Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

brIDGER

I left my charge back at the bar, flirting with the bartender. I don’t understand why it bothered me to see her making eyes at him, but it grated on my nerves. Who Slick’s niece fucks is none of my business. All that matters is I keep her safe. That’s my job. Not staring at her ass in those tight jeans she’s wearing.

I’ve tailed her since she left West Virginia. Put an Air Tag on her car at the first gas station she stopped at. Woman is clueless. I can see her location through an app on my phone. She’s on the road headed this way, not leaving me much time to finish my perimeter check for blind spots.

Doesn’t sit right with me, not telling her I’m here for her protection, but it’s not my call. Not yet.

There are four other cabins but our two seem to be the only ones currently booked, but that could change at any time.

I make my way inside to get settled in for the night.

Headlights flash across my window, signaling Jennie’s arrival. I stand off to the side, peering out the blinds, wondering if she brought that pretty boy bartender back with her. I snicker to myself as she exits the car with what looks like a fried cheese stick dangling between her lips. The cheese stretches as the bottom half hits her chin as she struggles with her drink, keys, phone, and food.

A gentleman would run out to help her. I’m no one’s savior and she’d realize I was spying if I reveal my presence now. She loses half of the cheese stick to a puddle. Not much later, the door to her cabin closes. We’re close enough that we share a parking area and that if both of us had our side-facing windows open, we could reach out and touch one another.

Right as I’m settling in for the night, the door to her cabin sounds once more. In nothing but my boxer briefs, I once again stand silently in the shadows, watching over her as she unloads her travel bags. Once she’s safely back inside, I climb back into my bed and take my phone off the nightstand.

Opening up TikTok, I return to Jennie Elise’s profile and hit the follow button, knowing I shouldn’t engage with her yet unable to stop myself. Scrolling through her videos, I watch the ones where she talks about her books with such passion. Not only is she gorgeous. She’s driven and I admire that.

Going through her comments, I don’t see anything outside of the normal fans or trolls, even. Her assistant could delete things from the stalker. However, when I search for her name, I come across an account that appears to post rants about one book in particular. There are fifteen videos that are the ramblings of a fan calling Jennie’s last release pure garbage. Talking about how her style has changed. Accusing her of using a ghostwriter. The woman is going on about how she ruined her favorite character. That she should pull the book off the market and rewrite it.

Could this be the stalker? The one sending her dead flowers?

I grab the file Prez gave me. There’s not much about the stalker other than the emails threatening Jennie that if she doesn’t fix what she fucked up, she’ll pay. Jennie told Slick that could mean review bombs, but then the flowers starting up meant that whoever they are, they have knowledge of where she lives. Sure, it could be the pissed off fan, but I don’t get stalker vibes from them.

The file says nothing about exes, but a quick search online brings up a Reddit thread about her dating a horror writer. When she ended things, he wrote a novel about a character named Jeanie who met a terrible end. Users of the forum suspect Jeanie is code for Jennie.

Sure, the guy sounds like a dick, but does that make him a stalker? I’m not so sure.

A quick search of him brings up more threads. Apparently, he had a movie deal that fell through. It’s possible he blames Jennie for his misfortune. Sounds like karma to me.

Rain pelts against the tin roof, providing a soothing lullaby that carries me straight to dreamland with visions of Jennie Elise running through my head.

My alarm sounds and the last thing I want is to leave the softness of this bed, but I have a job to do and if something happens to Slick’s niece on my watch, it’ll be my neck on the chopping block.