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Moreover, she was yet another person he felt responsible for. It made her feel like a burden. Couldn’t she, at the very least, be a subtle addition to his life?
Not with the way things were going.
Softly cursing, Piper let her head flop forward and stared at the tiled floor. Okay, so she could keep her morning discovery to herself. But if this happened again, she’d have to report it for fear that it would otherwise continue … and then he’d learn that it had happened once before, and he’d no doubt be pissed that she’d kept the previous occurrence from him. How could they build a trusting friendship if she wasn’t honest with him when it counted?
Piper wanted him to trust her. And, considering she had so little to offer him in anchor terms, shouldn’t she at least give him this much? Shouldn’t she give him the other things that mattered, like honesty and loyalty?
A knock at the door made her head snap up.
Moment of truth. Literally. Because she’d be a piss-poor anchor if she did nothing but take. There had to be some give. And if she truly wanted them to build foundations for a strong anchor relationship, she needed to do her part.
Opening the front door, she flashed him a smile.
The gorgeous bastard tipped his chin. “You ready? I would have brought you coffee and pastries again, but Harper and the girls would have had my ass, because they like to all meet in the coffeehouse next door to the studio every … What’s wrong?”
She scratched her head. “You’d better come inside.”
His eyes narrowed, he walked through the door. “What is it, Piper?”
“There’s something you need to see.” She padded into the kitchen, conscious of him hot on her heels, and then out into the backyard. “When I was standing at the kitchen window earlier, I noticed that one of my planters had been knocked over so I came out to fix it. When I turned around to go back inside, I found this.” She turned back to face the house, he followed suit, and then his entire body went stiff as a board. “And yes, it is what you think it is. I wasn’t so certain at first, but …”
Rage whipped through Levi like red-hot lashes—heating his blood, tightening his muscles, burning his gut. Motherfucker. His demon hissed, fairly vibrating with fury, as Levi crouched a few feet away from the wall, clenching his teeth so hard it sent a shooting pain along his jaw.
“At first, I thought someone had actually jerked off right here,” said Piper. “But it doesn’t look like they came all over the wall. There’s way too much of it, for starters. And the … blobs, for lack of a better word, are too thin and stringy. It seems more like it was squirted on the wall; like someone jerked off into a container—possibly a few times—and then sprayed the contents here.”
Breathing through his anger so he could speak without growling, he said, “You’re right.” Fuck, he could practically taste his fury. Someone had trespassed on her territory with the purpose of either marking or soiling it. Neither purpose would earn them anything less than the beating of their fucking life. “This wasn’t done last night. The semen would be drier. I’d say someone did this at some point this morning and deliberately knocked over your planter in the hope that you’d come outside and discover what they’d done.”
“That would be my guess as well.”
Standing, Levi turned to her. “You said someone recently dumped a bag of dogshit on your doorstep.”
“Kids—”
“Maybe not. Maybe it was the same person who did this.”
“I don’t think so. The dogshit stunt was childish.”
“It was also something you dismissed as a prank committed by idiotic kids. That could have been the whole point. I’m thinking they intended to empty the bag all over the doorstep or maybe even sling it at your house. It could be that they saw your car coming or they were disturbed somehow and decided to toss the bag and leave.”
She blinked. “I guess it’s possible. I never did understand the point of dumping dogshit here if they were going to leave it nicely contained in a bag. Do you think they might have also slashed my tires?”
“I do. And I find it suspicious that this began shortly after Sefton was freed.” The little fucker had looked shaky and cowed when he walked out of the prison, but that could have been an act. “Have you seen anything of him since he was released?”
“He and Jasper passed the house when I was talking to Kelvin the other day. They didn’t speak to me. Sefton didn’t even make eye-contact with me.”
“What about Jasper?”
“He gave me a dismissive little snarl. That’s it.”
“And this happened the day your tires were slashed?”
