4

Jager

Despite the darkness, I maneuvered around my apartment as though it was the middle of the day. I was used to it. I walked around every night, sometimes for most of the night. I never slept. I couldn’t. My dreams were too awful. Too many bodies. Too many innocent lives.

I knew the military would be tough, but I’d thought worrying about my own life would be the worst of it. It wasn’t. By the end, I ran into buildings without even thinking if I would make it out alive. I just knew that I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try to get one of my brothers out, or God forbid, a civilian.

I was sure I hadn’t even seen the worst of what humanity had to offer. I’d just seen enough to lose sleep over it.

I’d finished importing everyone’s thumbprints into the scanner hours ago, and now checked on the cameras I installed at the entrance. Before Mr. Towers finished for the day, I’d held a meeting with his driver, instructing him to pick up Mr. Towers from the building’s underground garage and take him straight to his home where another security guard that I hired would meet and stay with him overnight. I preferred staying at my place after work since all my equipment was set up and I could monitor the cameras in the home and office from here.

I walked over to the bar and poured myself a drink. Just one finger, though.

There was a time when I wouldn’t stop pouring until the amber liquid hit the rim. It was the only way I would sleep, passing out drunk.

But my brothers quickly disabused me of that method. Cold showers, bodily threats, and genuine love made me realize that I needed to feel rather than be numb. So, I took my ass to therapy two years ago and have kept it to one drink a week.

This week, however, I had two. But it was an exceptional week.

I saw her again.

I knew seeing her would be difficult. I knew I would feel some sort of way about it. I hadn’t expected to feel so much. I buried it in the pit of my stomach. I had no right to touch her, but I couldn’t stop myself. She was even more beautiful than I remember. Her hair was longer, the waves looser. Her rounded cheeks were sculpted above the most sensuous mouth I’d ever seen.

That body. She wasn’t a cute girl anymore. She was a damn fine woman.

I fucked up.

I was too late.

I had to move on. She had. She was a brilliant publicist for one of the most successful companies in New York City, maybe even in the world. She didn’t need me.

That wasn’t true.

She needed my protection. If someone decided to deliver a more explosive package the next time, she could get hurt. Or they could show up at the office with a weapon instead.

No. I would do whatever it took to keep her safe.

I placed the glass in the dishwasher and grabbed a mug. I didn’t need the coffee to stay up, but I liked how it tasted.

I placed the brew on the dining room table and picked up a pen.

Who would want to scare or hurt Towers?

There was the list of people who wrote nasty things online that Janis had emailed me, but they rarely ventured far from their keyboards.

Besides, this message seemed personal. My gut told me that Towers knew the person responsible. I brainstormed some possibilities: former employees, current employees, business partners, failed business partners, current lovers, and past lovers. The list kept growing.

It would take weeks, if not months, to compile background checks on all these people and set up surveillance. The first thing I needed to do was secure the office and its employees. So, if the threat was within the company, I had to know that now.

Grabbing a red file folder, I pulled out the employee list and their employee record. This record would have their birth date and other information to do a background check. I logged into the police database. The police chief had never denied my request for background checks, so I didn’t feel guilty hacking into their system. It would take days to get all this information from their clerk. There was no time to waste.

As I searched their background files, perhaps five or six employees drew red flags. Two had been to prison for assault, one was arrested but released for stalking another employee, and the last two were misdemeanors, but I kept their files handy.

I’d been doing this job long enough to know that a person’s past didn’t dictate their future. However, sending a bloody pig’s head indicated it wasn’t the perpetrator’s first time sending a message or getting his or her hands dirty. No, this one had experience.

After pulling out those employee records, I checked their browsing history using the company’s Wi-Fi. People were stupid enough to search for things at work when they believed no one was watching or thought deleting cookies would be enough to erase their searches.

While the searches were questionable, only one raised the hairs on the back of my neck. The stalker.

He had looked up the best knots to keep hands secure, and the cost of tasers and guns. This man had a plan, or at least was making one.

I went to bed that night feeling unsettled. My stomach was in knots and my fists clenched. Something about him had me itching to get to work. I tossed and turned until it was finally time to head to the office and find out what this guy was up to.

As I walked up to my car in the garage beneath my condo building, I spotted my brother, Will. He wasn’t my brother through blood, but we’d shed enough of it together in the army that it bonded us forever.

“Morning,” he said with a nod. “You look like shit.”

“Thanks, so do you.”

“Did you have a bad night?”

“Not more than usual,” I said.

He tilted his head. “You’re lying. You look like you hardly got any sleep.”

I pressed my lips together. No one knew how little I slept, and I preferred to keep it that way.

“I was up doing some research for this job. I probably shouldn’t have stayed up so late.”

He watched me closely. Will was always the most patient one. The best listener. And the one we all tried to stay away from when we had something to hide because he was usually the best to sniff out our bullshit. And his nostrils were flared right now.

“I’ll catch you later, Will. I’ve got to run.”

He said something, but I didn’t quite catch it as I revved up the engine of my car.

As I drove to Grapevine’s head office, I wondered if I should talk to Will about my trouble sleeping. But if two years of therapy hadn’t helped, I didn’t want to trouble him with worrying about me.

The security guard was waiting at the door with the thumbprint scanner. “Good morning, Mr. Payne.”

“Good morning, Mr. Travis. Any issues this morning with the device?”

He shook his head. “None at all, sir. Works like a charm.”

“Glad to hear it,” I said, patting him on the shoulder before walking to the elevator.

My shoes echoed across the marble floor. It was the only sound, as not many people started work at seven in the morning except for the cafeteria staff.

I wanted to arrive before anyone else on the tenth floor. So, as the elevator doors opened, I was pleased no one was there yet. No one chatted in the hallways and no telephones rang. Only the sound of my shoes on the laminate floor.

I reached the ‘stalker’s’ office and booted up his desktop computer. I typed in the password from the list of passwords Janis had given to me yesterday, but I would have figured it out easily enough.

He had done a good job hiding his browsing history, but I’d already seen that last night. This morning, I wanted to see what he had stored in his hard drive.

I opened the typical business folders and client files. This man handled sponsor accounts for special events. I saw Bianca’s name on a few documents, and while there was nothing unprofessional in those files, an unsettling feeling came over me.

I hovered the mouse over his stored photos. Hundreds of events were listed in folders. I opened one after another and while most of the photos were innocent, I noticed a pattern. Bianca was featured prominently in several of them. And mainly from behind.

I closed that folder and opened another. It was the same pattern. More photos of Bianca. This time, it wasn’t part of the event. It was before or perhaps after—moments she wasn’t expecting to have her photo taken. For example, there was one of her bending to set down some boxes. Then, another of her with raised arms, tying her hair into a ponytail. The pose pushed her breasts together, and it reminded me of how someone would look if their arms were tied up over their head. I’d seen soldiers in this position when they were prisoners of war. I didn’t particularly like that I was now associating that image with Bianca.

Opening a new folder, I delved deeper into this man’s files. At each event, someone had photographed Bianca while she was unaware of the camera. My fist clenched next to the keyboard and heat ran through my neck and over my face. I blew out a breath to let out some steam, but I was pissed.

“What are you doing?” a man’s voice called from the doorway.

I’d been so preoccupied by the photos that I hadn’t heard him approach. He had small eyes and a large nose and mouth. He had pulled his straight brown hair into a low ponytail and wore an ill-fitting light gray suit.

It took every ounce of restraint to hold back from launching my fist into his face.

I looked into those small brown eyes with barely any lashes on them. “I’m looking at your computer.”

His eyes flew to the screen, and his mouth hardened. “You don’t have permission to do that.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Well, I need to get to work, so if you don’t mind, get out.”

Interesting. The man wasn’t intimidated by me. He held my gaze and folded his arms. He had either been getting away with this for a long time and wasn’t concerned about getting caught or lacked self-preservation.

I didn’t get up. “Why do you have so many photos of Bianca Rimoli on your computer?”

His mouth twitched, but still I sensed no fear, only annoyance. “Because she happens to be at the events and runs them.”

“You don’t have as many photos of the rest of the team or even the CEO who speaks at the events.”

He sighed, but narrowed his eyes. “I’m sure you’re mistaken.”

I nodded and stood from his desk. Rubbing my lips, I carefully contemplated my next words. “If I see you sniffing around Bianca, or even looking at her in a way I don’t think she’ll appreciate, I’ll cut that ponytail and shove it down your throat so far it will come out of your ass.”

He remained still, only blinked to show that he had heard me. However, a bead of sweat formed on his brow, and it was enough for now.

I left his office in search of Mr. Towers. I found him in the hallway.

“May I have a word, sir?”

Despite his retirement age, Towers maintained good posture and a fine tailor. He pushed down on his lapels and nodded toward his office.

“What can I help you with, Jager?” he asked after closing the door behind us.

“I think you should fire Jeremy Tagert.”

“Who?”

“The man in office 101.”

Pressing three fingers to his forehead, he shook his head. “Why should I fire him?” Then he snapped his head to look at me. “Do you suspect him to be part of what happened to me?”

I clenched my fist at my side. If I said yes, he would surely fire the man, but that wasn’t why I wanted Tagert gone. “I believe he is behaving inappropriately with a particular woman in the office.”

“Did this woman come to you with a complaint?”

“No.”

“Then, how do you know?”

“I saw photos on his computer that I believe are improper.”

“Improper?”

I nodded.

He laughed and I felt sick to my stomach. “What’s so funny, sir?”

“I can’t fire a guy for that. If I did, I would have our lawyer up my ass so fast, I’d shit them out for breakfast. No, you concentrate on what you’ve been hired to do. Catch the sick son of a bitch who’s out to get me.”

My knuckles cracked under the strain of clenching them so tightly. My gut told me Tagert was bad news, and my gut was never wrong. I would have to do my own surveillance on him and make sure he stayed the fuck away from Bianca.

“In that case, I’d like to request that all events be postponed until we have a suspect.”

He batted his hand in the air. “Fine. But you tell Bianca that.”

As I left Towers’ office, I considered what I’d say to Bianca. I’d be straightforward and tell her the truth. I was hired to protect the CEO, and I was just doing my job.

When I turned the corner, I spotted her sitting at her desk, staring at the computer. She wore black-rimmed glasses and was biting the side of her bottom lip, concentrating on her screen.

The look made me smile. Bianca would bite her lip every time she backed up the car or parallel parked. I would make fun of her for it, but would always pull her bottom lip from her straight white teeth and kiss it. The urge to do so now was so strong that I found myself pressing my lips together.

She looked up from her computer and released her lip, leaving a mark on her red lipstick where her teeth had been.

“Hi,” she said, her voice soft.

“Hey.”

Neither of us moved, we just stayed perfectly still while something crackled in the air between us.

She was the first to speak. “Is there something you wanted?”

Yes .

“Um. Yeah. I came to tell you that we have to cancel all events for the foreseeable future.”

She blinked and tilted her head. “Are you serious?”

I nodded.

“But I have a big event planned next week. I’ve been planning it for months. I have The New York Times and The Washington Post correspondents attending. Do you know how hard it is to get them there?”

She blew out her breath and pushed her hair back. “Why?”

“Because of that package.”

“Yes. But can’t you do something to protect us without canceling the event?”

“Canceling the event is for everyone’s protection.”

She stared at me. “I just can’t believe I have to cancel.” She dropped her head into her hands and stared at her screen. “What am I going to do now?” she whispered.

She looked up at me with hope in her eyes. “What if the journalists all come here?” Despite the urge to give in to her request, I knew I couldn’t. “It would be difficult to check everyone’s background before the event, and what if someone’s clean, but their intentions are not,” I said.

“I can’t do my job if my team can’t promote this new launch.”

I wanted so badly to make her happy. There had to be another way. Perhaps there was. “Everyone is equipped to work remotely these days. Maybe you could do a virtual launch?”

Her face was blank at first, and then a brilliant smile crept over her lips. If I hadn’t seen it so many times before, it would have blown me over. As it was, I was having a hard time breathing.

“I’ve got an idea.” She started scribbling on the notepad next to her desk and was smiling to herself.

Something inside of me snapped. I knew better. Hell, I’d spent years fighting the feeling, and yet, in this moment when it was just her and me again and she smiled like that, I couldn’t resist.

“What are you doing later?” I asked.

She wrote furiously, and then after a couple of seconds, she looked up. “Sorry, did you say something?”

The words had spilled out of my mouth before, but now that I had time to think about what I’d said, I hesitated. “I was just curious if you still like to play pool.”

She smiled and this time, her eyes danced mischievously. “I haven’t played in a long time, but I bet I could still kick your butt.”

“I—”

The security guard burst into the office. “Mr. Payne, there’s something you need to see.” He panted and sweat dripped from the sides of his face. “Hurry.” He turned and ran down the hall.

I followed closely behind him, keeping pace with his rushed stride.

“What’s going on, Dave?” I asked as I followed him. “What happened?”

Dave caught his breath as he raced to the elevator. “I think I saw something in one of the packages I scanned.”

As the doors closed behind us, I asked, “What did you see?”

He closed his eyes and wrung his hands. “I’m not sure. I think it looks like a knife, but it had a funny shape to it.”

The elevator doors opened and this time I walked ahead of Dave, nearly racing to the scanner at the front of the building. “Did you see who delivered it?”

“I think it was FedEx, or maybe it was a local courier. I’m not sure.”

“Stand back,” I said as I approached the package. I first checked for any residue along the edges or liquid leaking from the box. There was none. Then, I slowly rested my ear on top of the box, but I didn’t hear any ticking. I picked up the box cutter next to the scanner and tore open the package.

Inside, I found a three-inch blade with a black leather handle and a red stitch. I didn’t touch the knife, knowing I would send it off for prints. I pointed to the cameras at the entrance. “Pull up the footage and I’ll meet you in the security room in five minutes.”

Dave ran to do as I said while I pushed through the front doors. I turned to my left and then my right. People walked down the sidewalk to and from wherever they were going. No one looked behind. No one walked too quickly. The perp was either long gone or very good at this. I was starting to worry it was the latter.

Returning inside, I was glad to know the scanner was working, and we prevented another traumatizing incident for Mr. Towers or his assistant, Janis. However, I wasn’t happy that all the added security measures hadn’t scared this guy off. He was determined, and that sent a chill down my spine.

I found Dave staring at the footage as I walked into the room. “Did you find him?” I asked, gazing at the screen over his shoulder.

He nodded. “I think so.”

Dave rewound the tape, and I watched a man in dark pants and a dark hoodie approach the front doors holding a package. He wore black gloves and a black medical mask. It was still common to wear a mask in public since the pandemic, so no one would have thought it strange.

The man left the package at reception, turned around and walked out the door as though it were nothing. No shifty movement, no hesitation or looking over his shoulder.

I zoomed in on his face. Most of it was covered, but I thought I saw a marking across his left eyebrow. I tried to zoom in further, but the image became too grainy. “Have you seen this man before?” I asked.

Dave shook his head. “Nah. Never seen him in my life.”

I pursed my lips. Either Dave was not a very perceptive man, or this was a different guy than the one who delivered the first package.

Pressing a few buttons on the keyboard, I took a screenshot of security footage. I would run this man’s face through some programs I had and see if I would be lucky enough to get a break.

I patted Dave’s shoulder. “Good work, soldier.”

“Pardon?”

It was only then that I realized what I’d said. “Sorry. Good work, Dave.”

He frowned. “It’s ok. I don’t mind being called ‘soldier’. I just didn’t think it was meant for me. You sounded a little far away for a second there.”

I hadn’t been. It had just been a reflex. Although my time in the army and later special operations were short, it left its mark on me and I knew I could never wash it off. It was now ingrained in me.

I walked out of the security room and noticed the crowd in the lobby. Checking my watch, I realized it was five o’clock and most employees were heading home.

I took the elevator upstairs to the boardroom to run the picture through my computer.

When I reached the tenth floor, I considered finding Bianca and finishing our conversation, but her office was empty. It was just as well. I was here to work.

After uploading the image, I watched thousands of pictures zoom past my screen. This could take hours for the computer to find a match if there even was one. This program didn’t just hold mug shots, but it allowed me to reference social media posts and any photo on the internet. The problem was, I only had the delivery man’s eyes. I worried if it would be enough.

While I waited, I tapped my fingers on the desk and stared at my phone. I wasn’t expecting a call, but as though I’d conjured it up, the phone rang.

“Hey River, how are you?” I hadn’t heard from him since I started the assignment a couple of days ago.

“Good, buddy. How’s it going?”

“I don’t have the perp yet, but I think we’re close.”

“Isn’t it the police’s job to investigate?”

“It sure is. But that’s never stopped me before.”

River chuckled. “Yeah, that sounds exactly like you.”

I leaned back in my seat and rested my ankle on my knee with a smile. It had been a while since River and I chatted. “Listen, man,” I said. “I was thinking maybe I would come over later. There was something I wanted to talk to you about.” I’d been meaning to speak to River about that fateful night for nearly ten years, but always wanted to do it in person. This was my chance to finally do it.

River hesitated. “Ah…tonight?”

“Yeah.”

“Uh…sure. But come after eight.”

I pursed my lips. “If it’s not a good night—”

“No. It’s fine. I just might have company until then, but afterward, I’m free.”

“Sounds good. See you then.”

As I ended the call, I couldn’t help but wonder how strange River sounded. He’d always been straight with me, but it felt like he was hiding something now.