Contents (64)
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- PROLOGUE HIM
- CHAPTER ONE AUDREY
- CHAPTER TWO CAT
- CHAPTER THREE AUDREY
- CHAPTER FOUR CAT
- CHAPTER FIVE AUDREY
- CHAPTER SIX CAT
- CHAPTER SEVEN HIM
- CHAPTER EIGHT AUDREY
- CHAPTER NINE AUDREY
- CHAPTER TEN HIM
- CHAPTER ELEVEN CAT
- CHAPTER TWELVE AUDREY
- CHAPTER THIRTEEN HIM
- CHAPTER FOURTEEN AUDREY
- CHAPTER FIFTEEN HIM
- CHAPTER SIXTEEN CAT
- CHAPTER SEVENTEEN AUDREY
- CHAPTER EIGHTEEN CAT
- CHAPTER NINETEEN HIM
- CHAPTER TWENTY AUDREY
- CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE CAT
- CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO AUDREY
- CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE AUDREY
- CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR HIM
- CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE CAT
- CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX AUDREY
- CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN HIM
- CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT CAT
- CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE HIM
- CHAPTER THIRTY AUDREY
- CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE CAT
- CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO AUDREY
- CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE AUDREY
- CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR AUDREY
- CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE CAT
- CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX AUDREY
- CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN AUDREY
- CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT HIM
- CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE CAT
- CHAPTER FORTY AUDREY
- CHAPTER FORTY-ONE HIM
- CHAPTER FORTY-TWO AUDREY
- CHAPTER FORTY-THREE AUDREY
- CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR CAT
- CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE HIM
- CHAPTER FORTY-SIX AUDREY
- CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN AUDREY
- CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT HIM
- CHAPTER FORTY-NINE AUDREY
- CHAPTER FIFTY CAT
- CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE AUDREY
- CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO CAT
- CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE AUDREY
- CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR HIM
- CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE CAT
- CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX AUDREY
- CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN MAX
- CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT CAT
- CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE AUDREY
- CHAPTER SIXTY MAX
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shit.
Someone was out there. Terror climbed my throat, and I tried to think rationally. Last time I had confronted someone in the alley, I’d made the mistake of charging at them with that shoe. They’d fled into the night, and I’d been left without even a description of the creep to give to the police. This time I needed to be more shrewd. I would sneak out there, capture this disgusting Peeping Tom on my phone, and then call the police. Even if he booked it before they arrived, at least then I could give them a suspect. Maybe they would catch him and I could finally relax.
I opened the front door and gate as quietly as I could, but nearly blew my cover when I tripped over a random cardboard box in my walkway. I covered my mouth to mask my surprised inhalation, shoved the empty box out of the way with my foot, and began creeping along the building to the alley. Once I’d reached the alley gate, I took a deep breath and readied the camera on my phone. With my pulse thundering in my ears, I peered through the gap between the gate and the building.
There was no one there.
Confused, I threw open the gate and stepped into the alley, turning around to see every corner of it.
It was only when I pivoted back around that I realized the gate at the other end of the alley was ajar, swinging slightly on its hinges as though someone had just gone through it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN AUDREY
I woke groggily, consciousness sticky with the remnants of a sleeping pill. Unnerved by the incident with the near miss with someone in the alley, I’d been unable to sleep. At two in the morning, exhausted but wired, I swallowed an Ambien and fell into a dark, dreamless slumber.
I reached for my alarm-bleating phone and found that it wasn’t charging in its usual spot on my cardboard box–slash–nightstand. Only after riffling through my tangled sheets did I find it in bed beside me, along with my laptop. Rubbing my eyes, I plugged in my phone and set about my first task of the day: checking the Hirshhorn social media accounts. I gave a cursory glance to the hundreds of comments that had appeared on the posts about the Rosalind opening, promising myself I would read them more fully once I was at the office and had consumed some caffeine—preferably enough caffeine to give half the city the jitters.
Next, I checked my personal account and found a bunch of messages about Gossip Girl (Chair 4ever!, You’re prettier than Serena!, I ♥ GG!), including one from Nick: That’s what you’re doing instead of me? Lame, Aud. Lame.
I lay back on my pillow and turned the camera on myself, fanning my hair out around my head like rays of the sun. I experimented with a few different angles before taking a selfie using a filter that gave me puppy ears. I uploaded it to my Story with an animated GIF of a dancing cup of coffee.