Havana exhaled heavily. “Camden’s right, Aspen. We’re making it difficult for Wayland to get to you and Camden. Maybe the polar decided to do this because he’d rather mess with both your heads than not get to you in some way. And it’s not like he had any real use for the cameras anymore. You haven’t been living there.” Havana slid her gaze to Camden. “Which makes me wonder why he didn’t tap into your home settings and mess with your thermostat and stuff.”
“I don’t use apps to control anything,” Camden told her.
Bailey folded her arms. “From now on, I won’t be doing it either.”
Needing to sit, Aspen sank onto the sofa and wrapped her arms around her middle. God, this shit was just … wacked. The asshole had been watching her.
Tate told her that one of the cameras was planted in her bedroom. She felt sick thinking of all the things Wayland would have seen. Her bearcat seethed, unnaturally still with the indignation that had locked her muscles tight.
Camden moved to stand in front of her. “Hey,” he said, his voice strained in a way that told her his anger was close to getting the better of him. His gaze flitted over her face when she looked up at him. “He won’t get to you.”
She wasn’t worried that he would—she’d take some joy in facing the bastard. “It freaks me out knowing he was watching me. I’m glad you and I didn’t start our friends with benefits thing until after I moved out, or we’d have provided him with some XXX footage.”
Camden’s eyes went shuttered. “Is that what we have?” he asked, his tone flat, his voice low enough not to carry to the others who were gathered across the room. “A friends with benefits thing?”
Her pulse skittered. “Is it not what we have?” she asked, her voice just as low.
He took a step closer, his gaze boring into hers. “Is it all you want?”
She licked her lips. God, she could not do this now. If he didn’t react well to her confession, if Havana had been wrong in what she’d predicted—
“You’ll be relieved to know there were no bombs,” said Tate, striding back into the apartment. “The cameras are being removed as we speak.”
Thankful for the interruption, Aspen asked, “How long ago do you think he planted them?”
“Not sure,” said Tate. “But probably before we upped the security. Definitely before he sent Jerome your way—he would have wanted to watch it all unfold.”
“And if I had been raped that night, he probably would have uploaded the footage on the internet, because he’s that much of an asshole,” Aspen clipped. “At the very least, he’d have emailed it to a few people just like he did the doctored pictures.” The memory of them made her bearcat snarl.
“He’s cruel enough to have done something like that,” said Havana. “He needs to be found and stopped.”
“He will be,” Tate vowed. “River’s working on locating him. It’s only a matter of time before we have him.”
“Unfortunately,” began Luke, “I received a text from River to say that Wayland seems to have contacted Aspen using a burner phone, so we can’t use the number to trace him.”
She rubbed her temple, disappointed. Nonetheless, she thanked her pride mates for their fast actions.
People soon began to leave—reluctantly, in the case of both Havana and Bailey. Finally, Aspen and Camden were alone again.
“Want a drink?” he asked, his voice still hard. “Something to eat?”
She knew he was looking to detach himself from his anger by pinning his focus on her—he’d done it many times in the past—but just the thought of consuming something made her grimace. “My stomach couldn’t even handle water right now. But thank you.” She patted the spot on the sofa beside her. “Come sit with me.” She’d try and distract him so he could keep a lid on the dark emotions swirling inside him.
He didn’t sit beside her, he squatted in front of her. “You know I won’t let him get to you, don’t you?”
“I’m not scared to face him, Camden. I’m just a little freaked right now. It weirds me out to know I was being watched in my own home. It was one of my safe places. My personal slice of territory. He invaded it. Installed cameras in it. Might have even touched my things. And I never even suspected he’d been there. I never had a clue I was being watched.”
Camden rubbed her bare thighs, his hands slipping beneath her long tee. “Of course you had no clue. Who would ever suspect it? And of course you’re freaked. Anyone would be. But baby, this is what he wants. He wants you to feel violated and shaken and distraught. He wants you to stress over what he might have seen and be upset over just how thoroughly he invaded your privacy. Don’t let him do this to you.”