Theo gave him a grim look. Church knew the things Theo had seen—that every man on the Black Heart Security team had seen. Their women stalked by people from all walks of life.
He wasn’t going to let Zee be one of them.
He shifted his gaze to the end of the table where Gabe was taking it all in. “Bring her in.”
Gabe pushed back his chair and crossed to the door where Zee was waiting on the other side. When he opened it, Church saw her, hands intertwined, head down.
She looked small. So vulnerable.
Gabe leaned in and said a few low words, and she looked straight at Church. His chest flexed in his chest, hard enough to hurt.
She paused inside the doorway, her stare flicking down to the paperwork on the table.
“Come sit down.” Theo knew how to use his voice to soothe his significant other, the wards he worked with and any animal on the Black Heart. It got Zee moving.
She lowered herself into a chair. He noticed how she didn’t place her back to the door, and she sat close enough to it that she could run out if she had to.
She folded her hands in her lap and unfolded them again. She looked guilty, and that alone made heat bleed through Church’s chest.
Theo kept his voice level. “We pulled the police report and footage from the businesses around the parking lot.”
Church never took his eyes off her. And he was tuned into her enough to notice every miniscule move she made. Though she was frozen, her eyelashes washed downward in the slightest twitch.
“The footage shows a guy in a ball cap who approached the truck. We couldn’t get a face, but we know he used a tool to break the glass. Then he searched the truck.”
The guilt didn’t disappear from her face. It shifted into something worse.
Weariness.
Church slanted a look at Theo. If he questioned Zee, she might clam up, but she might answer Theo.
“How long has this been going on?” Theo lowered his voice to the same soothing one he used before.
Zee stared at the report for a beat before answering. “After the funeral.”
Church felt the words like a blow.
She didn’t meet his eyes as she continued. “I was only permitted to stay in the house on base that Matt and I lived in for a short time after. Then I had to vacate for another military family. I got an apartment in town for a while.” She pulled in a breath.
“How long did you stay there?” Theo urged.
She lifted her shoulder in a small shrug. “I was in shock for a long time. Time seemed to blur into one endless day.”
“What made you decide to leave?” Church’s own soft tone felt raw in his throat.
Her gaze shot to his, shadows swirling in the depths of her eyes. “At first I thought maybe grief was making everything feel wrong. But I didn’t feel safe there by the end.”
He clamped his hands into fists under the table. “Can you tell us what happened, Zee?”
Again, she shrugged. “Just little things. The feeling that someone was watching me.”
Nobody interrupted.
“The next place, I got a job at a yoga studio. I thought it would be calmer than office work. Different.” A humorless breath escaped her. “One afternoon after teaching a class I went back to the locker room and found my locker broken into. Everything inside had been dumped on the floor. Clothes, toiletries, my purse. All of it.”
“Did they rifle anyone else’s locker?” Church asked.
“No. Just mine.”
