Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 67144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 336(@200wpm)___ 269(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 336(@200wpm)___ 269(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
I exhale, blowing out some of the frustration riddling me tonight. I lie with Dahlia because she, too, seems to have a bad relationship with the dark. Something tells me this is a new thing with her, that it probably started once she realized her privacy had been violated. I don’t ask. I can’t track down the person who fucked with her and fuck with them back … yet.
But I will.
I pick up my glass of tea that was hot an hour ago and carry it to the table. My computer’s open, and a notepad and pen are beside it.
I’m particularly antsy tonight. Something’s nagging at me, and I can’t pinpoint it. I can’t work through the fog to find the root of my disturbance.
“What the hell is bothering me?” I ask the empty room. “What am I missing?”
I consider that it’s simply that I want to go home. I want to get it out of the way. When I think about returning to Savannah and all the things that could go wrong—assuming the stalker has been found and dismembered—it makes me nauseous … and ready to fight. I’m already done. Dahlia stole my fucking heart when I didn’t think I even had one. I’ve intentionally avoided this situation, this level of vulnerability, my entire life. Truth be told, it wasn’t that hard.
Until her.
Fear coats my stomach, reminding me this could go wrong. I could fail her. What if I’m unequipped to love her the way she wants to be loved?
What if she realizes that I’m unlovable?
“Stop it,” I say, admonishing myself. I sit at the table and awaken my computer. “I might be in Lincoln’s house, but I don’t have to be weak.”
I skim over the spreadsheet I started earlier, listing everyone who could be behind Dahlia’s threats. I’m missing something. I can feel it.
But what?
The list isn’t too long, but it is complicated.
Joseph Dallo.
Someone from Alfred Dallo’s (grandfather) past:
- Cartel connection
- Revenge
Someone at Joseph’s house:
- Alexis Dallo
- Staff
Freddy Henke
I log in to the Landry Security system and pull up Dahlia’s file. Clicking through the team’s notes and logs, nothing stands out. I grit my teeth and open the pictures sent to her in the email.
“What can I learn from this?”
I zoom in on the image from her bathroom. We know how this was taken. Theo found the camera.
Thank fuck the bastard didn’t send a naked picture of Dahlia. Because I’m sure he got some, given the angle.
I swipe to the shot of her at dinner with friends. Something about it bothers me. I lean forward, blowing it up, and then reduce it. The only thing I notice is how hot Dahlia looks in red lipstick.
“Why have I never seen her in red lipstick before?”
I move to the next image, but before it loads, I return to the previous picture.
“She’s wearing red lipstick.” I sit back in my chair. “You’d have to be reasonably close or have an expensive camera with a long-range lens to capture that.”
All the photographs are in that vein. The grocery store. The park. At her friend’s house.
“Someone wasn’t too worried they’d be caught,” I say. “If they were busted, they’d have had to have an excuse that would be believable.”
They know her.
I flip back to the spreadsheet and put a strike-through next to the cartels. “That rules out the cartel connection. They just murder, anyway. They’re not going to go to all this trouble.”
Then I strike the open category of revenge. It’s too impersonal.
“What about Daddy Dearest?” I say, studying Joseph’s name. “There are probably reasons I could pin it on you, but I … eh.” I groan, shaking my head. “It doesn’t make sense. Why wouldn’t you have asked her to leave if you wanted her gone? And why would you have intentionally entered her life less than two years ago, just to threaten her life?”
I sigh, trying to be unbiased. Maybe Ford knows something I don’t. That could be why he thinks he’s a viable candidate for murder.
“Let’s play Devil’s Advocate,” I say, working through it. “What would make a man flip that fast?”
I tap my fingertips on the table. The only thing that could make me change my mind about anything is Dahlia.
“Could be,” I say. “If Alexis is unhappy, Joseph could want to back out of his relationship with his daughter. It’s possible. Maybe telling her to run was supposed to be enough to make her flee?” I groan. “But she has contact with him. He calls her. It doesn’t make sense.”
I blow out a breath. “The email was sent from the Dallo house. So that brings us to Alexis and the staff. But she was gone the day the email was sent … and why would the staff care?”
I strike the staff from the spreadsheet, along with Joseph and Alexis.