Finding Kat (16 page)

“Following you? Kat that doesn’t sound good. I agree you need a guard at your house. I’d like to give you a recommendation for a security specialist that I know, if you’ll let me. And I want you to have a guy with you during the day but I don’t think you’ll go for that.” I sighed into the phone. I’d heard so many stories like this one and not all of them ended well.

“I appreciate the thought and I will take you up on the recommendation for the guy for my house, but I don’t think I need to be babysat just yet. I will keep you informed though. I won’t take risks or ignore any potential signs of imminent danger.” She didn’t seem to think this was as worrisome as I did. I would trust her judgment for now, but I made a mental note to stay in constant contact with her and to talk to Jake, my head of security about what we could do to increase her safety.

“Thank you. I will go along with that plan for now. But if this guy approaches you or the letters become threatening we may need to take further steps to ensure your safety. I have a friend at the LA police department. If you can have Cammie give those letters to him, we can see what he thinks. He deals with this stuff all the time. I’d feel better with an expert opinion about the danger level of this guy.”

“Sure. That sounds like a good idea. Just give me his info and I’ll tell Cammie.” I was completely relieved she went along with my need to protect her as well as I could. I didn’t believe in taking unnecessary risks.

“Thank you for being so reasonable about this. I don’t like the feeling I get just hearing this guy is out there following you but we can’t do much about letters. It’s not against the law to send fan mail. I have to get back to the guys, but I want you to call me when you get done tonight. I want to go to dinner with you.” I couldn’t wait to see her again. Especially with the knowledge of this potential danger. Maybe I could find a way to convince her to be more careful and keep a bodyguard with her at all times. She really should be doing that anyway. I know that she values her privacy but I wanted her to be careful and safe no matter the cost. If I knew, she wouldn’t figure it out I would send one of my guys to follow her.

“Dinner. Like a date? Cade Walker are you finally asking me out?” She said sounding playful. I had realized that our previous encounters had all been orchestrated with Ally or by her and I wanted to let her know that I was going to make an effort for her. I wanted to see her and be near her as often as our schedules allowed.

“I’m not asking. I’m telling. We are going to dinner, we are going to make out in the car on the way home, and we may even get to second base.” I smiled to myself knowing that she would eat that shit up. I knew that I got to her. I could tell when she was getting hot and bothered by me. I hoped I was a little less transparent.

“Second base? Oh my. I can’t wait. I will call you later, rock star.” I couldn’t wait to get my hands on her body. I spent a lot of time imaging what it would be like to finally make love to Kat. I knew it would be spectacular but I was patient and willing to build the excitement. There was nothing as powerful as delayed gratification.

“Bye sweetheart.” I said with a bit of a growl in my voice. I wanted her to know that I wanted her and that she had as much of a pull on me as I did on her. And I enjoyed the fuck out of her reactions when I did something I knew she thought was sexy. We’ve had several conversations about the things that turn her on and I had an arsenal full of ideas to really make her sweat in anticipation.

Chapter Eight

KAT

I spent the afternoon in a fog of anticipation. I made a handful of calls to iron out details of various appearances and interviews. I had a magazine cover coming up. And I had that lunch with the author of Damages and the producers of the movie. They had sent over a copy of a scene for me to go over and I had to say I was nervous and excited about the idea of being in the film. It would be a few months before they got everything together but if everything worked out I would get to help screen the other actors who would be in the movie.

The future of my career loomed bright and shining in front of me and I was more excited than I had ever been about my job. More excited than ever about my life, really. My boyfriend is Cade Walker, rock star and sex symbol. He is strong, passionate, and protective. He was everything I wanted in a partner and he wanted me back. I could see a future with him in it. Spending my nights with him at whatever event, I had going on. Or even better, just being lazy and watching TV from my couch. Going on tour with him and watching him make magic and weave a spell around his audience. I was his biggest fan and I wanted to be there to support him in whatever he wanted to do. And I wanted to make an effort to plan my schedule to fit his. I didn’t want our relationship to die because we didn’t have time to even talk to each other much less see each other. Maybe I was getting ahead of myself but I wanted to start our relationship as we mean to go on. Not let the magic and romance fade away because we get too comfortable. He was special to me and I wanted him to feel that way all the time.

My phone buzzed then with a text from the security guy at my gate that Cade sent over. He was the strong silent type who said the bare minimum of words meant to get his point across and then got down to doing whatever it was that needed to be done. The text was brief and to the point.

You received a package from an unknown sender. Come outside.

I was puzzled because I wasn’t expecting anything, and I was still frowning when I walked outside to meet Dex.

“I wasn’t expecting anything. And there are only so many people who have my address.”

I looked at the box trying to divine its origin just from staring at the outside. It was a medium size box. Plain generic packaging. The label had my name on it and my address. Nothing stood out as being unusual but the box gave me the creeps anyway. Maybe it was spending an hour on the phone with the detective friend of Cade’s but something had alarm bells going off in my head.

“Open it.” I told him.

He sat the box down, pulled a knife out of his pocket, and cut the tape. Inside the box was a mixture of things. Toys for a child, a wilted flower, a birthday banner, and a stack of what looked to be old letters. They were warn and had smudges on them. They looked like they had been carried around by someone for a while. Written over an extended period of time, I guessed.

Dex looked up at me with a frown and suggested we call Cade and Rick the detective. I could only nod my head wondering why someone would send me these seemingly random objects.

Something about the objects tugged at my mind but the thought never fully formed beyond a sense of familiarity. Rick pulled up to my gate first and Dex walked over and keyed the code in to open it. He climbed out of his SUV and walked up to me with a grim kind of smile.

“Hi, Kat. I’m sorry to meet you under these circumstances.” He took my hand into his larger one and shook it softly.

“Hey Rick. It’s nice to meet you in person. Nothing bonds people together like creepy mail, right? Why don’t we bring all this inside? I could use a cookie for this kind of business.”

I directed them inside my house and to my living room where I had a plate of cookies sitting from earlier.

“OK before we look into this box we need to put on gloves so we don’t damage any evidence that could be found and connected to whoever is sending you this stuff. I have a feeling he is the guy that says he follows you and thinks he is dating you. He is under a pretty strong delusion and there’s no telling how far he is going to take it. The way he writes suggests it has been going on for a while on his end.”

I was a bit flabbergasted. I had no idea I had someone watching me and imagining that we had some kind of connection. It was a little sad and scary. I had no way of knowing how far this guy was willing to take it to make his delusion become reality, or whether or not he was in any way violent. There were so many unknowns at this point the only way to learn more would be to dig through this box and try to piece it all together.

So I took a deep breath and pulled on the gloves Rick handed me. Whatever was in there I just knew things were going to get worse before they got better.

I pulled out the stack of letters figuring that they would give me the most insight into this guy’s mind. The first letter was written in the writing of a child. He wrote about mundane things, but the letter said that he began writing to me because he saw a movie I was in and really liked it. Wow. This all started with the first movie I was ever in. I was kind of blown away by that information.

The next letters told the story of a boy who was bullied by everyone in his life, his classmates, older kids, but most telling, his father. He was beaten frequently by his father for a series of imagined offenses and with every letter he wrote he lost more and more of his childlike enthusiasm. At some point, he must have mailed a letter to me and gotten some kind of response because he goes on and on about it with the first spark of life I had read about since the first letter.

That must have been the trigger, I thought. He got a reply and he thought it was from me personally. He thought it was someone reaching out to him at a time when he was desperate for some kindness. Every word I read broke my heart just a little more. This poor boy.

I was pulled out of the letters by the opening of the door. Cade walked in and I swear the room felt lighter. I could feel the relief that filled me at the sight of him. He would help me find this man and get him the help he needed. I knew he would. He walked to me and I stood to meet him. I wrapped my arms around him and breathed in the spice of his scent. Felt the warmth of him through his clothes. He kissed me, a lingering soft brush of lips.

“He wrote to me. All of his life he wrote to me. When his father broke his leg at 12. When kids at school made fun of him and ruined his art project. He needed someone so badly to connect to him and somehow along the way that person became me. Or the me that he imagined. I became more real to him than anyone he crossed paths with in his real life. This is a man in desperate need of help. We have to find him and get him the help he needs.” I looked into Cade’s eyes and pleaded with him silently to agree.

“He could be dangerous, Katherine. We don’t know why he is here or why he is following you. We don’t know what his intentions are. He could have become violent, as he got older. We need to let the police find him and let them decide whether or not he is a danger to you or other people.” He tucked my hair behind my ear and kissed my forehead.

“I agree. We will read the rest of the letters and look for clues to where he is. Then I will send some guys out looking for him so we can take him in for questioning. If we find that he is, mentally unstable we can have him admitted to a facility where they will be able to help. But I don’t think you should have any interaction with him for fear that it will make him unstable.”