She watched, horrified, as it edged closer, closer, closer?—
The clanging tone of a proximity alert filled the tiny cockpit half a second before the nearly invisible gate slammed shut behind her. The autopilot wasn’t gentle with its docking procedure. It slammed to a stop as soon as the gate closed, throwing her forward. Her breath exploded out of her as her torso slammed into the steering wheel.
Clementine!
Wheezing, she pushed herself back into the seat as the dock’s submersible arm locked onto the top of her vehicle and began to slowly guide her up to the office’s moon pool.
Her gaze remained glued to the retreating figure on her screen when she finally replied,Sorry. I’m fine. Just rattled. I got— I was spooked by a seal, I think.
A seal?
Clementine forced her fingers to release the steering wheel. Pressing her palms to her pounding heart, she fought to get herself back under control.Yeah, Nelly. Just a seal.
ChapterSix
It absolutely,definitely was not a seal, but Clementine didn’t admit that to her sister, nor to the concerned dock workers at the office, who had seen her do smooth docking maneuvers a hundred times.
She knew that she should report it, just like everything else that had been going on, but once she had her feet on land again, she immediately felt a little silly for her reaction.
So she’d been followed.
It wasn’t that much different from her predator lurking around the island or sneaking through her moon pool, was it? He was probably just curious about where she was going. After all, he didn’t increase his speed until she did. Until then, he’d been her shadow, not a threat.
At least, that’s what she told herself as she loaded her boxes of groceries and other requests into the storage unit of the sub.
Her anxiety continued to wane the longer she spent at the office. It took energy to worry, and she couldn’t afford to waste any when she had to focus on blocking out the thoughts of so many people, let aloneconversingwith them.
Clementine wasn’t nearly as shy as people tended to believe she was. She just couldn’t socialize the same way everyone else seemed to when she was busy propping up her barriers in real time lest she lose her mind to the pressure and screaming noise of thousands of minds speaking at once.
So the workers at the office thought she was quiet, soft-spoken, maybe even a little aloof. The psychologist who did her assessment before clearing her for her assignment on the island marked her down as “clinically introverted” but “perfect for the solitary life required on the island.”
Like with most things in her life, Clementine had simply come to accept that the only people who would everreallyknow her were her family. It was okay that everyone else thought she was a shrinking violet. It was fine that they tiptoed around her. It was perfectly acceptable that no one ever pushed, or tried, or really,reallycared enough to get to know her.
It was all entirely acceptable.
Except it wasn’t, and as she stood there in the docking bay listening to the workers whisper behind her like they were afraid of scaring her, Clementine’s long dormant temper sparked.
It wasnotacceptable that no one knew her. It wasnotright that she didn’t have any friends. Itwasn’tfinethat no one ever tried to know her.
The predator had.
He’d watched her for weeks. He’d left her gifts. He’d chased her across the bay. Maybe his intentions weren’t noble, butgods,they were intentions at least!
That new reckless, burning feeling flashed through her as she slammed the storage unit’s hatch closed. Ignoring the startled silence of the workers around her, Clementine brushed her hair out of her eyes and turned to walk out of the loading dock.
The street beyond the office was relatively quiet for a major city, but it still seemed crowded to her. People walked briskly past her, their hands full of coffee cups or bags or pushing strollers. No one paid any attention to her and she did her very best to not pay any attention to them.
The storefronts on the opposite side of the street from the office were trendy but slightly rundown in the way that all beachfront property looked no matter how new it was.
Clementine had liked staying in the area because it felt like its own tiny town. Everything she could possibly need was on this one street: an apparently well-known bakery named after her island, a sandwich place, a hairdresser, a small clinic, and a shop that sold everything from basic groceries to gift items.
Shoving her hands into the pockets of her bright yellow windbreaker, she looked both ways before hustling across the street.
A chime sounded as she pushed the door to the shop open, but the man sitting on a stool behind the glass-topped counter didn’t so much as glance her way even when she mumbled a greeting. He was busy watching an entertainment feed and didn’t seem to mind when she stood in front of the gifts section for a long, long time.
What exactly does one get for their stalker?
Clementine sucked her bottom lip between her teeth and bit down hard. It had seemed like such a great plan before, but now that she knew he was male…Well, what does that change? Nothing. He can still be your friend, Em.
