Clay was already examining the newest note when I returned to our little group. Becca peered over his shoulder, her expression changing by the second while she was probably trying to place the handwriting.
“Becca, you can head home for the day. We have tomorrow off, so we’ll see you Tuesday,” I told her.
She looked at me like I was crazy.
“If you think I’m just gonna leave after you tell me someone isstalkingour beautiful boy, then, honey,you have another thing coming,” she said with that sassy hand on her hip again.
“You think I’m beautiful?” Atlas piped up with a grin.
“Most beautiful man in Kither Springs, I’d say,” she said and pulled him into a side hug. “Does your man not tell you that you’re beautiful? Shame on him.”
“Of course I tell him he’s beautiful.”
Atlas and Becca snickered. I glanced at Clay, who was smirking to himself, and my cheeks heated. I wondered if they knew Atlas and I were together, and this answered that question.
Atlas came to my side and pressed a kiss on my cheek. My first instinct was to pull away, but I forced myselfto stay calm.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want people to know about us. I just worried what they would think if they saw us together. As Becca said, Atlashad to bethe most beautiful man in town, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to win any awards in the looks department.
That and my being so much older than him surely would cause others to think a certain way. I was used to people thinking the worst of me, but I couldn’t bear Atlas having to face the same judgmental gazes.
Both Becca and Clay were still smiling. They didn’t look disgusted or confused about why someone like Atlas was with some old man like me. It was only two people who accepted us, but it was a start.
“Alright, let’s find this motherfucker,” Becca said with a clap of her hands. There was a fire in her eyes that said she would take down anything that stood in her way. I wanted to keep my neck, so I led everyone upstairs to the laptop where the videos were kept.
I rewound the video to the moment Atlas found the note. My heart squeezed at seeing him frozen in the middle of the diner, then looking around in terror. I reached out for his hand, needing to know he was okay and still within reach so that I could protect him.
As if reading my mind, he mouthed to me,I’m okay.
Focusing back on the video, I rewound it second by second in hopes of catching the stalker once and for all.
“There,” Clay said, pointing a finger at the screen. I paused the video at the very moment a man in a black cap and gray hoodie passed the table where the note wasfound. It was barely noticeable, but he casually dropped something as he walked by—a piece of paper.
“This has to be our guy!” Becca said excitedly. “Keep playing the video and let’s reveal this sicko once and for all.”
I was completely on board with that and hit play. My—and I presumed everyone’s— eyes were glued onto the man. He made a loop around the busy diner before casually walking out. His face was always positioned perfectly, so the camera never caught a clear view of it.
“How didn’t I notice him? He brushed past me twice! He was right there. With full access to do whatever he wanted to me,” Atlas gritted out.
He looked frustrated, which had me sliding my hands up and down his arms for comfort.
“The place was packed, and you were busy helping people. It’s not strange that you didn’t notice him,” I reassured him.
“That’s right. He walked past me a couple times too, and I don’t even recall it happening,” Becca added. “But he’d better watch out, because I’ll be on the lookout for him now!”
Atlas gave us both appreciative smiles, and he snuggled into me further. This was the first time we’d been so affectionate in front of other people, which must’ve been the reason my heart was hammering in my chest.
As if he could feel my speedy heartbeat, Atlas tilted his head up from where it was lying on my chest andsmiled. He pressed a kiss to my prickly chin before resting his head over my chest again.
“This guy is good. He must have canvassed the area and located all the cameras before entering, since there isn’t a single clear shot of his face,” Clay said. He’d rewound the video to the moment the stalker entered the diner and hit play again.
The suspect had followed a large group inside, which was probably why nobody had noticed him. He then smoothly grabbed a receipt a customer had left on an empty table and made his way to the bathroom.
We rewatched the scene of him dropping the note off at the table and making a round of the diner—as if to mock us—before leaving.
There was only one frame right before he left that managed to capture his smirk. The rest of his face was hidden by the cap.
Clay blew the frame up so we could study it better. Atlas frowned as he stared at it.
