Sebastian: The Complete Series (36 page)

“I don’t have a problem with that. I'm happiest right here with you.”

“Me too. Robert…” I looked up at him and he smiled.

“It’s okay to need me right now, Seb, and don’t worry, you won’t feel like this forever.”

“What if I do?”

“I don’t have a problem with you needing me, Seb. My goal in life is to love and look after you.”

I curled into his body, holding him tightly as we both drifted off to sleep.

I don’t know how much time passed, but a noise disturbed me and I opened one eye. The sun was still shining and the noise of people coming home from work reached the bedroom through the opened window.

I was just relaxing back into Robert again when another sound caught my attention, this time from inside the house. I went stone cold and looked to the open bedroom door. The floorboards creaked in the landing, the sound so close I knew it came from near the room. I gripped Robert’s hand tightly, shaking him and not taking my eyes off the shadow I could see moving outside on the floor. The outline of a person caught in the sun from the long window on the staircase was displayed ominously on the wall opposite our room.

“Robert…” I whispered as low as I could, still tugging his arm and getting a groan from him in response.

The shadow outside stopped, and the breath halted in my chest. I looked past the door hanging open in the room, finding the small gap between it and the frame. When my eyes focused, a fear like I had never experienced before ripped through me. It was straight from a horror movie, and I’m not going to lie to you, I’m no good with jumpy films. I scream like a girl and cover my eyes so I don’t see the spooky stuff.

One eye looked back at me through the thin slit, not moving its gaze from my own, watching me as I stared right back, not moving, just remaining perfectly still. I had no idea if they understood I could see them or if they just didn’t care, but the fact they continued to look right at me freaked me out to a point where I thought I was just going to pass out from the hummingbird-style beat my heart had taken up.

“Robert!!”

Robert woke immediately, looking from my drip white shaking body to where I was pointing.

“There’s a man… out there…”

He was up and running to the door. “Stay here.”

“No!”

He was out in the hallway when we both heard the door downstairs being thrown open. I listened as Robert swore and took off after whoever it was. I could hear shouting outside and on shaky legs I made it the big bay window and saw Robert in a dressing gown standing on the street, a black Mercedes speeding off into the distance.

Things just got super serious. I wasn’t safe, and neither was Robert. I was already picking up the phone and dialing the police as I watched Robert turn to look at me from the street, the unspoken words passing through us as we shared the same emotion. Fear.

“I
thought I locked it.” Robert ran his fingers through his hair. “I saw everyone out, then locked it. I'm sure I did.”

The police officer was checking the door for any signs of damage, but there was none. “Are you one hundred percent sure? There’s no obvious sign they forced their way inside.”

Robert closed his eyes, apparently second guessing himself.

I took hold of his hand in mine. “He wouldn’t have left it open, I know he wouldn’t. They had to gain entry somehow. How did they do it?”

“We’re still trying to find that out, Mr Knight. In the meantime, I’d suggest additional security, like dead bolts, and changing the locks on the major entry points just to be sure.”

“Change the locks?” Robert stiffened and looked at the door. “I know I locked this. I
know
I did. I even took the keys out and placed them right here.” He pointed to the drawer in the cabinet, then pulled them out. “The door was wide open when I got down here. I could see the guy running to his car. I just missed him.”

Despite seeing him, we still had no idea who it could be, or even give the police a good description due to the hoodie and balaclava he was wearing. All we had was his height and build and the black Mercedes with a partial license plate.

“We’ll check all the available entry points and see if we can find anything, but just to be sure, I’d change the locks on all the doors, or at least have dead bolts put in place. You have a nifty house alarm here. Wasn’t it activated?”

“It was the afternoon. I’ve never set it during the day when I’ve been home.” Robert sighed in irritation. “It was broad daylight, and this is a quiet street. This is connected to the murder in Leeds, I know it is. This stalker has set his sights on Seb and he’s not going to stop.” Robert flashed a look at me before reaching out and hugging me. “I'm sorry… I just.” He turned to look at the officer. “You guys don’t seem to be taking this as seriously as I think you should be.”

“We’re taking it seriously, Mr Barrett. I can assure of that. We want this guy before he hurts anyone else. But right now, there’s no proof it was him. There’s no proof full stop. Not here regarding this or the murder case in Leeds. Now, this collection of files may give us more of an idea who we’re looking for, but until then, we have little to go on.”

I eyed up the other officer removing the last of the boxes Suzie dropped off the day before and hugged Robert tighter.

Robert kissed my head before he spoke to the police again. “We’re leaving to stay at my parents. I’ll give you the address and—”

“We’re what now? Going where? To your parents?” Well, isn’t that just effing perfect? “I don’t know. What about a hotel?”

Robert and the police officer shook their heads. “Seb, it will be best if we stay with them. A house is much more secure than a hotel.”

“But…” I sighed heavily. “I don’t really know them well enough to suddenly be staying in their house.”

“It’s just until we sort a few things out. The house isn’t secure until we change the locks. Just give me a night.” Robert ran his thumb over my lips and reluctantly I smiled at him.

“Okay.”

As soon as the police left, Robert and I went back upstairs and packed a few things up to take with us to his parents, who, according to Robert, lived in a big town house in Mayfair. My geography is crap, but I knew that’s where the hotel we went to the day before was, and also where Harry’s grandmother lived, so I felt a little better knowing where I would be and I had friends nearby to run to if the atmosphere got too heavy with his parents.

The thought suddenly entered my mind Harry must have come out to his family if he had Leigh living there with them. Unless they were hiding everything, but my foggy brain remembered something about Harry saying he wanted to come out to them. He even asked me to be there and it looked like I’d been a shit friend and forgotten. How could I? Such a big thing and Harry was my best friend. I loved him like a brother.

I wanted to keep everyone safe, but keeping them safe meant pushing them away. By being near them, they could be hurt because of me and that was the last thing I wanted. I flicked through my phone, finding a missed call and few texts from my mum. This deep fear ran through thinking about them back in Leeds. What if this nutter found them? What if they weren’t safe?

“I need to call my mum.” I whispered it almost to myself, but Robert heard and he sat beside me on the bed, kissing my cheek. “I’m worried they will be hurt too, but what do I tell them? I can’t tell them the truth. And if I did, this fucker stalking me would be the least of my problems.” I smiled up at him before leaning my head on his shoulder. “I’m dragging everyone into my world, causing them problems when I shouldn’t.”

“This isn’t your fault, Sebastian. How are you to blame for a client who was clearly mentally ill before he even met you and became addicted to you?” He turned me to face him and planted a soft kiss on my lips. “Don’t worry about things you can’t control. All we can do is be safe, keep those who we love safe. If that means talking to your parents and getting everything out into the open, then that’s what we’ll do. And remember I said
we
, Seb. Not you. You’re not in this alone. I’m with you all the way. Nothing’s going to make me change my mind and leave you. All this is doing is pulling us closer.”

“Thank you.” Shifting closer to him, I wrapped my arms around his waist and held onto him. He felt like the only secure thing in my life right then and my dependency hit an all-time high. The side of me which argued about this earlier slipped away and I just rolled with it. I knew life wouldn’t be this crazy forever, and in time, I would get back my confidence, but right then, all I needed was him as my rock and he was happy to be there for me. “I don’t know what I’d do without you right now.”

Robert released a big sigh, curling his hand in my hair, tracing soft kisses over my cheek. “If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t be in this position, Seb. I dragged you into this world. It’s my fault.”

I paused, a lead weight lying in the pit of my stomach. “Are you only helping me because you feel guilty? Is that why I’m here, to make you feel better?”

“No! I do feel guilty, but that’s not why I’m here. I’m here because I love you. No matter what’s happening around us, that won’t change. Ever.”

“I’m sorry, I just… I’m all over the place.”

“I understand. It’s okay.”

“I’m going to call my mum.”

Robert released me and stood from the bed. “Okay, stay here while you do it. I’m just going to get these in the car and make sure everything’s locked up before we leave.”

Before he left, I was dialing my mum’s house. She answered and didn’t even let me say hi before she laid into me about ignoring her. I smiled as she went off at me over the phone. I’d missed her a lot and it was nice to hear her voice, even if she was shouting at me.

“I love you.” I smiled down the phone and heard her sigh.

“Seb, when are you coming home?”

“Soon. I’m still working down here, and I’m meeting Robert’s parents tonight. We ran into each other while I was out shopping. I made a right tit of myself and I think they hate me. Robert says his mum likes me, but I’m not sure. If I were her, I wouldn’t like me.”

“You’re adorable. How could anyone not love you?”

“You’re my mum. You
have
to say that.” We both laughed down the phone.

“When do we get to meet this doctor of yours then?”

“Soon. I think next week if that’s okay. Probably at the weekend because he works long hours and the drive there and back isn’t doable midweek.”

“That sounds good.” She paused. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re lying. I can tell. Is everything okay?” My mum always said I had more front than Blackpool. I put up this big, happy, bright façade, but inside I'm not so bright and happy. She always saw right through my lies, even as a child.

“I’m just worried about the parent thingy.”

“Okay. Are you eating alright? I know you and stress aren’t friends.”

“I’m okay. Robert takes good care of me. I don’t get to miss out on meals with him hanging about.”

“I guess him being a doctor, he has a keen eye for your health.”

“Oh yeah. Big style.”

She chuckled. “Both me and your dad are looking forward to meeting him, and to seeing you again after so long.”

“I promise I’ll get home next weekend. Even if Robert can’t make it, I’ll be there. I’ve missed you too. We have a few things to catch up on.”

“How’s Leigh doing down there? I liked having him the house. It was nice to look after someone again.”

“I haven’t seen him. I met up with Harry and he said they were fine.”

“He’s a lovely young man. I kept telling him to go to one of those agencies and become a model. He’s so pretty.”

“Yeah, I know.” I chuckled. “He has confidence issues. Me and Harry will get him on the cover of a magazine one day, you’ll see.”

“Well, tell him I said hello and I miss him.” I could hear my dad calling her and she huffed loudly. “He’s dragging me to the bloody pub to watch him play in some boring darts championship.” I rolled my eyes and knew she would be doing it too. It was our thing when dad talked about his darts. “If you were here, we could get drunk and put the players off like we used to.” We laughed loudly, then dad was shouting bye to me down the phone. “Ugh. Gotta go, baby. Speak to you soon.”

Sitting on the edge of the bed, I tried to plan out how I would tell them about my recent career move, guessing the full scale meltdown my mum would have. That’s where I get my
placid
temperament from. So, you can imagine how bad it would be. And that was just about the job, not about my stalker and poor Damien. Just as I was slipping deep into my own world, Robert came back into the room and knelt in front of me, laying his head on my leg and wrapping his arms around my waist.

“I wish I could do more. If there’s anything you need, just whisper to me and I’ll do it. I want to make everything better, to stop the pain you’re in, but a lot of this is out of my hands.”

“I know.” I bent down, resting my head on his back and stroking it softly. “You’re doing so much already. I’m here with you and you’re in my arms. Most men would have walked away, but not you. I love you for that.”

“I won’t ever leave you, baby.” Robert shifted so he was sitting back on his heels, capturing my face in his hands before kissing me. “We’ll do whatever it takes to get through this. Even if it means moving away from England and leaving everything behind. I’m willing to do that without a second’s thought for you.”

“I don’t want to pull you away from your life here.”

“You
are
my life. Wherever you go, I follow. That’s how it is now, Seb.”

The smile couldn’t be stopped from creeping over my lips and I bent down again, capturing his mouth with mine and slipping to the floor with him, holding him tightly. We loved each other, there was no doubt about that. The horrible question running through my mind over and over wouldn’t stop though. Was love enough?