Chapter 20

TRISTAN PULLED HIS truck into his parking space and glanced over at Piper. She was fast asleep, and he hated to disturb her. She looked adorable in his oversized shirt. Her cheeks still had a rosy glow from their session, her lips temptingly puffy from his kisses and taking his cock. Damn if he didn’t ache to have her again. He’d have to settle for having her warm and soft in his arms as he carried her in.

When he opened the door and the dome light came on, she stirred, squinting at him like a sleepy kitten. “Are we home already?” she asked in a sleep-husky voice then her body suddenly tensed. “Is that my alarm?”

He looked toward the gate, surprised he hadn’t heard it. The woman messed with his senses and was damn distracting.

When he slid out from behind the wheel, she didn’t wait for him to come around. “Jaxx!” she cried in alarm and hopped out, too. He’d rather she stay in the truck where she was safe but decided since he was armed, she might be better off with him.

He met her on the sidewalk. “Stay behind me.”

The gate stood firmly locked, the courtyard empty, but he could see the flashing lights of her alarm through the half-circle window in her front door.

Piper breathed a sigh of relief. “Looks like another false alarm.”

She started to move past him, but he caught her arm. “Not so fast. Let me check it out first to be sure.”

He pulled out his phone and called the control room. David, one of their regulars who didn’t mind taking the mind-numbingly dull surveillance shifts, answered. “The alarm was tripped at Piper’s place.”

“I know. An upstairs window triggered it seven minutes ago. Axyl is en route since he was closest. His ETA is two minutes. I also alerted the Santa Monica police. They should be there by now.”

“There’s no sign of them yet. Did the surveillance video capture anything?”

“I checked,” David replied. “There was no activity at the gate or at Piper’s door. On a hunch, I tapped into your door camera. It picked up a guy, around six feet tall, maybe 200 pounds at most, running through the courtyard and scaling the back fence about thirty seconds before you arrived. He was wearing a hoodie and never looked back, so we don’t have a shot of his face, not even in profile. Sorry, man. It’s not much to go on. Hopefully, you find something inside.”

“I’m on that next. Send me the video. Maybe Piper will recognize something about him.”

“Will do.”

Tristan ended the call and moved forward, Piper close on his heels. As they neared her steps, the motion detector lights, which had done nothing to intimidate the burglar, came on.

“What’s going on? Did the cameras see something?” she asked.

“Someone broke in through an upstairs window.”

She glanced up at her two front windows, at least fifteen feet above her head. “How? He’d have to have a ladder.”

“Or climb the tree on the side. The same one I requested to have topped and cut away from the building two weeks ago.”

She shivered visibly and wrapped her arms around her middle. “Do you think it was the stalker?”

“I don’t know, but maybe he left us a clue. I’ll have a look around.” He pulled his weapon from his belt. “But I can’t leave you out here alone.”

“You’d better not!” she exclaimed shrilly.

“Stay close,” he ordered. “And do exactly what I say.”

Footsteps pounding on the pavement preceded the screech of the hinges on the front gate. He pushed Piper behind him as he turned to face the potential threat. Axyl appeared out of the darkness, along with a uniformed officer.

“Freeze,” the cop barked, drawing his weapon.

Tristan did so, raising his hands and revealing his gun.

“I live here, Officer,” Piper explained. “Tristan and Axyl are my, uh, security team.”

“I received a report of a break-in in progress.” He relayed this without his eyes ever leaving Tristan, the apparent threat. “I’m gonna need you to drop your weapon.”

Keeping his hands in plain sight, he half squatted to place it on the ground, cooperating fully, although annoyed by the delay.

“Now I’ll need to see some ID,” the officer stated.

Axyl flashed him his. “I’m Axyl Tavares, licensed PI. The bearded big guy with the scowl is Tristan Rogers. We’re both with Rossi Security.”

That got his attention. “The PI firm that solved the Castillo multistate drug case last year?”

Axyl proudly replied, “One and the same.”

He seemed satisfied and holstered his weapon, instantly cutting the tension of the situation in half. “What happened here?”

“We don’t know much except that the perp who broke in escaped over the fence in back.” Done with waiting, Tristan retrieved his gun and pointed at Piper. “I’m going inside to check it out. One of you can join me, but the other needs to stay with Miss Emory.”

“I’m coming. I’ll have to write this up.” The officer trailed behind him up the front steps, although he didn’t seem too thrilled.

Tristan punched in the access code. An instant later, he silenced the still-screaming alarm. Through the open door, he heard Piper breathe a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank goodness. I’m really beginning to hate that sound.”

TRISTAN EMERGED TWENTY minutes later with Jaxx under his arm and a bag full of her clothes.

“What’s going on? Did you find something?” she asked, taking her squirming cat from him.

“The crime scene unit will be here for a while,” he said, deliberately not answering. “You’re staying with me tonight.”

“Jaxx will need his food, bowls, and litter box.”

“Let’s get you settled at my place, and I’ll come back for the rest.”

She glanced at her open door. “Wouldn’t it be easier if I got it really quick?”

“It’s an active crime scene. They won’t let you inside.” And he didn’t want her to know what the asshole had done to her place until she was settled in his.

It was no burglary. The creep had gone through her drawers, touching her bras and panties and strewing them all over. He’d left her bed in a mess, tossing her linens and comforter on the floor, and there was a suspicious substance on one of her pillows.

He’d seen enough stalker cases to know this was a sexual threat meant to frighten and control her. Tristan asked the investigators to go through the room with a blue light in case there was other DNA evidence left behind. Stalkers jerking off into the victim’s panties or on their bed wasn’t uncommon, although this guy would have to be sick and really quick to break in, ransack her room, and get himself off in the seven minutes it took from the alarm trigger to when David saw him running through the courtyard.

An hour later, Piper was curled up in a corner of his couch with Jaxx in her lap. Both of them appeared visibly uncomfortable, startling at every little noise, and Jaxx would frequently get up to pace around, meowing or demanding to be petted.

“Think, Piper,” Axyl urged her, his tone low and soothing because he, too, understood how tweaked she was by this. “Is there anyone you know who might do this?”

Despite the late hour and knowing what she had already endured, Tristan hated subjecting her to an interrogation, but dammit, they needed clues.

“Is there anyone you’ve argued with?” his teammate persisted. “Or said something odd or made you feel uncomfortable? Even looked at you funny. Or someone you keep running into?”

Unable to sit still and be grilled, she put Jaxx on the floor and crossed to the sliding doors. As she looked out, her arms wrapped around her middle.

Tristan watched her, feeling her unease. For all the talk of neighbors with benefits, they were more than that after the last two nights together. He couldn’t simply sit there and do nothing while she was a bundle of nerves. He came up behind her and slid an arm around her, pulling her back against his chest, lending her his strength and support.

“I know this is hard to hear,” he said softly, picking up where Axyl had left off. “Often these guys have proximity, and it turns out the victims knew them, or at least knew of them. It could be someone you’ve seen in passing, maybe repeatedly.”

“I thought...there was someone,” she haltingly replied. “But he’s not an option anymore.”

“Ruling out suspects is our job,” Tristan murmured against her hair. “Who is it?”

She hesitated before she answered, “Hunter.”

“Hunter Ainsley? Your neighbor across the courtyard?” a shocked Axyl exclaimed. “Why do you think it’s him?”

“He sort of came on to me.”

Tristan stiffened at the news. “You didn’t tell me that.”

“I’m probably making too much of it.”

“Explain.”

“I ran into him after my audition. I didn’t even know he was the director. But he said he thought I was perfect for the part and had his people call mine. And he asked me to lunch to discuss it.”

He and Axyl shared a look.

“See! It’s nothing. But it felt creepy at the time.”

“Always trust your instincts,” Axyl reminded her.

“What happened at lunch?” Tristan demanded tersely.

“We didn’t go. He got called away. I’ve avoided him since.”

Tristan’s gaze collided with Axyl’s. “Could it be that simple?”

“He’s around her both here and on the set to know some of the shit that was in those notes, and Josie has probably filled him in on other things.”

“No,” Piper said, shaking her head vehemently. “Josie wouldn’t do that. She’s my friend.”

“I meant unintentionally. Not to do you harm,” Axyl quickly added.

Tristan’s arm tightened around her, hearing the anxiety in her voice. “What have you told her about us?”

“Except for the especially private parts, just about everything,” she reluctantly admitted.

Skeptical, Axyl made a good point. “I don’t know if I’m buying a well-connected, up-and-coming, sought-after Netflix director as the stalker, especially one who climbs trees to second-story windows.”

“I don’t want to believe it, but I keep thinking about the anonymous notes. He knew about my bikini, could have seen me jogging in the evenings, and, as the director, knew about the risqué scenes in the show.”

His interest piqued, Axyl asked, “How risqué?”

“It’s only partial nudity.” Defensive, Piper put an emphasis on partial. “It’s an R-rated series, not what you’re thinking.”

“Does the level of naked matter for this discussion?” Tristan asked, wanting to move on from thoughts of a naked Piper on the screen. It was jealousy, and utterly ridiculous because he’d had her naked in the playroom hours before. The difference, who was in control. When she was on set, he had none. A fact he liked less with each passing hour.

“It doesn’t matter,” she acknowledged. “Other than he knew I was baring it all , as he put it. One note referred to me as a farm girl. To audition, I had to submit my acting portfolio, which includes a resume. He knows where I’m from.”

Tristan rubbed his free hand down his face then over his head to the back of his neck, where he squeezed because it was tight with tension. It came from the fact that the stalker could be someone so close to them, someone who lived practically in their laps.

“I’ve known Hunter for five years. This is out of character for him.”

“That’s what Josie and Cindy said.”

Turning sharply, he demanded, “You told them you suspected he was your stalker?”

“No,” she said calmly then hit him with the unadulterated truth. “I asked if he was the kind of director who’d give me the role to get into my pants.”

His jaw tightened. “What did they say?”

“They didn’t think so, but when you said anyone who gave me a weird feeling...”

“Has he asked you out again?”

“To lunch the day of my audition, but he got called away. He hasn’t asked me since and has never suggested I do any favors for him. Which made me think I was paranoid and overreacting.”

“He’s a friend of yours, Tristan,” Axyl pressed. “Is he so envious of another man or thin-skinned enough that being shot down by a woman he just met would set him off?”

“Yesterday, I would have said no.” His gaze was laser-focused on Piper, his only concern. “Tonight, I’m not so sure.”

He pulled out his phone when it buzzed. “The videos just came through.” Axyl reached for the TV remote. After Tristan downloaded the three files, he cast them onto his big screen so they could watch them together.

The first two files were of the gate and Piper’s front door.

“There’s nothing,” she concluded after the second one ended. “Is he a ghost who can just appear out of nowhere?”

The third video revealed everything David had described but nothing that would help determine who he was.

“I’d put him at six feet. The weight is hard to say because of the baggy sweats, but it could be Hunter,” Axyl mused.

“Could be isn’t good enough, but we’ll find out. In the meantime, I’m adding more cameras.” Tristan pulled out his phone and dialed once more. “And we’re putting a man on her 24/7.”

“I can’t afford 24/7,” Piper exclaimed.

“You can’t afford not to have it,” Axyl warned.

“It’s too much—”

“Don’t.” Tristan held up his hand, stopping what he knew would come next. “I have you covered.”

She sniffled, closed her eyes against the tears that threatened. Showing both the strength he knew she possessed and the vulnerability, when she opened them again, and met his gaze, she’d regained control. “Thank you, Tristan.”

He nodded once, although he didn’t want her gratitude. He wanted her safe and, for that to happen, they needed to find this fucker.