Oceans Apart Book 1 (Oceans Apart #1)(28)

It was Monday, and I’d come home alone since Kari had another project to work on at the office. “Yeah,” I replied, biting my lip and locking the door behind me. “Same spot as always. You think maybe we should call the police?”

“I don’t know. You think someone’s in there? Brad, maybe?”

“No one’s in there right now, but…” I just had a feeling. The last time I’d talked to Tristan, he had warned me to be careful. He’d said that most of the time when women got kidnapped or hurt, it was someone they knew from their past who was responsible, and I could just see Brad trying to do something like that even if I didn’t want to believe he was capable of it.

He’d never given up. Even after I’d told him to f*ck off at the club, I still saw him all over the place. He magically appeared in places he knew I would be, and he still left messages on my phone. I was at my wits’ end and seriously considering changing my number, but then I’d have to tell my boss why I needed a new number, since the phone belonged to the company. But, I finally realized, the stalking was getting f*cking ridiculous.

“Just…keep the doors and windows locked, okay?” Kari was saying in my ear. “I’ll be here for at least another hour, but I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

“Okay.” The thought of being home alone had me terrified. I’d never been worried about being out at night or being home alone before now, and if Brad ever showed his face again after this mess was over, I was going to punch him. It wasn’t worth it. He wasn’t worth it.


“You’ll be okay, Gin. Call the police if you feel like you need to. Even if it’s nothing, better safe than sorry.”

That was the same thing Tristan had told me to do, and both of them were right. This had gone on long enough, and I wanted to go back to not being afraid in my own home. Once I hung up with Kari, I sent Tristan a message, letting him know I was going to call the police and that I’d tell him what was going on as soon as I knew something.

“Maybe I should eat dinner,” I muttered to myself and walked into the kitchen. Food would take my mind off things while I waited to see if anyone was going to come back to the van or not.

I really wanted to talk to Tristan, but I received his message earlier that they were going somewhere and he was probably on his way to their company thing. Although he did say he would let me know as soon as they got in the air.

I wanted to talk to him and have him tell me it was going to be all right, or at least be able to hear his voice while I waited for Kari to get home, but I wasn’t going to bother him now. I knew his dad was a sore spot for Tristan, and I didn’t want to be clingy and make things worse.

“Food, Ginny,” I scolded myself. Standing in the middle of the kitchen spacing out wasn’t helping anything. Maybe I‘d call the police, make a report or something. Even if the van had nothing to do with Brad stalking me, there were kids on the street I lived on, and it could be a kidnapper or something.

I didn’t have the energy for anything complicated, but there were some leftover chicken Thai noodles I’d made the other night for dinner, so that would have to do. Hopefully my stomach would untwist itself long enough for me to get something down.

I hated being nervous. My hands got so sweaty and my stomach just clenched itself up. Everything started to look threatening, and a breeze blowing leaves across my kitchen window was enough to set me jumping. Not to mention that I nearly screamed when the microwave beeped.

“Get it together,” I muttered under my breath. “You’re okay. You’re fine. If it is Brad, it’s okay, he’s not going to hurt you.” Or so I hoped.

I’d settled in at the table with my plate and a glass of water when the sound of the front door opening startled me. “Kari? Is that you?” Nothing. “Kari?” I called out louder, my heart pounding a mile a minute, and it took me a few seconds to swallow my panic enough to get to my feet.

I looked around the kitchen door to see what I could see.

And that was when all hell broke loose.

Maybe that was an over exaggeration, but I think my front door being wide open even though I knew I’d locked it counted as something hellish. Especially when I whirled around to see Brad standing there.

My mouth dropped open in shock. I kind of thought it was him who’d been parked in the van, but this was taking it a bit too far, even for him.

“Hello, Gin,” he said, grinning at me as he stepped in and closed the door behind him. “You look really nice tonight.”

What the hell?

“Brad? What…how…how did you even get in here? Did you open my door?” I demanded, folding my arms. “What the hell do you want from me!?” I was trying so hard to keep my voice from taking on the hysterical tone that I knew it was edging towards, but my heart was racing and my hands were shaking.

“Virginia Peterson, how can you be so na?ve? I made a copy of the key you gave me when we were dating months ago. I knew it was going to come in handy someday, and look. I was right.” He stepped closer to me, and I backed up instinctively. His voice was creepy. “As for what I want, I think we both know the answer to that, don’t we, baby?”

“Stop calling me that!” I shouted. “I don’t want anything to do with you. Get the f*ck out of my house.”

He sighed and shook his head. “You just don’t get it, do you? I’m not letting you go, Ginny. Or should I call you dirty girl? You liked that, didn’t you?”