Chapter Twenty-Seven
I feel frozen to my spot as I stare at the photos strewn over the bed. I'm not protecting my girls. This scumbag was inside the house. In the rooms. Touching their stuff, leaving his mark all over to embed the memory of this situation everywhere she looks.
Me: They were here in the house. There are pictures of every room and then a photo of Aubrey in her window from five minutes ago. How the fuck are we letting this happen?
Wyatt: On my way. Bringing backup.
Using my phone I take photos of everything. Every little detail that might help us find this person. Then I'm going to use them to bring Nolan down once and for all.
I should have known something was coming.
A large resort in the Adirondacks just signed my contract.
A contract that Nolan has spent the better part of two years trying to win over.
But he never made a trip out to meet them, or build a relationship with them.
I did. He sent me. So of course I wasn’t going to give up that contract.
I reached out to the manager immediately explaining how I was starting on my own.
This is the one account I wasn’t going to let go without a fight.
And it looks like Nolan’s bringing the fight.
“Coop.” Wyatt’s hand touches my shoulder, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Hey. Thanks for coming.” I step to the side, letting him see the mess on the bed. “This is what she found in the drawer. Her phone has the texts and photo of her standing over here at the window. They’re still fucking out there, Wy.”
“I’ve got guys out there looking. We’ll find them if they’re still here.”
Wyatt’s partner, Nick, comes in. “What do we have here?”
“Whoever’s stalking my brother and future sister-in-law was in the house, texting Aubrey, while watching her. You’ll see the last photo is him watching her from the edge of the woods. Cap sent guys in that direction. But we need something that will tell us who it is.”
“Kane is on the number,” I admit.
“Jesus, Coop. I thought we talked about Kane not interfering.”
I glare at Wyatt. “He’s not. He’s running a number that you already ran and couldn’t find. It’s not my fault you got nothing.”
“Uh, sorry but who is Kane?” Nick asks.
“One of my brother’s friends, a whiz with a computer. Probably could hack into the Pentagon if he wanted to.” Wyatt runs his hands through his hair, a true sign of his that he’s frustrated as hell.
“I don’t think that’s legal.” Nick so helpfully offers.
“Doesn’t need to be. I just need to know where to start to link this to my old boss. I know he’s behind it. I just don’t know how yet.” I say.
Footsteps fall just outside the door and we all look over at Aubrey as she comes in.
“I just need to get my stuff.” She ignores us and walks over to the closet to start packing.
I exchange looks with Wyatt and Nick who are staring at each other shrugging their shoulders.
Walking up to Aubrey, I ask, “Hey, gorgeous, what's going on?” Her head whips to me and I know immediately I’ve fucked up. “Why don’t we go in the other room?” I usher her into Lily’s room, away from the other two men.
Her eyes are wet and wild, hands shaking, voice about to crack on a sob. I open my mouth to speak but she beats me to it.
“What's wrong? What kind of fucking question is that? You and your brother and who knows how many strangers are about to go through my whole life to find the psycho doing this to me and my daughter. Every inch of everything I do is about to be scrutinized, parts I want hidden, won’t stay that way.
I can't even stay in my own house. I'm being sent away.” I take a tentative step toward her, but she backs up putting her hand out.
“Don't. I know it's for the best, but I still get to be mad that they're winning.”
Reaching out once again, I don’t let her back away from me again. “I get it and I'm so sorry this is happening. But it's only for tonight then we can come back. I promise they won't win.”
“They already are.” She pulls out of my embrace and goes back into the room before storming out and slamming the door shut.
I feel an awful lot like I’ve messed up, but I’m trying to not take it personally. After a long deep breath I go back into the bedroom to finish with Wyatt.
“I think we’ve got everything we need here.” Nick places a camera back into the bag he brought in. “Some of the other guys will be here in a minute. Try not to touch anything else.”
“Thanks guys.” I shake Nick’s hand. “Let me know what you get, keep me in the loop.” I direct that at Wyatt.
“You got it. And please don’t let Kane do anything else. I want to be able to nail this guy.” Wyatt slaps me on the shoulder and follows Nick back out the house.
Once I close the door behind my brother, I turn to face the house. One that's now tainted with bad memories for them. How can I fix this? It's my fault. Some way, somehow this all goes back to Nolan.
I knew I should've taken his threats more seriously.
Especially after that last assignment. What my family doesn't know is that Kane's computer skills are the only reason I got out.
He was able to get me fake passports and plane tickets out of a different country so my American passport didn't raise any flags.
Especially since I found out Nolan got me into the country as a journalist. Safe to say, being who they thought I was, they put a massive bullseye on me and the poor unsuspecting family hosting me at their small bed and breakfast.
All that means is that I one hundred percent don't trust him and fully believe he'd do some crazy shit to get what he wanted. He used to “joke” that he had ties to the mafia. Now, I'm inclined to think those jokes were thinly veiled truth.
“Coop, the team is here to process for evidence,” Wyatt says, opening the door with three other cops behind him.
Nodding, they enter the house and start adding to the bad memories. At least Aubrey isn’t here anymore. She’ll never feel safe here again.
The best I can do for Aubrey right now is to get this place cleaned up as soon as everyone leaves. So, that's what I'll do.
As soon as the door closes again I start with the mess in her room, I gather all the photos off the bed.
Opening the envelope I slip them back in but they get caught on something.
Looking inside I find another envelope at the bottom.
Pulling it out, I notice that there is a logo for a private investigator in Montana.
I shouldn’t spy on Aubrey, but curiosity gets the best of me.
Slipping the envelope open I am met with a report on Jack. It is dated three days before his death. After a quick scan of the results, it not only confirms what she’s told me, but so much more. No wonder she didn’t want anyone to find this.
Flipping page after page and all I see are photos that no woman should ever have to see of her husband. I stop when I get to the photo of him snorting cocaine off some woman’s ass cheek. Fucking christ. If this man was still alive I’d kill him myself.
Shoving everything back in with the photos, I slip them on the top shelf of the closet to deal with later after I talk to Aubrey about it.
I'm in Lily’s room tidying up toys when Aubrey’s phone pings in my pocket and there's a knock on the door at the same time. My heart pounds in my chest. They're here, thinking they're about to find Aubrey and Lily alone. Finding my gun, I start to creep around corners, avoiding any of the windows.
The door opens and someone's hand wraps around the edge to push it open.
I get in my stance, ready to shoot as soon as they enter.
“Coop, you still here?" Wyatt steps through with Hunter on his heels. "Jesus, Coop, what the fuck are you doing?" He holds his hands up in surrender.
"Me? You! You just waltz into a house someone just broke into! Have you heard of calling out? Fuck's sake, Wy! What kind of cop are you?”
"Sorry! I was excited about a possible lead. I didn't think!” He shuts the door behind him and Hunter.
"What the hell did you drag me into?" Hunter asks.
Wyatt glares at him. "I was thinking about the photos.
And I noticed two things. One, how were they in two places at once?
They were getting photos of you and Aubrey in Hemlock Cove while at the same time getting photos of Lily and Emma here.
There's more than one person. Two, how do they always know where you're going to be?
You'd have noticed someone tailing you by now. There must be trackers or some listening devices somewhere.”
Shit. He's right. How did I not think of that?
"So, what is the plan?" I look between Hunter and Wyatt.
"We need to find them, obviously.” When we stare at him without moving, he continues, "Outside. Start with the cars. Look under the body, in the wheel wells, anywhere you think you could hide something. While you're out there, I'm going to run a sweep in the house to find any bugs planted.”
Nodding, Hunter and I go outside. “I'll start with my truck. You take her car.”
"You got it. " he takes off, laying on the ground to look under the wheels first.
I do the same. I remember hearing once that the wheels were the most common spot, away from the heat of the engine, quick to place, and typically pretty well hidden.
“Got one!” Hunter yells from the front of the car.
“Where?”
“Driver’s side, front wheel. Top of the well, stuck to the metal.” He holds the tracker up, shaking it in the air.
Okay, I usually park to the left of her car. Leaning down I feel under my passenger’s wheel well, and sure as shit, I find a tracker.
“Damn it!” I yell. “How did I miss this? How did I let this happen?”
“Hey, you didn’t let anything happen. They’re bad guys for a reason, but they’re not smart enough in the long run. We’ll get them.” He walks over to me and slaps my shoulder. “Let’s go tell Wyatt. Even though I honestly don’t want him to know he was right.”
“I don’t even care right now, I want him to be right about everything. All of it. I want Aubrey and Lily to be safe.”
He gives me a weak smile. I know he wants that too.
None of us like when the other is upset or in danger.
When Olivia’s grandparents took her overnight and wouldn’t give her back to Emma and Roman, I didn’t know what to do.
I wanted to go over there and rip her out of their house and give her back to them.
I watched my sister cry too much. And now, I’m watching the woman I love suffer.
“What did you find?” Wyatt asks as soon as we come back in. “I haven’t had any luck.”
“We found a tracker on each of our cars.” Hunter and I both hold them out to him.
Coming over, he inspects the trackers we found. “You weren’t supposed to take them off, dumbasses. Ever heard of fingerprints?”
“We’re not the cops! You should have brought Nick back!” Hunter argues.
“Just put them in here.” He holds open a clear evidence bag. “You’ll have to give your fingerprints to exclude them. At least you didn’t hold both.” He shakes his head, sealing the bag.
Hunter and I stand, staring at each other, watching Wyatt move around. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him actually be a cop. We see him patrolling, or walking around downtown, but he’s never been arresting someone or doing anything like this.
“You’re like a real cop, huh? Not just a uniform for the ladies?” I joke.
His head snaps to me. “Are you fucking for real right now?”
“Yeah.”
“No, it’s not just a uniform for the ladies, you asshat.” He starts to walk away with the trackers under his arm. “It’s a little bit for the ladies.”
Both Hunter and I burst out laughing at him. “I fucking knew it.”
“Shut up and let’s go get your fingerprints since you two clearly are not cops.”
“I didn’t need a uniform to get my girl.” Hunter laughs.
“No, but I did hear you had to grovel by giving Evelyn all the orgasms she wanted, whenever she wanted.” I lock the doors behind me.
“I’m not complaining. I will happily give that woman orgasms whenever she wants.” Hunter shrugs.
“It’s good to see you smile, Coop.” Wyatt tosses the evidence bags into his front seat.
“Who knew I just needed to give you some shit?”
“I’m here to serve.” He gets in the car. “See you in a few.”
He doesn’t wait for us and takes off.
Hunter opens the door of my truck and I shoot a questioning look at him, my eyebrows raised. “What? I came with that idiot. I have no car. So I guess it’s your turn til we get back to the inn.”
Rolling my eyes I hop in and take off following Wyatt to the station.