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26
Archer
“Shit.” The word slipped through my lips unbidden but damn near silent—I doubted she’d even heard me utter it. Ian had chosen the wrong fucking time to call, but since he knew exactly where I was and who I was with, I knew he wouldn’t call unless it was important. I answered with a firm press. “Hold on,” I said, before turning back to the wide-eyed beauty at my side. “Go inside, Mare. I’ll be there in a moment.”
Mare frowned but complied, and as I pressed the phone back to my ear, I watched her walk up the steps to the old Victorian house, around the side, and down to her own door, keys waiting in her hands.
“What is it?” I asked.
“We have a problem,” Ian said.
“Tell me.” Mare looked over her shoulder at me as I popped the driver’s side door and got out of the vehicle, rounding to the front to lean against the still warm hood.
“The vase and roses in her apartment weren’t delivered,” he stated. “And there were no fingerprints found. Nothing on the cameras either.”
“No way to know how it got broken or left there?” I could imagine him shaking his head.
“None,” he said. “But I asked Wolf to look into some of his contacts. He’s got some old military buddies still living in New York. Perelli seems unchanged. There’s no difference in his schedule and routine.”
“But…” I shoved my free hand into my pocket and turned to face the car. “You wouldn't have called me if that was all you had to say,” I pointed out, mentally preparing myself for what was coming next.
Ian’s sigh came through the phone loud and clear. “No, you’re right,” he agreed. “I called because there was another development. Someone left a folder on the SUV’s hood today while I was out with Jensen and you were waiting on Mare.”
“What was in it?” I felt my body tense as I waited for the answer.
“Photos,” Ian said. “Of her. Taken while she was at work, while she was at the public library. Walking home. Photos of her through the window of her apartment—getting dressed. And there were photos of us.”
I closed my eyes and leaned forward, pulling my hand from my pocket to shove it against the hood of my car. I felt the warmth like a burn to my soul. “There was a note, wasn’t there?” I guessed.
“Just a few words scribbled in red. The usual.Stay away from her. She doesn’t belong to you. She’s mine.” He sounded as though he were reading from a Psychos-R-Us teaching manual. I blew out a breath. This was so much more complicated than we’d originally thought.
“It doesn’t say anything about wanting to kill her?” I clarified.
“No, but we can’t be sure this isn’t just a ploy by whoever her father sent because you know he’s sent someone. We have to be aware of that,” he said. “But there’s something else.”
“What?”
“It’s written in blood. We’re getting it tested now, but I’m almost positive it’s human.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“Yeah, I know, man.”
“What the hell? I mean, you’re sure it’s a professional? Is it—”
“We’re not a hundred percent sure, but I’ve got Wolf working on it. Archer, I need you to get into contact with some of your old hacker buddies. I want to know if there’s anything on the dark web about this.”
“I’ll get on it as soon as I’m away from Mare. When I’m with her, I want to be with her,” I said.
“I understand, and that’s fine, but if you can, do it soon. There’s that one hacker friend you got. What was his name? El Diablo?”
I smirked. Hadrian was a devil and lorded it over everyone that he controlled the underworld known as the dark web. Not completely, but he was the guy you wanted when it came to information. If someone had secrets they were trying to hide, he could and would find them. Hadrian was a master at his work. His clients were guaranteed the information they sought because no one could hide forever and Hadrian never forgot. He was also a spiteful motherfucker. He took everything as a challenge and he’d never turned down a single one. Devil was an understatement.
We joked that we were her stalkers, but we’d kept surveillance on her for her protection. We already had a relationship before everything had gone to shit, unlike this nameless asshole who claimed she wastheirs. This was a whole new level of fucked up, and Hadrian owed me a few favors. He’d get us what we needed.
I opened my mouth to respond and froze when I heard a distant shattering sound. My eyes cut toward the house, and my throat closed up at what I saw. While all of the lights upstairs were dark and had been since we’d arrived, Mare’s lights were on, and through the front lower window I saw her and a man in black struggling.
“Get here,” I barked into the phone. “Now!” Dropping the phone, I took off running.
