Page 56 of Loving Taylor

"Where's Taylor?"

"Her brother came to pick her up," Slater told her.

She gave Slater a confused look. "She didn't tell me her brother was in town."

Then I remembered we hadn't told her about the full details of the night before.

"Taylor was attacked yesterday." Her big eyes swung to me.

"When?" she asked, trying to piece it into last night's events. She'd had more than a bit to drink so it might not be easy.

"Before I brought her back here."

She shook her head slightly, like she was having difficulty trusting what I was telling her.

"What happened?" Her attention was on me.

"I took her out and when we got back to the dorm she went in first. I followed a few minutes later and scared the guy off."

"Someone attacked her in the dorm?" Her eyes were wide with shock.

"Yes. In the stairwell."

She looked visibly shaken. Slater put an arm around her and pulled her closer to him. It was weird to see him like this with a girl. Getting intimate with a girl was very different from being affectionate or protective like he was acting. He was unable to hold my questioning gaze, which spoke volumes.

"Who was it?" she asked, her eyes still wide.

"We don't know. Taylor didn't get a look at him." I watched the array of emotions play across her features as the new information sank in and what it meant.

If I'd had a good look at him he would have been apprehended already. But the chances of catching him were slim to nonexistent when Taylor hadn't seen him, and there was no physical evidence to lead the police to the culprit.

It could be anyone. And chances were he would try again.

"Someone has been stalking her," I revealed, walking to them. "The cops are going to look into it but without any evidence it’s going to be much harder to figure out who it is."

I already knew that she didn't know anything about the underwear.

"I don't understand," she said, looking at me with confusion.

"I think someone spiked her drink the other night." She nodded, indicating that she already knew about that. "Someone broke into your dorm room and left Taylor's underwear laid out on her bed with the word 'whore' written on it."

"Taylor never told me about that," she murmured. "But I remember her asking me about a pair of her underwear that had gone missing."

So it proved that someone had broken in twice: once to steal the underwear and a second time to lay it out on her bed.

It was one thing breaking in once, but the guy had been confident enough to do it twice. That worried me.

Slater's gaze met mine. He was thinking the same thing. This wasn't good.

She trembled and Slater's arm pulled her closer to him. She buried her face against his chest as she tried to handle the news that someone had tried to hurt her friend and had broken into their personal space twice.

"I need to call her," she finally said, pulling away from Slater and disappearing back into the house.

"How safe do you think Taylor is with her brother?" Slater asked me.

I might not have liked the guy but I knew he would do everything to keep her safe.

"I don't think he’s going to let her out of his sight."