Whore.

Chapter 36: Clandestine

A new sense of realization washed over me. Malone had not met me by chance. He had looked for me. From the onset, he had been determined to get me, no matter what. I felt a mix of emotions. I felt angry, I felt depressed, I felt used. I felt like a mouse in a large cat's game.

"Michael?"
"Yeah?" I was barely able to speak. The shock was too much to make my brain function.
"Have you told him you loved him?"

My brain flashed back. Yes. Several times. On the phone. In person. The first time I ever said was when we...Oh God. Oh God, why? I felt tears run down my face. Why was this happening? Why me? There's never a reason for these things, Michael. Misfortune is just as random and undeserved as good luck. Yeah, trust Superego Michael to break out the Confucius when I was in the middle of an emotional breakdown.

"This is beyond messed up." Jeff sighed.
"So, everything he told me: From you dying in a jet skiing accident to having amnesia...that was all a lie?"
"Sociopaths are the best liars. Also the best actors. They can pull a perfect guise without batting an eyelid."
"Are you sure of what you're telling me? I don't want to make another-" I stopped. I considered everything that had gone on between me and Malone in the past two weeks. I needed some clarity. Even if Malone was a sociopath as Jeff said he was, there was still the issue of the loan sharks.

"Did you ever borrow money from some guy named Francis?"
"Yeah. What happened? Did he ask you for it?"
"Yeah. I received threats twice. Once from some young guy with a shitty beard, and once from some big guy with a knife."
He laughed nervously. "Frankie shouldn't be bothering you. I mean, seriously it was just three hundred dollars. I paid him back last week. He said that I was avoiding him on purpose. Like I don't have shit to do."
"Wait, Frankie was the young guy?"
"Yeah. Scraggly beard, thinks Abercrombie and Fitch is haute couture."
"So who the hell was the guy with the knife? What was his name - Mallory?"

Jeff gave me a weird look before his eyes widened.

"He had his brother threaten you?"
I blinked repeatedly. "Mallory is his brother?"
"Half brother, hence why they don't look anything alike. The resemblance is barely a trace. Mallory's mum died during childbirth, their dad married someone else. Hence why their names are so...uncreative. Seriously, Mallory and Malone? I'm surprised it didn't ring any bells to you."
"So when he said he-"

Even more realization dawned on me. Malone knew about a lot more than I gave him credit for. There was every chance that Francis could have met Malone regarding the money that Jeff owed and may have told him about the confusion, and Malone in turn took the story as an idea. After all, he knew I was coming over that night. He could have had his brother threaten me earlier, then show up on the same night so that he could 'save me' from the loan sharks. After all, I had no idea who Francis actually was and he knew I was right outside. And I had been so relieved by the whole thing that I had opened up completely to him. I was numb from the repeated shocks. I had an overload of so much new information in just one day, and none of it was pleasant. Jeff just looked at me with sad eyes; he must have understood what was going on. Maybe the mysterious psychic twin link was connecting our emotions.

"Even so, how did he know I'd be in the Aquarium that day?"
"He threatened you at the Aquarium? Well, there are several ways. He could have followed you there. He could have tracked your phone. You know there are even mobile applications for that type of thing these days."

I pulled out my phone and looked at it. There was no way that was possible. I scrolled through the applications list and found something I never installed earlier. I opened it. It was something to do with GPS. Oh God, he was tracking me. No wonder my battery had been dying more frequently these days. I never used to charge the phone so often because I barely used it, even though it was capable of so many crazy functions. And Malone had ample opportunity to install something like this; I usually left my phone unguarded in his house and the hotels we met in. He had likely put it there after I had confessed to him that I was staying with Swash. I looked at Jeff with a newfound sense of dread. I knew now why he was scared. Malone was a monster.