She noticed me, and I felt my stomach jump. My pulse was racing. I wasn’t sure I liked this game.

Teal stared at me for a moment. That pushed me to say, “Hi, I, umm, I’m sorry to bother you, but I just had a stupid flat tire. I was hoping there might be someone who could give me a hand.” Marty had said to distract her, but I really hadn’t put much thought into it. I hoped this was doing the trick. I figured he’d just slip into the house or do something equally juvenile.

Teal said, “I don’t think I’d be much help, but we can call someone. There’s a service station less than a mile away.”

She didn’t sound anything like I’d thought she would. Her voice was warm, and she genuinely seemed interested in helping me. That was a stark contrast to the portrait Marty had painted for me of his ex-wife. She was wearing a simple yellow floral print sundress and looked like a suburban mom who’d brought her kids back home from soccer practice. Suddenly I didn’t like the idea of helping Marty scare her.

Teal took a few steps past her open trunk toward me and was just about to say something else when Marty burst out of the bushes and stepped into the yard next to the driveway.

If this was his prank, it worked. Teal jumped and squealed, turning to face her ex-husband. Then she said, “Martin? What the hell are you doing here?”

Right at that point, I realized the game was already spiraling out of control.

Chapter 24

Now that Marty was out of the bushes and ready to confront his ex-wife, I didn’t see where the real scare was. He didn’t have the gun in his hand, and they immediately started to bicker. It was really more awkward than scary, and I have to say I was disappointed by the outcome.

Marty even looked a little confused as Teal started to make her points.

She said, “All you do is complain to me about not being able to pay alimony. How you’re so busy you don’t have a free minute in the day. But somehow you have time to drive all the way up here from West Palm Beach with your bimbo? That doesn’t make any sense, Martin.”

Marty just stared at her for a moment, and in all honesty, I felt embarrassed for him. Then he said, “Do you have any idea how you sound? How you are more like a shrieking bird than an actual woman? You’ve never even met Christy. How dare you call her a bimbo.”

“Really, Martin? Really? You’re at my house, where I moved to get away from your crazy jealousy and stalking, and now you’re lecturing me on jumping to conclusions about a woman I’ve never met?”

Then Teal looked at me. She did not have the scared, confused expression I had been expecting. Instead she said, “Are you part of his plan? You seem bright enough. How did he trick you? Did you just get sucked in slowly to his crazy schemes? It’s easy, I know. Everything seems normal until all of a sudden you realize he has no boundaries. His concept of reality is very different than it is for the rest of us. My advice to you would be to run. Just like I did. But apparently I didn’t run far enough.”