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“Why Maine?” I mutter.
“It’s on the other side of this place. So far away that your little stalker will have no way of getting to you,” Olivia says, raising a sharp brow. “We’ve been trying to nail this fucker for years. Now, we’ll finally have the opportunity.”
“What are you going to do?” An evil glint appears in Olivia’s eyes, cluing me into her nefarious plans in my absence.
“Whatever we need to do to bring this fucker down.”
“What she means is, we’ll camp out on your property. Get a little look alike to parade around and act like you while you’re away. We’ll get this asshole,” Carter says, shaking his head. “I’m going to have to take this shit back to the lab and let them work on it.” Snapping the laptop shut, he throws it to the side with a worried expression.
“What about—”
“Shh,” Olivia interrupts, shoving a finger over my lips. “Think of this as a much-needed vacation. How long has it been since you could not focus on work and live your life to the fullest? Nope, don’t answer that. You’ll tell me you don’t have time, that you’re building your damn empire.”
“I love you, but I hate you sometimes,” I mumble through her finger secured over my lips.
“I’d say pack a bag, but you’re under house arrest until we leave tonight. No stepping outside. No going home. You get the picture. There’s a team discreetly at your house right now cataloging the weird mess left for you.”
“You mean the naked pictures they took of her?” Kieran asks, putting his large mitt over Lyric’s ear.
Olivia’s lips roll in, and she nods. “Looks like whoever they are, they’ve been busy.”
Carter sighs, rubbing his forehead. “I know how they did that.”
“How?” I ask, swallowing hard.
Do I want to know the answer? How they’ve been getting pictures without my consent and looking at me in my most private moments. No. I’d rather stay ignorant. That’s bliss, after all. But I give in like a curious cat for my sanity’s sake and the urge to protect my daughter from everything harmful. She doesn’t have a clue that a psycho lives on the fringes of our life, snapping photographs of our every move.
Carter locks his gaze on mine, licking his lips like he’s nervous for once in his grumpy life. “Not only did they manipulate your cameras, Little West. They hacked into them. They’ve been fucking watching your every move. Inside and out. Wherever you have a camera, they’ve been following. Creepy fuckers,” he grumbles the last part with a grimace. “Thankfully, you don’t have cameras here to compromise us further.”
“No, but I have security measures that obviously meant nothing. Fuck. Where was the guard? They’re on twenty-four-hour duty.” There are four of them for various shifts. Someone should have seen something odd and flagged it for the police to check up on.
Years before, when I got my first piece of mail from my stalker, I invested in a security firm. From there, they sent four guards who watched my place day and night. My cameras also came from them with a live stream sent directly to their database where someone watches for anything suspicious. Window alarms, door alarms, and anything in between secures my home.
“He was there all night. We checked with him. Carter even gave him his scary look, almost making him piss himself. It’d be funny—” Olivia trails off with a huff, and another worried look crosses her face.
Carter chuckles. “Yeah, he was there all night. Believe me. He wasn’t lying. Says he didn’t hear or see a damn thing. I also checked with your security people, who gave the same answer. Useless fucks if you ask me.”
“Great. What good is a security guard if he doesn’t see anything?” I shake my head, looking toward the front door as it quietly opens, and Olivia’s long-time partner saunters in with a grin.
“Oh, River. You really got yourself into a pickle now, didn’t you?” Jordy remarks, twirling his keys in his hand.
“Nice to see you, too,” I quip to the Veritas agent I’ve gotten to know over the past few years.
By looking at his grinning face and easy facade, you’d think he’d be easy to read. He’s not. Over the years since he and Olivia took over the Veritas, he’s perfected his calm demeanor, even when raging on the inside. With his small-town hunk looks—curly blond hair, boy next door face, and sparkling blue eyes—you’d never guess that he’s a full-blown killing machine, taking down the enemy without blinking. Yeah, I’m always happy to have him on my side. He’d put my stalker down in a nanosecond. If we could catch the fucker first.
“Maine is out,” Jordy grimaces when Olivia shoots him a look, and he shrugs. “Don’t give me that look,Espie.There was a storm, and it disabled the house, making it unsecure. You need a new plan.”
“How many times do I have to remind you it’s Olivia,” she growls, narrowing her eyes at his full-blown grin. He shrugs, twirling his keys again, loving the way he’s egging her on.
For a time in Olivia’s weird and complicated life, she went by another name in the field. It was the name her uncle gave her after the murder of her parents and sister. Or so she thought. As I said, her history is complex and hurts my brain. Since reuniting with her old friends and discovering who murdered her parents, she’s returned to her birth name—Olivia.
“We need something now. Everywhere else is occupied.” She waves a hand in Jordy’s direction.
“I can hide her in my basement,” Jordy jokes, grunting when Olivia pushes him away. “Cool your tits, Liv. Sheesh,” he grumbles, stumbling over his feet. “Anywhere is better than here. I can hear Riv’s phone from a mile away.” His nose wrinkles in disgust, staring at the object lighting up on the table in front of us.
He’s not wrong. Message after message. Email after fucking email, lighting my phone up like a damned Christmas tree. My stomach twists into a million knots. Whoever is stalking me has finally snapped into a miserable person, hellbent on making my life hell on earth. As long as I’m around my phone witnessing their increasingly aggressive messages, I’ll never sleep. Or eat. Or function, for that matter.
“I might have somewhere we can all lay low.” Every eye in the room snaps toward Callum as he rises from beside me. Uncertainty twists his face, but he continues before anyone can say anything. “I have a house in a small town. I have a security system and privacy fences. It’s completely secure in the middle of nowhere.”
