Saint Sloan (Saint Sloan #1)(17)

She nodded.

“You’re sure you didn’t take them out?”

That was the least of her worries. She had no words. It felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. Someone had put the roses back on her nightstand the day before. Someone had taken the flowers from her locker. Someone knew everything about her. Sloan wanted to throw up. She couldn’t go through something like this again.

Ray grabbed her by her shoulders to get her to focus. The hallway was nearly empty. The eight o’clock bell would be ringing soon. “You need to calm down, stop freaking out, and tell me exactly what’s going on.”

“I don’t know what’s going on. I told you last night.”

“No.” He shook his head and grasped her shoulders a little harder. “You’re not telling me something. What is it?”

Why not? Her stalker would only kill her mother if the police were involved. “At lunch. I’ll tell you at lunch.”

“You’ll tell me now.”

“We’ll be late for Biology,” she reminded him.

“Screw Biology.” Ray grabbed her hand and led her down the hallway and turned left. They went down a short hallway until they got to the gymnasium doors. Ray opened them and took her up the creaky old stairs that weren’t in use anymore and up to the balcony, which had been recently renovated. He sat her down in the middle seat of the back row. “Now. Talk.”

Her hand shook. Honestly, she’d rather be in Biology than talking to Ray right now. She didn’t want to do anything that her stalker could see. She didn’t want anything to happen to her mother. “We can’t be here. We need to get to class.”

“We’ve not missed any since December. The room won’t fall down if we aren’t there, Sloan Bridges — who is too moral for her own good.” He let out a nervous laugh.

“I wouldn’t say that.” She hung her head.

“I would.” Ray swept a piece of hair that had fallen out of her side ponytail behind her ear. “Is it Boyd? Talk to me. Please.”

Sloan took a deep breath and blew it out. “Okay. But you have to promise you won’t go running off to the cops.”

That made him sit up straighter. “Why would I need to go to the cops? Has he threatened you?”

Did she really want to tell him? Yeah. She did. Did she really want to get him involved? No. Not really, but she didn’t feel like she had a choice. She couldn’t go through this alone. Maybe Ray could give her another perspective.

Ray sat back a little. “Who would know the combination to your locker?” he said before she could tell him about the flowers delivered this morning.

It took her a second to get back on the same page as Ray. “I don’t know. The lock wasn’t off or anything. It looked normal. Totally normal.”

“That’s why you didn’t want to open the locker in front of Darcy. Because of the roses.”

Smart man. “Didn’t want to explain them to her. The less people know, the better.”

“Good call.” He sighed. “Well, okay. If we think this out, it stands to reason that if someone could open your locker to put flowers in, then he or she could open it again to take the flowers out. No big mystery there.”

That made sense. Still shook her up, though.

“What about today?”

“What about it?” Her mind had gone nearly blank, and all she wanted was to take a nap, which was weird being it was only a little after eight. This questioning from Ray made her so sleepy. She leaned her elbow on the back of the seat and laid her head over on it.

“Today is a new day. Did the pattern continue? Did you get roses?”

Oh, she’d gotten them all right. “Before I left the house to come to school, the doorbell rang. It was a delivery man from one of those flower shops. He handed me three roses, wrapped like all the others with a black ribbon. And a note.” She yawned. One would think she could stay awake telling this story. She really needed to get to bed earlier tonight, that is, if the worry didn’t keep her awake.

“What did the note say?” Ray prodded.

Sloan took it out of her bag and handed it to him. His lips moved as he read it to himself. “ICU”

“Yeah. Among other things. See why I don’t know what to do?”

“It says not to call the cops.”

“That it does.”

“Are you?”

“Are you crazy?” She found enough energy to snatch the paper away from him. “He’s threatened my mother. I can’t call the police. He’ll hurt her.”

“Do you know that for sure?”

“I can pretty much guarantee it. He can get into my locker and into my room. I’d say he can get my mother.” It freaked her out thinking about it.

“She needs to know. You can’t keep this from her.”

“Yes, I can,” Sloan said with every bit of defiance she could muster. She had to make Ray understand. “Whoever it is will hurt her, Ray. I can’t live with that.”

Ray’s jaw tightened. He balled up his fist and hit it on the seat. “And do you think she can live with something happening to you? Do you think any of us could?”

Sloan stared at him. She hadn’t thought about it before, to be honest. It was more protecting her family and friends than herself. And, really, she’d never seen Ray so mad. Like ever. A little vein on his temple stood out in all its blue glory. He really did care for her. How in the world was she supposed to feel about that? “I know she cares. And I know…” This was so hard. Why did it have to be hard? “I know you care for me. And Aaron and Mackenzie,” she threw in for good measure. “But this is on me. I have to figure this out or he or she or… it will hurt someone I care about. Do you understand that? Don’t you get it?”