“Did your delivery go okay?” I ask.
“It did,” the copper-haired RN says as she shifts her braid behind her, smiling at me. “Baby Henry was my easiest birth yet. My first daughter took seven hours and had to be induced. My second daughter took two hours with no induction, but Henry basically flew out to us once he got off his tuchus and decided to be born. From the onset of contractions to birth, the little booger took one hour, one minute. My husband timed it.” Without changing her facial expression, Michelle solicitously slides her eyes toward the treatment room where Cullen and Eli are debating something in hushed tones. “Speaking of men, it’s a relief for quite a few of us that Cullen found you. Even with the meds and the shoulder, he’s more centered than I’ve seen him since he came back. I just hope he doesn’t do anything to mess it up for himself.”
Michelle’s words hit my core, melting something that I just realize now was still coiled inside me. Turning my head, I study Cullen’s profile as he speaks to Eli, watching as every few seconds, he glances away from his friend to survey the room. To find me.
Yes, Cullen is an overprotective bastard, but he needs me as much as I need him. And that’s a whole new level of connection different from any I’ve ever had in my life. With anyone.
Cullen’s posture changes suddenly, and he motions me over as he pulls his phone from his pocket. Making my excuses to Michelle, I hurry back into the room to hear Liam come over the speakerphone.
“No one’s been inside the house,” Liam reports over the connection. “However, there’s a two-hour outage gap on the first of October between ten and noon, the outside footage surveillance. It was entered into the system as routine maintenance, and it would never have been flagged if I hadn’t been searching personally—that was the day my maintenance guy had a new kid born, and I sent him the fuck home off the books to take care of family.”
“October first?” Cullen looks up at Eli and me. “That’s when my new med delivery came in. Do you know who turned off the footage?”
“I’m having his ass dragged in now.”
“Not too loudly,” Eli says. “Can we please not make a bloody world announcement of all this until we want everyone to know what we know?”
“Roger.” Liam comes back at once, all business. “Received and understood.”
“When did you start running a PR firm?” I ask Eli as Liam disconnects the line.
Something dark comes over Eli’s beautiful features. “You have no idea.” He turns to Cullen before I can ask anything further. “Let me talk to Michelle and Yarborough and see if we can get you released for good behavior tonight if we promise to bring you back for surgery after we resolve this mess.”
That night, we gather in Cullen’s living room next to his massive gas fireplace, with everyone except Cullen nursing an adult beverage of choice.
“What do we have?” Cullen asks.
“James Dyer, the Denton Uncovered photographer, was, in fact, under orders to follow Cullen around and try to capture compromising footage,” Kyan reports. “Once I let him know I was displeased at discovering Cullen’s video getting emailed about, he was quick enough to point his finger at Frank. Just following orders and all. He’d been at it for a week now.”
“And Jaden?” I ask, quite proud of myself for saying the name without flinching. “Was he under Frank’s orders as well somehow?”
“Negative. So far as I could tell, Dyer got tired of dogging Cullen, so he was trying to get his new buddy Jaden to start something that could be recorded. Except then Jaden saw Sky and went off script. Photographer is still pissed. Says he barely got the camera lenses changed and had no time to reset the setting.”
“In other words, Jaden is mostly just an asshole,” I say, a new disgust running through me. That entitled bullshit wasn’t an act or setup. It was just the genuine personality of a man I nearly married. Cullen hands me a gin and tonic, and I take a grateful sip just as the doorbell plays a chime of cascading rain. “I’ll get it.”
Grateful to move around a bit, I peer through the front door peephole and feel my chest flutter at the sight of Jaz with her wrist in a brace.
“Hey!” I pull the door open, hesitating when the normally bouncy Jaz scowls over my shoulder. The championship. The one she had to forfeit because of me. My voice sobers. “Jaz. I’m so, so sorry about—”
She spins on me, her dark eyes flashing. “Don’t you dare, Skylar. Don’t you dare take responsibility for some other asshole’s actions.”
“But…” I wave my hand in her direction like some sort of genie. “You’re mad about something.”
“Of course I am. I had to fucking follow my brother like a damn tween just to find out what’s going on. And now that.”
The “that” in question saunters into the foyer, his arms crossed over a broad chest. “This isn’t a social gathering, Jazmine.”
“You going to let me in, Sky?” she asks brusquely, and, feeling like a moron, I step aside.
Liam shakes his head and disappears. I’ve still got no idea what has these two hissing at each other but… “His truck is outside. Did you not figure that he was in here?” I ask Jaz.
“I knew. But I don’t have to like it, do I?” she spits out venomously.
At least my friend is consistent. Throwing my arms around Jaz, I pull her along into our makeshift situation room and swear I see her stick her tongue out at Kyan before claiming my gin and tonic for herself.
“So where were we?” Jaz asks.
Liam gives her a look that would smite a lesser being, but turns his attention to Cullen. “Timothy Browning. That was the technician on duty when Cullen’s outside camera went dark for bullshit maintenance. Three guesses as to who put him up to manufacturing the malfunction.”
“Frank.” I don’t bother phrasing it as a question, but Cullen nods anyway. I blow out a slow breath.
“The bastard’s been conducting illegal activities for years,” says Cullen. “But he’s so damn slippery, nothing sticks.”
“Can we call the police on this?” Jaz asks.
“And say what?” Liam snaps at her. “That because Frank squeezed a weak link in my company, he’s somehow responsible for Cullen’s meds getting switched? Or that having his photographer dog a top Denton businessman is a smoking gun of anything but gossip? We might as well try to convict the fucking tooth fairy.”
“Maybe you should be vetting your own people better,” says Jaz. “Are you the head of a security company or Disneyland?”
“Enough, you two.” I don’t realize I’ve raised my voice at Liam until the man cocks a brow down at me and my pulse stutters, my muscles bracing for a blow. Cullen’s quiet curse says he’d seen my flinch, but before he can say anything, Liam steps back, giving me the floor.
“You were saying?” Liam prompts.
I draw a fortifying breath. “Jaz is right. We do need the police. But like Liam said, we need proof. I think I know how to get it.”
And I’m one hundred percent sure Cullen is going to hate every word of it.