Sanders gripped the armrests of his chair like he was trying to crush them in his palms. “Then I’ll see you in the morning.”
I pushed out of the chair and rose. “Oh, I finished archiving all of the reports.”
His eyes flicked to me, full of fury. “All the ones you were working on today?”
“No. I finishedallof them.” I grinned. “I look forward to whatever you have for me tomorrow.”
There was an extra spring in my step as I exited the building and headed to the parking garage. I had gotten a new car after blowing up my other one. Even though this one had the new car smell and heated and cooled seats, I missed the truck.
Driving up to New Haven at rush hour was the dumbest thing I’d ever done. It added an hour to the trip, and most of that was just creeping through Manhattan at a snail’s pace. Any other day, I would have taken the train.
It was still light by the time I pulled into the parking lot of Amelia’s apartment complex, but just barely.
I hopped out, popped the trunk, and grabbed the bag I had stashed there this morning.
When I’d escorted Amelia back to her apartment last night, we didn’t touch. We didn’t make small talk. She let me sweep the rooms, clearing them to make sure no one was lurking in the shadows. And when I walked back to the front door, I spotted one very important piece of information.
She would be meeting with her therapist in person today at exactly seven p.m.
The after-hours appointment was a courtesy, but her therapist wanted to meet with her in person following Amelia’s first day back to teaching.
Cole was working in the area, so he personally tailed her from a distance to make sure she got there safely and texted me when she was in the building.
It wouldn’t be long before she was back, so I made quick work of picking the lock to her apartment and slipping inside.
Thankfully, Joel was gone too. I didn’t feel like losing my kneecaps today.
Amelia kept her place clean, which made bugging it just a little harder.
I had a feeling that her not immediately telling me where to shove it came from the fact that she was tired. Emotionally. Physically. Mentally.
No matter how worn down she was, I knew that, if she was aware I let myself into her apartment . . .again,she’d take a swing at my kneecaps herself.
That was why she wasn’t going to find out.
I was doing it for her safety.
Everything I ever did was for her.
I could have tried to reason with her, but I had a feeling she would object to me installing a very discreet security system of sensors on the door and windows that would let me know whenever someone came or went.
. . . And maybe some pinhole cameras in the communal spaces.
It wasn’t like I was putting cameras in her bedroom or the bathroom. Amelia lived with her brother. She wasn’t lounging naked in the living room on a daily basis.
Installing them would give me some peace of mind and keep her safe.
One of the tech savants Cole worked with at Keller & Associates hacked into the Alcott University security system and siphoned off the feed into their servers, giving them live access to Amelia’s workplace. Unlike Alcott’s system that deleted footage after forty-eight hours, Keller & Associates would archive it indefinitely.
The upside of apartment living was the limited egresses. There was one door and, since she wasn’t on the ground floor, window entries were highly unlikely unless someone rappelled from the roof.
I did one final pass through the apartment, checking the video feed on my phone to make sure I had eliminated any blind spots. The window in her room was my biggest concern. There was a massive tree outside of it that could give someone access, should they be determined enough. It wouldn’t be a discreet way to enter, since someone would have to climb the tree, a balcony, and the side of a building, but I’d done crazier things for Valentine. Nothing was beyond the realm of possibility.
I tested the window and winced when the shrill sound pealed out of the earbud I wore, piercing my eardrum.
Yep. That worked.
Amelia wouldn’t hear a thing, but I would.
