taste him—”
“You’re never going to get near him,” I said, subduing him in a chokehold, just enough to make him stop and shut up, but not enough to make him pass out.
I fumbled for his hoodie, trying but failing to see his face. Bright lights and a siren flared in my peripheral vision, but the side of my face was still pressed into wet dirt. I saw that he was holding a small knife in one hand and a folded-up note in the other, similar to the notes he had left for Theo before.
“Police! Hands on the ground!”
A surge of relief flooded through me. They were here. The guy was trespassing on the edge of Theo’s property. If nothing else, we had him on something.
A moment later, we were surrounded on all sides by police. I let go of my chokehold and was disturbed to hear the stalker laughing.
Fucking laughing. Even now.
“All of this just because I wanted to see the one man I truly belong with. Theo speaks to me in my dreams, you know. I never wanted to hurt him. He just needed to see that I was serious.”
“You already have hurt him,” I spat. “You’ve hurt him more than anyone in the fucking world.”
“Hands. On. The. Ground,” the officers repeated as they came over.
He didn’t listen. Instead, he cackled again, attempting to break off in a crawling run, scrambling off back toward Theo’s front door.
“That’s enough,” Tim said, coming over and getting him to the ground again before getting his hands behind his back and cuffing him.
The guy was still laughing. It sent a chill down my spine.
I looked up to the house and saw Theo standing at the front window, looking out with wide eyes. The police reached for the man’s hoodie, yanking it back to reveal his face.
And there it was. Plain as day. Just some guy, with short red hair and intense, ice-blue eyes. He looked like he was out of his mind, because he was. He looked disheveled, unkempt, and likely drugged. It was strange to see him revealed, see that he was just another human, knowing that he was the wild monster that had hunted Theo for almost a whole year.
I sucked in air as the moments passed as slow as molasses.
We had done it.
Finally, finally, Theo’s nightmare was one step closer to being over.
18
Theo
Tears bit at the corners of my eyes as I watched it play out, as if it were happening in slow motion right in front of my house. I felt completely paralyzed, my fingers gripping the windowsill in front of me, my heart lurching so hard it felt like it would come up past my throat.
I was part of an active crime scene. The most surreal thing I’d ever experienced. But as I watched, safe where I was in my home, my fear morphed and shifted in a way it never had before.