Chapter Seven #2
“It’s a good point. But we know she’s only had a handful of boyfriends, who’ve all checked out.
She was with Dominic for a long time, and as far as we know, she hasn’t had any one-night stands.
Logic says he was the one who took it. When I show him, I’ll be able to tell by his reaction whether he was the one who did it. ”
She nods slowly. “Okay.” She taps on her keyboard. A few seconds later, my phone buzzes. I take it out and check to make sure the photo has come through.
“Thanks.” I slide the phone back into my pocket.
“Come and tell me as soon as you’re back, please,” she says.
“Will do.” I nod and head out. I walk out of the office and into the lobby, take the elevator down to the car park, and get into my Skoda.
Then I bang the steering wheel hard, four or five times.
“Fuck!” I yell the word, then lean my elbows on the steering wheel and sink my hands into my hair.
Why did I agree to take this job? I assumed it would just be following a spoiled brat around. I thought it would be boring, mostly. Instead, I’m genuinely worried about my principal’s safety.
And not just worried. I’m shocked and upset. Aurelia’s a lovely, beautiful young woman with a light spirit, and the thought of someone using what was obviously a personal and private moment to hurt her makes me feel violently ill.
I wish I could scrub the image of her tied up out of my brain.
I can’t think about how she was still tied up because she’d just had sex.
Presumably, it had been consensual. Argh, God, I can’t go down that road.
What if it wasn’t, and he took the photo as a kind of trophy, to prove to her the control he had over her?
I breathe in and out, trying to calm myself. Ella’s right; this needs careful handling. I can’t let my emotions get involved. What the two of them did in the privacy of their own bedroom has no bearing on the fact that the photo was shared.
Except it has, in my eyes, anyway. It’s all tied in together. He doesn’t have the right to keep that photo now they’re no longer together. And even when they were… he shouldn’t have taken it. She was tied up; she had no choice. Did she even realize she was being photographed?
I hate this. I hate that I’m keeping it a secret from her. But it’s gone beyond flowers and chocolates. Now, I don’t want her to know people are looking at such a vulnerable photo of her. Her parents are right—it would crush her.
I want to catch the guy who sent it, drag him down to the police station, and have them bang him up for the rest of his life. Or, even better, castrate him, and then have him hanged, drawn, and quartered.
All right, Luke. Steady on. Calm down.
I close my eyes and let my head fall back onto the headrest. I’m not stupid; this isn’t all about Aurelia. I think about what I saw through the scope of my rifle that fateful day in Afghanistan. What they did to the female soldier they captured.
Nope, nope, nope. Not going to think about that now.
I start the engine. I’ll head over to the bank, and maybe I’ll grab a coffee and go for a walk before I head inside. Perhaps a stiff sea breeze will blow the memories away.
*
“Mr. Grayson? Will you come this way?”
The secretary smiles and gestures for me to follow her, and I get up from my seat in the waiting area. She leads me down the corridor, then steps back and lets me precede her into an office.
It’s large and flash, overlooking the harbor.
I don’t have time to look around though, because all my attention focuses on the guy sitting behind the desk.
He’s looking at his laptop, but he glances up as I walk in and smiles automatically as he says, “Hello…” Immediately, though, his smile vanishes and his brow darkens, and he gets to his feet. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
I close the door behind me and hold up a hand. “Mr. Blackthorne, please, let me speak.”
“Only if the words that come next are ‘I’m incredibly sorry for physically assaulting you in the restaurant.’”
I bristle. “I’m not here to apologize. My job is to keep Ms. Ashford safe, and that’s all I was doing. I need to speak to you about another matter.”
“I’m ringing security.” He picks up his work phone and presses a button.
I take my phone out of my pocket, swipe it open, then turn it around and show him the photo.
He stares at it. Then, slowly, he lowers the phone and puts it back in the cradle. “What. The. Fuck.” He walks around the table and stands in front of me. “How the fuck did you get that?” He’s furious. I don’t think he’s faking that.
“Sir, may I ask if you took this photo?”
“Yes, I took it. How the fuck did it end up on your phone?”
“It was sent to Aurelia by text, and we intercepted it.” I turn off my phone and pocket it again. “I need to ask you, sir, did you send it?”
“Of course I didn’t fucking send it. Why would I do that?”
He seems genuinely indignant and shocked. I hesitate. That changes things somewhat.
“Can you check for me, please,” I ask, “and see if it’s still on there?”
He continues to stare at me, though. “I don’t understand. How did someone else get it? And why did they send it to her?”
“I’ll explain everything, sir. Can you check first though, and tell me if you still have it?”
Slowly, he pulls out his phone from his jacket pocket. He opens it and scrolls through his photos with his thumb.
“Can you remember when you took it?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he says. “It was the day before we broke up.”
Does that mean it had something to do with why they broke up? Foreboding makes my stomach flip.
Eventually, he says, “There they are.” He turns his phone to show me his photo library. The photos are only partly visible in the rows of squares, but there are at least half a dozen of her in roughly the same position.
He looks down and flicks through them, but doesn’t show me.
I swallow hard. He’s remembering being with her, doing those things to her, and taking photos of her in that vulnerable position.
“She has a stalker,” I say icily.
That snaps his gaze back up to me. “What?”
“He sends her emails and texts. Comments on her social media. Sends her gifts. He sent the roses.”
His jaw drops.
“So far, it’s all been relatively innocuous. Unpleasant and intrusive, but unthreatening. This is the first time he’s sent something like this.”
“He took the photos off my phone?”
“It is possible, but it’s more likely he breached your cloud account. Maybe you clicked on a link at some point in a phishing email, or he had an old password. It’s easily done.”
He looks at his phone. “Shit. I didn’t realize.”
I feel a flare of anger at his idiocy. “Why did you keep them?” I demand.
“I didn’t know I had.”
“You should have deleted them as soon as you broke up.”
He shrugs. “I forgot.”
I narrow my eyes and move closer to him. “Were they consensual?”
He lowers his phone and meets my gaze. I wait for him to confirm it, but instead his expression turns curious. “I don’t think that’s any of your fucking business,” he says coolly.
I know I’m overstepping my duties here, but I don’t care. “It’s my business if they weren’t.”
He studies my face, amused. “You’re into her, aren’t you?”
“She’s my principal, and this is strictly professional.”
“Yeah, right. Look, dude, what Aurelia and I did in the bedroom is irrelevant. You should be concentrating on tracking down the fucking animal who sent it to her. I know we’re not an item, but I don’t like the idea of someone threatening her.”
He’s right, but all I can think about is the fact that he might have done things to her that she didn’t want done.
She wouldn’t have met him for lunch today, if that was the case, though. Would she?
“Yeah,” he says softly, “you’re being strictly professional.”
I move closer to him. I know my weight and height often make people nervous. Looking him in the eyes, I whisper, “If I find out that you hurt her in any way…”
“I didn’t do anything to her that she didn’t want done. Mostly.” His lips curve up.
I clench my fists at my side. It takes every ounce of willpower I own not to punch the bastard in the face.
Dominic smirks, obviously sensing my fury, and knowing I can’t give in to it.
I hate the bastard. But there’s nothing I can do about it, and we both know it.
Before I do something I regret, I turn away and walk toward the door.
“Leaving so soon?” he asks in a mocking voice.
I throw him a glare back. “Change your password, you fucking idiot.” I have the satisfaction of seeing his face drop before I walk out of the door.
Taking the high ground isn’t as satisfying, but at least I get to keep my job. And right now, keeping my job is the only way I can keep protecting her.