Total pages in book: 167
Estimated words: 164838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 824(@200wpm)___ 659(@250wpm)___ 549(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 824(@200wpm)___ 659(@250wpm)___ 549(@300wpm)
My cheeks erupted with fire. I’d never cursed being a redhead as much as I did at that moment. I’d been lucky to avoid the freckles decorating my sisters and most days my hair could be taken for deep auburn instead of anything on the crimson colour palette, but right now, my natural skin colouring gave me away.
Colin quit laughing as I choked. Literally choked on spit and deliberated bolting for the door.
“Wow, I…I’m kidding, Zan. No need to have a heart attack.” Leaning over his desk, he looked genuinely concerned for my well-being. “Are you alright, man? I mean, I’ve seen you wound up before, but this…this is something else. Did you lose a patient or something?”
Groaning, I took off my glasses and tossed them on his desk. Digging my fingers in my tired eyes, I refused to look at him. “Just…it’s been a long week, that’s all.”
“It’s Tuesday.”
“Is it?” I didn’t look up. “Feels like an endless Monday, then.”
“What’s going on? Fess up.”
Dropping my hand, I blinked back the stars I’d left on my eyesight and did my best to lie to a friend who was basically a savant in lie detection. “Nothing’s going on.”
My phone beeped.
I sat ramrod in my chair, not because the alert was for a patient or another work call but because I’d assigned that noise to one person. A person I didn’t think I’d ever hear from again.
One second, I convinced myself I had no intention of reading it.
The next, I practically threw myself off my chair, fumbling for my phone from my back pocket.
Ignoring Colin, I swiped on the screen and clicked on the new message.
LL: A secret, huh?
Full-body shakes had my thumbs punching the screen far too fast.
Me: No one else has to know.
LL: And you won’t murder me?
Me: If I was going to, wouldn’t I have popped around by now? After all, you did call the police on me.
Shit!
Fuck!
Unsend. Unsend.
Too late.
LL: How do you know I called the police?
Hanging my head, I deliberated how to dig myself out of this shit hole. I couldn’t confess who I was. If she wanted me to be her secret, I’d be her goddamn secret. But I also couldn’t admit that I watched her from my house far more often than was normal, legal, or acceptable.
LL: Is your delay because you’re trying to come up with a lie or confess the truth?
Goddamn, this girl.
This was going to end so very, very badly for me.
She was scarily smart and almost as perceptive as Colin.
And look how well I held my own around him.
Sweat rolled down my spine beneath my scrubs as I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life.
Me: I have a camera in your house.
“You what?” Colin screeched, snatching my phone out of my hands and scrolling his way through the message thread.
Ah, Christ.
How had I not noticed him looming over me? What possessed me to say I had a camera in her house?
What am I doing?!!!!!
In one message, I’d gone from a creepy idiot who’d gifted her a cell phone to full-blown home invasion stalker.
Colin’s face went white. His dark brown hair flopped over his forehead as he peered at the screen. “What the fuck is this, Zan? What—”
“Give it back.” Leaping to my feet, I snatched the phone out of his hand. I hated that I was more desperate to read Sailor’s reply than to assure my best friend that I wasn’t crazy.
LL: And this is where I call the police again.
Me: Wait!
“Zander…you’ve got to start talking. Otherwise—”
“Give me two seconds.”
Tapping back a reply, I hoped to every deity in the universe that I wasn’t fucking up everything I’d worked so hard for.
Me: I meant outside your house. I have a camera outside your house.
Not technically a lie.
LL: And you think that’s appropriate? What are you? Some kind of pervert?
Me: No. I told you. I will never hurt you. I will never take advantage of you.
LL: You just watch me instead.
“Zander…talk to me. Right now.” Colin crossed his arms.
I didn’t bother looking up.
Me: I use it to make sure you’re safe. That’s all.
She didn’t reply.
Of course, she didn’t fucking reply.
My pulse pounded in my ears as I waited and waited, and when the phone remained silent, I sucked in a huge breath and turned to face Colin.
As expected, his eyes glinted with fear for my mental health, all while anger rippled down his arms as if to punch me. “Tell me. Right now. What are you doing?”
This was why I never put myself out there. Why I focused on helping others with scalpels and surgeries. I was better when bound by textbooks and things I’d learned through repetition and study. The second I went off script, I messed up.
Gran always said I was too impulsive, too eager. Each time I’d tried to help a sick bird or attempted backyard medicine on a friend from school, I always made matters worse.