Chapter 19
Chapter
Nineteen
CONNOR
Trick’s edgy, which I ignore. If he didn’t want to deal with this, he could’ve bowed out. Tonight, I would’ve preferred that.
When we get to the building, we scan the outside and note the entry points. We also note the security cameras in the lobby and on her floor.
“Light’s on,” Trick says.
“I see it,” I say curtly.
Trick’s gaze cuts to me. “I’ll get the camera footage and review it.”
“Get it, and send it to me. I wanna go through it myself.”
Trick nods, his expression grim now. It’s rare for us to have an issue. Usually, I cut him all the slack in the world, and he does the same for me.
I rap on the door, and Zoe pulls it open, looking a way I’ve rarely seen her look. She’s dressed in sweatpants and an oversized sweatshirt. No makeup, red puffy eyes, hair at odd angles.
Good, I think. She isn’t dolled up to see Trick. On the other hand, she's upset, which makes me want to smash the face of the guy who made her this way.
“C,” she says with a gasp. “I didn’t know you were coming.” She pushes back some limp curls and wraps her arms around herself. “I’m a mess.”
“You’re fine.” We step inside the apartment, and I watch her twist her hands nervously. My hand reaches out to guide her. “Come and sit down. Lay it out for us. Start at the beginning.”
Trick walks around the room, his eyes scanning every inch.
She tells us how she found a handful of flowers and a note on the kitchen table when she came home late from the theatre one night.
The handwriting on the note matched the handwriting on some increasingly inappropriate messages she’d gotten from a “secret admirer.” At first, he’d left them at the theatre, either with someone or in her dressing room.
Zoe’s already talked to the security company who monitors the cameras. They claim they’ve reviewed the security camera footage and saw nothing unusual.
“Initially, I thought he must have had a key. Maybe he used to work in the building or something? So I got permission and had the locks changed. Since then there haven’t been any notes or flowers left in the apartment, but I know he’s been here.
And I still can’t shake the feeling someone’s following me. ”
“That’s because someone’s following you,” I say.
“I know, right?” The words explode from her, like she’s been forced to suppress them and is finally getting the chance to turn them loose.
“Tonight I was getting ready for bed, and I found a pair of my underwear hanging on the bathroom door hook. I did not hang them there. And, C, there was something on them.” Zoe shudders.
“I threw them in the garbage and washed my hands. Now I’m washing and drying every piece of clothing I have here.
But then what? I don’t know what to do. I called the building super who says he’ll get the security footage himself, but I asked him to do that a week ago and so far he hasn’t.
I’m afraid to go to sleep. What if this guy comes in while I’m here?
” She shivers. “I’m really scared. I can stay with one of the other dancers, but most of them live in places with even less security.
If he’s following me, he’ll find me there too.
Although at least I wouldn’t be alone overnight. ”
“You’re not staying with theater people. You’re coming back to Coynston with me. When you have to be in the city for work, you’ll stay in my apartment with a bodyguard. You can stop worrying, Zoe. He’s not going to touch you. The crue will find him, and we’ll deal with him.”
She throws her arms around my neck and hugs me. “Oh, my God, thank you, C. I know I probably shouldn’t ask for your help, but I really need it right now.”
I cup the back of her head and hug her to me. “You should’ve called me when you started getting the notes. Speaking of that, we should look at them. Go get them for me.”
She bites her lip, bringing my focus to those gorgeous full lips that I love to kiss.
“I only have the first couple,” she admits. “When they got creepy, I threw them away. I didn’t want to bring them home with me.”
“Okay, baby. Go get the ones you have.”
“Here, let me put on some coffee first. Wait, do you want coffee or a drink? I have Jack Daniels and Coke here. It’s the expensive Jack Daniels that you like.”
I smile because I know she bought it in case I visited unexpectedly.
“Coffee’s fine.”
“Trick?”
“Yeah, just coffee, Z. I’m going to walk through the apartment, all right?”
“Yes, of course. Anything to help you figure out who he is and how he’s getting in.”
She makes coffee and brings mine to me. It reminds me of all the times she cooked for me or made coffee for me in the morning.
The crue house in Coins has felt like a massive mausoleum since she left.
Anvil and Trick come over every day so we can work as a crue, but when they leave, it’s too fucking quiet without her.
“Do you like it?” she asks.
“Yeah, it’s good.” My response is automatic. The way the coffee tastes is irrelevant to me.
“It’s Kona from Hawaii. The guys who live here hand-carried it back after one of their vacations. I don’t use it for just morning coffee for me, but…can I have a taste?”
I hold the mug out, and she takes a sip.
“So good,” she whispers. “One day.”
I can’t tell if that’s a hint for me to offer to take her there on vacation or if she’s just making a mental note that she wants to be successful enough to take herself.
“Z, I need to ask you something.”
“I want to check the stairwells,” Trick says as he comes down the hall.
“Sure,” I say, then turn to look at him. “Could be pitch black. Let’s make it a two-man job.” I stand, but he holds out a hand to stop me.
“Nah, I’m good,” he says, sliding his gun out from under his sweatshirt and putting on a pair of night vision goggles. “When I’m dead fucking sober, no one’s fast enough to take me if I’m looking for it.”
I’d tell him not to get cocky, but what would be the point? If Trick says he’s got it, he’s got it. He goes out without another word. I wait until the door closes before turning back to her.
“So what did you want to ask me?” Zoe asks, leaning closer.
“If you didn’t want to call me first, why didn’t you call Rachel and ‘Vil?”
“Because I know what Sasha would say. He’d say if I need a safe place to stay, I can stay with them. But if I want C Crue’s help, I need to talk to you.”
“And how is that different than what would Trick say?”
“I figured Trick being Trick, he might just listen to me and then figure out who it is in a night using some computer magic.”
“Did you think Trick wouldn’t tell me?”
“No, of course not. I knew he’d tell you.”
“So then why didn’t you just call me yourself?”
“Because! I wasn’t sure whether you wanted me to.
I sent you that text after the night we spent together, and you didn’t respond.
You don’t seem to miss me very much, so I didn’t want to assume you’d be interested in helping me.
I figured that Trick would mention it, and you could avoid talking to me if that’s what you wanted to do.
If I’d called you directly and you’d said you wouldn’t help me, it would’ve made me cry and turned things so awkward.
On the other hand, if he told you, and you were worried about me, you’d call to check on me, which is what I was hoping would happen. ”
“Don’t ever call Trick instead of me again.”
She tilts her head, sending her curls swaying. It makes me want to bury my hands in them to pull her head back and kiss her until there’s no question about who she belongs to.
“C, you know there’s nothing between Trick and me, right? We’re just friends, and not close ones. This was the first time I’ve ever called him.”
“You sure you didn’t call him to make me jealous?”
Her eyes widen, and she looks truly surprised.
“My God, no. I would never play that kind of horrible game. What if you stopped trusting me? Also, he’s a friend who’s married to the love of his life and so happy.
I really like his wife. I would never do that.
C, I swear. How could you even think that?
I love you. I’d never try to create trouble between you and Trick. I wasn’t even aware that was possible.”
I shake my head at myself because I know she’s telling me the truth. I should’ve known without asking. Zoe’s not the kind of woman who needs men to fight over her to feel special.
Taking her hand, I squeeze it and pull it against my chest. “I don’t know why you think I don’t miss you. You’re the one who left.”
“Right, but not because I didn’t love you.
I cried every day for weeks. You probably didn’t even cry once.
You never texted. You never asked Rachel about me.
I asked Sasha so many times. He said you were fine and seeing other women since you were single again.
You moved on so fast. Like we didn’t even matter. ”
“Baby, be serious. I paced holes in the fucking carpet the week you left. I drank Jack straight from the bottle to get to sleep. Did you expect me to—?” I bite off the rest of what I’m about to say because I hear the doorknob turn.
I look over as the door opens, and Trick strolls in.
I scowl because I suspect he was right about Zoe wanting me to chase her and re-stake my claim sooner.
I thought she was still trying to figure shit out.
When she said she wanted time alone and wasn’t ready to talk, she sounded sure of herself. I took her seriously.
To hear that she wanted to hear from me all along makes me grind my teeth.
The night we slept together, she said she couldn’t have handled if I stopped by.
She said she moved out of my New York apartment so we wouldn’t see each other.
Was that all bullshit? Because from where I’m standing, it seems like she’s changing her mind about what she wants from one minute to the next.