Night Whispers - Leslie Kelly [71]
He didn’t soften one bit. “Gee, it really paid off, didn’t it? Now on top of worrying about some wacko stalking you, I have to wonder if there’s anything else going on that you haven’t told me about because you want to ‘keep things perfect’ between us.”
Kelsey bit her lip and shook her head vehemently. “No, Mitch. You know everything. And don’t make it sound worse than it is. I’m not being stalked. It’s not that terrible. I mean, I certainly don’t feel threatened, just a little uncomfortable.”
“You should feel threatened! What if when you opened your car door the other night you’d found some nut with a knife instead of just some balloons? He’s been watching you, knows which one’s your car, what you look like. And he has obviously followed you home, because he now knows where you live! That doesn’t sound like normal behavior to me, Kelsey. Whoever’s doing this has got a screw loose somewhere.”
Mitch threw himself down in an armchair. Kelsey wished he’d sat beside her on the couch. She wanted him close. He obviously wanted some distance. She blinked rapidly to hold back tears.
“Mitch, I was wrong. I’m sorry. I should have come to you and told you about it. But can you honestly say that you would have been able to deal with it logically? To just sit back and wait for something to happen, for this guy to get caught or to stop? Because that’s really all we can do.”
“Hell, no,” he retorted. “That’s not all we can do. We can remove the temptation, not let Lady Love make Kelsey Logan a target for one more day.”
Kelsey stood up and placed her hands on her hips, feeling anger replace the guilt she’d been feeling moments before. “What are you saying?”
Mitch stood and moved close to her until they were practically nose to nose. “What I’m saying is, no more Night Whispers, no more threat. Maybe even no more lies between us.”
She crossed her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes. “Did you just, basically, order me to quit my job? Because, for some reason, I seem to remember being in this room with you a few hours ago and hearing you say you’d never presume to order me to do anything.”
Mitch’s mouth tightened. “No, I’m not ordering you. I am relying on your common sense and your intelligence to make you come to the realization that quitting is the only answer.”
Kelsey ground her teeth, hearing his college professor tone and not liking it one bit. “No, Mitch, quitting is not the only answer. Letting the police take care of this is one option, ignoring it is another, being extra vigilant is a third. These are other options…ones that I’m actually going to consider—unlike your suggestion, which I find totally ludicrous.”
Kelsey saw Mitch stiffen, his face a cold, unfamiliar mask as he absorbed her words. She nearly regretted them, but forced herself to remember why she’d spit them out in the first place. He’d issued her an order, whether he saw it that way or not.
“So, you’re not even going to discuss the possibility of quitting Night Whispers. Getting on the radio and sharing dirty little secrets with the lusting public is so important to you you’d risk your personal safety. And you’d throw away what you and I have.”
She heard what he was really saying. Kelsey felt things spinning out of control. Their words were leading to heartache, but she couldn’t do anything to stop them.
“And now it’s not an order, it’s an ultimatum? I quit or I lose you?” she asked, wanting to be sure she understood him correctly.
He didn’t respond. She stood still for a few seconds, silently praying he’d take her in his arms and tell her they’d work through it together. He didn’t move.
“You know, Mitch, maybe the real reason I didn’t come to you with this whole ‘knight’ nonsense, is this. It’s this moment. It’s because I knew you’d use it as an excuse to try to convince me to give up something I love because it doesn’t fit in with your ordered life.”
Her voice broke and she felt tears falling from her eyes and down her cheeks. She angrily dashed them away with the back of her hand. “You’re not just asking me to quit