“At the beginning,” he said.
She nodded, her stomach cramping. "The beginning. In high school, my boyfriend decided that while we were on a date, he wanted to climb the town's water tower. He lost his balance."
“Oh shit.”
"Yeah. At first, the police accused me of pushing him. But I never climbed up with him. I told him he was an idiot for going up there. Lucky for me, there was a security video. Once the cops got that video, they let me go. They didn't apologize or say sorry that I watched my boyfriend die. They just let me go after holding me and yelling at me for hours. They made me cry with their accusations. I felt bad about that incident for a long time though I tried to stop him, but he wouldn’t listen."
“Damn. So you saw him fall and…”
She nodded. “Yeah. It sucked.”
Link reached over and grabbed her hand, squeezing it. “I’m sorry that happened to you. That’s awful.”
“It was terrible. But that’s not all.”
His eyebrows shot up. “There’s more?”
She nodded and took a sip of her beer. "The boyfriend that I was with right after high school drove his car into the side of a mountain. The police heard my boyfriend in high school died, so they wanted to pin the crash on me. They couldn't find any evidence that I tampered with the car because there wasn't any, but they decided to make my life hell, like stopping me any time they saw me driving. It was too much pressure, so I joined the Marines to get out of town, thinking that would be best."
“Damn. That sucks that it happened again.”
She shrugged. "It doesn't stop there. When I moved to California, I was on-again, off-again dating a guy who was really a total dick. I could tell we were about to off again and just wanted it to be over. We argued. It was in public, at the beach, and the argument wasn't awful. Stuff like me shouting just leave me alone and stop contacting me. He kept trying to get me to go back to his place, and I refused. He decided to go out on the pier, and I didn't follow. Maybe he thought I would go out there with him if he did something crazy. He said he would kill himself if I didn't keep dating him, but I was done and told him to leave me alone. That's when he went out on the pier and hopped up on the railing. He was walking, doing stupid stuff, and I watched for a moment before I turned to leave. Then I heard the screams. I spun around, looking for him, but didn't see him. I was done with the drama and headed back to my apartment. I later found out that when he was up on the railing, he fell. The string of his hoodie got caught between two pieces of wood, and the knot at the end held. The hoodie choked him."
“Oh fuck. That’s awful.”
“Yeah. I heard it all, but at the time I didn’t know what it was.”
He pulled her into his arms. “I’m sorry all of this happened.”
She shrugged. “You shouldn’t be with me.”
“Why?”
“I’m obviously bad luck or maybe cursed. If you believe Pete, Craig’s brother, I did it all and am a black widow type character.”
“Hey, I’m a big boy and can take care of myself.”
She shook her head. “But what if?—”
“No what ifs. I’m not leaving because bad things happened around you. You didn’t kill anyone.”
She sat back and shook her head almost violently. “The cops wanted to pin their deaths on me, but luckily there were videos of two of their deaths. It doesn’t stop Pete from blaming me. He is obsessed with proving I caused Craig’s death.”
Link cupped her cheek. “That’s awful.”
“Yeah. Pete came by my place before I left California and threatened me.”
Link sobered and held her gaze. “Did you call the cops?”
She shook her head. “No. He has no idea where I am. He sent an email.”
His lips turned down in a frown. “He sent an email. Was it recently?”
She nodded. “But he doesn’t know where I am. He can’t get to me.”
He held her hands, his expression serious. "That doesn't matter. What matters is that we keep up with where he is and we keep you safe. We don't wait until he shows up. We watch him and keep track."
She wasn’t sure what to think about this reaction. Pete was more like an annoying gnat than a real issue. “Do you really think it’s that serious?”
