Page 89 of Slapshot Obsession
“Tim is dead.” I explain.
Tucker frowns, clearly confused. “What?”
I tell them everything. I start with mine and Jodie’s plan to get me laid before graduation. My voice breaks several times when I remember the bloodbath in Tim’s bed.
Remembering that night hurts more than I thought it would, but I don’t leave out any details.
“Jodie helped me slip out of the Gamma house. We packed everything we had left in our apartment and we headed west. We stopped along the way and got rid of the knife that was next to me when I woke up. We did the same thing with our bloody clothes. I ran out of gas right in front of the gates out front on the day they opened sign ups for training camp tryouts. And, like they say, the rest is history.”
Colsen runs a hand through his blond hair. “Holy shit. I think I saw some stuff about that murder in the news. But then training camp started, and I haven’t followed the developments of the story.”
Nash’s green eyes are full of questions, but when he asks the first one, it isn’t what I was expecting. “So who the fuck is stalking you?”
“I have no idea. As far as Jo-Jo and I know, no one saw us leave the Gamma house in the morning, or the cops would have been looking for us. But someone must have seen us because the messages saidI know what you did this summer. There is only one thing they could have been talking about.”
I explain about the blackmail and about the person in the dark hoodie. I don’t leave anything out. From the terrifying night in the basement to the doll’s head in my locker,ending with the message I got tonight when my car broke down.
“Whoever is stalking me seems to know and see everything. Now I know that’s because they had that spy app and the air tag in my car.”
“Fuck,” Nash bites out. “And do you have any idea who could be doing this to you?”
My breath hitches in my throat, and I can’t look Nash in the eye when I admit one of my early theories. “For a hot minute, I thought you were my stalker.”
His eyes widen. “What?”
“It was just at first.” I rush to explain. “My stalker knows why I left Hemlock Beach. And you were the only person who knew me from college. And you kept asking me if I was at that party.”
“Because you were!” Nash sounds wounded.
I hang my head. “I’m sorry, Nash. But I was confused. I didn’t want to believe you could be the person sending me those texts, but you were so mad at me for seeing Tucker and Colsen. You kept saying you couldn’t be with me with them in the picture. And my stalker wants me to break up withthem. And you kept appearing shortly before or after I got one of those texts, and that night in the basement, you were there. I thought…”
“If you thought I was sending you threatening messages and leaving doll’s heads in your locker, how could you be with me? We had sex, Taryn. More than once. Even the night I found you in the basement. And I was in a hoodie like the person who’s been trying to scare you. If you suspected I was your stalker, how could you let me touch you? Do you have some kind of serial killer fetish we should know about?”
His reaction is understandable, and I try my best toexplain. “Because deep down, I knew it couldn’t be you. I felt safe with you.”
“But when you ran into me earlier, you were screaming. Like you were terrified of me.”
“Nash, I was freaking out. I had just gotten away literally from under my stalker. I didn’t even see you.”
He looks truly hurt. “Well, fuck. If you needed any proof that I have nothing to do with this, I couldn’t have attacked you today. I was with Colsen the entire time. We had gone out for a run and got caught in the storm. And you saw your stalker getting away on a bike. And I was there with you.”
When I try to take his hand in mine, he lets me. “I know it wasn’t you. I never really believed it. Or I would have never been with you. You have to believe me, Nash.”
“I do. I believe you.”
“It’s just that you were the only person from my past. And you had seen me at that party.”
Nash nods. “I get it. It would make the most sense, even to me. But since we know I’m not your stalker, who else could it be?”
I tell him about my suspicions that it could be Genevieve.
“She’s definitely enough of a psycho bitch that I could see her doing that.” Tucker decides. “She’s been jealous of you from the second you got here. And I’m willing to bet my left nut that she sent that photo of us for my birthday to Carole.
Colsen chimes in. “She’s also over six feet tall. If you put her in a dark hoodie, you’d have to look at her from close range to notice that she’s much more slender than me or Nash, for example.”
“The clothes on my stalker were always a little baggy, and I’ve never seen them when it wasn’t dark. So it could beGen.” I agree. “And she was there in the basement the night Nash and I bumped into each other. She could have been the one who was chasing me, and maybe Nash’s presence scared her off.”
Tucker’s jaw ticks when he adds one more argument in favor of Gen being my stalker. “She isn’t just jealous of you because you’re a better dancer. She’s convinced that Mack has a thing for you and that you’re the reason why he won’t get back together with her.”
