Chapter 164

A few days after my private dinner with Andrew, I spent an entire day at the wedding of a distant cousin of one of the Council members. My presence had specifically been requested, so I could not delegate the work to anyone else. It was good, honest work, and I enjoyed spending time with Terri and some of the other Ever After Wedding employees, but by 11 p.m., I could not wait to get to bed.

After an eternal drive, I left my Honda Civic in the parking lot and hustled toward the apartment complex. I rushed from streetlamp to streetlamp, hoping to outrun the darkness that threatened to engulf me. Even knowing that Jeffrey was hiding somewhere nearby, I could not help but feel absolutely alone in this urban void.

I glanced up as the apartment complex grew larger. The lights in some of the apartments were still on, making the building into a beacon.

My eyes wandered to my apartment. I froze in my steps.

The light in my bedroom was on, and the window was open.

“Is everything all right?” Jeffrey asked as he stepped up beside me.

I shook my head, my jaw slightly slack in shock.

“I…I turned that light off before I left this morning,” I said, pointing to my apartment, “and I know that I did not leave that window open.”

Jeffrey stared at the window for a couple minutes, his brow furrowed.

“Come. We’ll check it out together.”

When we walked into the apartment, everything was ransacked.

The couch was overturned, the cushions pulled out. The cabinets in the kitchen had been flung open. Dishes were strewn about the place; fortunately, nothing had been broken.

Jeffrey and I proceeded carefully into my bedroom. The mess was even worse in there.

My dresser drawers had been pulled out of their runners and thrown onto the floor, their contents heaped into piles or tossed around recklessly. The blankets and sheets had been stripped off my bed, and the mattress had been flipped upside-down. Boxes were ripped open and overturned, clothes and nicknacks spilled everywhere.

A breeze coming in from the window sent a chill down my spine. As I closed the window, Jeffrey rustled through my scattered belongings for clues.

“Do you notice anything missing?” he asked.

“How can I through all this mess?” I replied, shuffling through the discarded clothing.

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” he muttered.

I turned to face him.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that whoever broke in here, they made sure to make enough of a mess that you wouldn’t notice what was missing at first, so it would take longer for you to notice that anything was missing at all. Then you wouldn’t report it.”

“Well, of course, why would I report—wait a second.” I dug through the piles rapidly, but I still couldn’t find what I was looking for. “My favorite scarf, it’s missing.”

Jeffrey’s nose scrunched.

“Your favorite scarf? Really?”

I nodded.

“Yeah. I always keep it in my top dresser drawer, but it’s not anywhere in these piles.”

He rubbed his chin.

“That’s not good.”

“Wait, why?”

“A werewolf or hybrid probably broke in here to get something that had your scent. If it’s your favorite scarf, it’ll have your scent all over it.”

He stared me straight in the eye.

“Crystal, someone’s tracking you.”

My breath caught in my throat.

“I don’t know why, but I do know that it’s never for a good reason,” he continued. “We need to call the police and Andrew. Immediately.”

One part of me knew that Jeffrey was right. After all, I had been stalked before, and it was just before I was kidnapped and thrown to vampires. I shouldn’t be taking any risks.

The other part of me resisted the idea, though. The police and Andrew hadn’t been able to protect me from stalkers before. Only confronting them head-on had helped—and that idea scared me even more.

I shook my head.

“It’s just one scarf,” I said. “Will the police even take that seriously?”

“Considering that you are a high-profile figure and that you have a history of problems with stalkers and similar problems, I think so,” Jeffrey argued. “We both know that Andrew will.”

“That’s the other problem. Should Andrew really be allocating precious resources to this when we don’t even know if it’s a problem yet—”

“When we don’t even know…Crystal, your apartment was broken into, and someone stole from you. It is a problem!”

I rarely saw Jeffrey get so emotional about anything, but he was certainly infuriated by the mere suggestion that this might not be an issue. He did not move or show it in his face, but I could tell by the tone of his voice that I had pushed him a little too far this time.

“Please, stop being so stubborn,” he growled. “Take care of yourself.”

“I’m trying! I just don’t think that we need to involve the police or Andrew yet. If it gets any more serious, then we will tell someone.”

Jeffrey ran his hand over his face. His foot tapped irritably. After a minute lost in thought, he sighed and reluctantly nodded.

“Fine, but if anything else happens, even something small, I’m telling Andrew.”

I nodded.

Jeffrey checked his watch. I knew it had to be after midnight by that point.

“If you don’t need anything else from me, I better take up my position outside,” he said, walking out of my bedroom.

I hesitated, then followed him to my living room.

“Wait!” I said, grabbing his forearm.

He turned to me, one brow cocked.

I blushed and released his arm.

“I was thinking, for my safety’s sake, that maybe you should…be stationed in here tonight,” I said, trying to not sound too much like the scared little girl that I felt like, “and maybe…rest here, too.”

I cleared my throat as Jeffrey continued to stare at me.

“You know, for safety’s sake.”

Jeffrey stood there, assessing me for a moment, before he nodded.

“Of course. Good thinking.”

I blushed more deeply as I spoke again.

“And maybe…I should sleep out here, where you can keep a better eye on me…for safety’s sake. Obviously, near that window isn’t the best place for me to be…”

“Certainly. Let me help you with the couch.”

Together, we easily turned the couch back over. I grabbed us both a pillow and a blanket. While I set myself up on the couch, Jeffrey lay stiffly on the ground a couple feet away.

“Are you sure that you’re okay with me taking the couch?” I asked.

Jeffrey chuckled.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ve slept in much worse conditions. Besides, a harder surface keeps me more alert in case of intruders.”

I swallowed at that last remark.

“And you don’t mind the light staying on?”

“All the better to keep an eye out.”

“It won’t keep you from sleeping?”

“That will be the least of my worries when it comes to sleeping tonight.”

That did not exactly ease my nerves, but I accepted his answer and settled down for the night. I set my head down on my pillow and pulled my blanket up to my chin, my eyes on Jeffrey’s back.

“Jeffrey?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”

“Any time.”

I closed my eyes and fell into a fitful sleep.