Chapter 22 Loche
Loche
She was going to choose me. Me. Loche. Not V. Ever would have chosen me if I hadn’t fucked this all up. If I had been honest with her from the start, she might be next to me right now.
“Goddamnit,” I yelled, stopping myself from picking up a bedside lamp and chucking it across the room. Instead, the pillow I’d grabbed in place of it struck the wall with a thud and tumbled to the floor.
In my quest not to lose Ever, I’d lost Ever. And I deserved it. There was no grand gesture that was going to fix what I’d done.
My phone buzzed, indicating a text message.
With the hope that it was Ever running through my head, I picked it up, deflating a bit when I saw the text was from Blaine.
A verdict had been reached; the jury had awarded the Estate of Roger and Peggy Sawyer seventy-five million dollars.
A huge fuck you to the automobile company and the largest verdict our law firm had ever received.
If Conrad wasn’t presently behind bars, he would be taking the credit as though all the hard work for the case had been done by him and him alone.
I’d been surprised when I wasn’t arrested at the police station.
Maybe I still would be if officers decided to investigate Conrad’s very truthful allegation about my illegal fight club.
Thankfully, he only suspected there may be more activities and didn’t actually know about the side gig we all had roughing up pieces of shit who were too cowardly to fight someone their own size.
But I had a feeling I would be watched, whether by law enforcement or by the private investigator Conrad would most likely employ to follow me around so that I could join him, making us one big happy family in the slammer.
This meant I would have to lie low for a while and not participate in any illegal fighting activities for a few months. The guys would hate it—and quite frankly, so will I—but if it guaranteed their safety, it would be worth it.
My phone received another text notification.
This time, it was from Jack letting the trial team know that they were having dinner across the street at a pub and inviting everyone still here to join them for a celebratory dinner and drinks.
Normally, I’d bail on something like this, but if there was a small chance I could see Ever and maybe an even smaller one that I could talk to her, I was going to take it.
“Loche,” Blaine greeted me with a pat on the back when I entered the pub and approached the table occupied only by Jack and Jason. Fuck. “Great work. We wouldn’t have been able to obtain the same result for our clients if not for that recall you dug up and that expert engineer you helped secure.”
My face burned. It shouldn’t have surprised me that Conrad hadn’t told them or had outright lied. “Actually, Ever was the one who found that recall in the twenty thousand pages of discovery they produced to us over the course of two years. I suppose Conrad never told you that?”
Blaine’s expression told me more than words ever could. “No, he didn’t,” he answered, all traces of the warm smile he’d greeted me with disappearing. “Something tells me that you and I are going to have to have a talk when we get back into the office.”
“Speaking of the office, has the rest of the staff been notified about Conrad?”
“Yes, they have,” Jack responded. “Conrad has been released on bail, and we hired security for the office. Matt rushed back to meet with the staff this morning. We’ve offered anyone uncomfortable with being there the opportunity to work from home.
We have a third-party cleaning out Conrad’s office and boxing up everything that isn’t firm property. ”
“And what about Denise?” I asked.
“She kicked Conrad out of the house, changed the locks, and has invested in security of her own.”
I nodded, taking pleasure in knowing that Conrad was going to be forced to seek refuge in a hotel, as no one in our family liked him enough to open their home to him.
Not even my mom. I only hoped Denise had been able to cut him off financially and those accounts holding the money he’d stolen from the firm had been frozen.
“Good.” I took a seat next to Jason, casually looking around the pub.
“Since everything seems to be in order, I guess it’s as good a time as any to put in my notice of resignation. ”
“What?” Blaine asked, taking a seat in his chair next to Jack. The two shared a pointed look of disbelief with each other. “You know everything going on with Conrad isn’t reflective on you and that you still have a job at the firm if you want it, right?”
“I appreciate that, but I think it’s time to move on. I’ve actually recently received an offer elsewhere, and besides, Ever is more than capable of taking over my position. She should have been promoted to it in the first place.”
“I won’t argue with that,” Jack said, smugly, as someone who knew Ever and at one point in time had thought everything I’d just said out loud.
“So, where is everyone?” I asked, trying not to let on that by ‘everyone’ I meant Ever. I’m not entirely certain everyone seated at the table was convinced.
“Kim went home last night,” Jason answered me, “and most likely won’t be returning to the firm. Caroline and Ever left to go home. I guess the weather is supposed to take a turn this evening, and they wanted to get back before it got too bad.”
In other words, Ever had no desire to ride home with me or be in my general vicinity.
I sat back in my chair, reading the menu without processing the words.
Inside, V was screaming at me to run to Ever and kneel at her feet, begging her for forgiveness.
I’d remind her that Vinny and I had bonded and that should count for something.
Of course, Vinny had also had a front row seat to me chasing her mom down the hall, slamming her against the wall, and fucking her senseless.
We really should look into getting some counseling sessions going or putting a blanket over the aquarium.
The latter option would probably be the better solution, and insurance wouldn’t have to become involved, so that made it a plus, too.
I removed my phone from my pocket to check and see whether Ever had sent a text.
The burner was in my car, so if she sent any messages there, I’d have to wait to read those.
Even though I wasn’t expecting to hear anything from her, it still stung a bit when there was nothing as far as text messages were concerned.
Even one reading me the riot act or a selfie of her flipping me off would have been better than radio silence.
My eyes wandered to a notification from Ever’s surveillance camera just as I was about to put the phone back in my pocket.
What in the absolute hell was this fuckery?
Footage from the camera picked up a person in a hooded sweatshirt that was about three sizes too large for them walking in Ever’s front yard, climbing the stairs to the porch, and setting down a small package at her door.
A package that wasn’t from me, and seeing as it wasn’t delivered by the US Postal Service or any other delivery service, was likely something Ever hadn’t ordered.
Katy arrived a little while later and picked up the box, inspecting it with a smile on her face.
She lifted the parcel to her ear and shook it slightly at first and then more vigorously to see if she could hear what was inside.
Was someone else delivering gifts to Ever’s door? What unimaginative bastard was stealing my schtick? Better question, did Ever have another stalker?
I continued watching the footage from the rest of the day, catching nothing but the occasional car driving down the road or a squirrel running across the yard, but then, roughly an hour ago, movement just off-screen triggered the camera to begin recording.
Although I couldn’t make out who or what it was, a shadow told me it was something significant and, most likely, human.
Seconds later, the footage cut out, leaving nothing but a black screen.
A lump formed in my stomach as anxiety crept from the depths of my brain, bringing all the intrusive thoughts it could find with it.
Had someone cut the camera? Fuck, was someone at her house right now?
Had they broken in? Given other alternatives, a simple break-in may be a best-case scenario situation.
I stood up to the attention of the others at the table. “I have to go,” I said, without elaborating as to why I all of a sudden had a personal emergency. “Do any of you know what time Ever left?”
Jack and Blaine shared a confused glance at each other while Jason seemed to be giving my question some thought. “I think it was maybe twenty minutes to a half-hour ago.”
I nodded. “Which means I need to get on the road now.” I reached into my pocket and removed my room key, pulling out a fifty-dollar bill along with it, and tossed both onto the table near Jason. “Please do me a favor and grab my stuff out of my room and check out for me. I’ll explain later.””
A sick, twisted bundle of nerves, I hurried out of the pub and onto the street, running as fast as I could to the hotel’s parking structure, once again pulling my cell phone out of my pocket. My fingers scrolled through my contacts until I landed on Cole.
“Jesus, Loche, are you running a marathon or something?” Cole answered, noticing my hurried breaths. “Because I swear to God if you’re calling me while you’re having sex, I’m going to reevaluate our friendship.”
“There’s something going on with Ever’s security cameras. Is there an explanation why footage would stop and the screen would go black that isn’t nefarious?”
“I mean, sure. It could be a power outage, an outage at the security company, or a defective product. Although there’s a backup in the event she loses electricity. A total blackout is unusual.”
“Is there a way to find out what happened to her camera?”
“I’ll make some calls to see what I can find out.”
“Thanks, man. I appreciate it.” I entered the parking structure and climbed the flight of stairs to the level where my car was parked. “I’m probably overreacting, but I thought I saw the shadow of what could have been a person before the camera cut out, so I’m a little nervous.”
“Have you told Ever you loved her yet?” he chuckled.
“What? No. I don’t—I mean.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Shit.”
“Uh-huh. Look, this would be the second time you called, worried about someone snooping around her house. I think the only person she needs to worry about looking through her windows is you.”
“I never looked through her windows uninvited.”
“Please don’t expand on that. I’ll look into what may be going on with Ever’s camera and get a hold of you when I find out something.”
“Thanks.”
“In the meantime, just fucking tell her, man.”
“I will if she gives me the chance.”
When I ended the call with Cole, I scrolled to Ever and hit call, immediately finding myself thrust into voicemail hell.
“Ever, it’s Loche. I know I don’t deserve to speak to you right now, but I really need you to call me back as soon as possible.
Just—don’t go inside your house by yourself.
I can’t be sure, but I think something weird is going on.
And yes, I know this because I have access to your surveillance camera.
Yes, I know that’s fucked up. Just please, please, give me a call back. ”
I dug my key fob out of my pocket, clicking the button to unlock my vehicle and hopping inside, simultaneously scrolling through my phone to find Caroline’s cell phone number.
A glimmer of hope struck me when the phone rang while I backed out of my spot.
That small glimmer was soon stomped to death like a bug underneath a shoe when, right after the second ring, my call was sent to voicemail, no doubt directed by Ever.
Maybe Cole’s insinuation was right. Maybe I was overreacting to this.
There was a host of things that could explain what I’d seen.
Yet here I was more worried about Ever than Ever was worried about Ever.
And why? Because Cole was right about another thing.
I didn’t just have an unhealthy obsession with the girl who scratched her nose with her middle finger every time we passed each other in the hallway at work, as though I wouldn’t realize what she was doing; it had evolved into something much more than that.
I fucking loved Ever Moore, and I would annihilate anyone who laid a hand on her.