Page 61 of Shattered Silence Duet

At least we know where she lives and the path she takes now.

Our truck creeps slowly down the street, over a hundred feet back from where Mina quickly walks, unknowing of us basically stalking her.

I know she doesn’t want us to take her home, and I don’t want to press it right now when we can just watch from a distance to make sure she’s safe. I mean, there is a serial killer on the loose and there is a chance she’s a target, so I wasn’t going to let her walk alone if I could help it.

We have a camera attached to the telephone pole across from her house now that alerts us to movement at the front of her house, so we can keep an eye out for Jeff, or anyone else, without having to stake the place out twenty-four-seven anymore. Even though I’m not happy about no longer being close if she needs us.

“What is she doing?” Max asks me.

I glance over at her as I press the brake to stop our movement. She’s standing on the sidewalk a few houses down from hers anddrops her bag on the ground, then takes off her hoodie, Max’s hoodie, and shoves it in her bag. I see her do something with her phone, and shove that into her bag too.

Then she starts braiding her hair again into the two braids we’ve seen her wear a few times. They don’t suit her, although she’s gorgeous no matter what her hair looks like. I just prefer her hair hanging loose around her shoulders.

“She must want her mom to see her a certain way. Your hoodie would cause questions about where she got it. I’m not sure why her hair would matter, though,” I tell him honestly.

We watch her walk the last few hundred feet to her house and right before she opens the door, even from where we sit in our truck, I can see her take a deep breath before opening it.

“That doesn’t look like someone who’s happy to be going home,” I mumble.

“No, it doesn’t,” Max agrees as he frowns at her house. We watch for about twenty minutes and when nothing happens, we slowly make our way home.

Neither of us says anything for a while, too lost in our own thoughts. But after a while, Max breaks the silence.

“Jasp, do you think she’s safe there?”

“I don’t know, Max. I really hope so, though.”

“Me too.” After another minute, he speaks again. “I really care about her, Jasp. Do you think she could be the one? And I know she’s only seventeen, but she won’t be forever.”

“Hmm,” I hum in agreement. “I care about her, too. It doesn’t help that she doesn’t look seventeen, despite her naiveness. But yeah, Max, I think she’s perfect for us.”

“Really?” He looks at me in surprise.

“Yeah, it’s obvious she likes all of us, even if it confuses her, and we’re all obviously drawn to her. Everything is just a mess right now with the case, and school and… Mina. We need to take everything slowly and not spook her. Especially if she’s in witness protection, we could lose her if we aren’t careful. If they ran and changed their identity, we might never be able to find her. Some people live their whole lives in witness protection.”

“All the more reason to solve this case, as quickly as possible,” Max says firmly.

“Agreed.”

When we get home, Dom has us do a round of our daily debriefs. They tell us more about their theory that she’s in witness protection, and it makes sense. Perfect sense, in fact. It makes almost all the puzzle pieces fit in place. But what nags at me is her having to walk home, alone, and her reaction to going into her house. If she has a stalker that she’s running from, wouldn’t her mother not want her walking anywhere? And wouldn’t she feel more afraidoutsideher home, not stepping back into it? Unless there’s someone inside her home she’s equally afraid of.

“Max, she can’t live here, she’s only seventeen,” Dom says with a sigh, clueing me in that I’ve missed part of the conversation, lost in my own thoughts.

“You didn’t see her today, she didn’t want to go in that house,” he says, slapping his palms on the kitchen island to emphasize his point.

Dom raises an eyebrow and glances at me. “Really?”

I sigh, pushing my hair back from my face as I lean my hip against the counter. “Yeah. it looked like she had to build up the courage to enter.”

“I told you!” Atlas yells, pointing at Dom. “We should just kidnap her!”

“Yes!” Max yells, pointing at Atlas in excitement.

“Whoa, who said anything about kidnapping her?” I ask in confusion.

Atlas turns to me, jamming his finger into the counter to make his point. “She’s not safe there. We would keep her safe.”

“Atlas…” Gideon says worriedly. “She’s a seventeen year old minor, she can’t live with seven grown ass men. And we definitely can’t kidnap her, we’d go to jail if we were caught.”