“What? Why?”
“He’s sensitive. Don’t lead him on.”
I’m sensitive, too. I look at Theresa. “I know. I don’t accept his invitations or his offers of favors. He just comes in here—so what am I supposed to do?”
“Just be careful,” she says, patting my arm. “I’ve got an appointment with one of our artists. The guy doesn’t seem to be in a creative mood lately. I may need to drop him.”
I smile at her as she picks up her bag and waves goodbye. I can’t help myself. My first thought is, maybe if she drops the guy, just maybe I’ll get to move my pieces closer to the front. I can hope, as I mentally cross my fingers. But I’m afraid that selling the few pieces I’ve recently sold won’t get me better real estate in this shop.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
YOU’RE NOT GONNA LIKE THIS
“Boss?”
“Yeah,” I say into my phone.
“You’re not gonna like this.”
“What am I not gonna like?” I know what this is about. Gill has a couple of my people putting up cameras outside MacKenzie’s place.
“Sending you a couple of pics. Wait for them.”
I wait until my phone alerts me to an incoming message. I click to open the images and stare at the word slut. “What the hell?”
“Someone spray-painted that on the side of her house. I assume it was done in the middle of the night.”
“It wasn’t there when I left. The footprints….”
“That’s what I thought, too. Whoever cased her place earlier that night is our tagger.”
“That’s sick. She must have seen it today. I bet it freaked her out.”
“No doubt. What do you want us to do about it?”
“Clean it up. She won’t be home until tonight, so that should give us enough time to get someone there to scrub that shit off the brick.”
“Will do. I’ll keep you posted, boss.”
“Thanks, Gill.” I hang up and let my head fall back on the headrest in my car. “Who the hell? And why?” I shut my eyes tightly to think. I attempt to calm myself by taking deep breaths. Then it hits me, and I jerk my head up and pop my eyes open. “They saw us.” Whoever did that was looking in the window and watched us last night. “Fucker.” I put the car into gear and tear out of my parking garage. I was on my way to work, but I’ve got to think, and driving helps me do that.
I tell my Bluetooth to call Gill back. “Somebody had to be watching us last night. Who the hell is watching MacKenzie? Did you find anything at all on any of those dating sites?”
“She’s not on anything right now. She used to be on LoveBet.net but not anymore. She last logged on in April of 2016.”
“So, a while ago.”
“Yep.”
“What about Tinder?” My hands tighten on the steering wheel as I plead silently,Please say no. Please say no.
“Not that I can see, Sam.”
“Thank fuck.”
I know I’ve gone a tad overboard checking into this girl. It’s unprofessional, but I don’t really give a shit at this moment. Besides, Gill understands. He’s my best friend. And my crew has no idea why they’re putting cameras on her place. As far as they’re concerned, it’s a job for a customer who hired us to put cameras on their home. I massage my left temple, willing away the headache that is growing by the second. How did I get so caught up in a girl I’ve only met three times?
CHAPTER NINETEEN
