it.”
I watched him walk away, because…well, his ass was art. The clearing of a throat made my head turn. Mel smiled at me knowingly.
“So, what will you be drinking with those buns?” she asked, and I laughed with her.
I ordered our drinks, went over to the DIY counter, and fixed them. My gaze kept wandering toward the three men. They were quiet, but I could see the seriousness on Ledger’s and Ciro’s faces in reaction to whatever the mystery friend was saying to them.
When I got to the table, Ledger smiled at me, and I took the only other seat, which happened to be next to the stranger.
“Shane,” Ciro said. “This is an old friend of mine, Riordan Darcy. He has his own security company and, well, let’s just say a lot of experience in things.”
“Nice to meet you, Shane.” Riordan held out his hand, and I took it in mine. It was a firm shake.
“Same.”
“I was just telling him about the three gifts I’d gotten,” Ledger told me.
“What I’m hearing is that, while somewhat innocent, there’s a certain type of escalation happening here,” Riordan said as he sipped his coffee.
“How so? Two of the gifts were songs? I mean the first was flowers and no song but…” Ledger shrugged.
“Right. The flowers could have even not been from him. Maybe we play that they aren’t for a second and the organizers sent them to you, Ledger.” Riordan folded his hands on the table…damn, they were huge. “Name tags fall off all the time. So, pretending they aren’t connected, although I think they are, let’s take the other two gifts, shall we?”
“Okay.” This guy spoke calmly, and while I knew he was all business and being serious, he had a way of not making me terrified.
“The first gift, a teddy bear holding a box with a drive in it, and a note was delivered to you. Note said that he thought you were special…fucking special, which is a quote from the song. Jarring, yes, but I’ve seen way worse.”
I truly believed this guy had seen some shit. While he was calm and collected, the same darkness that lingered in Ciro’s eyes was in Riordan’s too.
“Okay, but it was a song and a quote the second time too,” Ledger said.
“Except, one, the quote was more personal, indicating they were watching you when you were most vulnerable. Second, they delivered it to you. Where you work.”
Ciro interrupted, “We think it was the person. We also think whoever is doing this hired someone to drop it off.”
“Hmm.” I didn’t mean to draw attention to myself, but my hum had three sets of eyes trained on me.
“What are you thinking?” Riordan asked me.
“Oh, um, well. I may be wrong, I mean, I—”
“Trust your gut, kid. Most of the time it’s the best warning sign you get.” Riordan smiled.
“Okay, so, Joker’s Sin brings in a certain kind of clientele. They dress like they’re at a club, or sometimes suits after work and they need to unwind. But they always look like they want to be there, like they’re ready to take off a few layers and breathe, you know?” Riordan nodded. “This guy, person, whoever, they were awkward in that they didn’t feel comfortable being there. They were wearing a hoodie and jeans. On a night where three of the biggest DJs were going to be performing. He was out of place there.”
“Good, that’s good, Shane,” Riordan said and turned back to Ledger and Ciro. “This person is going to keep up the gifts until one of two things happens.”
“What’s that?” Ledger asked, and the quiver in his voice belied his calm expression.
“One, he gets bored and gives up. Or two, he escalates until he has your complete attention.”
“I’m all for him getting bored; how do we do that?” Ledger chuckled nervously.
“Unfortunately, that’s up to them.” Riordan finished his drink and pushed his cup aside.
“Should Ledger continue to ignore the person or acknowledge them somehow?” I wondered.
“You never acknowledge a stalker,” Ciro answered. “I do feel we are in the early stages of this actually becoming more serious or dangerous. That said, I’d suggest we raise the security on you. A dashboard cam to record where you’re going in your car. Better security at your place and the club and go from there.”
“What if the guy attacks him?” I argued.
“He’s not going to, I don’t think…not yet, anyway.” Riordan sighed. “I’m not saying treat it like nothing, but until we know, it’s more ignoring the gifts,