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2024
Rae’s first thought after Troy left was to call Angel and make sure she was okay. She didn’t trust herself not to break down and didn’t want to freak out her friend right before her trip, so she texted her instead, without mentioning what had happened.
She couldn’t stop shaking, not even when Dayton showed up less than ten minutes after she’d called him when Troy left. Rae had checked the front and back doors, making sure they were locked, and her pulse skyrocketed when she heard Dayton pushing the intercom buzzer over and over to be let in through the front.
He rushed inside and held her tight against his chest like she was going to vanish. He pulled back from her and examined her neck. “Are you okay?”
“I think so.”
He paced the lobby, raking his hand through his hair, and slammed his fist down hard on the front desk, making her jump. “Those motherfuckers!”
She felt light-headed and sat down on the love seat in the lobby. “What did he mean about you holding up your end, Dayton? What do they want from you?”
He stopped pacing and stared at her, his eyes wild. “They want me to destroy evidence.”
“What evidence?”
“For a recent high-profile rape case involving one of their little cult members, Stephen Andersson.” Dayton sat down in a chair kitty-corner from her. “He’s a Swedish businessman who has ties to the Coulters, and his former assistant accused him of rape and battery. They want me to tamper with the rape kit, make it unusable.”
Rae breathed through the pressure in her head portending a migraine. “When did they contact you?”
“Last Friday.” He let out a sardonic laugh. “They left a greeting card shaped like a dog on my windshield. I knew it was them. It had a number written inside, and I called it. They threatened to hurt Carli, my mom, you—anyone I care about unless I come through.”
So that’s why he drank so much when they went out Saturday with Angel. He didn’t seem to care how trashed he was getting, like he wanted to be outside himself. He was escaping an impossible decision.
“Do you really not have access to the evidence?” she asked.
“Of course, I have access. But if I get caught, it means I go to prison. Besides, I’m not a dirty cop.”
“Why you, though? You said you saw the former police chief at the party. They probably have other cops in their pocket who could do it for them.”
“You’re right. They might have some inside guys, but I don’t know. I figure if they do, they don’t want them to get caught and have it lead back to them. And they made it very clear I’m disposable. They just want it done. And I pretty much fell into their lap when we went to the Coulters’ party.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about this before now?”
“I should’ve, but it involved an active case. But now?” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter if I tell you. They’re forcing my hand, which is why I sent Carli back to my mom’s house, at least until I can find something to pin the fuckers.” He paused, blowing out a sigh. “There’s something else. They hacked into my computer last Friday and erased the file, even the backup I saved to the cloud.”
“Fuck.” The migraine was definitely coming now. “Why the hell did they have me destroy the flash drive then? They could’ve just broken into your house.”
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me either. But I think they knew I wouldn’t leave it at my house during the day, and it was too risky for them to break in with me there, so they used you to do it because you could get close to me. They needed the hard evidence gone.” He leaned forward, cradling his face in his hands for a second. “And now we have nothing to threaten them with.”
Rae rubbed her temples. “At least we have video of the guy who attacked me. We have security cameras.”
“How did he get in?”
Rae stood up and walked over to the front desk to pull up the security footage. “He posed as a new client under the name of Troy Farris. Sound familiar at all?”
“No.” Dayton came up beside her at the computer.
“He got through our vetting, probably using a stolen identity. He had me destroy the client file with his photo, but I got the motherfucker on ...” The security footage was black. “Shit. I don’t know why nothing’s showing.”
Dayton stepped over to where a camera was set up in the corner of the ceiling. “He didn’t cut the feed here. Do you have more cameras set up somewhere else?”
“Just the one pointed at the back exit,” she said.
She followed Dayton down the hallway, past her dungeon. Sure enough, the box containing the wires for the camera feeds was cut.
Rae felt like screaming. “He must’ve done it before he came inside the dungeon space.”
