Kody arched a brow at her. "He wouldn't tell you his wife's name or let you take his photo, but you have his home address?"
Bree flushed pink. "It was after I told him I was pregnant. He started acting so weird, like a totally different person. It freaked me out. So... I sort of followed him home. I wanted to confront his wife and tell her I was carrying his baby."
"But you couldn't do it," I guessed, my voice gentle and understanding.
She shook her head. "I couldn't be responsible for ruining her life. She'd find out he was a cheating fuck sooner or later, but I didn't need to be that girl. I just... I couldn't do it."
Kody passed her phone back to her. "Can you text me the address? I'll go over there today and, uh, break the news to his widow."
She nodded, her thumb flying over the screen as she typed the address into a message and sent it to him.
"Did everything... I mean, I'm guessing you guys caught the stalker last night?" She gave me a hopeful look, and I nodded.
"Yeah." I sighed. "Yeah, we got him. He's gone."
Her smile was relieved and genuine. "I'm really glad to hear it, MK. You didn't deserve that stress in your life."
My answering smile was weak at best. "Thanks, girl. We should probably go and meet David's wife." I awkwardly stood up from my chair and dropped a quick kiss on my friend’s cheek. "I'll come back and see you later, okay?"
She bid us farewell, and I made a quick exit out of her room before I could totally lose my shit about the whole damn situation.
I managed to hold it together all the way to the elevators, tossing my half-drunk coffee in the trash on the way. But the moment we stepped inside, my knees buckled, and I slid to the floor.
"Holy fuck," I whispered aloud. "Holy fuck."
"You can say that again." Kody crouched down and wrapped his arm around me. "Come on, babe, let's get back to Archer's room before we talk." He half-carried me when I stood up once more, and I wrapped my good arm tight around him as we walked back through the halls.
James was still in the waiting room reading his romance novel, and his brows hitched as we passed.
I made a snap decision to trust him and jerked my head for him to join us. He tossed his book down on the table.
The three of us entered Archer's private room silently and found him awake but groggy, laughing at something Steele was saying. That laughter cut short when his eyes met mine, though. No doubt my shock showed clearly all over my face.
"What's happened?" he demanded, wincing with pain as he sat up.
"Settle the fuck down," Kody growled. "You're going to split your stitches being all dramatic like that."
Archer just glowered at his friend in fury. "What the fuck has happened to make Kate look like she's seen a damn ghost?"
James closed the door firmly, pulled the blind down over its little window, then leaned his body against it to literally prevent anyone from entering while we spoke. I was liking him more by the minute.
"I went to see Bree," I explained, licking my lips. "Last night when I recognized Dave... I don't even know. I just had this uneasy feeling that I was missing something. Then when we arrived at the hospital, I remembered Bree."
Steele's brows shot up; he seemed to follow my line of reasoning faster than Archer. "Her secret boyfriend from last year?"
I jerked a nod. "I remembered his name was David. That, plus the fact that he insisted on her keeping their affair secret, and, well, you know we don't believe in coincidences, right?" I said that to Archer, and his smile of acknowledgement was grim.
"I take it Bree just confirmed David and Dave were, in fact, one and the same?" Steele correctly guessed. "Does she know?"
I shook my head firmly. "No. And I'd rather it stay that way because it's so much worse than you guys already know." I swallowed the lump of revulsion in my throat. "Remember when Demi gave us all that info on my mom's family? About Wittenberg and about how Katerina left Pretoria when my mom was a kid?"
They both nodded. Archer still looked like he wanted to leap from his hospital bed and Hulk-smash everything around him, but Steele was dissecting what I was telling him carefully. Kody was slightly behind me. I couldn't see his reaction, but I could guess he was just as curious and confused.
"Right," I continued, breathing a sigh. "Katerina had two children when she arrived here and changed their names."
"Deb and her twin brother, Declan," Steele said, nodding his understanding. "But Declan was killed in a home invasion when they were seventeen, leaving Deb as Katerina's sole heir."
I gave him a weak smile. "But was he? I don't remember what the file said about his death. Was there a body? Or did they just assume he was dead?"
Kody sucked in a sharp breath, and Archer's brows shot up.
"I never looked into it any further," Steele admitted, looking shell-shocked. "You think Dave was actually Declan? He faked his own death or something?"
I shrugged. "I have no idea. I don't have any good explanation for him faking his death, but I know Dave was Declan. That's what he told me before he died. And... he had my eyes. My mom's eyes." I shook my head, still partly in disbelief, despite seeing it with my own eyes. "He had to have been wearing contacts the rest of the time. I bet his hair was dyed too."
James murmured a curse, and Kody breathed a muttered comment of disbelief himself.
"How?" Steele exploded out of his chair, throwing his hands up. "How could this happen? How did he evade all our background checks? Hell, he even passed Leon's check, and he's the best fucking hacker in the mercenary guild. How the fuck did this bastard lurk under our noses so long without raising suspicion?"
I fucking wish I knew the answers to that. "It gets better," I muttered, my throat aching with tension from all the stress. "Bree mentioned he used to be a cop."
Archer scowled. "That we knew. Loads of private security come from police."
"Right." I nodded. "But here's the thing. How many crime scenes did SGPD attend back in those early days? Every time a doll was delivered, when Steele's car was blown up..." I rubbed my forehead, feeling the thumping ache of a headache building. But the guys were following my line of thought.
"The police were involved in the first security system set up," Archer murmured. "He had access then. Kate, on Riot Night, do you remember if he was one of the cops that arrested you?"
My jaw dropped; I hadn't even thought that far back. "I have no idea," I admitted in a whisper. "I don't remember. I wasn't really paying that much attention."
Kody snorted a soft laugh. "Genuinely shocked, babe."
I swiveled around to glare at him in outrage, but he just shrugged and smiled. Fucker. He was right too. I had been particularly oblivious to everyone around me back then. Hell, I'd thought Anna's name was Karen for at least three years, and no one had corrected me. I’d only realized my mistake when I heard Steele call her Anna.
"How does this connect with Scott?" Steele asked. "Why frame him?"
I heaved a sigh and shrugged. "I guess we might find out more when we meet Dave's wife. Bree gave us his home address, and I'd put money on it that it's not the address listed in his employment file."