“What’s going on, brother?” Storm asks, stopping in front of the dining room table where Rodriguez has various papers and photos laid out in front of him. They shake hands and Rodriguez sighs.
“I wish I knew how to answer that question.”
I point to the papers. “Lay it out for us, man.”
“Two days ago, Laney came into the station and asked to speak to me. She wanted to know what could be done about the threatening phone calls she’d been getting and I started looking into it.”
I nod. “And what did you find?”
“Not a lot. But I’ve got this feeling in my gut that there is something going on here and I just need to find it.”
“Okay,” I murmur, looking over his evidence. One photo grabs my attention and I pull it out, showing it to him. “What’s this?”
“One of the phone calls came from a payphone a few blocks away and there are security cameras but either this guy knew about them or he just got really lucky.”
I stare down at the dark grainy image of a man’s figure and scowl. It’s definitely weird.
“What is he saying on the calls?”
“In the beginning, nothing. He would just call her and breathe on the other end of the line, real creepy shit like that. Then, he started telling her how beautiful she was and how much he liked her outfit that day – stuff to let her know that he truly was watching her. Just before she came into the station, he called her beautiful again and said it would be a shame when he had to kill her.”
“Jesus Christ,” Storm whispers, rubbing his hand across his jaw as I shake my head. That’s some sick shit.
“Where is she?”
“Sleeping right now but I’ll wake her up before I leave and introduce you guys.”
I rifle through some more papers, my mind working over the facts he’s already given us. “Is there any indication that he’s shown up here at her apartment?”
“Yeah,” Rodriguez answers, pulling out a photo of dead flowers. “He left these for her the day she first talked to me to show his anger that she went to the cops. That’s when I started staying with her. Captain doesn’t want to spare the men to sit a car in front of her place which is why I called y’all.”
“And because you think if he sees you leave, he’ll think it’s safe to come around,” I point out and he nods.
“That’s the idea anyway. I need proof that he’s been here and I need to know who he is.”
I nod. “Okay. I think we can handle that.”
“There are cameras all over this building so if he shows up, we should get him on camera. Your main focus is protecting her.”
“Diego?” a soft voice asks from behind us and we all spin around. Laney’s eyes widen and fear flits across her face for a moment before she gets a handle on it.
“Laney, these are the guys from the club that I told you about. This is Kodiak and Storm.”
I step forward, holding my hand out. “Hey, it’s nice to meet you.”
“You, too,” she replies, straightening her spine and shaking my hand. This poor girl is scared out of her goddamn mind but she’s trying so hard to be brave.
“Someone from the club is going to be with you at all times from now on, okay?” Rodriguez asks and she nods.
“I know I’m probably being a huge pain in the ass but it means so much to me that you’re taking this so seriously.”
He gathers up his papers from the table and walks over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Laney, he threatened your life. That is as serious as it gets.”
She sucks in a breath and nods.
“I’m going to dig into this case as much as I can and call me if you need anything, okay?”
She nods again. He pulls away and heads toward the door before turning back to us. “Call me if you run into any problems.”
“We’ll take good care of her,” Storm assures him and he nods again before leaving. He closes the door behind Rodriguez and locks it before glancing at me with a raised brow.
“What the hell was that about?” I ask. Rodriguez seemed more involved than usual and I have to wonder if he’s got something going on with Laney. Storm shrugs.
“If I had to guess, I’d say he’s sleeping with her.”
I sigh and walk over to the chair in the corner before sinking into it. It isn’t ideal since Rodriguez will have a harder time being objective but I really don’t care if he is sleeping with her as long as he’s honest with us.
“Can I ask you a question?” I say to Laney as she sits on the sofa. She nods.
“You and Rodriguez… are you a thing?”
She smiles. “Yes.”
“All right, then,” Storm grumbles, sinking into the other side of the couch as Laney frowns.
“Is that a problem?”
I shake my head. “Nah, sweetheart. We were just curious. If we’re going to protect you, it helps to have all the information, you know?”
“Yeah, I understand,” she agrees before her teeth sink into her bottom lip. “Do y’all mind if I watch TV?”
“It’s your house, Darlin’. Do whatever you like and we’ll be here to keep you safe.”
She turns on the TV and I pull my phone out of my pocket, a photo of Tate greeting me as soon as I unlock my screen. Fighting back a smile, I pull up the feed from her house and search through the cameras before I find her lying in bed, reading. Fuck, that might be even sexier than the time I peeked in on her getting undressed. Yeah, it happened. Don’t fucking judge me, though. I’m only a man. I need to see her again.
Closing out of the cameras, I pull up our texts and send one to her.
Me:
You free this weekend?
I go back to the camera and watch her place her book on the bed as she grabs her phone. When she reads my message, she smiles and if I wasn’t sitting with Laney and Storm right now, I would jump up and do a fist pump. My phone vibrates in my hand and I click on her message.
Tate:
Why?
Me:
Do you always have to be difficult?
I want to take you up to my cabin.
“Dude,” Storm says and my head whips up, already listening for danger before I realize that he’s smiling.
“What?”
He starts laughing. “You’re so fucking screwed.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
Dropping his head back, he laughs harder before mimicking me on my phone with a wide goofy smile on his face. “I’m talking about you with your nose buried in that phone, texting a girl.”
“You have no idea what I’m doing on my phone,” I scoff.
“Sure, I don’t. I was only the exact same way a year ago when I met Ali and now look at me,” he says, holding up his left hand where his wedding ring sits.
“What’s her name?” Laney asks and I scoff again.
“There’s no girl.”
Storm turns to Laney and points to my face. “You see that face right there, sweetheart?”
She nods.