AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Here’s one,” I said, maximizing an email that had come in during the early hours of the morning. I read it out loud in a deadpan voice. “Amirah. I cannot wait any longer. I’m going to climb the ivy on your south wall to get into your bathroom. Then I’m going to watch you sleep. Sleep, peaceful, like an angel. When you finally wake up, I will make you sleep forever. Then you will always be an angel. My angel.”
“Jesus Christ,” Rogan said.
I twisted in my chair to look at him. “Any part of that stick out to you?”
“The part about the ivy.”
I nodded. “Amirah’s house has a perimeter wall around the property. The ivy is hidden… Unless you are inside the perimeter. And no, it’s not visible on Google Maps.”
“Her stalker has climbed the wall.”
“At least once.”
Rogan pinched the bridge of his nose. I didn’t envy his position. I was happy to focus on the intel and technological side of the business, but Rogan had to make most of the decisions. If he made the wrong one, someone could end up dead.
“I have a bad feeling about this one,” Rogan finally said. “I have Cooper covering her right now, but he’s still green. And he gets complacent at night. I want an extra set of eyes on Amirah’s place this week.”
“I would be happy to do it,” I said. “I have not done surveillance work in over a year. It wouldn’t hurt to keep me sharp.”
I made the offer knowing full well that Rogan wouldn’t accept. And sure enough, he shook his head.
“I’m going to take this one myself. Can’t shake this bad feeling.”
“Part of running a company like HLS Security means learning to delegate,” I said gently. “You don’t need to be in control of every single client.”
“Old habits die hard.” He nodded, then lingered next to my desk. “Speaking of old habits, there’s something I need to tell you.”
“Is it about how you’ve been sleeping with Heather?”
I rarely got the jump on either of my teammates, so I relished whenever I did. Rogan gave a start and said, “How’d you know?”
“I’m in charge of intel,” I said simply. “I’m a perceptive man. And you have been getting sloppy. Several times, you came home smelling like her.”
Rogan cocked his head to one side. “You know what she smells like, eh?”
I thought about the first night I met Heather, back in the suite at the Lakers game when we thought she was Amirah Pratt. Her smell had wafted through the suite the moment she arrived, and remained long after she left. I wouldn’t have been able to forget that smell even if I had never seen her again. But now that she was working for us, that smell lingered in the residence every night when we came home from the office. It was pungent and intoxicating.
I couldn’t get it out of my head, no matter how hard I tried.
“When were you going to tell us?” I asked.
“Right now,” Rogan said. “I’m the one who brought it up.”
I shook my head. “I mean, when would you have told us if Bradyhadn’tcaught you last night?”
For the second time that day, I caught him off guard. “How do you know…”
“Brady has no poker face. I knew he found out the moment you two came home last night. When were you going to tell me?”
Rogan sank into the office chair next to mine. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”
“You told us you weren’t going to do anything,” I reminded him. “You said getting the children taken care of was the most important thing, and we couldn’t do anything to jeopardize that.”
“You sound like Brady.”
I smiled. “Normally that would be an insult, but in this case, he’s right. Is it just physical, or is there more there?”
Rogan took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I don’t know.”
