Page 136 of Wicked Dares
No sign of that motherfucker, Reece.
And yet somehow, that fucking rose still ended up on Piper’s desk.
And the kicker is this—we don’t even see the rose on the desk until Piper does.
That part of the fucking footage is missing.
I scrub a hand over my jaw and try not to put my fist through the screen.
This is a fucking outrage. And Piper…
Jesus, she fell apart. Right there in a place that was supposed to be the door to her dreams. When she saw me, she collapsed in my arms, breaking down.
I’ve never seen her like that before.
I don’t even think terrified is a strong enough word to describe her.
She looked like someone had reached into her past and dragged every nightmare she ever escaped back into her mind.
I fucking hated it.
The image of her shaking and crying keeps replaying in my head. And the fucking note.
Soon.
One word shouldn’t have the power to destroy someone the way it did her.
Locke pauses the footage again before glancing toward me. “You really think this guy’s out?”
“I don’t know what the hell to think.”
I called the prison in San Francisco just before we ran the tapes the second time. I was trying to find out whether Reece was still an inmate.
The answer I got was the professionally polite version offuck off.
They weresorryto inform me that unfortunately, they can’t confirm or deny inmate information to anyone without authorization.
Fuck them.
Since I was getting nowhere, I did the next best thing and called Dorian.
Thankfully, he has a talent for finding out things nobody else can and bypassing the system.
If Reece has been released, Dorian will know soon enough.
It’s the waiting and not knowing what’s really going on that’s fucking with me.
Locke rewinds another section of the footage before muttering, “Could’ve been someone working for him.”
The possibility crossed my mind.
Nobody in the footage looks remotely like Piper’s ex, but there were dozens of contractors and workers moving through the building all day. It wouldn’t have been difficult for someone to slip upstairs while everyone was distracted.
Especially once the place got busy.
I stare at the paused image on the screen while anger coils tighter inside me.
Why is this happening?
