I scowl. “Doesn’t necessarily mean I’m beingthreatened.”
Kai doesn’t even acknowledge that with a response. Instead, he shifts his weight, watching me with a kind of intense, calculating gaze.
Then, so casually it makes my head spin, he says, “I got a friend of mine to hack into your phone.”
My heartstops.
“Youwhat?” The words snap out of me before I can even process them.
Kai doesn’t blink. “Hacked your phone.” His voice is so flat, so casual, that I wonder if I misheard him.
“Youhackedmy phone?” My voice is rising now, pure disbelief coating every syllable.
Kai doesn’t even blink. “Well, technically,Ididn’t do it.”
Oh. Well. That changeseverything.
“What—how—why?” My voice hitches slightly, my thoughts still trying to catch up with the absolute audacity of this guy. “How did you evenknowI was being threatened?”
Kai looks at me for a long moment, unreadable as ever, then finally says, “I wasn’t sure at first.”
There’s something almost lazy about the way he says it, like it wasn’tmylife he was poking around in.
“Then I saw someone put something in your locker.”
“Yousawsomeone?” My voice barely comes out, just a breath of disbelief and something cold creeping up my spine.
He nods once. “That’s what I said, yes.”
I swallow, my throat suddenly dry becausewhat the hell? He saw someone? He saw someone and he didn’t tell me?
For the first time, something like irritation flickers in his expression, and he sighs. “And no.”
I suck in a breath. “No?”
“Their face was covered.”
Well, that’s just perfect, isn’t it?
I stare at him, my stomach twisting into knots I don’t have the patience to untangle. I let out a shaky breath, my arms crossing tightly over my chest. “I’ve been getting messages from a blocked number for a few weeks now, but I was followed even before that,” I add since he already knows.
“You were followed?” Kai asks, a little sceptically. “How long?”
I hesitate. My gaze drops to the floor, and my fingers twist together. “Around a month after my brother…” I pause, swallowing hard. “After my brother died.”
The mention of my brother shifts something in Kai. His posture tenses, his eyes narrowing slightly as if something inside him has snapped into focus. He’s suddenly more invested, and I don’t know why.
“Did you know him?” I ask, my voice quieter now. “His name was Mason Ross.”
For a moment, Kai just looks at me. His face is blank, his eyes giving away nothing. Then, finally, he speaks. “Everyone knew
him.”
Right. Of course. I almost forgot how much of a prodigy Mason was. My talented, popular older brother, the one everyone adored and admired.
He’s similar to Kai in that way.
For a split second, the memory of him stings, but I shove it down.
