Page 12 of The Stolen Dagger

CHAPTER TEN

KATHERINE

I had a stalker .

And he’d been watching me for weeks .

It’d been a little more than an hour since I had received those texts.

While I had calmed my fiercely beating heart, and my hands had stopped shaking, a bundle of panic was still tangled deep inside my chest. It was dormant, but there nonetheless, ready to bounce up between my ribs again at any moment.

I sat at a small, square wooden table in a secluded corner on the third floor of the campus library to conduct my research.

Distraction was my only solution, so as not to go screaming and crying to Drew. I didn’t want to be that weak. I didn’t want anyone to know I was that weak.

Two seven-foot-tall bookshelves towered over both sides of my sitting area against the brick wall. Directly ahead was a small walkway through the stacks that led to the main sitting area on this level.

The musty aroma from the multitude of books was a welcomed comfort. I shuffled my sneakers on the thin, gray carpet and glanced toward the window on the other side of the right bookshelf.

After an hour of research, I’d only uncovered a few things, including a newspaper article written two days after that night about a local businessman named Henry Miller.

When I saw his picture, I gasped. It was the man who Adrian shot and killed that night.

Henry Miller.

The article said he went missing and was found dead a few days later. His death was presumed to be related to gang violence.

A freak accident.

The wrong place at the wrong time.

Another article even suggested Henry had connections to a local gang called the Phantoms. Adrian’s gang .

The article said Henry worked for them, but it didn’t say for how long or what he did, just that gang members were seen often visiting him in town.

Henry and Adrian obviously knew each other before that night, but was Henry selling something to Adrian? And then when Henry demanded more money, Adrian killed him? Is that what I had witnessed moments before Henry’s death?

The pieces were slowly coming together.

But why would Henry risk it for more money? And why did he meet that night in such an isolated location? If the deal was so important, why did Adrian go alone?

My phone vibrated on the tabletop. I jumped at the sound and hoped it wasn’t another photo from my stalker.

It was a text from Drew.

I’d been ignoring his texts all day. I didn’t want to talk to him because I wanted to handle things on my own. If Drew knew what happened earlier, he would have demanded I stay at his apartment all day.

Besides, I was safer in public, right?

Drew

If you need anything, call me.

You would let me know if something was wrong, right?

I just want to make sure you’re okay.

You’re probably in class but just checking in.

Everything all right?

Me:

Yes.

Thanks.

For checking in.

Drew:

How’s your day going?

It was clear Drew was worried about me being out alone and was just trying to be nice—maybe even distract me from everything with Adrian. But I couldn’t tell him that someone was watching me and sending me creepy pictures.

That would only make him worry more.

Besides, maybe it was nothing.

Me:

As can be expected when your psycho ex is after you.

Drew:

I’ll pick you up after I get off work.

I should be there a little after 6 .

Nodding to myself in response to his text, I put my phone away and shifted my focus back on the news article.

I felt bad for ignoring Drew all day, but I had only just scratched the surface of information about that night. There were still too many questions left unanswered.

I needed to know more.