Chapter 8

8

Dev had destroyed Kinsley's fun. Jada's and his mother's, too, if the defeated looks on their faces told him anything. He didn't want to put an end to their joy, but he also foolishly didn't like how Kinsley was reacting to the guy on her T-shirt. Dev had hoped he'd been her teenage crush, but clearly not.

Stupid thoughts. Crazy crushes didn't matter. Not one bit. Especially right now, when he had difficult news to deliver to her. He should just come right out with it. But after everything that had recently happened, he couldn't bear to hurt her even more.

He leaned against the fireplace and looked at Colin, hoping he would take the hint and share the news of the break-in. But Colin simply shrugged and sat in an easy chair across from the others, looking expectantly up at him.

Dev pushed off the fireplace. Shoved his hands in his pockets. Made eye contact with Kinsley.

"Just say it," she blurted out. "Waiting is even more difficult."

"Someone broke into your apartment and trashed the place." He wanted to look away but kept his focus on her face to gauge her reaction.

She gasped and blinked up at him, a vacant look clouding her eyes. "What exactly do you mean by trashed?"

He didn't want to share anything about the break-in, but no matter how much he wanted to spare her, she deserved to hear the details and would soon see the mess in his photos. "They emptied all of your kitchen cabinets and threw all of the items from your desk, bookshelf, and nightstand onto the floor. They also slit open your mattress."

Jada reached for Kinsley's hand, but she jumped to her feet and paced to the front window. She immediately spun and walked back, her eyes now glossy with tears. She opened her mouth to say something, but rushed back to the window. She rested her forehead on the glass, and her shoulders started to shake.

Jada hurried across the room to her and put her arm around her best friend's shoulder. Thankfully Dev's sister acted before he did the same thing and gave away his feelings.

"What do you think they were looking for?" his mother asked.

"We're not sure," Colin said. "At first we thought they wanted the records from the binders regarding their investigations, but then it dawned on us that they were looking in smaller places. Places where binders wouldn't fit. Makes me think they were looking for something else."

Kinsley spun, freeing herself from Jada's arm, and marched across the room. She planted her hands on her hips and her feet on the floor. Tears ran down her cheeks, but she looked angry now, not tearful. "Small, large, whatever. What could they have been looking for?"

"That's what we were hoping you could help us with," Dev said.

"I should go there to see if anything is missing."

Dev had expected her to say that, but he hadn't formulated a solid response. "I'd rather not take you there if we can avoid it. I took pictures of the entire place, and we brought the binders. You can cross-reference the tabs to your computer to see if an investigation is missing. If so, it could give us a lead to whoever is behind this."

"Then let's not waste any more time talking about it." She marched to the dining room table and sat. "Get my things from the car, and I'll get started."

Dev let out a long breath at her easy cooperation and looked at his brother. "You heard the lady. Let's get out there and grab what we need."

Dev followed his brother out the front door. Colin jogged down the steps to the vehicle, but Dev stopped on the porch to bring Reid and Ryan up to date. "Colin and I'll be inside tonight, but I'm hoping for a protective detail for the exterior. One man should be fine, if anyone is available."

"I'm sure the guys will help out." Reid planted his feet on the worn wood. "I'll arrange a twenty-four-hour duty schedule for the foreseeable future."

Dev couldn't help but be thankful for his boss's accommodating behavior. "Thanks, man. I'll owe you big time."

Reid waved a hand. "You were a big help when Megan was in trouble. I'm the one who owes you." His wife had been stalked by a man from her past, and it took the entire team to bring him to justice.

"Just doing my job as part of the team," Dev said.

"And we're doing the same thing for you," Ryan said. "One for all and all for one and all of that." He laughed. He was the team joker, and they could always count on him to lighten the mood when things got tense.

"Well, thanks anyway," Dev said. "If you could let me know who's scheduled, that would be great. We'll grab the things we need from my SUV, and then I'll be inside."

Reid gave a sharp nod, and Ryan smiled. Brothers. Not just to each other, but brothers on a team. When Reid opened Shadow Lake Survival, it didn't take long before the business took off faster than he expected. With Russ, a full-time sheriff, and Ryan, a part-time wilderness counselor, he needed additional help and reached out to the guys.

Dev was blessed to be a part of the team. He knew Colin and Micha, the final team member, both felt the same way. They were all doing something they loved in the great outdoors and working for a terrific boss.

He ran down the steps. Colin met him at the bottom, his arms filled with binders. "Just like you to slack off and leave your big brother to do all the work."

"Yeah, that's my plan." He laughed, but the sight of the binders reminded him of the mess at Kinsley's apartment, and his laughter dried up like the desert under the scorching sun.

They had to find something in these binders or her computer to help. They just had to.

Kinsley opened her computer while Dev looked on from across the table. Colin sat at the end, a binder open in front of him, and Jada and Sandy remained in the living room. Kinsley navigated to her spreadsheet listing every investigation she'd participated in since she'd started freelancing as a forensic engineer. She investigated things like accidents, product failures, components, material or structural issues, or even environmental contamination, but her specialty was building failures.

In college, she'd hoped to find a company she could work for and not have to strike out on her own, but the assignments for a forensic engineer in a single city were too infrequent to provide a full-time job. As a result, zero companies employed them full-time in the Portland area or in any other major city in Oregon. She wasn't willing to move out of her home state to a more populus city where she might have a chance at employment with a company, so she had to go it alone and branch out to nearby states and travel frequently.

So even if Dev declared his love for her and asked her to marry him—a pipe dream for sure—she had to live close to an airport, and there wasn't a commercial airport nearby. Or he would have to give up his job and move to Portland, which she would never ask him to do.

Did it even matter? There was no proposal. Not even a hint of wanting a relationship with her, and she wouldn't break her promise to Jada.

Dev stood and cleared his throat. "Before we get started, you need to decide if you want to report the break-in to the police."

Did she? She didn't have a clue. "I guess I need to know what the benefits are to doing so."

"Normally I'd say they would send out a forensic team to process your apartment." Dev planted his hands on his hips. "But since nothing appears to be taken, at least nothing of great value, I don't think they would authorize those resources unless we can prove it's tied to the shooting. Otherwise, their resources are stretched far too thin to help."

Colin looked up. "But if there's any damage done, like the way they annihilated your mattress, and you want to file for insurance, you would need a police report."

"Another reason," Dev said. "Since we're former law enforcement officers, it's possible we could persuade them to do a more thorough investigation."

All good points, but did any of them actually help? She really didn't know what to do. She didn't want the hassle of having to meet a police officer at her place to review the break-in, but then these guys had good points about why she should do it.

But what about the opposite? "And reasons I shouldn't do it?"

Dev shoved his hands into his pockets. "The biggest downside is that our shooter could be keeping eyes on the property in case you return. Just showing up there could threaten your life."

She swallowed. Once. Twice. Three times. Got control. She wouldn't let this overwhelm her. "Wouldn't it be possible for you or Colin to meet the police instead?"

"No," Dev said, his tone lacking all emotion. "The officer would request to speak to the actual victim. No matter what the reporter of the crime—me or Colin or both—says, we'll either bea suspect or unable to answer completelyand accurately as to any missing items. This wouldn't be negotiable."

His voice hardened as he spoke, leaving her even more uncertain. "Do you think it would be safe for me to go there?"

He didn't answer immediately but jerked his hands from his pockets and planted them on the table with a thud. "One hundred percent safe? No. I'm confident that our team can escort you there and provide the best protection possible, but there's always a risk to your safety."

She believed they would protect her, but one stray bullet they couldn't defend against was all it took to kill her. So, should she risk going?

Just the thought of it left her mentally numb, and she couldn't make a decision right now. "I guess the first thing I need to do is look at the pictures you took. Maybe I can identify something that was stolen. That could help make my decision."

Dev got out his phone and swiped the screen. "Viewing them on a bigger screen could help you not miss anything. I'll transfer them to your computer."

"Perfect." She sat back and watched thirty photos appear in her download folder. She didn't waste any time, but opened the first one.

"Oh, wow!" Her heart sank, and she clutched the external mouse with as much force as she could muster to keep from crying out in more distress.

Her small living area was in a complete state of disarray, exceeding Dev's description of the situation. Sure, he'd told her about the mess, but seeing it in a photo was a whole other thing. Seeing her possessions—even if a lot of them were simply work files—touched by a stranger in the privacy of her home violated every sense of safety and security that her apartment had previously brought.

Even if they apprehended the person stalking her, could she ever feel safe enough to live there again?

Jada came to stand behind Kinsley and drew in a sharp breath. "Oh wow! I'm so sorry, sweetie. I hate this for you."

"I…I." Kinsley shook her head. "I really didn't think it would hit me this hard."

"Your reaction is normal," Colin said. "It's a violation of your sanctuary."

Jada rested her hands on her shoulders. "So, bros, what are you gonna do about it? You can't let this guy get away with what he's getting away with. There's got to be something more you can do to help her."

Kinsley glanced up at Jada, whose face was contorted with the kind of anger a best friend would have when her friend was threatened. Jada wasn't worried for her own life right now, which she should be, but she was focusing solely on Kinsley. Kinsley was forever grateful for her friend's deep sense of loyalty and protectiveness.

She rested her hand on Jada's. "They're doing everything they can do. We need to cut them some slack. They want to keep both of us safe and figure it out so we can find this creep."

"You know that's right." Dev clutched the back of the chair in front of him. "If I could stop this, I would in a heartbeat."

Jada sighed. "I know. I'm just getting frustrated."

"Investigations take time," Colin said. "You make forward progress and take a few steps back and make progress again until eventually you do find the bad guy, and hopefully he's brought to justice."

"He's right," Kinsley said, trying as much to encourage herself to face this battle as well as help Jada relax. "I can tell you that from experience in my investigations."

"Maybe we could call in forensics experts at the Veritas Center," Dev said. "It's a longshot, but they might be free to process the scene and possibly locate leads."

"Sierra Rice," Kinsley said, not even trying to hide her enthusiasm for the idea when so far they hadn't come up with anything good. "They're one of the premier labs in the country for DNA and criminal forensics. If there's anything to be found, Sierra and her team will find it."

"You're familiar with them, then," Dev said.

She gave a vigorous nod. "When I was getting my engineering degree, I had hoped to work for them and did a summer internship there. But, like most other companies that use forensic engineers, they don't need one full-time, and I've had to settle for working for them on a contract basis."

"So are you comfortable calling Sierra and asking her to process your apartment?" Colin asked.

"Of course," Kinsley said. "But I don't know if I can afford their fees."

"They do pro bono work," Dev said.

"No, I wouldn't feel good about using their budget set aside to help others. I'll just have to figure out a way to pay them." Though it could wipe out the savings she'd worked so hard to build up to buy a house.

Dev met her gaze. "I might be able to help, depending on the cost."

"No." Kinsley held up her hands. "This is my responsibility, and I'll find a way to handle it. I'll call Sierra first thing in the morning, but the best thing I can do right now is get over the shock of this and look through these pictures. Then decide on what to do about the police."

Jada pulled out the chair next to Kinsley. "I'll be right here to help you. I don't know what I'm looking for, but you never know what I might see."

Dev released his grip on the chair. "Do you have a list of investigations on your computer that we can compare to the binders?"

She tapped her screen. "I have a spreadsheet. I'll print a copy for you."

"Of course you do." He grinned.

"You may find my need for organization annoying, but it's going to be quite helpful right now." She sent the file to the networked printer.

"Not annoying." He smiled at her. "Cute."

Colin stuck a finger in his mouth and mocked gagging. "Enough of the flirting. Let's get on with the work."

Flirting? Was Dev flirting with her for real?

Kinsley couldn't tell. He didn't argue the point, so maybe he was. Everyone was looking at her, and heat raced over her face as it had when she was a child, drawing unwanted attention. She bent her head and forced her focus from Dev's potential flirting to her damaged apartment.

"I'll get the spreadsheet and be right back." Dev left the room.

She scrolled through the pictures, looking at every square inch of her floor for possessions that she would likely find in that area and made sure she didn't look up when Dev came back to sit at the table.

She spotted her jewelry box, dumped out, leaving a mound of tangled beads and earrings and a large pendant. "Thankfully, I don't have any expensive jewelry. Mostly just costume pieces. And, of course, I brought the things I value with me in my memory box."

Jada glanced at her. "Like our skeleton necklaces where they can hold hands when together?"

Kinsley clutched Jada's hand. "Tell me you still have yours."

"She does." Sandy stepped into the room with a tray holding a pitcher filled with red liquid and beside it, two Kool-Aid cups, one pink and the other white. "I remember packing it when I moved out of our house at the campground. If you want to reunite the skeletons—I can't imagine that you would, but then again, I never did understand your fascination with them—the boxes are in my storage locker."

Jada got a gleam in her eyes. "Oh, they'll be reunited before the week is out. You can count on that."

Kinsley laughed with her best friend and liked how being with her second family again could make even the horrible pictures in front of her seem not so dire. She could almost believe that God wanted her here with them. But that wasn't really possible for so many reasons.

Sandy poured the red liquid into the white cup and handed it to Kinsley. "Your favorite Kool-Aid flavor. You used to drink it nonstop. When I heard you were coming, I made sure I stocked up."

Kinsley gripped the little handle on the side of the Kool-Aid pitcher-shaped cup with the Kool-Aid man embossed on the front. "And you still have our favorite cups from when we were little."

"Figured I'd keep them for grandchildren. Not that anyone seems to be moving in that direction at this point." Sandy glanced between her children.

Colin looked up from his binder. "Hey, at least I'm engaged. That's more than I can say for these two."

"We should get back to work," Jada said. "And Mom, you should rest instead of waiting on us."

Sandy filled the pink cup and handed it to Jada. "Don't think I'm not onto your diversionary tactics. Just how is your love life lately?"

"Mom!" Jada groaned. "That's a topic for another day."

"Okay," Sandy said, humor in her tone. "Name the day and time, and I'll be there."

"Kinsley and I are going to be really busy. I'll have to get back to you on that." She lifted her small cup of Kool-Aid and drained it.

Sandy shook her head. "You boys want Kool-Aid?"

"Gross," Colin said.

"Ditto," Dev said.

"You don't know what you're missing." Kinsley laughed and looked at the last picture that held the contents of her kitchen cabinets strewn over the floor. With all the traveling her work required, she really didn't cook or entertain often and had few dishes and pots and pans. In fact, her cabinets were pretty empty. Just a few canned goods and some boxes of instant macaroni and cheese, along with her favorite morning granola and coffee pods.

Sandy tsked. "What a mess, but honey, is that really your entire kitchen's contents? What happened to your love of cooking? We spent so much time together in the kitchen."

"I travel a lot, and besides, cooking and baking seems like a lot of work to go through for one person."

"Then maybe we need to have a talk about your love life too." Sandy laughed.

Jada jumped up and took her mother's elbow. "Come on, Mom. I'll help you to the couch so you can rest."

Sandy's laughter deepened, and Kinsley reveled in the sound of it, remembering years of fun with this kind and generous woman. Even though Sandy's health had been suffering, she could still maintain such a cheerful disposition. Kinsley could learn from her second mother. Kinsley didn't have any health issues or day after day of pain and fatigue. She just had a messed up apartment that she had to reorganize. She didn't need to be so upset.

But it wasn't just the mess, was it? The person who ransacked her place also had likely shot at her and seemingly wanted her dead. That wasn't such a simple thing to get over and to maintain a cheerful disposition on.

Move on. Find a lead. So what if she had to think about what had occurred? To keep studying the pictures, or do anything that Dev asked of her? She would do it, and she would do her very best. And that included swallowing her fear until not even a shadow remained, looking at her apartment in person, and filing a police report.

She looked up to find him flipping through one of her large binders. "I didn't see anything missing in the pictures, but I really think I need to go there in person."

He cringed.

"I get it," she said. "Not what you wanted to hear, but I think it's the right thing to do."

"I do, too," he said, his voice strained. "After we do some careful planning."

She pointed at the binder in front of him. "How is your comparison to my list going?"

Colin closed his cover with a loud thump and set it aside. "One down for me, and so far, I haven't found anything out of the ordinary."

Dev opened his mouth to speak, but her phone rang, and she glanced at the name on the screen. "That's odd. It's Ozzy Butler. He's a detective out of Seattle who I worked with a few years ago. Wonder what he wants at this time of night."

Dev locked gazes with her. "One way to find out."

She tapped the answer button on her phone. "Ozzy?"

"Sorry to bother you so late." His unique, raspy voice came over the line. "But I wanted to give you a heads up in case you hadn't heard. Nico Huff was released from prison last week."

"Huff?" She couldn't believe she'd just been talking about him and now here he was, out of prison. Gave far more credence to him being the shooter. "I didn't know. How did you hear about it?"

"I was at the courthouse this morning and ran into one of the guards who oversaw his release. He heard Huff say that he was going to get back at everyone who put him behind bars. You remember his foul mouth, so you know he didn't say it quite that tamely, but you get the picture."

She got it, all right. She'd dealt with him not only through the investigation but through the trial, where he hurled too many expletives her way to count. She could just see the tall, beefy man with a shaved head and fierce-looking eyes glaring down on her, and her heart rate kicked up.

"So you think he's coming after me?" she asked Ozzy. "I mean, do you really think he would take revenge or was he just spouting off?"

Ozzy didn't answer right away, and the silence added to Kinsley's discomfort, but she waited it out by tapping her foot under the table where the others couldn't see her nervousness.

"Despite being a loudmouth," Ozzy finally said, "I honestly don't think the guy who went into prison would try to harm someone. He liked to shoot his mouth off, but I couldn't see him taking any real action."

She let out a relieved breath.

"That said," he continued, "the guard told me Huff had a rough incarceration and was coming out angry and with a giant chip on his shoulder. So I'm not really sure what he'll do. I just wanted to make sure you knew about his release and the threat."

So much for the moment of relief. She tried not to let panic take her voice as the others were watching her carefully. "Do you know where he's living?"

"I took a look at his prison discharge paperwork. He's back in Portland. Living with his mother. I can text you the address if you want it, but I wouldn't recommend you having any contact with him."

"Don't worry," she said. "I'll steer clear of him, but just want to know if a threat did originate, where it might be coming from."

"Then I'll text you the minute we get off the phone. I'll also call a detective buddy at PPB and ask if he can have patrol keep an eye out for him."

She appreciated him contacting the Portland Police Bureau on her behalf, but that was just the kind of guy he was. Tough, but considerate.

"You should know, though," he said, "it's not unheard of for a felon to give one address to the authorities, then not really live there."

"Really? Do they think they can get away with that?"

"They're willing to take the risk. What guy Huff's age wants to live with his mother? But he needed the address for release."

"That makes sense," she said. "But I sure don't like hearing that he could be living at an undisclosed location."

"Yeah, and if his parole officer goes looking for him, his mother would cover for him, saying that he was staying with her but wasn't home at the time. So just be aware. And take care."

"Thanks, Ozzy, and thanks for calling to warn me." She disconnected and took her time laying her phone back on the table to gather her thoughts before explaining the situation to the others. She took a deep breath and forced herself to look up at them, then shared her conversation.

Dev's eyes narrowed. "The same guy you told me about earlier today, except he's not behind bars anymore."

"Could be nothing," she said to keep the others from getting worked up too. "Ozzy wasn't even sure if Huff would do anything."

Dev slammed his fist on the table. "We can't take any chances. We'll get eyes on him. Have a conversation with him. See where he was during the shooting. We can't be too careful with your life."

She didn't like the thought of Dev or any one of the guys going to see Huff. A tough guy, he was one of those men's men who steamrolled all over women and anyone who got in his way for that matter—not looking back, but taking advantage all along the way. By the time one of his foremen blew the whistle on him, he'd cut so many corners on the apartment building he was constructing that it had to be demolished. It couldn't be fixed and wasn't safe for habitation, yet he planned on finishing the complex and letting innocent renters move into a sure death if the right conditions came in to play.

So yeah, he could be dangerous. Just how dangerous was the question of the hour. And a question they needed to answer soon.