The place came fully furnished when I bought it years ago on a quick deal with my back-door deal guy, who does business on the black market. A big shot got caught in a major fraud scheme, had to sell the place and disappear quickly, and that’s when I swooped in and bought it before the Feds seized it.
Now that I’ve spent time in Luna’s apartment, the contrast between the two is stark. Her place had light, warmth, and a comfort that I didn’t know I was missing until just now, as I stare at my cold, lonely, lifeless condo. It would only be a matter of time before I didn't have to leave the warmth that is Luna Stirling, and soon, she will be so obsessed with me that I won’tneed to watch her from a screen.
I pull my phone from my pocket, sit on the small leather couch in my living room, and open VidTok. I open my drafts and pull up my surprise. A cosplay of Luna’s male main character, Detective Liam Moore, was meticulously planned just for her.
I opened my editing app and added the final touches to the video, incorporating her book covers and a few lighting effects. I uploaded the finished video to my VidTok and added a caption I knew would take her by surprise. For one, I never put captions on my videos, but this particular quote from her book is a pivotal moment for her characters. Vera, the female main character, has no way out; she’s trapped, and she has to put her faith in a man she doesn’t know if she can fully trust. When he shows up, he tells her that he will always find her in her native language.
Te voi gasi mereu, iubirea mea.
I will always find you, my love.
I tag Luna in the video and hit post. I click on her profile and hit the "Follow" button. My fans might not like that, but I don’t care. I want to stake my claim; she’s mine, in every life, in every reality, I will always find her.
I switch to my video monitoring app and pull up Luna’s apartment. She should be getting the notification any second now—Ding! The familiar chime of VidTok notification echoes in my barren apartment, but Luna ignores it and chooses to snuggle with her cat.
I want to send her a message and have her look at her phone now, but I remember the weekend she had, and I swallow down my jealousy. Instead I should use my time to unravel the mystery that is Luna Stirling.
I slip my phone back in my pocket and head to my computer in my office. I think back over the details she told me and start putting them into my database.
She lost her parents in a drunk driving incident when she was seventeen, which led her to end up in the system. She lived in homeless shelters and recently moved here. It wasn’t much tosearch for, but I had to start somewhere.
My database comes back with inconclusive results, so I broaden my search to drunk driver deaths with the year she would’ve turned seventeen. Several thousand hits come back, and I crack my neck, rubbing it, feeling defeated.
You weren’t going to make this easy on me, were you, angel?
The more information I feed my database, the easier it’ll be to find something on her. It could take me weeks to learn more, and waiting for something to happen to her is not an option.
You could ask Alex.
I try to shake away the thought, but it’s too late—the seed is already planted, and I pull out my phone.
Alex Hassan, though he owns Charm, is also an underground kingpin who runs an underground club called Echo. I disappeared for a while after I turned eighteen, trying to find my place in the world and cope with life. Meanwhile, Alex was climbing to the top ranks of the Boston Cartel. He controls the South Side of Boston, doing God knows what. I don’t ask. Just like he doesn’t ask what I do, we have a mutual understanding that we are both fucked up and it’s best to keep everything on a need-to-know basis.
Especially since he left me behind:
My screen starts blinking, pulling my attention from my text, and the alert on my computer lets me know there’s movement in Luna’s bedroom. I switch to my cameras and see Luna turning over in her bed and picking up her phone.
I unmute the live feed and hear her groggily answer her phone. “Hello? Whoa, Liv, slow down. What are you talking about? I just woke up from a nap.” She’s talking to her friend Olivia, and I knew that she was her friend from BookTok. This makes my blood spike, and I pull up my phone, knowing what's about to come next. “No way.” Luna’s jaw drops open, and she stares at her phone. My dick hardens in my jeans while I watch her drool over the video I made for her. “Holy fuck! No way,Liv. This can’t be real. This-this has to be a fake account.”
I listen to them squeal over the video, and Luna puts Olivia on speaker; that’s when Olivia mentions the caption. “A caption? He never puts a cap–” I watch her mouth fall open for a second time, and she stares at the screen watching the video play over and over. Her chest rises and falls, breathing heavily, she bites down on her bottom lip, and I watch her hand slip between her thighs as she tries to relieve the tension growing there. I have to bite my knuckle to keep from coming in my pants.
What is it with this woman making me want to come in my pants?
“What’s happening is you caught the attention of the hottest, most mysterious man on MaskTok, and if you don’t message him right now, as your newly appointed personal assistant, I will!” Luna’s friend says.
“But what do I even say? Hi, I loved your video. Please make more for me to put in my personal spank bank? I have no clue what to say, and even if I did, I know I’ll mess it up somehow and make a fool of myself.”
“You could always pay him to make content. I can draft a contract if you need one. Find out his asking price, and I’ll mock up a contract for you.”
I’m only half listening after the personal spank bank comment. I mean, I knew she watched my videos, but touching herself to them? Fuck. She’s perfect.
I open VidTok and send her a message before she can ask about paying me. Luna reads it out loud to her friend, and they gush over it. Luna is still debating paying me, and I can’t help but smile.
Luna’s cat yowls, andshe gets off the phone, making her way to her kitchen. I switched my camera to the one in her potted plant. She pulls out a can of cat food and feeds her beast. She leans against the counter, chewing on her thumb as she looks at my message.
Luna starts typing, and a message comes through for me a moment later.I smile, amused by her response:
Luna smiles at the message and closes out of Vidtok, then begins preparing her dinner. I watch her on my computer for the rest of the evening. She spends most of her time at her laptop writing until it’s late, and she heads to bed. I set my motion sensors to alert. I installed one on every window while installing the safety bars. I don’t think the idiot would be stupid enough to come back so soon, but I wasn’t about to take any chances.
