Letting Go (Thatch 1)
“No, we’re not out of town. We’re driving back to my place right now.” I took off from the lake, not caring about how fast I was going or that Grey was staring at me in shock.
“It’s safest for you if you don’t go inside until the police are there. I’ll let them know you’re on your way.”
“Thank you, I appreciate it.”
“Of course. Is there anything else I can do for you, Mr. Easton?”
“No, that’s all.”
As soon as we ended the call, I dropped my phone into one of the cup holders and started talking before Grey could ask what was happening.
“The alarm was triggered at the warehouse.”
“Are you serious?” I’d expected her to freak out, or to be yelling at me because of the way I’d snapped at her. But her voice was soft and shaky. “Why does this keep happening?”
“I don’t know, but hopefully the cameras got a picture of the person.”
“Are you going to call the police?”
I glanced at her and offered her a reassuring smile. “Security company did that for us, they’ll be there right before us or after.”
“Okay.” She blew out a harsh breath before repeating, “Okay.”
“If there’s anything there . . .”
“I want to see. I need to.”
Grabbing her hand, I brought it up to my mouth and placed a kiss on the inside of her wrist. “All right, I’m here for you.”
“I know, Jagger.” She laughed softly and squeezed my hand. “If there’s anything I’ve learned in my life, it’s that you’re always there for me.”
I looked over to see her smiling at me, even though the smile was strained from the fear of what we might find at the warehouse. I’d vowed I would figure out who was harassing us like this, and I hoped we would identify the person tonight. I couldn’t let Grey continue to be tormented even if it wasn’t affecting our relationship the way I’m sure this person had planned. I knew even though she was doing better than she had in the last two years, it was still hard for her. There was no way it wasn’t; it was still hard for me. No matter how much time passed, I would always think I’d taken my best friend’s girl from him; and having it thrown in our faces every couple weeks didn’t help push away those thoughts.
We pulled up behind three police cars from the city next to us, and I had Grey wait in the car while I went to talk to one of the officers.
“Are you Mr. Easton?” he asked as I walked up to him.
“Yes, you can call me Jagger.” I offered him my hand, and looked over to the wide-open door. Someone had turned off the alarm, and other than the officers, the warehouse looked normal from the outside. “So what happened that you can see?”
“No signs of forced entry. Is it possible you left the door unlocked?”
“No, not at all. We’ve been paranoid about the alarm and locks since the last time this person came and messed with our cars.”
His eyebrows rose. “You know who’s doing this?”
“No, we don’t. But someone has been harassing my girlfriend and me for about two months now. I’ve been dealing with Officer Rand about all this.”
He nodded and wrote something down on a small notepad, then gestured toward the door with his pen. “If you didn’t leave the door unlocked, then the person had a key. I don’t know how long they were in there, but we cleared the entire space, the person isn’t in there anymore. You’ll have to look to see if anything is missing, but it looks like the alarm startled the intruder and they bolted. Come look inside, I need to ask you about something we found.”
Turning around, I gestured for Grey and waited until she was by my side before taking her hand and following the officer. A dozen feet inside the doorway near the kitchen counter was a plastic container on its side with torn papers spilling out of it.
“Is this yours?”
“No,” I answered, and tightened my grip on Grey’s hand. When the officers began taking pictures, I turned to speak in her ear. “They said there was no sign of forced entry, the intruder had to have had a key.”
Her face was covered in shock when I pulled back. “That’s impossible. No one else has a key and Charlie’s didn’t work.”
“I know, but I locked that door.”