Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Dimos
I tried to get Carley to leave after the package arrived earlier, but she said she was fine.
I think she is, for the most part. But I also know she’s trying to be strong for the people around her.
She wanted to wait and tell Saylor about the videos in person, so she invited her and Ren over for dinner tonight.
“Almost ready to go?” We’re finally leaving for the evening, and I can’t wait to get her home.
“God, yes. Shutting down now. I’m going to text Saylor and tell her to come over.”
“Okay, I’ll be right out.”
I have my own text message to send.
Pulling Emma up in my contacts, I start a new message.
Me
Tomorrow 8 P.M. Meet me at Angelo’s Coffee House.
Emma
I said dinner, Dimi.
Me
You want to talk? This is where we’re doing it.
Emma
Pick me up at 8:30 at The St. Regis Hotel.
Emma
Don’t be late.
I shove my phone in my pocket without responding.
Whatever.
I’ll just do what she wants and get it over and done with. The quicker I can get her out of our lives the better.
“What do you feel like doing for dinner?” I ask Carley once I reenter the lobby.
“I’m not very hungry, so whatever you’re in the mood for is fine by me.”
The elevator doors close as she speaks, and I get a flashback of her laying on the dining room table the other day.
“That’s a dangerous statement, théa.”
A smile tugs at the corner of my mouth as I watch her blush.
“As wonderful as that sounds, honestly, I’m completely worn out. I can’t remember the last time I was this tired.”
I wrap my arm around her, and she rests her head on my shoulder.
“We’ll go to bed early tonight. Maybe we can work from home tomorrow.”
“Sounds wonderful,” she responds. “You know, I would bet money people have figured out there is something going on between us by now.”
“I’m sure you’re right, but I can’t bring myself to care about what they think.”
“I know. I don’t, either. I just don’t want it to look bad on you, that’s all.”
I know it bothers her. She’s very proud, as she should be.
She’s great at what she does, and she puts her heart in to her work.
I don’t want people thinking poorly of her any more than she wants them thinking poorly of me.
But there will always be assholes out there who are jealous and won’t see it that way.
Kissing her on the top of her head, we ride the rest of the way to the ground floor in silence.
* * *
As the four of us chow down our dinner from Katz’s Delicatessen, Carley and I exchange nervous glances back and forth with one another. She doesn’t want to be the one to tell Saylor about the video we found any more than I do.
“What gives, lovebirds?” Saylor calls out as she watches us from across the table. “You’ve been shifty eye-fucking the shit out of each other since we got here.”
“Nothing—” I begin before Carley cuts me off.
“No, it’s okay,” she assures me. “I have something to show you and Ren, Saylor. I’ll be right back.”
As she walks into the bedroom to retrieve the letter and phone from her purse, Saylor pins me with a glare.
“Is she pregnant?”
“What? No.” I answer quickly.
“You’re both acting very weird.”
“Just … wait until she shows you what she needs to show you.”
A moment later, Carley reappears from the hallway with the phone and letter in hand.
“I got this at the office today. I didn’t want to tell you over the phone.”
Both Saylor and Ren have matching grim expressions on their faces as Carley hands the phone to Saylor.
“He said if I didn’t leave D, he would leak this on to the internet. Don’t worry, I’m the only one who’s seen it.”
Ren rests his arm on the back of Saylor’s chair as she presses play.
Together, they watch in horror as I hear the same audio I heard earlier today.
Moans, grunting, thrashing, cries of pain and pleasure.
There’s no denying what’s on that tape, and it could ruin Saylor if it got out.
Ren would probably get a pat on the back and an atta boy or two for his role.
This is the longest amount of time Saylor has gone without speaking around me. When the recording has finished, she places it on the table and looks from me to Carley.
“That was hot. Can you send me a copy?”
“Saylor!” Carley exclaims.
“What? I look good. Let him share it, I don’t care.” Saylor rolls her eyes and shrugs it off.
Believing her actions can only be a defense mechanism, I turn my attention to Ren who has a look of disbelief on his face.
“You okay, Ren?”
“Uhh…” He pinches the bridge of his nose before looking at me.
“I don’t … I don’t even know. I’m pissed he was able to get this footage.
It makes me wonder what else he has on us.
He had to have gotten through the Wi-Fi at the apartment in order to get access to the footage. That’s the only thing I can think of.”
“Wouldn’t that mean he’d have to be close by to figure out which network was yours?”
“Yeah, he’d have to get really close. Like in the hallway. Saylor, can I borrow your phone to check the footage real quick?”
Carley speaks up again as Saylor hands her phone off to Ren.
“If Blaine needed to hack the apartment’s feed from the hallway, I would assume he would need to do the same from outside the penthouse door?”
“Yeah, I would think so. But there’s no way he can access the penthouse lobby outside without making it through security and obtaining an access card.”
“That only makes me feel a little better. He is tenacious, D. If he wants it badly enough, he will find a way. Saylor, you guys need to change your Wi-Fi password or something. Maybe get one of those systems that randomly changes it every day or hour or whatever.”
“You may as well be speaking Spanish to me. I don’t understand techie. Talk to this guy.” She juts her thumb at Ren.
“I’ll change it as soon as possible and get a VPN set up, too,” he agrees. “Fuck. Here, look at this.”
Ren places Saylor’s phone on the table and presses play on the video he pulled up.
Carley and I both stretch as far across the table as we can in order to see.
On the screen, I catch a glimpse of a man walking up and down the hallway outside of the apartment door holding an electronic tablet.
He’s wearing a hoodie, pulled low over his eyes.
It casts a shadow almost to the bottom of his chin.
The sight of the person on the screen causes goose bumps to break out over Carley’s skin. I wrap my arm around her shoulders and pull her close to me.
“I’m assuming that’s him? That’s Blaine?” I ask.
“I can’t be one hundred percent sure without seeing the rest of his face, but it sure does look like him. And who else would be lurking outside of the apartment?”
“What’s the time and date stamp from the video?” I ask Ren.
“Midday, two days ago.”
“Anyway, like hell are you leaving D because of this,” Saylor completely changes the subject, addressing Carley. “I mean, nobody’s life is in danger here. Frankly, it feels like Blaine may be losing his touch.”
“The letters and texts are confusing me,” Carley adds.
“How so?” I inquire.
“It’s just … not Blaine’s style. He never cared about violating the restraining order when I had one. Not that I’m complaining, but why is he keeping his distance this time?”
“Well, maybe he doesn’t want to get sent back to prison?” Ren offers. “Or maybe it’s because you have someone else in your life to protect you this time around. Before it was just you and Saylor, right?”
“My dad had one run-in with him. But, yes, basically it was just Saylor and I.”
“And now Saylor has Ren,” I add. “So that’s double the amount of protection than you girls had before.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“Hey, listen to me.” I take my seat again and pull Carley onto my lap. I take her chin in my grip and force her eyes on mine. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I won’t let you out of my sight. You’re going to get sick of me by the time this asshole is out of your life for good.”
“Somehow I doubt that.”
Wrapping her arms around my neck, she leans in for a kiss.
“I’m going to call it a night. Get back to the apartment and try to update the Wi-Fi.” Ren pulls Carley’s attention from my lips, and she stands up to say goodbye.
“Do you guys have a ride back? Izaak can drive you if you’d like.”
“Nah, we’re good,” Ren confirms, shaking my hand as Saylor and Carley hug one another.
With one final goodbye, they’re out the door.
“Would you like me to run you a bath?”
“No, I’m thinking about brushing my teeth and watching a show from bed. Maybe get to sleep a little early tonight.”
“I’ll get dinner cleaned up. You go relax,” I suggest.
“Thank you, D. For everything.” Rising up onto her tiptoes, she plants a kiss on my lips.
I can’t wait to crawl into bed next to her tonight.
* * *
Less than thirty minutes later, Carley’s cell phone echoes through the room from the table next to her side of the bed. She rolls over to grab it, and the chill in the air licks my side where she was just curled up.
“It’s Saylor,” she informs me before answering the call. “Hello?”
I can’t hear what she is saying, but it must not be good. Carley’s face drops, and she puts the phone on speaker.
“Wait, wait. Hold on. Say that again so D can hear you.”
“I got a package today, too. Same as you, only it’s a video of you guys, and my letter says, ‘Break them up or this gets leaked.’”
* * *
For the thousandth time, I press play on the video Saylor received last night.
I sent Izaak to her apartment to retrieve it as soon as she called us.
Carley hasn’t been able to eat anything today, she’s so upset.
As soon as we finished watching it for the first time last night, she ran into the bathroom and got sick.