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“What the fuck?” Liam starts toward the direction he went off in, but with so many people now witness to our argument, he stops himself.
Patrick’s mom is staring at us like we’ve all lost our minds.
But all I can do is stand there and try to put the rapidly appearing puzzle pieces together.
“That cop, you know who works there, right? Nikolai Drafter.” I look deep into Patrick’s eyes.
He grabs my hand, hauling me to the back, and Liam follows.
“What is going on? You think the Drafter family is involved with this?” Liam asks when we’re in private.
“He took my statement about the first break-in. Didn’t take me seriously at all … almost as if he disliked I even stepped foot in the station. I didn’t think anything much of it, other than that he might have been one of the guys in the whole high school debacle. But this? Rat? And now his nephew basically admitting to the first break-in? He has to be involved.”
Fear skitters over my skin again just thinking about the voice and being pinned to the brick wall just outside where we were standing. That person had been unhinged, vengeful, and they sounded like they’d stop at nothing.
Patrick looks like he’s digesting it. “I don’t know, baby. You really think a cop would do all that? Nikolai is a dick, but he was a high school kid.”
“Patrick, there is a reason he hasn’t followed up. There is a reason his nephew just ran out of here.” I know he’s trying to stay rational, but none of this is rational.
“You’re right.” He pulls me to him. “What do you want to do?”
He’s with me no matter what, and that makes me a little braver.
“We have to go back to my dad’s house. Maybe we missed something, maybe there was something more we didn’t pick up on.” I’m frantic, pulling my phone for the PI’s number.
“That’s a bad idea.” Liam voices it.
“Maybe, but it might be the only one we have,” I plead.
“Liam and I will go. We’ll scour the place, look for anything we might have missed. But babe, we combed over all of it.” Patrick tries to reassure me.
“No, I need to go. I need to make sure there is nothing more that can solve this, that can get this settled and make this stop.” I’m just so exhausted from looking over my shoulder.
“Take this.” Liam moves for a safe on one of the back shelves in the kitchen, presses some buttons, and pulls out a gun.
“What? No.” I shake my head, everything feeling even more real now.
But Patrick takes it, tucking it in the back of his pants like I’ve seen people do on set when I’m acting.
“Just a precaution,” he assures me, pressing a kiss to the side of my temple.
“Call me as soon as you’re out of there.” Liam makes his brother promise.
Patrick does, then laces his fingers in mine. We just got one step closer to being free of all this, if we can figure out the connections, but …
Somehow, it feels like that step is too close to a cliff we might fall from.
30
CASSANDRA
“It’s weird being back here. What if …”
Patrick seems spooked when we pull up, and that rattles my nerves even harder. I’ve been leaning on him to be the brave one, but I saw his bravado falter in the restaurant when Nikolai Drafter’s nephew fled. The danger could be closer to home than either of us realizes.
“It’s broad daylight. No one’s been here in weeks. I think it’s fine.” But my heart is beating too fast, and I’m the only one who knows that my attacker admitted to watching us in the guesthouse.
Really, I’ll do whatever it takes to get answers at this point. I want the life with Patrick that I’ve seen glimpses of; the future we could have if this threat weren’t looming over our heads. It feels like I’m so close to an answer that I need to keep pushing no matter how risky it is.
