Page 15 of Hurts So Good
Again, my mind wanders to Ty. He used to give me flowers. They were picked from the yard, not store-bought like my stalker brings, but it still reminds me of him.
I pick the flowers up off the counter, smiling. Ty was the first man who sparked something inside me, made me crave more...of everything. My stalker is the first person to revive those feelings within me. He made me feel safe and desired, just as Ty did once upon a time. To discover they’re the same person and that Ty’s been with me the entire time would be the best thing ever.
Hope blossoms inside me. It’s a feeling I haven’t had in many years. I forgot how good it feels. It’s a farfetched fantasy, but I can’t help holding onto it.
I arrange the flowers in a vase, imagining the impossible. My phone rings from the bedroom, shaking me out of my thoughts. With a sigh, I silently admit how unlikely it is they’re the same person.
I trudge to my room and pick up the phone. “Hello?”
“Hey!” Lena’s as cheerful as ever in her greeting. “Did you make it home okay last night? I’m sorry I couldn’t go out with you and Kieran after the fight. Donnie was pretty beaten up, so I needed to get him home.”
“It’s okay,” I assure her. “We were both tired after all the excitement, so we made a plan to meet up next week. Hopefully you can join us.”
“Definitely! I’ll make sure to be there, no matter what.”
“Good. How’s Donnie?”
“Okay, considering,” she says. “He’s in a lot of pain, but refuses to admit it. You know men.”
I snort. “Yeah, I do.”
It hits me, and I pause.
The fighter from last night.
His eyes had shone with recognition when they landed on me. I could ask Lena about him. Maybe something will stand out as to how he knows me and if he’s connected to my stalker.
“If Donnie is feeling up to it, could you ask him what he knows about the fighter from last night?” I pry.
“Ooh.” Lena perks up. “Thought he was hot, did you?”
“Something like that,” I mutter.
I can’t deny he was sexy as hell. Remembering the strength in his moves, the cruel and dominating power in him, along with his rock-hard abs and muscular arms, causes a shudder to course through me.
But that’s not the reason I’m asking. I can’t tell her that, though. Kieran freaked out when I mentioned the blue eyes of the fighter matched those of my stalker’s on our way home last night.
He kept telling me to report him, not understanding the fascination I have for him. While I love Kieran, he can be a bit overprotective. Neither he nor Lena know about my past traumas with the Rylees, and I’d like to keep it that way, but it also means they’ll never understand me or why I feel safe with my stalker.
Deep down, I know the masked man is no threat to me. But they’ll never see it from my side, so I’d rather not bring anymore attention to it. It’s easier to play it off as a crush and curb Lena’s questions about the truth.
“Hold on. I’ll ask,” she says.
I head back into the kitchen and fix myself breakfast while I wait. They exchange a few words before she comes back to me.
“He said he only knows what everyone else does in the circuit. No one knows what he looks like under the mask. His sponsor, Tomas, is the only way to find him. And he’s well-known around the streets as one of the best fighters to come through the illegal rings, but he refuses to move up to anything bigger or take on more sponsorships.”
I frown as I take my eggs over to the kitchen table and sit down. That’s not much to go on. How am I supposed to find out whether my assumptions are right if I have no way of checking off facts about them?
“Would you like to meet him?” The giddiness in Lena’s tone signals how hard it is for her to hold back from teasing me.
I straighten my spine. “Can I? Is that possible?”
“Donnie could probably set up a meeting through his sponsor.”
“Then yes. Do it!”
“Yay!” Lena cheers. “I’m so glad you’re finally dating.”