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“Please listen to me. You need to be alert on your date tonight. He—”

“How did you know—”

“I realize we just met. But you trust me enough to be in here with me right now. Why?”

She opened her mouth and then closed it again. She was truly at a loss to answer him—or herself. It didn’t make sense.

“I will tell you why. It’s because you sense I’m not a danger to you. You have special abilities, Alessandra, and they’re only now beginning to unfold. Haven’t you noticed you’re changing? Consider how long you ran yesterday without getting winded—or the way you knew Kenton and I were here in this shop before you spotted either of us.”

His words sent a chill down her back, but a second later, her logical mind dismissed them. He was crazy, all right, nuttier than a can of Planters. To think she’d tried to set him up with Toni.

“If we don’t resume our conversation out there as if everything is normal, Kenton will know I spoke to you. Please, I beg of you—believe me when I say he is a very real threat to you.”

Her pulse, already racing, beat even faster.

“You pull me—”

“Shhhh!”

Lord help her.

“You pull me in here,” she whispered, “after clearly stalking me for two days in a row, whisper weird threats in a women’s bathroom, and then tell me that Kenton is dangerous?”

She reached for the door.

“I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, buddy, or how you know Kenton. But I think you should stay away from me and my friends.”

His hand covered hers, preventing it from turning the knob.

“I realize this seems highly unusual—”

“If you’d like me to call the police—”

“And I will stay away from you. And your friends. But please heed my warning and stay as far away from Kenton Morley as you can.”

She opened the door, feeling an overpowering need to get away from him. Though he hadn’t seemed harmful, her gut was clearly wrong on this one. Thankfully, he let her leave.

But she barely had one foot out the door before his next words cemented her to the floor.

“He means to kill you.”