Page 111 of Little Sunshine

Since the screen next to it showed Juliet in their own penthouse, I asked my boss, “Juliet know we’re watching? Us, not just you.”

Because the one time she hadn’t known, she’d flashed the camera. None of us had seen much, but that hadn’t stopped Maximo from wanting to stab our eyes out.

It wouldn’t be the first time he’d done it after someone looked at Juliet.

“Yeah, she knows. She’s ordering fabric, so she’s unlikely to move in the next four hours or so.” He tapped his pen on the desk. “Your woman going to get in contact? Juliet has been talking about it all morning.”

I lifted a shoulder. “She said she will, but who knows.”

Juliet might have the entire world at her feet now, but she came from almost nothing. It’d been better than Mila had, but not by much. Having someone who got it could be good for Mila. Especially if she lost her mind enough to let me be her Daddy. I would go slow and ease her in, but she would likely still have questions, and it would be helpful to have Juliet.

After Mila told me the pricks had taken her license, I’d texted Cole to see if he could check SafeCams near her apartment in case they had showed up to finish what they’d started.

Despite the fact she lived in an especially shitty area, there’d been none around for him to hack. It’d sat in my gut like a cereal bowl of razor blades and salt water, but I’d thought that was the end. We had nothing else to go on.

My plan had been to give it a few more days while Cole added better security in Mila’s building and her apartment. That way, if she told me to fuck off, her place would be safe to return to while I figured out my next steps.

After checking on her during the night, though, I hadn’t been sure I could hold off even those few days. That was why I’d been glad to wake up to a text from Cole that he might have something.

I looked at the screen he shared. “What’s up?”

“You know me, I don’t accept technological defeat easily, so Marco and I took a drive over to her neighborhood last night to see if there was a doorbell camera or something else I could tap into. Which, first off, her building is even worse than the already bad I expected. Don’t let her go back to that shithole. But diagonal from it is a liquor store. We gently persuaded them to hand over all their exterior security footage in exchange for us staying quiet about what they really sell.”

“What do they really sell?”

He shrugged. “No idea. But even in Vegas, no legit store needs that many 4K res cameras.” He clicked his mouse, and the image on the monitor changed. “This is the only one with a good angle of the front of her building. I wasn’t sure whether you’d rather bring her down here to go through the footage or do it privately.”

I pictured her reaction at dinner. How pale she’d become when she’d gotten lost in her memories.

If just thinking about them had shaken her, I didn’t want to force her to see them. Not unless there was no other option.

I also didn’t want to get her hopes up if nothing came from it.

Since she’d described them to me, I said, “Let’s roll through it first.”

“This is set about twenty minutes before she came into Moonlight. Unless the assholes can teleport, this should cover it.” He tapped a button to roll the footage at an increased speed, slowing it when someone neared her building. It was mostly residents, a few lost tourists, more than a few prostitutes or dealers, and other people walking past.

The later it got, the less frequently he had to slow it. The timestamp showed it was after two o’clock when someone came into view, and I sat forward.

“Go back a few seconds.”

Cole rewound the video until right before he came into frame. I watched as the man looked over his shoulder and then kept his head down as he walked into the building. A couple of minutes later, he exited again.

My gaze kept landing on the timestamp.

If she would’ve gone home… Thank Christ she agreed to stay with me.

“That was an efficient drug deal, lightning-speed sex, or?—”

My gut, the hairs on the back of my neck, and Mila’s vague description all said the same thing I said out loud. “It’s him.”

It was obvious that Mila had been born with shit luck. But that was before me.

Because the angle when he’d entered hadn’t given much to work with, but when he left was a different matter.

Rather than heading back the same way he’d come, he went in the opposite direction.

Right by the cameras.

---