how hard James had been looking, recently.
“I published the piece a while ago,” Nina hedged, which was a non-answer if he’d ever heard one.
He took a deep breath, because he had a feeling he’d need to concentrate on staying calm during this conversation. “And the death threats started when?”
“A few weeks back,” she mumbled.
So much for staying calm. James stood up so fast, his chair hit the floor with a harsh clang. She jumped slightly, but he couldn’t even bring himself to care. He was too busy trying not to breathe fire, the sudden fury in his chest burned so hot and bright. “Weeks, Nina? Are you serious?”
She folded her arms, glaring up at him. “Sit down. You look like a bloody brick wall.”
He ignored her, planting his hands flat on the desk and leaning forwards. “You’ve been getting death threats for weeks, and I’m hearing about this now?”
Her cheeks hollowed, which meant she was biting down on the insides. Hard.
Little hurts. She was always hurting herself. He hated it. But he’d hurt her too, hadn’t he? He’d made a decision he wasn’t ready to deal with, touching her, and when it all got too real and he came to his senses he’d pushed her away.
Funnily enough, women didn’t like to be pushed away during sex. Maybe if he hadn’t been dizzy with forbidden horniness at the time, he would’ve remembered that and been more tactful.
Or refused to touch her in the first place, genius.
“It’s not like I could tell you before,” she said, dragging him out of depressingly familiar thoughts.
His blood became ice. “You mean you kept this to yourself just because we aren’t talking?”
“I mean why the fuck would I tell you anything when we aren’t friends anymore?” she shot back. Every word was like a bullet, slamming into him and tearing him apart. “We aren’t friends anymore.” Is that what she thought? Is that what this was? He’d told himself that if he gave her space, things would all work out in the end. But what if he’d been wrong? He’d also told himself that she’d spoken in anger on that awful day, but Nina was never carried away by emotion like he was.
What if she’d meant every fucking word?
The fire in him burnt out, leaving nothing but cold, charred insides behind. James felt suddenly disorientated, as if the world had shifted around him. But he couldn’t waste time with self-indulgent worries about his place in Nina’s life when that life was apparently in danger.
And you weren’t there for her. She’s been dealing with this alone for weeks, all because you were weak.
He squashed the guilt. It could haunt him later.
“If you weren’t planning on coming to me,” he said quietly, “what changed? Did something happen?”
Her silence was even more damning than her suddenly shifty gaze.
“Nina,” he gritted out. “What. Happened?”
She exhaled sharply, slumping down in her seat. One booted foot came up to rest against his desk, and she fiddled with the rip in her jeans. “I thought—I mean, I was wrong, I’m sure I was wrong—but I thought I heard somebody trying to get into the house last night.”
His lungs seized. “Explain.”
“Well, now it’s daylight, I think I was just paranoid. But I got a few weird tweets yesterday, cryptic comments about figuring out my identity, you know? Like someone knew who I was. And then, last night, I heard the front door rattling. It was probably the wind, but—”
“What?” he choked out. A cocktail of anger and fear held his muscles in its tight, clawed grip. “Why didn’t you call me?”
Her mulish stare was, apparently, all the answer she was prepared to give.
“Did you at least call someone?” he demanded.
“Like who? Flynn? Jasmine? Hey, babes, come over and make sure I’m not murdered, would you? Bring Jelly Babies. Xoxo, Nina.”
“Like the police,” he gritted out.
“Hmmm… home alone with a stalker, or home alone with the police. What an exciting game of chance.”
James closed his eyes and took yet another deep breath. He knew Nina distrusted the police more than most, thanks to her past experiences with them. It was interesting, how often peaceful protests ended with her behind bars. And how frequently whatever charge they’d dragged her in on later proved to be absolute bullshit.
“Fine,” James allowed, opening his eyes again. “Fine. Okay. But you do realise that we need to report this, right?”
She gave him a dark look.
“Nina.”
“Yes,” she said flatly. “I realise that.”
“Good. Okay. We’ll do it together. I’ll take you to