Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
LEVI
My fist slams down against the desk hard enough to rattle my computer and stack of documents beside it.
“This is fucking ridiculous.”
The surveillance footage continues rolling across the computer screen anyway, showing the people moving in and out of Piper’s office building all day.
Workers.
Contractors.
Designers.
Piper.
Alexis.
And not one of them looks like Reece Jacobson.
Locke leans back in the chair beside me, dragging a tired hand down his face while the footage plays. He was with me when Alexis called me to let me know what was happening. He hasn’t left my side since.
We went to get Piper. I brought her home, and once I got her settled upstairs, I got the surveillance from the building sent here.
“This is the third time we’ve watched this thing.” The third fucking time. We’ve been in here for several hours.
We ran through it quickly the first time.
The second time, we slowed portions down and checked different angles of the building inside and out to make sure we hadn’t missed anyone suspicious.
We’ve done the same thing this time, searching for anything that didn’t fit.
But there’s nothing.
No suspicious visitors.
No one carrying flowers.
No one entering Piper’s office upstairs besides workers and contractors.
No sign of that motherfucker, Reece.
And yet somehow, that fucking rose still ended up on Piper’s desk.
And the kicker is this—we don’t even see the rose on the desk until Piper does.
That part of the fucking footage is missing.
I scrub a hand over my jaw and try not to put my fist through the screen.
This is a fucking outrage. And Piper…
Jesus, she fell apart. Right there in a place that was supposed to be the door to her dreams. When she saw me, she collapsed in my arms, breaking down.
I’ve never seen her like that before.
I don’t even think terrified is a strong enough word to describe her.
She looked like someone had reached into her past and dragged every nightmare she ever escaped back into her mind.
I fucking hated it.
The image of her shaking and crying keeps replaying in my head. And the fucking note.
Soon.
One word shouldn’t have the power to destroy someone the way it did her.
Locke pauses the footage again before glancing toward me. “You really think this guy’s out?”
“I don’t know what the hell to think.”
I called the prison in San Francisco just before we ran the tapes the second time. I was trying to find out whether Reece was still an inmate.
The answer I got was the professionally polite version of fuck off.
They were sorry to inform me that unfortunately, they can’t confirm or deny inmate information to anyone without authorization.
Fuck them.
Since I was getting nowhere, I did the next best thing and called Dorian.
Thankfully, he has a talent for finding out things nobody else can and bypassing the system.
If Reece has been released, Dorian will know soon enough.
It’s the waiting and not knowing what’s really going on that’s fucking with me.
Locke rewinds another section of the footage before muttering, “Could’ve been someone working for him.”
The possibility crossed my mind.
Nobody in the footage looks remotely like Piper’s ex, but there were dozens of contractors and workers moving through the building all day. It wouldn’t have been difficult for someone to slip upstairs while everyone was distracted.
Especially once the place got busy.
I stare at the paused image on the screen while anger coils tighter inside me.
Why is this happening?
What does this fucker want?
Okay, stupid question. He wants her—Piper.
But what does he want her for?
Does he want her back? Or some sort of revenge?
I still don’t know how bad their circumstances were and how they ended.
She’s never told me.
The worst thing she shared was that he was in prison. I never knew what for, though.
I came across the picture of Reece from his old social media accounts.
I tried to get more info on him. All I found was a website with details of his accountancy firm that’s closed down and an article about him taking his clients hostage and holding them at gunpoint.
I assumed that was the basis of his imprisonment.
“What are you thinking?” Locke asks.
“Nothing useful.” I push back from the desk and glance toward him. “I’m gonna go check on her.”
He nods. “I’ll keep looking through the footage. There must be something we missed.”
“I don’t know, Locke.” I shake my head. “If he screwed with the footage, we won’t find anything.”
“I’ll look anyway. It’s better than doing nothing.” Locke shrugs and cracks a reassuring smile.
“Thanks.”
I appreciate him being here. He’s stopping me from going crazy. Piper had Alexis. She cancelled her date and came back with us. She only left about an hour ago.
I leave him in the office and head upstairs two steps at a time.
By the time I reach the bedroom doorway, my chest already feels tight.
I go inside and find Piper curled in the window seat beneath the long curtains. Wrapped around her shoulders is a blanket she clutches to her chest, like she’s trying to hold herself together with it. Her skin has a bone-white color, drained of life and essence.
Her knees are pulled to her chest, and even from here I can see she’s trembling.
Fuck.
I need to fix this. Fix her. Make her happy again. Make her feel safe again.
The second I step toward her, she flinches, recoiling instinctively like someone in danger.
It takes her a second to realize it’s me.
Her reaction is enough to send something vicious moving through my chest.
People don’t react like that unless fear’s been carved deep into them.
For the millionth time I wonder: what the fuck did that bastard do to her?
“Hey,” I say quietly, pulling up a chair to sit in front of her.
Piper looks at me with tired, glassy eyes.
I reach for one of her hands beneath the blanket and lace my fingers through hers gently.
Her skin feels freezing.
“Did you find anything?” she mumbles, her voice barely there and trembling.
“Not yet. But we’ll get to the bottom of this.”
She nods.
But it’s a trembling little nod that completely destroys me.
“I keep trying to tell myself it’s not him,” she whispers after a moment. “I don’t know how it could be him. He’s in prison. But the note…” Her voice cracks.
“There’s a chance he hired someone to leave it.”
“No. That’s not his style. He’d do it himself.
Weeks ago…” She swallows hard. “When Alexis and I went to the building, I felt like somebody was watching me, but nothing happened after.” Her gaze drops toward our joined hands.
“I thought I was being paranoid then. Once again, I thought he’s in prison.
And he’s not supposed to know where I am. ”
I tighten my hold on her fingers.
“Maybe this is just—” The words die in my throat. I can’t finish them. What the hell am I supposed to say?
She knows this fucker best.
If it had only been the rose, maybe I could’ve convinced both of us it was coincidence.
A misunderstanding.
But nobody leaves a note saying Soon by accident.
Not when they know exactly what it means to the person reading it.
None of this is paranoia. It’s fucking planned.
I tighten my hold on Piper’s hand gently and search her pale face.
“What did he do to you, Butterfly?” I ask, stroking her knuckles. “Tell me.”
For a second, she says nothing.
She just stares at me, her gaze empty, like she’s somewhere else entirely. Then finally, her voice breaks the silence.
“It didn’t begin with him being a psycho.”
My chest twists on hearing the carefulness in her voice.
“I met him in college,” she mutters, sniffling. “I was nineteen. He was ten years older and already working for a good company.” Her fingers tremble slightly in mine. “Back then, he was good to me.”
She pauses like the memory physically hurts.
I stay silent and let her talk.
“We were together for years. He started his accounting firm with his business partner after I graduated. Things were great for a while.” Her gaze drops toward the blanket gathered in her lap. “Then something changed.”
Her breathing becomes uneven.
“He started taking risks with client money. Bigger investments. Bigger gambles.” She swallows hard. “At first, he hid it well, but eventually, people started noticing things weren’t right.”
She stops to drag in a shaky breath and continues. “His business partner left first. I think he realized something was wrong before anyone else did. Within the year, clients started pulling out and Reece…” Her voice cracks. “He just got worse.”
“What did he do?”
“He became paranoid. Angry all the time. Obsessed with proving everyone wrong.” Her eyes shine with tears now.
“Then he started taking drugs. Drinking more. Taking my money. Then he got physical with me. And manipulative. It’s hard knowing what to do when you’re with someone like that for years.
You know you have to leave, but you don’t always know how. ”
I give her hand a gentle squeeze.
“One day, everything completely fell apart. Including us. I found out he stole all my money and racked up all sorts of debt in my name. I left him when he went to work that day. Aunt Bess begged me to come home. But I stayed in a motel until I could get an apartment. I didn’t want him terrorizing my family.
My youngest cousins were ten and fourteen at the time. ”
“That was a good call.”
“I’m not so sure. Because… when he came for me, I was all by myself.
” She blows out a breath. “A week after I left him, his clients went to the office demanding answers because they’d lost money.
Some of them threatened lawsuits. Others wanted their investments returned.
Reece snapped. He pulled out a gun and held them hostage. It was on TV. I watched it on TV.”
Jesus Christ.
“What happened after?”