Xander, but…you are the only person I could think of to ask,” she sighed.
Karla and Trevor had refused to discuss the favor until after we had eaten, and now, I suspect it was because I’d be too stuffed and fat to make a run for it. “You want me to purchase a house in my name, utilities included, for a friend of yours who’s driving all the way over here from California, because she’s being stalked?”
“She would put up the money and pay the mortgage. She just can’t have the house and stuff in her name,” Karla clarified. “We don’t know how he finds her and, for all we know, he could be a cop or someone good with computers. Fallon has no social media accounts and keeps to herself. The only way he can find her-after moving six times, might I add-is through her work or rental information.”
I ran my hands through my brown hair, making it stand on end no doubt, while I leaned back in the kitchen chair. Resting my arms back on the table I looked at Trevor. “Have you ever met this woman?”
He shook his head. “No,” he answered. “She’s a childhood friend of Karla’s.”
I gave him an understanding nod. I knew Karla was a foster kid, and she moved to Brant after graduating from college, where she met Trevor. His home was Brant, and this is where she followed him. Her only family was an uncle who lived in South Dakota. Trevor was all she had here in Brant, but she seemed perfectly happy with that. This Fallon woman must really mean a lot to her.
I looked back at Karla and hated the words that were going to come out of my mouth because they were going to make it sound as if I didn’t trust Karla, and that wasn’t true. I trusted her almost as much as I trusted Trevor. Only difference was Trevor had childhood friendship seniority on her. “So, you’re asking me to take on a debt of hundreds of thousands of dollars on a…promise that she’ll pay it? Are you really asking me to...risk my credit and financial reputation to…help out a stranger?”
Karla’s back snapped and I could see her bristle a bit. “No,” she contended. “I’m asking you to do me a favor, Xander.”
My eye flicked towards Trevor before landing on Karla again. “If she’s putting up all the money, why can’t you guys purchase the home in your names?” I asked.
Karla let out another quiet sigh and her shoulders drooped, all offense evaporating. “The only thing Fallon’s certain of is that it’s someone from our childhood. She thinks it’s someone who grew up with us in foster care.”
“Because of the rabbit,” I deduced.
Karla nodded. “Because of the rabbit,” she confirmed. “It would be too easy to link my name to hers. Again, we don’t know who it is, but it wasn’t a secret I was her best friend back then. And it’s not a secret that I’m her only friend now.”
I grabbed for the beer next to my empty dinner plate and took a good, long drink. It was hard to wrap my mind around her words. I mean, I knew people got stalked all the time. I wasn’t a complete moron. But to stalk someone for years without making a move? That seemed…odd.
“Then why move here if she can be connected to you? Why not move to…Florida or New York? Hell, if a person really wanted to get lost, New York would be the place to do it.”
Karla shrugged a shoulder. “She said she’s tired of running,” she replied. “She wants to try her hand at a normal life for once. She said if he comes for her here in Brant, then he comes for her. Plus, I think she might just be tired of being alone.” I saw her reach for Trevor’s hand, and he automatically linked his fingers through hers.
I was having difficulty buying into the desperation of the story. I knew Karla was telling me the truth as she knew it, but some of the story had holes in it. Not calling Karla a liar, but I knew some of the questions I had could only be answered by the woman in question.
I had uncharitable images of a theatrical damsel in distress and I wasn’t comfortable with that. I wasn’t an asshole. I did my best not to judge people or their situations, but then, this situation was calling to involve me. And since