Chapter 326 - Creeping Closer
"Oh, yeah. Should we hire someone?" he asked thoughtfully.
"Not at all. I'll take care of it. I love to cook so I'll ask Stephen to get us all the produce."
"You'll be my nutritionist from now on?" he teased.
"I need to cook for my videos, so I'd do it anyway." She poked her tongue out.
"You shouldn't cook on vacation." He grumbled.
"I'm not on vacation. I'm accompanying you and working while I am at it," she reminded him. "If it does you any good, we'll eat out sometimes. I saw the pictures of the fancy kitchen, so I can't wait to get my hands on it."
"We'll be living together... finally." He breathed in relief.
"It is exciting," she commented. "There will be people around, but it will be like living alone. A taste of our future life." Her smile was sweet, filling him with hope for an equally sweet and bright future together. "You guys may not eat outside, but when you are in my home, you will bloody well eat what I cook, understood?" Katherine threatened.
The bodyguards looked over, stoic and emotionless, but they nodded nonetheless. Cage chuckled as he stroked her hair. This girl... she really knew how to scare these burly men.
- - -
Two weeks had gone by. Not a single threat was caught by the bodyguards. Stephen was on the edge of his seat.
"I'm starting to think we are on a wild goose chase," Cage sighed.
"Have you read the new letters? There are more." Stephen frowned as he threw the letters in front of Cage. Cage looked at them before staring in the direction of the kitchen where Katherine was preparing dinner.
"Keep the security on alert. I don't think anything is going to happen." Stephen looked solemn. "They are words. Delusions of an obsessed mind. Maybe those pictures were sent by someone else." He really wanted to dismiss it. Everything on set had been going great and Katherine and Cage had been frequenting the same places religiously. Nothing had come from it.
"Seriously?" Stephen rolled his eye. "These letters weren't sent to H City or to your post box. These were sent to the hotel with my room number written in particular," Stephen huffed. "They didn't find out where you are living yet, but they are on the move. They aren't in H city or across the country, there are right here, waiting for you."
"You're assuming that they are the same person."
"You would know it is the same person if you looked inside. It's still the same grand narrative. Only, this time, Giselle isn't mentioned. At all. It's Katherine they keep mentioning. Nothing too threatening but these letters? I don't like them."
The letters were lightly powdered, showing that Stephen had tried to get fingerprints.
"No trace?"
"None. They didn't even touch the envelope. It's very... particular."
Cage felt his heartbeat stutter. He opened the letters and inspected them. The letter was written on the computer and printed out. Same font, same spacing... even the peculiarities in grammar were the same. Cage read.
The person writing sounded concerned. It spoke about a grand plot that Katherine had hatched to get close to him... to break his heart and whatnot. They lamented how it was a pity they had met and she was using him to get famous.
All conspiracy theories. But it was the ending words of the latest letter that sent chills down Cage's spine.
[I understand why you are doing this. Your hands are tied. It's okay. I'll help you.]
He mulled over the words in his head.
He cursed under his breath, rubbing his temples as he tried to get his head around the meaning of the words. "I'm exposing Katherine to... this?"
"We have security. We just... don't know how to lure them out. Work with me here."
"We can't take this to the police?" Cage asked, sounding desperate.
"There are no direct threats to Katherine and your safety. There is no information to identify the person. Unless you are in physical danger, the police can't do anything."
"So... we can just lay in wait for this person to reveal themself or live the rest of our lives in fear?"
"Pretty much," Stephen sighed. The conversation ended when Katherine entered. She would have to be informed of this development. The worst thing they could do was keep her out of the loop.
- - -
Their pleasant time in the house was shrouded by the time outside. They had a blissful time out, but at the back of their mind, they thought about the people surrounding them. There was someone close enough and the bodyguards hadn't found them yet.
Katherine had dared to drag Cage to another filled street. Numerous people, some reporters. Their pictures were making the rounds in the papers. A week had gone by, the media was dying down about the situation.
But another letter had arrived. This time at the house they were renting.
The edges of the letter were bruised like the person had thought about sending it. But it remained clean of fingerprints.
[I'm close. I'm watching.] It said.
The team sat together to plan their next move.
"They're not lying," Katherine said. Cage was disturbed to hear a slight tremor in her voice. Her hands were crossed over her chest in a defensive manner.
"What do you mean?" Stephen asked.
"He or she was very close to us," she said loudly.
The bodyguards sat up. "What do you mean?" They had been there, explicitly watching everyone in the crowd that surrounded them.
"In the letter, she referenced what I was wearing. If it had been that, I wouldn't have said anything, but she referenced the bracelet I have been wearing the past week. See here." She pointed at a sentence. "'The bracelet matches the necklace, too. So ugly.'"
"In all the pictures since I bought the bracelet and wore it, I had jackets on. None of the pictures taken had captured it, so he or she was definitely at the scene... and close enough to have seen the bracelet." She pulled out her hand and showed it to everyone.
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