Page 119 of Forced Into Your Arms
“You don’t have to rush.”
“I’m already rushing.”
“Vice—”
“Milan, stay downstairs. Don’t talk yourself into going back up there because you think you’re overreacting.”
“I’m not.”
“Good.”
I ended the call and dialed Mace before I made it to the elevator. He answered quickly.
“What’s up?”
“They found her again.”
The line went quiet. “What happened?”
“Somebody left a picture of me and her outside her door. The lunch from a few weeks ago.”
“Damn.”
“Get everything you can from that building. Cameras, entry logs, employees, deliveries. I want every person who got access to her floor.”
“I’m on it.”
“And send somebody to the restaurant. Find out if the cameras caught whoever took the picture.”
“You think they watched ya’ll from outside?”
“She said it was through the window.”
“I’ll handle it.”
I stepped onto the elevator and hit the lobby button. “Meet me at her building.”
“Bet.”
The ride down felt longer than it should have. I kept seeing Milan standing in that hallway alone, holding a picture somebody had taken while we were laughing and getting to know each other. That lunch had been the first time I’d seen her relax around me. She’d talked shit, threatened me over some fries and tried to pretend Simone hadn’t gotten under her skin.
Now that moment had been turned into a warning.
There hadn’t been a message, and that made it worse. Whoever left the picture didn’t need one. They wanted Milan to know they’d seen us together, knew where she lived and could reach her whenever they felt like it.
They had made their point and I was about to make mine.
By the time I pulled into her building’s parking garage, two police cars were parked near the entrance and Mace and Boog was already outside. I got out and headed inside without waiting for anyone to greet me.
Milan stood near the front desk with the same security guard I remembered from the last building. She still had on her scrubs, her purse hanging from one shoulder while both hands were wrapped around the photograph.
The second she saw me, some of the tension left her face.
I walked across the lobby and stopped in front of her. “You good?”
She nodded, then immediately shook her head. “No.”
“Let me see it.”
