Page 49 of The Master

Owen was waiting by the door when we arrived, his arms crossed and a stern expression on his face. Based on the way the cops were looking at him, I got the feeling they’d asked him to leave, and he’d told them he wasn’t going anywhere. If the situation had been different, I would’ve laughed and asked for the full story. As it was, I just put out a hand and thanked him for calling me.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here to catch them before they did any damage.” Owen spoke to Ashlee directly. “Or to catch them in the act.”

She shook her head. “It’s not your fault. You’ve gone above and beyond to keep me safe. You can’t be everywhere at once.”

The tight smile he gave said he appreciated her sentiment, but that he still blamed himself. I understood how he felt. Every second since I’d gotten his call, I’d been thinking that this wouldn’t have happened if I’d stayed out of her life. She’d be happy and safe in her apartment, not dealing with yet another pile of shit that my baggage had thrown her way. I had no doubts whatsoever that whoever had done this was connected to me. Ashlee’d never had any enemies until I’d come along.

“Miss Webb?” A detective stepped into the doorway before we could go inside.

“Yes. I’m Ashlee Webb.” She looked at the door and then the doorjamb, lips flattening into a line when she saw the broken wood.

“It looks like someone kicked it in after their attempts to pick the lock failed,” the detective shared. “I’m Detective Lotte.”

“I already let the super know that the locks need to be changed when he replaces the door,” Owen said. “He’ll also be adding a few new security locks onto it too.”

Detective Lotte looked from Owen to me and then to Ashlee. “Maybe I can speak to you alone?”

She glanced at me, and I tried to tell her with my eyes that it was okay. I would do whatever she wanted me to do.

“You can speak freely in front of them,” she said. “Nate is my boyfriend, and he’s the one who hired Owen as personal security for me.”

“Nate…” I saw it on his face when the name clicked. “You’re Nate Lexington.”

“I am.”

He jotted something down on the piece of paper he held, but I suspected he’d done it more to give himself a few seconds to process this new information rather than to remember anything specific.

“Miss Webb, can you think of anyone who’d want to do this? Something expensive that someone coveted? Maybe a gift?”

He was good enough that his gaze didn’t waver from Ashlee, but we all knew what he wasn’t saying.

“I’ve been staying with Nate the last couple days,” Ashlee answered, “and I took my laptop with me. It’s the most expensive thing I own. I don’t have much in the way of jewelry, and what I do have is more sentimental than costly.”

“Mm-hm.” He wrote down something else.

Ashlee sighed. “Look, I’m having a bad week. Can I please just go see what’s missing? You can ask me questions while I’m doing that, right?”

“Of course.”

He stepped out of the way and watched Ashlee and me as we walked inside. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him glance at Owen, who didn’t move. One of the downsides of hiring security or private investigators was the dislike of the police if the two factions ever had to meet. Owen was a pro, though, and understood the difference between a pissing contest and using the knowledge he had to ensure the right things were done.

I made a mental note to give him a bonus for how he’d handled this situation. While I wished he’d been able to stop it from happening, I agreed with Ashlee that it wasn’t his fault.

Ashlee squeezed my hand, drawing my attention, but she wasn’t looking at me. She was staring, eyes brimming with tears, at the mess some asshole had made of her home.

Pictures had been knocked off the walls, glass broken, shards everywhere, frames crooked or cracked. Pillows and cushions were ripped apart, the knife that had done the damage stuck in the wall above the couch. Her TV was smashed beyond repair.

Her bookshelf was empty, and all of the books had been thrown everywhere. At least half had pages ripped out, maybe more. All of her kitchen drawers had been pulled out and emptied. Food from the cabinets and refrigerator covered the floor, leaving a disgusting, ruined mess. Glasses and mugs lay in pieces everywhere.

I couldn’t see how it was safe to walk, but that wasn’t the main reason I didn’t want her to go to her bedroom. If this part of the apartment looked this bad, I imagined her room had to be worse. The sheer destruction made me suspect that robbery hadn’t been a motive.

“I don’t think anything’s missing.” Her voice was strong, but she couldn’t stop the tears from spilling over. She wiped at her cheeks. “Can I see the rest?”

I squeezed her hand, biting my tongue to keep from telling her not to go. It wasn’t my place to try to make that decision for her. It wasn’t even my place to offer a suggestion.

I was her boyfriend but hadn’t been for long. I also had been an asshole a lot of the time we’d been together so far, which meant I had a lot to make up for. I had to trust that if she needed me, she’d let me know.

The bathroom had been trashed like the rest of the apartment. The mirror broken. Soaps and shampoos emptied all over the floor. Medicine, toothpaste, and toothbrushes in the toilet. About the only thing we could be grateful for here was that the intruder hadn’t left any…biological waste behind. Probably because he or she knew that doing so could be used to gather DNA evidence rather than any sort of decency.

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