Epilogue
It Follows - Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows
Two Weeks Before Talia’s Abduction
“You have mail,” Talia said, holding up a thick yellow envelope as she sauntered across Dimitri’s office.
“Since when do I get mail?” he asked, turning in his chair to face her as she rounded his desk.
She shrugged. “Since today, I guess.” He reached for the envelope, but she pulled it away from his grasp and leaned a hip against his desk suggestively. “I’ve been told to make you pay the toll.”
“The toll?” A corner of his mouth quirked up, already guessing who had suggested a toll to be paid.
“Mhm.” She bent forward and kissed him gently. He opened his mouth to her, deepening the kiss, as his hands wrapped gently around her waist. A moment later, she was in his lap, her skirt riding up around her waist as she straddled him.
They lost themselves for a moment, forgetting where they were and that the door had been left wide open for anyone to possibly walk in.
While most people at the agency suspected there was an arrangement among Jackie, Dimitri and Talia, no one had ever confirmed it, and it was probably best to keep it that way.
Finally, Talia pulled away, a flustered burgundy hue to her cheeks as she tried to catch her breath.
“Do you make Jackie pay that toll?” he asked.
Talia stood, pulling her skirt back down around her ass. “Skirt usually comes all the way off when she pays it.”
Dimitri’s mouth fell open, as shocked as he was jealous that his girlfriends were fucking each other at work and not inviting him. “Well, I hope I start getting more mail then.”
Talia set the envelope on his desk in front of him and turned back toward the door, making a show of shaking her pert ass as she strutted away.
He stared down at the thick envelope. His brow furrowed as he thought through who might be suddenly sending him mail. Jackie got mail. He knew of a few others around the agency who got mail. But he did not.
He peered up at the door, then back down at the envelope. Sighing, he stood and walked over, closing and locking it.
He returned to his seat and tentatively opened the envelope.
Inside was a manila folder with a USB taped to the front.
He hesitated before peeling the tape off and plugging the drive into his computer.
A black-screened encryption system appeared.
On the left-hand side were two options: Send/Receive Messages and View old messages.
He clicked View old messages and scrolled through the list of dates. They went back years, well before he’d even begun working for Theo, but they ended in August—the day Theo died.
Suddenly, his chest felt very heavy.
He didn’t open any messages. Instead, he turned to the file sitting in front of him. He opened it, and the air became difficult to breathe. He read the handwritten note, immediately recognizing Theo’s handwriting.
He flipped the page; there were photos of Jackie from above. Theo must have been using a drone to watch her well before they arrived in Toronto. There were images of her walking between her condo and the office, entering clubs, and more inside them.
Dimitri kept flipping, finding a photo Theo had taken from the street the night he’d met her at Temp. He recognized her in the tight blue dress, the night drizzle coating her hair.
Another handwritten note:
He kept flipping, watching the months he’d spent getting to know Jackie go by from another man’s perspective. He watched the shift in Jackie’s eyes. From distrust and annoyance, to curiosity, then affection.
He thought he might throw up when he flipped over the next picture and found one of her sitting with Em at his parents' place.
Theo had actually flown his drone there that night to confirm her location.
The next photo was even more sickening: through the window of his parents' trailer, as he and Jackie stared at each other in the moonlight. How had neither of them noticed?
A printed copy of one of the encrypted messages sat under it:
Below was another printout of the final message Theo had sent to his mystery contact.
Dimitri stared at it for a very long time. Theo had actually intended to kill him that day. Whoever he was working for had been more important to him than their decade-long friendship. Whatever guilt had lingered after Theo’s death was washed away as he read and reread the communication.
He sighed and flipped the page again.
This time, he actually did throw up.
Facing him was a photo of Emil sledding down a hill with the girls as Cam watched on from a camp chair, cradling her pregnant belly.
The next photo was of Lex, standing outside his work, talking on the phone.
Then Phil, at the feed store in town.
Then his dad plowing the snow in his driveway.
Then his mom riding her horse through a snowy field.
Under the photos lay one last handwritten note:
That name.
He’d put it out of his mind.
The things he’d done for that man while in the military.
The control that man had over him.
And now he wanted Jackie.
His Jackie.
Theo hadn’t come to Toronto just to take over Julian Masters’s intelligence agency. He’d been sent to become Jackie’s handler.
And with Theo gone…
Dimitri had just become Jackie’s handler.