He could tell his mum didn’t agree with him, but they didn’t have time to stand around arguing. For all they knew, Quentin could have climbed out the window only to circle back around the house so he could enter another way. The last thing Nally wanted was to be caught alone again.
“It starting to get dark,” he said, taking Jude’s hand and walking with him toward the door. “If we don’t find Quentin quickly, he might get away.”
“I hate this,” his mum said, following them. “How could something like this happen at Hawthorne House?”
Nally exchanged a look with Jude. He hadn’t yet shared his theory that his mum had given Quentin a look around the day before, but making quick eye contact with Jude went a long way to settle him.
Searching for a single criminal who was now on the defensive on the vast estate of Hawthorne House was like looking for a needle in a haystack. On the surface, nothing at all looked wrong with the house or grounds. The family spread out and checked the perimeter, but other than finding the ladder at Nally’s studio’s window, nothing was out of place.
“Are there footprints in the grass or anything?” Ryan asked as they approached that side of the house.
“Nothing that I can tell,” Rhys called back to him.
Nally was incredibly grateful to have his entire family there to help out, but he was still so pumped full of adrenaline that he didn’t think he could have let go of Jude’s hand if he’d tried.
“This is a nightmare,” he murmured to Jude as they headed back to the front of the house when the sound of distant sirens indicated the police had arrived.
“You saved my life,” Jude said in return, looking at Nally with watery eyes. His face was pale and blood continued to drip from his nose.
“You saved mine,” Nally said as they rounded the corner of the house, where multiple police cars had clustered on the other side of the gate that now closed off the parking lot.
Jude smiled, but he looked horrible.
“You’re not okay, by the way,” Nally told him. “You’re losing blood.”
“It’s a broken nose, not a stab wound,” Jude said as they approached the cluster of family that included Nally’s mum and dad. “But my head is really starting to ache.”
That was all Nally needed to hear. There were a few benches along the path that led from the public parking lot to the main entrance to the arts center, and Nally took Jude straight to one of them. He sat him down, then plastered himself against Jude’s side, his arm around Jude’s back like his force of will alone could make Jude feel better. He certainly felt better with the two of them stuck together as they were. Who said it was a bad thing for two people to be in each other’s pockets all the time?
“We received a call about an alleged stalker?” one of the policemen said as a group of them approached the family group.
“Alleged stalker?” Janice’s head nearly exploded as she turned to them. “There is nothing alleged about it. Some man tried to attack my son and his partner. He’s been stalking Nally for weeks and you lot have done nothing about it. Just look at poor Jude! This isn’t alleged, this is a real, brutal attack on two innocent young men.”
“Janice,” Nally’s dad said softly, moving to put his arms around her.
The officers looked warily at the rest of them.
“It’s me,” Nally said, giving Jude a squeeze before standing. “This man, Andrew Quentin, has been stalking me since the night of the premiere forTo Serve Him.”
Jude stood as well, though he was incredibly wobbly. “He’s been sending Nally threatening messages online for weeks and has shown up unexpectedly in places where we’ve been.”
“And where is he now?” the officer who seemed to be in charge asked, stepping forward.
“We don’t know,” Ryan answered. “He entered the house and cornered Nally and Jude in Nally’s studio. It was pure luck that I heard the shouting and broke through the door that he’d locked. I witnessed him trying to choke my brother, and as you can see, he assaulted Jude. When he saw me, he climbed out the window, where he had a ladder waiting.”
“This whole thing was premeditated,” Jude said, sagging against Nally.
“And you don’t know where Mr. Quentin is now?” the officer asked.
“He could be anywhere,” Ryan answered.
The officer turned to the other policemen. “We’re going to need to fan out and sweep the estate. Lock down everything you can. I need a man positioned at the entrance to the estate, and we’ll call for backup as well.”
Relief made Nally feel weak. He wanted to flop to the ground and just sit there, wrapped around Jude with Jude wrapped around him until they were absolutely certain both of them were safe.
There was still far too much going on, though. The officers were moving like they were part of some tactical strike force, but the lead officer turned back to them with a serious look.
“I have a few more questions,” he said. “Has Quentin ever threatened violence before?”
