Page 25 of Kneeling for Them

“What’s wrong?”I ask, stomach sinking.“Did I wear the wrong clothes?”

“No,” Kingston says adamantly.“You are perfect, and you look beautiful tonight.”

I flick my glance over to Sebastian.

“Gorgeous as always, princess,” he says.

It’s only then that I realize he’s sporting a bruise around his eye.“What happened to you?Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” he says, touching his eye absently, “but we have a bit of news.”

“News?”

“You haven’t checked your phone in a while, I take it.”

I shake my head.I’d been working, and then as soon as my shift was over, I was in a rush to get ready for the date.

“I don’t want to tell you this,” Sebastian says.

“Best to just get it over with, right?”I ask.“I mean, I’m kind of used to one thing happening after the other.Bad things come in threes, so we’ve had Joel, and a break-in, and now it’s time for the third problem, right?”

“It kills me that all of this has happened,” Kingston says, reaching for my hand.

I hang onto him while Sebastian says, “I went to talk to your apartment manager today.Bryan Victor Crowley, Junior.”

I stop moving and stare at him.“Why do you know his full name?”

“Because I called the police on him and watched as he was arrested.It turns out, he was monitoring your apartment.”

My legs go weak, but I force myself to remain upright.“Monitoring…how?”

“Video cameras,” he says.

“No,” I whisper.“Why?I can’t do this again.”

I can’t process it.Joel did the same thing, with the revenge sex video.And now, my apartment manager?

Sebastian shakes his head.“No fucking idea.The police are still talking to him.They’ll get in touch with you tomorrow, probably to ask if you want to press charges.”

“Oh, I definitely do,” I say.“But this doesn’t make sense.Was he watching anyone else?”

“Not that I could tell, princess.”

I force myself to take deep, even breaths.Panicking will solve nothing.

“What can we do for you?”Kingston asks, rubbing his big hand up and down my arm, soothing.

A part of me wants to unravel, to completely lose my shit.But I don’t want to give this power over me, not again.We missed our last date because of Joel.I’m not canceling this one because of stupid Bryan.

“Do you want to stay in tonight?”Sebastian asks.

My mind is still stuck on what possible reason Bryan would have to monitor my apartment.Maybe he gets his rocks off by watching people, but he never seemed particularly obsessed with me in any way.But maybe that was part of it—if he ignored me in real life, he could jerk off to my video as much as he wanted.

Even though I’m wearing the new coat Kingston gave me, goosebumps skitter up and down my arms like cockroach legs.But I’m tired of letting these events hold me back from having fun, from living my life.Everything has been so negative and scary lately.Can’t I just have a pleasant night out with these two hotties who, inexplicably, want to be with me?

“I don’t want to stay in,” I say.“Fuck stupid Bryan and fuck his stupid creepy screens.We’re going out and we’re going to have a good time.”

“I love everything you said just now,” Kingston says with a smile.“But I’ll have to spank your ass later to punish you for that filthy, filthy mouth.”