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* * *
For two days, during the hours Mia worked, I staked out the staff parking lot. By my best calculations, the parking lot cameras had a blind spot, and I found it behind a row of bushes and commercial trash bins. Perfect for hiding and watching.
It was nearing the end of the second day, with another hour to go until she was off work. Nothing unusual happened as far as I could tell, and I watched Mia’s car like a hawk. If anyone dared came near it, I’d—
Just then, someone grabbed me from behind and shoved me up against the metal bin, smashing my cheek bone against it. I couldn’t believe I let someone take me by surprise. My instincts were usually better than this.
“I knew it was you, Delfino, you dickhead.”
The fact the voice was Chad’s made me fight harder to get out from under his hold, but he had me pinned pretty well.
“Looks like I caught you red-handed. We’ve had a few reports lately of someone in a black sweatshirt hanging around the staff parking lot. I even have them on camera. They look to be about your height and build. And here you are.”
Chad was surprisingly strong. Although we were of similar build, I didn’t think he’d be able to pin me against the wall like he did. Of course, with my SEAL training, I knew the trick to get out of his hold, but I needed to be careful about how I played this situation.
“It’s not what you think. I’m only trying to watch Mia’s car to protect her. I want to catch whoever is doing this as much as you do.” He pushed me against the metal again when I tried to push off the trash bin.
“Oh yeah? You forget I know about your past, or don’t you remember stalking your ex-girlfriend?”
“My—? From ten years ago?” I turned my head as much as I could to look at him and scowled.
“Something told me back then to keep holding onto her written statement all this time. You never know when an opportunity might present itself to put it to good use. And here it is. I also have video evidence of you in the staff parking lot. I have photos of you stalking Mia, hanging around her all the time. And when I show Mia everything, I’m pretty sure she’ll see you for the piece of ship you really are. You’re under arrest, Theodore Delfino. And this time, your daddy isn’t around to protect you.”
My hands were cuffed, and he pulled me away. It would have been worse for me if I attempted to fight and run away. “It’s not me, Chad. There’s gotta be someone else doing all of this.”
We stumbled on the way to his nearby campus police car, and he shoved me headfirst into the back. How the hell did I let Chad get the jump on me? I had no idea. It was almost as if he was waiting for me and had this all planned out.
“I’m not gonna lie. Arresting you feels damn good. Like a dream come true.” Chad laughed as he drove down the road, almost giddy, and drummed on his steering wheel to some imaginary tune in his head. But I remained silent all the way to the local police department.
* * *
With my one phone call, Luc was the only person I could think of to bail me out. From there, he advised me not to talk to the police or give any statements until his lawyer arrived. He also called Jace.
A couple of hours later, they all showed up. And the inquisition began. Matt Peters, Luc’s lawyer, and I sat in a room with Officer Danielle Jameson handling the questioning. We covered everything from the black sweatshirt I owned, to my activities on campus to roses. I took the lead from Matt about what questions to answer or not.
“Do any of these dates mean anything to you?” She pushed a list of dates typed on a sheet toward me. I looked them over.
“Uh, no. What are they?”
“I’m going to need you to provide your whereabouts on these dates, along with the names and phone numbers of any known persons who were with you and can vouch for you.”
I swallowed hard. I had a feeling the dates would be nights when Mia and I were together. And I couldn’t use her as an alibi and risk her losing her job.
The lawyer took the paper and deposited it into his briefcase. “We’ll look these over.”
Officer Jameson pulled a black sweatshirt out of a bag beside her and set it on the table. “Is this yours?”
I frowned, inspecting the tag and size. “Where’d you—? Um. Yeah, it looks like mine.” Shit. I recalled leaving my sweatshirt in the classroom the other day.
“What about these photos?” She spread several photos in front of me on the table. Taken from behind, they were of a person wearing a black sweatshirt beside several cars. Then she clicked on a video from the parking lot, with the same viewpoint, no face showing. “Is this you?”
The lawyer spoke up before I could. “This is a total waste of time. These pictures could be anyone wearing a sweatshirt. The truth of the matter is, detective, you have no proof. What you have is a campus rent a cop with a vendetta against my client over something that happened in the past. We’re leaving. Unless you have a warrant for my client’s arrest, we’re done here.”
I took the lead from Matt and stood, following him to the door. Danielle called after us, “We’ll release you for now, but don’t plan any trips far away in case we have more questions.”
Matt conferred with Luc and Jace in the hallway, sharing details with them. But it startled me when I saw Mia being led to a conference room down the hall by another officer.
“Teddy? What’s going on? Are you okay?” She approached me with fear in her eyes. If I had an eraser, I’d remove any trace of it, along with any doubts she had about us. I wanted to set her at ease, and tell her I had Luc and Jace and an excellent lawyer and we’d get through this somehow.
