Chapter 8
Eight
Blade
“Fuck.” My jaw is tight as I pull my phone out and call Cannon.
He answers on the first ring. “’Sup.”
“Can you meet me at June’s apartment?”
“I don’t like the sound of this. On my way. Shoot me the address.”
“You won’t like the look of it either. Someone broke in. Not hard to guess who, but it’s tossed.”
“You call the cops?”
“No. I’m still thinking. If I involve them…”
“I get it. You’d rather take matters into your own hands. They can’t pin shit on you if you never report the break-in.”
“You know me well.”
“See you in a few.”
I text him the address and pocket my phone.
I can’t be sure who broke into the apartment.
I’d bet my last dollar it involves her ex, but that doesn’t mean he did it himself.
Someone professional picked the lock. There was nothing visible from outside the apartment.
They broke in, ransacked the place, and left.
Probably a message. Somehow, I doubt June’s ex is savvy enough to have broken in himself.
I look around. I know June doesn’t own much, and certainly nothing worth stealing. Unless she has jewelry she hasn’t mentioned. What tips me off is her computer is still sitting on the table. No one took that. They simply tossed the place in order to scare her.
I’m not scared, but I’m pissed. In my mind, she’s my girl now. Mine to protect. If anyone thinks they can fuck with her, they have no idea who they’re dealing with.
This is why she’s in my apartment right now. This is why she couldn’t sleep last night and rushed over to my office this morning. She had a hunch, and she was right.
Her fucking ex has been waiting for an opportunity like this.
As soon as her face was flashed all over the news, he had his opening.
Abusive assholes like him are relentless.
They don’t give up. They mean it when they say, “If I can’t have you, nobody can.
” It’s more common than most people realize.
Relentless fucks who track down their estranged wives and beat the shit out of them before dragging them “back home.” Or kill them.
My jaw is so tight it hurts. The thought of what would have happened to my girl if she hadn’t been smart enough to get the fuck out of here this morning…
I consider calling the cops, but there’s not a fucking thing they can do, especially if nothing is missing. I bet the perp didn’t leave a print in this apartment or on the door. It’s a clean job. Meant to scare her.
If she’d been here, they would have taken her. Since she wasn’t, they left a message.
I pull my phone out again and call Rachell. She answers in one ring like Cannon. “Cannon just ran out of here with fire on his heels. He didn’t say anything, but I can read between the lines. I sent a guy upstairs to stand guard outside your door.”
“Thank you.” I blow out a relieved breath. Rachell is fucking good at her job. She’s not just a receptionist. She looks like one for anyone coming into the office, but the truth is she could kill any man or woman who walked through the door with her bare hands if need be.
She also isn’t making a receptionist’s salary.
I know her value. If she wanted to be in the field, I wouldn’t hesitate to put her out there, but she doesn’t.
She has her reasons. I’ve never asked. She’s allowed to keep her secrets.
She’s right where she wants to be—doing a job that involves her full worth and utilizes her potential without putting herself in dangerous situations.
I doubt it’s the danger she’s worried about. It’s probably PTSD. Maybe someday she’ll tell me. I won’t dig into her business.
I consider calling June. There’s no way I would tell her about this over the phone, but I want to know she’s okay.
She is. I know she is. No one knows she’s at my place. Even if someone followed her to my office this morning and suspects she’s still in the building, they wouldn’t be able to get to her.
To be doubly safe, I place my next call to Brinkman in the lobby.
He also picks up on the first ring. “Sir?”
“Hey, could you please be extra cautious about anyone coming up the elevator for the time being? Just double-check with Rachell or one of the guys before anyone goes up.”
“Always do, sir.”
“I know.” I rub my neck. “I don’t mean to be such a dick. Sorry.”
“No problem at all. I assume this has to do with the terrified woman who came in this morning looking like someone beat the shit out of her. I know she never came back down. No one and nothing gets by me, sir. You have my word.”
“Yes, and thank you. She won’t be coming back down for any reason in the near future.”
“Of course, sir.”
“Thank you.” I hang up and draw in a deep breath.
Hopefully, June won’t simply walk out of the building in search of lunch or something.
Even though Rachell has someone watching the apartment, June isn’t a hostage.
She could leave. I can’t imagine she would, and I’ll impress upon her that I forbid her from doing so.
But I wouldn’t put it past her ex to get her number and threaten her.
Pricks like him have a way of luring their prey out of hiding with promises of violence if they don’t comply. Just to be safe, I’ll get her set up with a new phone that’s not in her name and confiscate hers. That way, if her ex tries to call her, I’ll be the one answering.
I call Mace next. Killing time. Taking care of business. Before he even responds, I start talking, “Can you get a new phone set up for June? I’m going to swap hers out so we can monitor it.”
“On it. Does it need to match?”
“No. I’ll tell her what I’m doing. I can’t keep secrets from her. I just want her to have a reliable way to reach any of us without worrying about her fucking ex getting to her.”
“Ouch. Setting it up now. Want me to take it upstairs?”
“No. I’ll do it when I get back. Rachell sent someone up to guard the door.”
“Right. Must have been Spike. He jogged out of here in a hurry a bit ago. Right behind Cannon.”
“Cannon’s headed here to join me at June’s apartment.”
“Someone fucking broke in, didn’t they?”
“Yep.”
“Thank fuck she had the good sense to get out of there first thing this morning.”
“Indeed. Thanks.” I end that call just as there’s a knock at the door.
I take a quick look in the peephole and let Cannon in, shutting the door behind him.
His face is tight as he surveys the situation. “Obvious toss job meant to instill fear.”
“I agree.” I nod toward the table. “Didn’t even take her computer.”
He glances around without moving. “Police won’t do shit.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
He takes another step in. “Except pin shit on you if you report it.”
I don’t even respond. He’s speaking rhetorically. This isn’t our first rodeo. We see shit like this all the time. Rich and poor alike face this kind of thing.
“She yours?” he asks without looking.
“Yes.”
He nods, his back still to me. “Good.” He turns around. “She know it?”
“Yes.”
“She know she’s Little?”
“Nope.”
He smirks. “Good luck with that, man.” He looks around again. “So, what do you want to do?”
“I’m going to pack up what she needs and head back.”
He drops his backpack on the floor and opens it. “I’ll check for prints and take pics.”
That’s why I called him. I didn’t head over here with equipment.
Careful not to touch anything he could pull prints from, I find a duffel and start filling it with her clothes. I quickly decide to only bring a few outfits. I’ll buy her new things. I’ll buy her Little things.
But it’s going to be a few days before she grasps who her Little is and what it means.
In the meantime, I can’t pressure her to dress a certain way.
Granted, I’ll never pressure her to do anything.
That’s not my goal. My job is to gently show her the Little I believe is living inside her and get her excited about it.
I pick up her blankets and sheets and drop them back on her bed. When I do so, something falls out of the covers and lands on the floor. Curious, I bend over to pick it up and grin from ear to ear.
It’s so worn, it’s almost unrecognizable, but it’s a beloved stuffed animal that’s probably been with her since she was very young. How did she manage to keep it? It was obviously important enough that she didn’t leave it behind when she escaped her husband.
I add the small brown bear to her duffel and zip it, turning to find Cannon wrapping things up.
He sighs. “I lifted every print I could from the door, the knob, the counter, and the computer. I even did the sink faucet and the bathroom knob and surfaces. I suspect most of them are hers.”
“A few will be mine. I was here last night. I didn’t use the bathroom, but I touched the doorknob on both sides as well as the sink.”
Cannon nods. “I can certainly identify yours back at the office. I can identify hers in the obvious ways—either nefariously by pulling her prints from your apartment or intentionally if you’re interested in telling her directly that we need her prints.
If you don’t like either option, we can surmise by the size which ones are female and assume the person or people who broke in were male. ”
“I’ll tell her. I just didn’t want to inform her about any of this over the phone. Plus, she’s sleeping. When I get back, I’ll talk to her. I know she’ll be upset, but I’m certain she’ll agree to let me get her prints.”
“Perfect. I’ll head back and work on this. Let me know when you have hers, and I’ll run up and get them from you.”
“Thanks, man. Appreciate it.”
Cannon nods. “I’ll talk to Colton, too. Maybe he can do some digging and ensure this break-in doesn’t have anything to do with the attack on June and Simone.”
I rub my jaw. “Yes, that’s kind of important.
I don’t want the police to find out we’re involved in this, of course.
It’ll be tidier in the long run if they never know.
It seems unlikely because though the media splashed Simone’s and June’s faces all over the fucking planet, they did not name them.
June’s ex would have recognized her and been able to use that information to figure out which apartment was hers.
The gang of assholes involved in the women’s attacks do not know their names. At least, as far as we assume.”
“Agreed.”
I blow out a breath. “Still probably a good idea to have Colton do some snooping with the force if he can.” Colton used to be a police officer, so he has some clout with the station and sometimes pulls strings for us.
Cannon lifts his equipment bag onto his shoulder. “Anytime. You know that. And, Blade, I’m fucking happy for you.”
I smile. “It was unexpected, but I’m fucking pleased, too.” I glance at the kitchen table, wondering if I should bring June’s computer, but it’s not there.
Cannon points toward his bag. “I bagged it. Is that okay?”
“Yes. I’m sure Mace has a computer lying around that I can borrow for June so she can teach her class tonight. Hopefully, everything she needs is in a cloud and she doesn’t need that particular one to log in to teach.”
“Let me know if it’s a problem. I can process this computer quickly if June needs it back. I just wanted to be certain we didn’t need to do a second print pull before I touched it.”
“I’ll let you know.”
I open the door cautiously and peer around the hallway before we exit and lock up. “She’s not going to like this,” I mutter.
“Who would?”