Jaime winced at his attorney’s words. Sure they were true, but he hated the blunt reminder of how isolated he’d become in the last year.
Detective Sutton gentled her tone. “I’ve called an acquaintance of mine who owns a private security firm up in Silver Rapids. They take both body security and household security contracts, so they’ll be able to set up Jaime’s home with an alarm system and escort him when he needs to leave the house. Cameron Sheppard is a good guy, and his team is highly competent. They’ll be able to handle this.”
Jaime tensed at the mention of this private security firm. How much would that cost? Probably an astronomical amount to outfit his home and pay someone to be with him until the trial in a few weeks. “Why can’t you just have an officer come out and keep watch? Surely a police car parked in my driveway would be enough of a deterrent.”
He didn’t actually believe that. Whoever it was that might want to silence him had enough resources to hire someone tomurder one of Monroe’s elite socialites. They would be able to find someone who, with the right incentive, wouldn’t blink at a police car in the driveway while they snuck in and did the same to Jaime.
But he didn’t have the money for private security. Sam was already covering Jaime’s bills on top of paying for his attorney, and his brother had clearly had enough of helping Jaime when he was too young, weak, or pathetic to do it himself—he wasn’t going to become even more of a burden.
Maybe if he handled something like this himself for once, Sam would see that he could do it. He didn’t have to step in all the time and save him, and they could be brothers again.
Friends, again.
“I spoke with the state Attorney General about hiring private security for you Jaime, but the budget’s just not there to do it. And given the leak was internal, I think it best we outsource security until the trial. Sutton, are you sure about Cameron Sheppard’s firm?”
“Yes, they do excellent work and are very professional. They were on the Senator’s detail when he was campaigning in the area last week,” she confirmed.
Then Jaime definitely couldn’t afford them. “I appreciate your efforts here, but that’s not something I can afford to pay out of pocket. I’ll take the police cruiser and have a doorbell camera installed. I’ll be fine.”
Hopefully.
There was an awkward pause, and Detective Sutton cleared her throat. “Did your brother not tell you? The contract is already set, paid for in full. He called this morning immediately after the news broke and we arranged everything. The security team is probably already on their way to you.”
Jaime’s face flushed hot with anger.
Sam called Detective fucking Sutton before talking to me first?
They’dmanagedhim before consulting him, before asking what he wanted. Sam hadn’t even called—he just threw money at a babysitter so he didn’t feel obligated to come and scrape Jaime off the floor. Again.
He wasn’t sure how much of their deteriorating relationship the detectives and his lawyer had picked up on over the past year, but right now he didn’t really care about letting on how hurt he was about this.
“Jaime —” Dana began, but he hung up before any of them could say anything else.
Jaime strode over to his closet and yanked on the nearest t-shirt and sweats without really seeing them. Fuming, he stomped down the stairs and pulled out his phone to call Sam while he hunted for his jacket and car keys.
When was the last time I drove myself somewhere?
The call went to voicemail.
Jaime knew things had become distant between them. Sam had pulled away because Jaime was a twenty-six year old adult who needed to learn how to take care of himself when shit hit the fan. And he was trying.
He wastrying.
Jaime was going to therapy, and listening to the advice of his attorney, and he would get up on that stand and tell the world how fucking useless he’d been when a woman had been brutalized in her own home. And then he would sell his house, get a job somewhere they didn’t know his name so he could pay his own rent, and then maybe Sam would want to talk to him again because he wouldn’t feel like Jaime needed him anymore.
Jaime could do that. He could make it so he didn’t need anyone.
But Sam didn’t even give him the chance. He’d solved the problem and payed the bill before Jaime knew there was a problem, and that made Jaime so irrationally angry that he had his keys in hand and was stepping out the front door to go tell his brother that he didn’t need him anymore, before he remembered what was waiting for him on the other side.
The noise roared up around him, sudden and deafening, and the crowd pushed forward all at once.
Hands grabbed for him and people shouted and shoved microphones in his face. Jaime was backed up against the side of his house, the throng shifting him away from his front door, surging closer and closer.
His ears began to ring, and he couldn’t get enough air into his lungs. Taking great heaving breaths, Jaime frantically searched for someone, anyone to see that he needed space. He needed them to back up. If they gave him a minute he’d be able to breathe again, and then he could ask them to please let him go find his brother so that he could tell him he didn’t want his money—he just wanted Sam.
Jaime’s vision grew spotty. Bright flashes in his periphery made it difficult to focus on anyone’s face as they all blurred together into one angry, loud mob.
He saw the closet walls closing around him, bodies crowding him and grabbing for him and trapping him. He needed to turn around, needed to look and see the man striding toward him out of the dark so that he could dodge the inevitable blow?—
