Chapter 2
“THAT WAS MY MOTHER’S.” AHRI hurried over to where a giant of a man had picked up the glass-enclosed Korean doll wearing a traditional Hanbok dress.
She blinked against the tears that had been fighting to get free since Zed had walked out.
Flaring her nostrils, she took a deep breath.
She refused to cry over him; he didn’t deserve it. “I’ll pack this one.”
“Whatever.” The guy shrugged and moved to her china hutch to help a second man.
Yes, go break the china. I can replace that. Zed’s horrid mother had given them that. Ahri gently picked up the foot-high glass case, wondering how best to protect it from breaking. It’d take a special kind of box and proper padding to protect the doll.
She clenched her jaw. If she’d had any idea she’d be moving, she could have started packing her few delicate treasures sooner, though she was relieved some had survived the break-in.
She could also have given proper notice at work.
How was she ever going to get another decent executive assistant job with that on her record?
Quitting like this would leave them in the lurch, and they’d been good to her too, especially when things had started to go sour with Zed. Maybe she shouldn’t—
That too-familiar sensation of being watched struck Ahri again, and she stilled.
Her hands went clammy, memories flooding back of when she’d approached her apartment complex to find the police there, yellow tape cordoning off the area.
For a second, panic had filled her. What if Zed had come back—and someone had killed him?
But her fear had been for nothing; there was no sign her husband had been there.
Ahri carefully put down the glass case before her trembling hands dropped it.
She tried not to be obvious as she straightened and arched her back like it hurt, glancing out the window as she did.
A familiar looking middle-aged man slowly strolled across the street, watching her.
As soon as she met his gaze, he dropped it, shoved his hands in his pockets, and hurried away.
The hair on the nape of her neck stood up. Her gut told her he was involved with the break-in. Hadn’t he gotten what they wanted when they’d destroyed her home? Why was he still watching the apartment? Watching her?
She pinched her lips, forcing herself to breathe normally.
Last night the police had taken down her information and then blown off her assertions that she was being followed.
The officer who’d taken her report had been sympathetic, but she could tell from his expression that he’d thought it a random act.
Right. Her husband had claimed it was dangerous to stay there, and it was just a coincidence that her apartment had been broken into the very next day.
For a second, she considered calling the police about the man but decided against it. They wouldn’t believe her anyway. Ahri glanced out the window again. Besides, it looked like he’d left.
That morning, after a fretful night, Ahri had almost convinced herself that the police were right, that Zed’s dire warning had made her paranoid. But when she’d looked out her window before dawn and seen that same man leaning against the lamppost and watching her building, she’d called her brother.
She pulled the curtain closed and went in search of a good packing box. The sooner she was out of here, the better.
By mid-afternoon, most of it was done, but she still hadn’t found a box and packaging she’d trust for her mother’s doll. She wondered if she could take it with her on the plane as her carry-on.
She went to a pile of things too damaged to fix and picked up a pair of jeans that had been slashed.
Why would whoever had trashed her apartment cut up some of her clothes?
It seemed so . . . personal, like someone was trying to send them a message.
That was stupid though. Zed had to be the one they were after.
She wasn’t involved in whatever he’d gotten caught up in.
Thinking about it made her head hurt. How could her routine and boring life that included only her job, occasional lunches with coworkers, and visits to the gym have turned into this nightmare with a stalker who ransacked her apartment and shredded her clothing?
Because she was sure the two were related.
“Oh, it’s true,” Taliyah’s familiar voice cried.
Ahri turned and found her coworker standing in the apartment doorway. The woman was the mother of three girls and had been the only friend who hadn’t allowed Ahri to push her away when things had gone bad with Zed.
“You poor thing.” Taliyah strode across the room and pulled Ahri into a fierce hug. “Some of those cats at the office said you were making it all up.”
“Seriously?” Ahri stepped back and surveyed the room full of broken possessions.
One of the things she would not miss about her job was the interoffice bickering.
The cliques had turned into warring factions.
“I guess I should have known they’d act like this since the news only listed my apartment as ‘one of several break-ins’. ”
“Oh, honey, where will you go?” Taliyah started to put her hand on Ahri’s shoulder, but the woman’s phone rang.
She answered it. “Yes, I’ll be back in a few minutes.
” She disconnected and heaved out a breath.
“I had to run to the post office, so I came by to see you off. Call me when you get— Where did you say you’re going? ”
“My brother’s making the arrangements, but I’ll be in touch.”
Kayn had been adamant that no one know where Ahri was going. The people at work only knew that she had a brother who was a computer programmer, not that she was related to one of the Harvard Billionaire Boys, as the press had labeled them.
“I wish I could stay longer. You take care of yourself.” Taliyah pulled Ahri into a quick hug and hurried from the room.
Watching her leave, Ahri felt the rift from her old life.
It was real. Sniffing, she bent to pick up a pair of ruined jeans and paused.
The corner of a white photo album peeked from under a ripped blouse.
She pulled it out. Their wedding album. She vaguely remembered tossing it over into the pile last night.
Why hang on to pictures of a relationship that had died?
Ahri opened it and stared at them in their wedding clothes, so happy.
Zed’s tall good looks, especially his bright gray eyes, had captured her attention the end of their freshman year in college.
They’d gotten serious quickly, even though his mother hadn’t approved of him dating that Asian girl.
Looking back now, Ahri wondered if a sense of rebellion had been part of the reason he’d been attracted to her.
As she studied the photos, it struck her how young Zed looked, so much more than he had the night he’d left. It was like he’d aged a decade instead of only three years.
Ahri flipped the page and blinked. Three photos were missing.
She searched the other pages and even shook the album.
The pictures were gone. Glancing around the room, she didn’t see them.
Had Zed taken them? No. He hadn’t even remembered his toothbrush.
Besides, he’d dumped her. Why would he want to take photos of them?
Her gut twisted. Had the person who’d done this taken them? She dropped the album and buried her face in her hands.
“We’re here, sir,” Bill Ryze said.
Rafe glanced up from his laptop and identified the building by the moving truck. The men carrying boxes from a second-story apartment meant they must be well along on the packing. He glanced at the driver.
“Privacy, please,” Rafe said.
She nodded and a divider went up between the front and back seats.
Olaf had outdone himself. The vehicle had the outside appearance of a large model SUV while the interior was like a limo.
His assistant’s sense of humor also played into the choice because it looked like the stereotypical black villainous cars used in action films. Rafe was going to miss that kid.
“Bill, you’ve had time to think about this weird situation. I’d like your assessment.”
“I read through the police report during the flight.” Bill’s gaze scanned from the movers to the other side of the street. “There were a number of other incidents in the general area, and the local police think it was probably a gang initiation or some teenagers being stupid.”
“What do you think of Ahri’s statement that she was being followed?”
“That I don’t have enough information on it.
She reported that her husband left the day before and with a warning that people were after him.
I checked. Meisner is an accountant who quit his job last week, evidently something his wife didn’t know.
There’s a chance that he’s emotionally unstable, and his paranoid claims have frightened her enough to see things that aren’t there. ”
“That’s possible, I suppose.”
Bill glanced at him with a frown. “But you don’t think so?”
“There’s the break-in.”
“That could be a coincidence.”
“Yes.” Rafe watched the movers, feeling an urge to find Ahri and make sure she was all right.
“But I don’t think we should blow this off.
I don’t know her all that well, but Kayn talks about her a lot.
Nothing I’ve seen myself or heard him talk about fits the description of a woman likely to fall prey to delusions. ”
“She might be emotional because her husband just left her.”
The man’s remark made Rafe cringe a little. If his mother had been there, she’d have had a hissy fit about it.
“That’s kind of a sexist comment,” Rafe said, “assuming a woman shouldn’t be believed because she’s overly emotional about something that happened to her.”