It was a long first night.

She slept restless, tossing and turning in her bed over a man she could not have. Ugh! Why did she take this case when she knew that man was hotter than fish grease?

She got out of bed many times and did dozens of pushups, crunches, or air boxing to release the stress.

She checked the cameras several times over the night. She had access to his personal social media and checked DMs for anything suspicious. It felt like a waste of time for her.

So what he had a groupie or two. He was in the public eye, it was expected. She imagined her brother-in-law Icee dealt with worse. In the morning, after she finally caught a few moments of sleep, she woke up, showered, and dressed down in a fitted tee and jeans. She threw on her socks and shoes, a minimum amount of make-up, and brushed out her wrapped hair.

She smelled coffee and made her way to it. Brendan was in the kitchen, watching the news on his tablet, enjoying coffee and a plate of eggs, bacon, and a biscuit.

"You expect to stay in shape eating all of that," she said to him as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

Brendon looked down at his food. "I eat this every day. Are you calling me fat?"

"No, I said eat what you want, I don't care." She opened the refrigerator. "You have any fruit? Some oatmeal?"

"Yeah, I have some instant oatmeal. Maple and brown sugar."

"Nevermind." She grabbed his container of eggs and saw some spinach and tomato.

She whipped up an egg white omellete to have along with her coffee. They sat in silence and ate.

"So um...how do we do this? You're my bodyguard?"

"No, I'm just here to observe."

"What if they don't do anything while you're here?"

"The letters were coming every day except yesterday. She's watching. Saw me come. Someone in the neighborhood maybe?"

"She? You know it's a she?"

"Why wouldn't it be? It's a fan for sure. I read the letters. She sees you every day on TV and thinks she knows you. Thinks you owe something to her. And not just a regular fan that appreciates what you do, they have become obsessed."

"Oh."

"Don't you get a lot of stuff like this, since you've been on the news?"

He grinned at her. "Well, sure. At first, it was pretty cute, flattering even. I played sports in high school and college so it was all some of the same stuff, innocent."

"And you...never took advantage of any of the girls sliding in your DMS? Or even before when you had fans. Sleep with them and toss them aside?"

"No! No, no, no! That's not me!" he quickly added. "I am a good Christian man, I was raised in the church with both of my parents. My father is a pastor. My mother is a doctor. They both do well. My father also writes books, very popular."

That might explain why he could afford his lifestyle at a very young age. Parents were probably footing the bill for most of it. All this Christian background was not in Victor's write-up from him and she was slipping on figuring this out herself.

"I don't go on a crazy amount of dates. I don't sleep around. I go to work, and chill out for the most part."

"Yeah, sounds like me."

He grinned at her. "You look so young. How old are you again?"

"Twenty-one, but my age doesn't matter. So, what are your plans for the day?"

He ran down how he was not required at work till two p.m. to do the five o'clock and the six o'clock news. And after that, he stayed to do some research, watch some games, and check scores. If needed sometimes he did the late news but as of today, it was not needed.

"You have any other life outside of work?"

"Why? Should I?"

"Well, yeah, you're young, you're hot, you're rich."

He grinned at her. "I'm hot?"

Doh! Why the hell did she say that? "I mean, you're a nice-looking guy. Don't you want all the things with being young and single brings?"

"Sure. I want to get married, have a family, have kids, and all that. One day."

"Where do you go to meet possible wifey material?"

"Sometimes I hang with my friends, we got to games, hang out at bars...oh, and work events. I have met a few ladies there...nothing ever works out. Oh, and my last girlfriend was from my father's church. We were compatible because we liked the same things, then work just got in the way. She is a director at her job, very busy."

"The letters could be from her...maybe she's scorned about how things ended."

"No...no, I don't think so. She still attends my father's church and we talk. She's busy with her life and I'm busy with mine."

No one was on her suspect list. When they were ready to go out, she scoped around, did not see anything out of the normal, and then they headed into the city. The KMOV station was in downtown St. Louis, so it was a nice little drive. The whole time Brendan watched sports on his tablet with his earbuds in.

After they parked, they needed to go through building security. A man and a woman checked bags and waved wands up and down their body. Because of the television station, as well as a large government agency in the building, security was always high. That was good for Brendan.

Also meant she could not carry her gun inside.

She stayed on alert and watched everyone coming in. The security area had TV screens watching security cameras through the building and parking garage. Only employees of KMOV could get on their top floor. All other visitors needed an employee or security escort.

Once at the station headquarters, Brendan introduced her to his co-workers as his assistant that would be around helping him with work. She knew nothing about what he did and was not in it to help with any of that. But while he did his work to get ready for his show, she did scope out his surroundings.

There was only one other Black news reporter on the air, but several field reporters coming and going with camera crews. It was a very bustling place and a lot of people. This was not a good thing. Any one of them could be the stalker. At her best guess, it was someone he knew and not a total stranger that knew where he lived.

"How many people work here?" she asked him while they sat at his desk and he wrote up his copy.

"I have no idea. Just in the building?"

"Yeah."

"Don't know."

"Can you get me the names of everyone who works here so I can run background checks?"

"Why? It's not anyone here."

It was someone that knew his schedule very well. It was someone he knew for sure, but she would not tell him that. "Can you get that to me?"

"Sure, I guess."

The rest of the day went on without incident. Brendan did well on air, and he was very mesmerizing. She could see why people loved him. He gave off that boy next door quality. The one man you wanted to take home to meet your parents.

While he worked, she did a preliminary check on the workers at the station. She sent them to Victor to check for criminal background.

The next three days were pretty much more of the same. Work and home. No activity and this was the first time he had not received any more letters or DMs. It must mean the person knew she was there.

"It's like you have a new girlfriend," Sara one of the field reporters said to them while they were sitting in the break room having dinner.

"Nola? My assistant?" Brendan said with a chuckle. "No, not my girlfriend."

Sara was a nice girl, but young. Graduated last year from UMSL and landed a key job at the station. Pretty girl and Victor thoroughly looked into her past. Nothing there but that did not mean she was off her list.

There were a few people on the list that we're questionable.

"Then maybe we can go on a date?" she asked him, now ignoring that Nola was sitting right there.

Pretty girls like her always looked down on girls like Nola. She did not stand out like this woman, with perfect hair, perfect face, and perfect body, desired by many men. She was exactly the type to score a guy like Brendan, get engaged, get married, and pop out several of his babies to seal the deal.

Not her.

Brendan looked at Nola as if he needed permission to go out with her. She gave him her "What?" expression, nonchalant about the idea of him going out with that girl.

She could not get jealous. She could not go out with Brendan, he was the client, and she was the employee.

"Uh, sure Sara, let's go out."

"Great! After work tomorrow. I'm sure your...assistant can find her way back home without you."

When they were done with work for the day and when they made it to his car, she was shocked to see a note sitting under the wiper on the driver's side. She grabbed it by the corner and looked all around it. There would be no prints. The others were clean. Only Brendon's name was block written on it.

It was definitely someone at the job. She looked around the crowded lot for cameras. She knew security had access to the video feed.

But there was none in the area.

"There are no cameras around?"

"No, why would we need that?"

"Stay right here," she ordered him, as she opened his door. She reached over to the glove compartment to get her gun, checked the back seat then popped the trunk.

"What are you doing?" Brendon asked her.

"You ever watch scary movies? The psycho always hides in the backseat."

She walked around and checked the trunk, it was clear. After she closed it she wanted to search for bombs under the car, but they did not want Brendon dead, they wanted to have him.

"Okay, let's go."

Brendan obeyed and took off without a word as she examined the unopened letter. She studied it from all angles. Looked like a Hallmark greeting card. She took pictures of the front and back, and sent them to Victor.

"Are you going to open it?" Brendan asked.

"This isn't the same, it's a card, not a letter. They know I'm here. I don't think they want to hurt you, but they may want to hurt me."

"What? This is crazy!"

"Yeah, fuck this!" She grabbed her bag and opened it and pulled out some things.
She slipped on plastic gloves and used her pocket-sized to slit it open.

It was a Valentine's Day card, even though it was October.

It simply read:

READY OR NOT HERE I COME

A/N: Nola better catch this person!