Page 43 of Break

There are so many. Too many.

Pictures. Videos. I want to burn every scrap of them all if they contain Hope in them. They’re too damning. Too dangerous.

Besides, a camera can’t capture how beautiful she truly is. How her smile radiates bright enough to light up a room. How her eyes glow their captivating hue.

Pictures and videos are a disgrace when it comes to showing her off.

“They don’t look like pictures,” Knox murmurs as he goes through a pile of them.

Bile rises up my throat. “How so?”

“How could he take pictures of her taking a shower?” He tosses a pile my way, and they scatter to the floor.

There are so many, too many.

My brows drag together as I stare at them, analyzing the angles…

“The angles are the same, or at least, there are only two, right?” I look at Jaxon as I point at the pictures Knox tossed on the floor, hoping he sees it too.

“And these.” Knox gets up from the bed and hands me a few from Hope’s bedroom.

“Same, right? Same angles. This couldn’t be a camera.”

“Oh, fuck,” Jaxon breathes. “It was. It has to be.”

His words hit me. “He put cameras in her apartment.”

Knox pushes us aside and rushes out.

Jaxon and I run after him, just in time to see that Knox has a key to Hope’s door.

“Hey, since when?” I ask.

Knox stares at me briefly and shrugs. “Day one.” He opens the door, and we follow.

The apartment is spotless. A fresh and flowery scent lingers in the air. As much as I want to take in the space and imagine her in every room, we’re on a mission to uncover what some sick fuck did to her private space.

“Check everywhere,” Knox snaps.

We don’t speak as we scour through her apartment, trying to put everything back how we found it.

Every book, every cabinet, everything gets moved, and my heart skips a beat when a tiny camera stares back at me from between the fake flowers on her bookshelf.

Anger fires through me as I imagine everything this camera captured. Her reading a book snuggled up on the couch. Her laughing as she watched one of her favorite movies. Her crying after we pushed things too far.

Jared didn’t deserve to see any of those things. He didn’t deserve to be in her presence, much less lay a finger on her.

“Found one,” Jaxon bellows.

“Me too!” I sigh as I work to get the camera from its hiding place.

“They are wireless,” I note. “So he had to keep them charged.” The thought wraps around me, thinking about how many times he has been in here without her knowing.

How did he know when to enter? Did he sneak in here at night when she was asleep? He must’ve been watching her and tracking her habits for at least weeks.

A loud crash comes from her bedroom, and I roll my eyes.

“Stop breaking shit!” Jaxon yells and walks into Hope’s bedroom.

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