She pushed her tongue over her teeth, her expression fixed somewhere between curious and murderous. She looked hot as hell.
“So what? You started searching for me?”
I nodded. “I did, but there was no sign of you.”
She raised her brows. “Preston kept me well hidden. It was only when I walked away that I really existed in the world. Got my driver’s licence, a bank account…”
I thought back to the day I found her driving licence, like it had been there forever, even though I’d been looking for years.
“And then, you just started watching my life like some fucked up TV show.”
“I was keeping you safe,” I huffed out, folding my arms over my chest defensively.
“From what? I’d walked away from Preston, and Tony had no idea how bad things got, so what did he want you to protect me from?”
I tutted. “After everything I’ve learnt, maybe he said, ‘watch out for Hana’ rather than ‘watch Hana’. It’s clear you never needed my protection.”
Her eyes widened. “Protection? What from?”
I didn’t reply straight away, running the pad of my thumb back and forth over my bottom lip.
“Roman Black, what the fuck did you do?” Her tone was deadly.
“The dates… the reason you never had a second one, the ones that ghosted you… none of them were right for you, so I did some stuff.” Her mouth fell open, but her glare told me I needed to explain. “Hacked their phones, sent evidence of their doucheness to their employers, their wives… yes, some of them had wives… threatened them. I may have even got one knocked over because the traffic lights ‘failed’.”
Silence stretched between us like an endless desert road, but I jumped in my seat at the unexpected sound of Hana’s long, loud laugh.
“I’m dreaming. It has to be a dream. None of this is real.” She sniffed as if she was trying to control herself. “And all the times you showed up since I moved here…”
“Were because I’ve been watching you.”
“You have cameras in my house now… since I moved to town?” She didn’t even sound shocked anymore, and I was starting to be concerned she wasn’t really taking any of this in.
“Everywhere but your bathroom.”
“You watch me sleep?”
“It’s my favourite time of day,” I told her honestly.
Hana pushed up from her chair so fast it tipped back, hitting the floor loudly. “Youhavebeen stalking me?”
I wasn’t sure where her disbelief was coming from. She’d been onto me since we first met. Granted, she didn’t know the extent of my stalking, but she knew something was off. “You know I have. You’ve been saying it since we met.”
“I was joking,” she cried, exasperated.
I tilted my head. “Where you though? Maybe on some level, you knew I was watching. Maybe your inner criminal recognised mine.”
Her brows lifted so high they almost met her hairline. “Really? Really, psycho? You’re blaming me… the victim in all this?”
“You’re hardly a victim, Hana.” She winced like my words hurt, and I regretted them instantly.
“You lied to me… about everything,” she yelled, stepping closer. I stood too.
“You lied about everything too. I thought I knew you.” Our anger bounced off each other like two jousting knights.
“You stalked me. You watched me without my knowledge or consent. That’s so fucked up, Ro.” Her voice grew louder, her words carrying more power.
“I was protecting you.” I punctuated each word, trying to drive home that I was trying to take care of her.
