Page 122 of Brassy Bigwig

“Who?”

“Reed Watkins. I don’t have much else on him other than he works at Guardian Elite Security. I need an address, anything you can get quick. I can’t get ahold of Chloe, and now I have a really bad feeling he’s the one behind it all.”

“I’m on it. I’ll call back as soon as I can.”

I end the call and pull up Reed’s number, but the call goes straight to voicemail.

Shit.

Pulling up the internet, I search for the local branch of Guardian Elite here in the city. I click on their number and pray someone answers.

“Guardian Elite,” a man answers after the third ring.

“Hi, I need to talk to a manager or someone with decision making abilities about a current employee of yours.”

“Uhh… okay, just one second.”

He puts me on hold, and my blood boils hotter with each second that passes before someone comes back on the line. I end up having to wait several agonizing minutes.

“This is Brandon.”

“Brandon, my name is Dimitrios Andino. I’m calling in reference to an employee of yours. Reed Watkins.”

“I’m sorry, but we don’t have anyone here by that name.”

My heart plummets into my stomach.

“You’re sure? Because I had someone by that name, with your uniform and all your marketing materials, install a system in my home several weeks ago.”

“We did have someone by the name of Reed who worked here, but his last name was Baker. He was let go a couple of weeks ago, though.”

“I know you’re probably not at liberty to tell me why, but I’m going to ask anyway. I’m having an issue currently where I believe he may have been spying on my girlfriend and I through our camera system.”

The line is silent on the other end.

“Are you still there?”

“Yes, sir. And uhh… I can confirm he was let go for something of that nature. We tracked recordings of two different systems over the course of a couple weeks, each leading back to his login credentials.”

The fire that started in my veins a moment ago is now a raging inferno.

“And you didn’t think it was worth a phone call to make me aware there had been a security breach on my account?”

Again, there’s silence.

“Hello?”

But there’s no response. I check my phone screen and see the call has been disconnected.

Motherfucker.

I quickly call Travis back.

“Yeah,” he answers.

“Baker. His last name isn’t Watkins, it’s Baker.”

I hear a lot of typing going on in the background before he speaks again.

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