Something told me to take another look. I pulled up the file from the Serendipity and ran through the footage. As I forwarded through the scenes I’d found of the staffer, I made a shocking discovery.
“Mason, come check this out.” He stepped around the desk and leaned in over my shoulder.
“That’s the staffer they questioned.” I backed up the footage and played it through another scene.
“No. That’s the staffer. But now watch closely.” I forwarded through again and when the man comes back into frame something had changed. “You noticed it before, but the police didn’t get the right man – and if we didn’t realize we were looking at two different men, then neither did they.”
“That’s our man.” Mason and I had noticed the staffer’s clothes were not standard and had presented the evidence to the police along with the footage of the staffer. What we hadn’t noticed was that the similarities between the men were so close, that what we thought was the same man had in fact been two different men.
“The police investigated the actual Serendipity staffer, but not this guy who looks a hell of a lot like Kyle Johnson.”
“Shoot those files to the detectives. I’m calling Hatcher in Vegas.” Mason took out his phone and paced the room.
My worn out feeling from my all-nighter dissipated and it was like someone had plugged me in and charged my batteries. I emailed the files, typed out a note, and called Joe to tell him to get to my office. I sent the photo of Kyle Johnson to all of my security posts and made sure that everyone was on the lookout for the man.
Joe stormed into my office as if there was a fight going on. I waved him in and explained. “We’ve found the bastard. Remember this guy?” I flashed the image to him and he frowned.
“Son of a bitch. Yeah, I do. That’s the man with the app he wanted to sell you. He was creepy, but smart. I’ve no doubt he could have taken out your security.” I hadn’t thought about it, but the big guy had a point. But as his eyes hardened even more, I knew I was missing something.
“What else?”
Joe looked as if he wanted to throw someone out a window. “The glitches.” He took out his phone and as he hit a button, he explained. “I’m making sure we have reinforcements and everyone is aware.”
“Wait! You think he’s tampering with my home security.” It wasn’t a question, but Joe nodded.
“I want to make sure if it happens again, we’re on it as soon as possible.” He turned to leave as Mason hung up his phone.
“Detective Hatcher is on it. He said to tell you to sit tight and he’ll call us back.” He planted his ass in the chair and placed his phone on his knee. “You might need to warn Luna she’s going to be a free woman soon, but not to go anywhere in the meantime.”
“She’s in love with me.” I didn’t know why the words decided to spill, as it had only been my intention to think them.
“Does she know you’re in love with her yet?” I met his eyes and before I could say anything else, he held his hand up with a gesture to stifle me. “It’s been obvious since the day you told me you married her. It’s about time you caught up.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Luna
Waking up alone wouldn’t have been so terrible if he’d only taken the time to check in on me. I thought Gabriel would for sure when he found me missing, but then by the sounds coming from the office, he’d pulled another all-nighter, and whatever he’d discovered had Joe running from his office.
I stayed still on the stairs so I wouldn’t be seen, but had no doubt Joe had known I was there. He didn’t miss much.
I returned to the guest room where I’d moved all of my things, as few as they were, and though I missed having access to the large master bathroom, this room had its own, too, and the tub had jets.
It didn’t matter how nice it was, though, because I would be leaving as soon as possible. I went to unplug my phone from its charger and found I’d missed a text from Kim. I hadn’t spoken to her but once since she’d left, and I needed someone to talk to. Dialing her number, I lay back on the soft down comforter on the bed.
“Girl, where have you been? I tried calling.” Kim turned her radio down, and I wondered if she ever went without it on.
“I’ve been contemplating a pr
ison break.” I turned my head to the side and stared out the window into the blue sky.
She offered a disapproving groan. “Did you tell the man how you feel about him?”
I let out a deep breath. “Yeah, but apparently with everything going on, he’s been too busy to sit down and talk about it with me.
“I mean, seriously – what’s so hard about telling someone if he feels the same or doesn’t. I should send him one of those check yes or no boxes. I’d be more likely to make sense of it. He acts like he doesn’t want me to go, but I can’t tell if that’s just because of everything going on.”
“Men are confusing. I called Joe a few minutes ago because he’d asked me to, and he told me he can’t talk. That they’re beefing up security and he’d call me later. I wondered if that crazy lady had gone off the deep end again.” It was good to know that she and Joe had been talking. They’d probably get married and live happily ever after while Gabriel and I failed.