“You were up there?” I asked, confused.
“Yeah. I’m not usually in their apartment. I can do my job from down here when I’m watching them—we’ve got cameras in the common areas. But Mable wanted to rearrange the nursery again, and one of her guys wanted to talk about security when they go back to work.”
“When are they returning to work?” Bear queried.
“Thankfully, not for a few weeks,” Chase said.
They glanced at each other, clearly communicating in some silent language they’d perfected over the years.
“Do you want anything else to eat?” Bear questioned, turning to me. I almost giggled at that. He had already fed me more grilled cheese than I could reasonably handle.
“No. I want to know what’s happened to my apartment,” I demanded. “Don’t brush me off.”
Bear sighed. On his phone, he scrolled through his apps, and I did my best to ignore the way his arm muscles bulged as he did so.
“Here,” he said, turning the screen toward me.
A dark, hooded figure stood in my apartment.
With a baseball bat.
And it looked like they were having the time of their life destroying everything I owned.
“They’re so angry,” I whispered, my hand coming up to my mouth.
Bear looked at me with concern. “I know. But you’re safe now.”
Slowly, it dawned on me what I was watching. Video footage of my apartment being trashed…
“Wait.” I paused. “How did you even get this footage?” I asked, turning to him. My distress dimmed as the realization hit me, a weird numbness taking hold of me. “There’s a camera in my home.”
A camera these guys had access to.
“I think I need to leave now,” Chase mumbled. “I’ve got a tablet to take apart…”
“You stay right there,” I snarled, pointing at him.
He froze on the spot, like a bashful toddler who’d just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
“Bear,” I growled.
“It was me,” a firm voice declared.
Spencer strode into the room like he’d overheard our entire conversation.
“What do you mean, it was you?” I growled. My sanity felt like it was hanging on by a thread. If I didn’t get answers soon, I was going to start tasering people.
Spencer placed two bags, filled and overflowing with what was left of my possessions, on the kitchen island before turning to me.
“Once we realized you were being followed, we decided you needed extra security. So, I installed several cameras in your apartment.”
My eyes widened as I tried to comprehend what he was saying in such a cavalier tone. He was acting like placing hidden cameras in my apartment was no big deal.
“That is a huge invasion of privacy,” I spluttered. “Oh my God, what did you see? Did you see mechanging?” There had been times recently when I’d felt like I was being watched. And Spencer had now confirmed that it wasn’t just my imagination running away with me. I’d been right!
I waspissed.
Spencer shrugged. “Well, it’s better than whoever’s following you. I’m guessing he got upset when we installed our cameras, because that’s when I found the one he’d hidden in your vent.”
