“Yes.” I pulled out my phone and flipped to the image. I was working to keep Connor calm. God knew he was hyperprotective of Cassie. But honestly, I was thrilled to possibly see an end to this little drama.
“Tell me everything,” Connor said, his voice grim as he pulled out his own phone.
“Don’t bother calling her. She’s in the middle of a game.”
“I’m not.” He didn’t elaborate on what hewasdoing, except that I heard him texting someone. Then before I could force him to explain, he set his phone in his lap and turned to me. “Is there anything else?”
I shook my head. It had been excruciatingly hard keeping this secret from him, but Cassie had been adamant. She was as protective of Connor as he was of her.
“It started at the beginning of her season, about once a week. His notes were creepy, saying how family is the most important thing in the world. How she should make sure she talks to those who love her.”
“Family? Not about how he…wants her or something?”
“There’s a little of that, too. About how beautiful she is. How good she is at volleyball. How she looks just like her sister.”
I felt him tense at that. The cops had, too.
“We think he’s stalking Sophia, too, because he’s said some detailed stuff about her. Only generic things about you, though.”
“And you told Sophia?”
“The cops did.”
“What did she say?”
“Nothing as far as I’m aware. She laughed it off as silly.”
Conner growled low in his throat. “Of course, she did.”
I glanced at him. He was furious. I could see that clearly, but I couldn’t tell if he was also worried for Sophia. I knew he was pissed that we’d kept this from him. I would be, too.
“Cassie made me swear over and over that I wouldn’t tell you. She said she would. But then everything—the notes, the presents—stopped.”
“Until when?”
“Just a few weeks ago. Right after the win over the Rangers.”
“Yeah, that tracks.”
I jerked my gaze to his. There was a clarity in his voice that told me he was way more on top of things than I was. “What do you know?”
His expression was grim as he tilted my phone toward me. It still showed the grainy picture of Cassie’s stalker.
“That’s Sophia’s old assistant. He went MIA just before the All-Star Game, probably right after the cops told her that he was stalking Cassie.”
I frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would Sophia’s assistant be stalking Cassie?”
“To get dirt on her, to keep Cassie fragile.” He gripped his phone hard enough his knuckles went white. “I told you Sophia likes to keep track of me, how I knew she bribed a janitor at the ballpark.”
“Yeah, I thought that was crazy.”
“It is crazy.” He glared at the image on my phone. “And crazy attracts crazier. She probably ordered him to keep tabs on Cassie, and this was his creepy way of doing it.”
I pulled into the parking lot. “But why would he start up again now? Why did he come back? What does he have to gain?”
“Sophia’s attention? Cassie’s? I don’t know, but I sure as hell intend to find out.”
I pulled the car into the nearest parking spot. It wasn’t that close to the front door, but it was the best I could do. Connor was out before I could stop the car, and I was behind him a second later, running to keep up.
