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“I’m sorry I took so long. I wasn’t sure what to wear.” At their silence, I eased to a stop. “You’re both in jeans. Should I change?”
“Hell no—”
“Hey. I warned you.” Jase glared at Rian but turned back to me. “There’s been a change in plans. We’re ordering in.”
“Oh.” I walked over confused, placing my purse on the sofa and stepping out of the heels. “Is something wrong?” I turned to the monitors, but none were working. Not even my apartment. For the first time since I arrived, they were off. “Jase?”
Both men looked at each other before coming back to me.
“It’s just work stuff that came up unexpectedly.” Rian laughed, shrugging. “It’s not a big deal. We can actually work on it after dinner. Sorry, I haven’t formally introduced myself. I’m Rian Lockhart. You must be Kody.”
“Yes. It’s nice to meet you.” I shook his hand, but my eyes didn’t want to leave Jase. I could barely even look his friend’s way. “I’m sorry. Please excuse me.” I headed right to the man whose stare didn’t leave me either. “You didn’t answer me. You know better than to lie. What’s happening?”
Again, the men looked at each other. Jase let out a sound, closing his computer.
“I received an email. Two, actually. One’s a threat. One…has videos and pictures.”
“Of what?”
He tightened his jaw, and I followed his glance towards the balcony. There were no lights. No city.
“You drew the curtains.” My mind spun. “Can someone? Did someone…?” I shook my head as my brain scoured through every single day I’d been here. To the day when I’d been the most exposed. It was when he’d come out there with me. The day we ended up in Jase’s room. Anyone could have seen in. Why wasn’t he answering me?
“No.” My head shook.
Jase crossed his arms over his chest, the anger evident as he stepped closer.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? But.” Again, I looked at the curtains. “Me? Not…Pictures?”
“Yeah.”
“What are they going to do with them?”
“Nothing yet. Nothing at all if I have my way. There’s more than that though, Kody. They have video of me. Of…what happened to the guy who broke in your apartment. It’s not much. With the angle from Andrew’s phone, you can’t really see me, but it’s there.”
“Wait.” My hand shot up. “Wait one fucking minute. Are you telling me the bad people are the ones who did this? This wasn’t reporters?”
“No. It’s not reporters. It’s them. Or him. I don’t know how many are involved. The main person goes by V. He reached out to let me know he was aware of what happened.”
“What’s he going to do? That’s a stupid question,” I snapped to myself. “We have to leave. We’re not safe here.”
“You’re wrong.” Jase stepped in, approaching me as if I were a wild, spooked deer. “If they could get to us, they would have already done it. We’re protected. This may be the only place we are safe. Rian and I have our work cut out for us if we’re going to put a stop to this. And we will, Kody. I promise you that. I don’t make promises I can’t keep. We’ll figure out who this person is and—”
“And what? Kill him, too? Kill them all?” My fingers pushed through my hair. “We need a better plan than that.”
“There is no better plan. It’s the only plan. We have to get rid of them.” Jase’s stare locked onto mine. “With what they have on you, we have no choice. I know what I did. I wouldn’t change a thing about it. What they have of you, I won’t allow to get out. That’s on me. I shouldn’t have taken any chances.”
“Jase, you didn’t know. You can’t blame yourself.” Rian leaned against the sofa as he continued. “The food should be here soon. Let’s worry about all this later. There’s nothing we can do about it right now. I brought beer. Who wants one?”
“God, me.”
Rian laughed, turning back to Jase. “What about you?”
“No thanks. I stopped drinking.”
“Best news I’ve heard all night.”
