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Geoffrey leaned back in the cool leather desk chair, his feet propped on the corner of the desk, and grabbed his phone to see a message from Finn that he’d moved their call again. He pulled up the picture Sven had taken at the restaurant. The people in that picture laughing and smiling were among those he considered some of his closest friends. Except for Brendon.
Fuck, he should never have dated that bastard. Sven had to be wrong about him wanting Geoffrey back. Brendon had been the one to end things—claiming that Geoffrey was too clingy, too needy, just because he wanted a monogamous relationship. Because he wanted someone who gave a shit about him.
Rolling his eyes at himself, he turned his attention away from Brendon to look at the others in the picture. Could any of them have drugged him at the club and then helped him home? He wanted to immediately take Abby and Veronica off the list, but Abby was the same height and stronger than most expected, while Veronica had an inch or two on him at least. They could have helped him out of the club. He hadn’t been totally dead weight, right?
He wanted to say that none of them could have damaged his car, but he and Sven had wandered around Smale Park for at least an hour after leaving Taste of Belgium, giving him time to calm down. That would have been plenty of time for any one of his so-called friends to leave the restaurant, snap a couple of pictures of them in the park, then sneak down to his car and slash the tires. It wouldn’t have been hard to find. Anytime he went down to The Banks, he parked in the same general area on the same level of the parking garage—that way he never had to remember a new level when he parked.
And with Sven’s massive size, he and Sven wouldn’t have been hard to spot at the park. An easy opportunity to snag a few pictures before returning to the rest of the group.
Or it didn’t have to be anyone from the picture. It could have been one of the other hundred freaking people that he knew around the city. That person could have waited until he appeared at the restaurant and then destroyed his car before waiting for an opportunity to take the picture. Hell, had he and Sven walked right past the person as he fumed away from the restaurant and not even noticed them?
He wanted to scream. His mind was turning in useless circles while his nice, normal life was being torn to shreds by this asshole and doubt.
The light flowing through the open office door was suddenly blocked and Geoffrey looked up to find Sven standing in the doorway, his lips pulled into a frown. Sven’s mood had grown more dour and worried with each passing hour.
“I can’t live like this,” Geoffrey announced. He set his phone back on the desk facedown, unable to look at the picture a second longer.
“The security system will keep you safe. You’ll be able to sleep easier at night.”
He wanted to make a joke about being able to sleep easier if a certain large Norwegian would crawl into bed with him, but he wasn’t up for making jokes, which just pissed him off even more.
“That’s not what I meant.”
Sven’s brows gathered over the bridge of his nose and his frown deepened. He took another step into the office so that the desk separated them.
Dropping his feet to the ground, Geoffrey shifted forward in his seat and grabbed his phone again. He quickly keyed in the password and held it up so that Sven could see the picture he took. “I look at them and all I can think is: Which one did it? Why would one of them do such a thing? Who’s obsessed? Did I do something to hurt one of them and not realize it? Do I deserve this?”
“You don’t deserve this.”
A little bubble of warmth formed in his chest, trying to spread and push away the chill that seemed to never leave him now. Not since waking up the previous day knowing that his trust had been violated. But he kept a tight hold of the bubble, not letting it grow.
“I can’t live with this constant doubt.” He shook his head and dropped his hands to his lap, clutching his phone tightly. “No, I don’t trust any of them completely. I would never trust them with Finn’s safety and well-being. But I never thought one of them would hurt me. Never stab me in the back. Now, that’s all I expect.”
“I’m sorry.”
Sven’s softly spoken apology drew his gaze back to the bodyguard. His shoulders were stiff and tense, hands clenched into fists at his sides as if he felt bad for Geoffrey as well. He wore his usual attire of casual jeans and a black Ward Security T-shirt.
