Page 65 of Hide From Me

“Look. You know I’d been watching her. So I got wind she was moving out of the aunt’s house, made sure she got some scholarships where I wanted her to go, and just made sure the money was there. I might have also made sure that, when she was moving back, that the real estate agent working with her ran into a lot of red tape until she applied for the place next to Gran’s coffee shop.”

X grabbed for my phone, and I swerved, nearly rolling the fucking Escalade.

“These cameras, they’re not our system at the warehouse. Not ours at our loft. Strange. If I click on?—”

I threw my fist back and hit him square in the face as he hunched up between the two front seats. Fucker deserved that.

“Fuck. Alrighty then. Answers that question. So how is Winnie a part of this?”

I blew out a breath.

“I can’t watch her all the time, and I wanted her to feel like she had freedom. Gran didn’t ask questions. Much.”

This did get them rolling.

“Fuckers.”

That just set them off again.

“Something tells me you are hiding some more shit, but we won’t call you out on that right now. You sure riled up the fucking crowds tonight. Girls are thinking that’s the new prize or some shit. Good thing no one can find where we live,” X said.

“My phone. Now.”

X handed it back, and I could breathe a little better. Putting the camera in her room hadn’t actually seemed odd and creepy at the time. I just wanted eyes on her in all the main rooms. The apartment was small, but there was still the bedroom, living room, hall to the main door. It was enough to make me think that the third camera was warranted. It had been a fucking dream to watch her though. I caught a few eyefuls, and fuck all if that didn’t fuel my obsession.

“Alright, let’s talk about her. Gran had been able to intercept her mail. I have filters on her personal email, but I can’t touch anything through the cops. Not that I think that is what the issue would be. Gran has been able to find two large envelopes.”

That got their attention.

“What’s in them?” Zeid asked.

I shook my head.

“That’s the thing, nothing much. A photo of her mom pregnant for the first time with a date on the back. Like, whatever the fuck? We already would know dates. But the second was a necklace. A really fucking expensive necklace.”

I had both things and had been waiting for more. It was obvious that whoever had wanted her mom had found Rylee, but it still wasn’t clear why or what they wanted from her.

We were at the edge of Spector territory, and my phone beeped. Motion at Rylee’s front door. I clicked on the camera and X grabbed it from me.

“Fuck, dude. Hasn’t anyone told you about driving safety? Don’t text and drive. Precious cargo back here.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Precious my ass. What’s the alert?”

I swore that he was about to say something snarky or something quality asshole, but instead he didn’t. He held the phone to Zeid.

“Does she get hooded guy visits often?”

I hit the gas and turned at the next light that would get us to her part of town.

“What? No.”

“Didn’t think so. I already sent her address and a 911 to the boys,” X said.

The boys were the only fools, as least as well trained as us. They, in general, were all a little short on something, which is what made them great for security, and not great at trying to overthrow us. Still, they took care of shit we couldn’t always get to, without question. When things got real deep, they got bigger bonuses.

“With the way Cas is driving, we might beat them though,” Zeid said.

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