“I’m shocked Barrett doesn’t have a newer coffeepot.” She hated waiting for the whole pot to brew before taking it out.
The shower turned on and she smiled. She imagined Jayden’s naked body under the stream of water as he soaped up his muscular torso. She glanced at the coffee, contemplating skipping it and joining him in the shower.
The coffee completed its cycle and beeped. She sighed and poured a cup.
Grabbing her backpack, she headed into the living room and settled onto the couch. She took a sip of the hot liquid and set her cup on the coffee table.
She pulled out her notebook. She had a few minutes to go over some notes before Jayden got out of the shower. Might as well take advantage of the time. Since this whole stalker thing started, she could barely keep her mind on her academics. She’d been so consumed with worry that she’d fallen behind in her classes. She had a lot of catching up to do.
She frowned as she fished for a pencil in the bottom of her backpack.
Giving up when she couldn’t find one, she headed into the kitchen to get a pen out of her purse.
“Good morning.” Jayden came up behind her and kissed her neck.
“Good morning.” She laughed at his affectionate touch.
Jayden patted her butt and headed for the coffee pot.
She smiled and stuck her hand in her bag. Her fingers brushed something wet and sticky.
What the hell?
She jerked her hand out. Fear seized her and her heart stuttered in her chest.
Her fingertips were covered in dark red blood.
“What the fuck?” Jayden dropped his cup, the glass shattering on the floor. He grabbed her hand and wrapped it in a towel.
“Jesus, did you cut yourself?”
She shook her head and ran to the sink. “No, it’s something in my purse.” She held her hand under the sink frantically rubbing the stains off.
Jayden grabbed her purse and open it. His eyes widened.
“What is it?”
He looked up and met her gaze.
“Damn it, Jayden, tell me what it is!”
Jayden turned and held her gaze. “I don’t think you want to know.”
She flipped off the faucet and grabbed a towel, wiping away the water. “Show me.”
He started to shake his head, but she wasn’t having it.
She was done with the fear, done with having no control, done having her life taken away from her.
She snatched the bag out of his hand and looked inside.
Nausea curled in her stomach like rotten milk and she swallowed back her revulsion.
She met Jayden’s gaze. “Get it out of my purse.”
“I can’t get rid of it, it may have evidence.”
“I don’t care. Get it out of my purse. Now.”
He took the purse out of her hands and walked over to the kitchen sink. He grabbed an empty white garbage bag out from under the sink. Very carefully he reached into her purse and pulled out the dead baby pig with its throat slit.
#
“I want the right to kill this fucker, Barrett.” Jayden calmly spoke into the cell phone, despite the rage racing through his body at a volatile speed.
He was feeling anything but calm.
If it was the last thing he did, he was going to kill that motherfucker.
“Keep your head, Jayden. I need to know if the stalker actually got into the house or if he somehow got to her purse while she was out.” Barrett’s calm voice resonated control.
Jayden dragged his hand through his hair. “No, if he got into the house I would have known from the security cameras. That’s just not possible. He must have stuck the pig in while we were out at the bar.”
“Was there an opportunity when you were distracted? Where he might have had a chance to put it in her purse. I wouldn’t think he would have done it in class. It would have been too messy.”
Jayden’s gut sunk to the floor. He knew exactly when the stalker had messed with Haley’s bag.
And it had been his entire fault.
“Yeah. Last night at the bar. I got into a fight with a guy who put his hands on Haley.”
“Did you think he was the stalker? Did he threaten her?”
Jayden gritted his teeth. “Not in that sense.”
“In what sense then?”
“He put his hand on her and she wasn’t into him.”
Silence.
“So you got in a fight with an oversexed college guy in a bar because he hit on Haley. That is what oversexed college guys do.”
“Something like that.” Jayden gritted the words out. “Can we get back to the dead pig with a slit throat in her purse?”
“Certainly. I don’t think it is a coincidence that the stalker put a dead pig in her purse versus a bird or rat or even a cat.”
“Why?” Jayden frowned.
“Because she’s at the University of Arkansas. She is a Razorback. I’ll run the tests on the pig, but I suspect it is not your regular pig. I think it is a Razorback,” Barrett murmured. “The boyfriend is ruled out. And I don’t think the parents would harass her, despite being douche bags.”