Chapter 13

The missing piece

 

When we catch the bitch that had attacked Meadow, I hoped she got the needle. Thankfully, Virginia had one of the shortest times between sentencing and being put to death. No woman should ever be worried about the things Meadow was afraid of. I hoped like hell she was exaggerating about people pointing and commenting on her scar, but I didn’t think she was. Some people were insensitive assholes. I saw it when I was a kid and a friend of my uncle’s came to visit. He’d been medically discharged from the Army when he lost his leg in Iraq. People wouldn’t stop staring. My uncle Nolan was so pissed, but Tony stopped him from saying something to a group of women who were being particularly rude. He told Nolan he was proud of his hardware. He’d given a part of his body willingly, and no group of hags would make him feel less proud of his sacrifice.

Maybe one day Meadow would come to understand the mark left on her face was a testament to her strength. She had lived. While her and Tony’s situations were vastly different, they both endured public ridicule. Tony had embraced it. Meadow was still rejecting the idea she was still beautiful. It would be a long road, but I was looking forward to convincing her otherwise.

After I’d changed into my track pants and sweatshirt, I realized my mistake. The thin athletic pants did nothing to hide my hard-on. Not that my slacks did much better, but at least the material was a tad thicker. I’d been trying the last thirty minutes to will my dick into submission, but it wasn’t listening. Not when Meadow was in a pair of yoga pants sitting on the floor rolling around with Sally.

There was nothing particularly sexy about Meadow roughhousing with the dog, but she was smiling, happy, laughing. And that just might’ve been the sexiest thing I’d ever seen. She was bright and carefree; it was a pleasure to watch. The sight pulled at my heart. I didn’t think Meadow allowed herself to be happy often. She kept herself apart, locked away. Goddamn, the thought killed me. At a time in her life where she should be going out with her friends, living life, she was holed up in her apartment – alone.

There was never a week that passed when I didn’t think about my family back in Georgia. I missed them, even after all these years. I wished I lived closer, but never more than in this moment. My family would take one look at Meadow, feel her struggle, and pull her into the fold. They’d wrap her up so tight she’d know nothing but love. I wanted that for her, which was crazy because I barely knew the woman. But after the small amount of time I’d spent with her, I knew I wanted to know more. I wanted to know everything about Meadow. I wanted her secrets, her desires, all her fantasies, and most of all I wanted her pain. I wanted to be the one that carried the load and shouldered the burden so she could live easy. I wanted all of that, and I planned to work my ass off to get it – by any means necessary.

There was a knock on the door, and two things happened at once. One I was thrilled to see, the other had me red-hot pissed. All the happiness drained from Meadow’s face, and she froze, shrinking back into herself. At that, Sally immediately stopped playing and sat herself in front of Meadow, ears up and on watch. Any reservations I’d had about Sally being a protective guard dog flew out the window.

I told Sally to stay, grabbed my wallet, and went to answer the door. Thinking it was the pizza delivery, I was shocked when I opened the door, and a woman was standing there.

“Oh. I’m sorry, I was looking for Meadow Holiday. I must have the wrong address,” she said.

“Beth?” Meadow said from behind me.

“Hi Meadow. I’m sorry to bother you. I didn’t realize you had your boyfriend over.”

There was something about the way the woman said boyfriend that pissed me off. It was patronizing and meant to hurt Meadow. What a bitch.

“Anyway,” the woman went on, “I was stopping by to apologize. But I don’t want to interrupt.”

“Oh, he’s not…” Meadow started.

“Nick Clark.” I held out my hand. “The boyfriend.”

“I didn’t realize you’d started dating again. I mean after you got that… you know… on your face, I assumed you’d sworn off men. I guess I’m just surprised. It’s been like forever ago, and you’ve never talked about going on a date.”

There was a low, menacing growl from Sally. I looked back to see she’d once again placed herself in front of Meadow. The hair on her back was standing at attention, and her head was low, ears pinned down.

“Easy,” I told Sally and gestured for her to sit. She did as she was told and sat on Meadow’s feet, not moving a fraction of an inch from her.

Good girl.

Meadow had absentmindedly reached for Sally; her hand went to her head, and she was petting her. Whether she reached for the dog needing to ease some of her own discomfort or she was doing it to settle Sally I wasn’t sure, but Sally was perfect for Meadow.

“I don’t wanna be a dick here, but Meadow and I are in the middle of something. Is this something you can talk about later?” I asked.

“Oh sure. I wouldn’t have come over if I’d known. I’m sorry I’m so shocked. But look at you and look…”

“I wouldn’t finish that sentence,” I warned.

“Well. I’m just being honest. That thing on her…”

“Honest to God! Are you standing here on my woman’s front porch insulting her? Holy shit lady, you’re fucked. Maybe you should be more concerned about your manners and less concerned about who Meadow is dating. Not only is she ten times better looking than you, but she’s got a hundred times more class. And that is part of what makes her so beautiful. So, unless you got another apology to hand out for being a rude bitch, I’d suggest you get gone.”

“I’ll just talk to you at the office.” Beth turned to leave and bumped into the pizza boy, knocking the box in his arms making him stumble back before he regained his footing, saving the pizza. “Clumsy idiot. Watch where you’re going.”

What the fuck?

“She’s not worth it.” In my anger, I’d missed Meadow coming up beside me. She reached down and grabbed my hand, giving it a firm squeeze. Her touch did wonders to ease some of my anger, but I was still pissed.

Meadow and I would be having a conversation about what not worth it meant. No one had the right to speak to her the way Beth had. But first I had to get our pizza and settle Sally down. I’d never heard her growl at anyone before. Animals had good instincts. Sally not liking her only further solidified my dislike of the bitch Beth. 

“Pretty dog. Is he friendly?” the pizza guy asked.

“Her,” Meadow corrected. “Yes, she’s normally friendly. Unless you’re a rude bitch apparently.”

I was happy to see Meadow’s smile was back, obviously pleased that Sally had growled and protected her against Beth’s insults. That kind of pissed me off as well. Not that Sally did it, but that Meadow was genuinely pleased a dog had stood up for her. Fuck. She had no one to make her feel safe and cared for. No one to cushion the blow and take her back when the world was crashing around her. I hated that for her.

I paid for the pizza and shut the door. “Who was that?”

Meadow didn’t answer. Instead, she went into the kitchen and started opening cabinets, getting plates and glasses out, setting them on the counter.

“Meadow?”

“I work with her,” Meadow sighed. “She’s a miserable human whose sole purpose in life is to be mean to people.”

“She always that rude to you?”

“That wasn’t rude. That was mild compared to how she behaves in the office.”

“You’re shitting me?” I asked, and Meadow shook her head. “Please tell me you are shitting me.”

“Afraid not. She’s like that to everyone except the boss. She is sugar sweet to him and kisses his ass. She’s even kinda mean to her clients. Today she was extra pissed because she lost two accounts. The boss isn’t going to be happy. Business has been down the last six months. I’m kinda scared they might start laying people off.”

“Fusion Telcom, right? What does the company do?”

I haven’t had time to investigate the company Meadow worked for yet. With a crazy serial killer running around and being on a clock until she killed again, I had to prioritize. Besides, I’d like to get to know Meadow directly from Meadow – not a case file. I already knew too much about her from reading police reports and medical records.

“There are two divisions, infrastructure and storage. One team is dedicated to building phone systems, interoffice networks, and security systems. The other is focused on system management and storage, both onsite and cloud systems. I work for the system management side.”

“Sounds interesting. What do you do?”

“I work with four system managers. I handle their reports. I’m an overpaid secretary and file clerk.”

I highly doubted that was all Meadow did, but like anything else, she tried her hardest not to draw attention to herself.

“What does Beth do?”

“She’s a system manager. She’s a computer whiz. Which is a good thing, because most of her work can be done remotely. As you saw, she’s not a people person. Most of her clients only use our cloud storage. Very few of our clients use onsite hard drives.”

Online cloud storage?

“Do your clients use the cloud to store their security camera feeds?”

“Yeah. Most do. Why?”

“Nothing. A case I’m working on. The security feeds were deleted.”

“If they were stored in the cloud, it would only take a few keystrokes to delete the file. Any employee with the login could do it. Or the system manager. Hell, even I have access to our client’s storage. The only thing I cannot access is the files they encrypt, but those folders are typically the accounting files and bank information. People are ridiculously loose with their information. They think because they store it with a password someone can’t backdoor in. They forget someone has to manage the system and how much data they use.”

“If a file was deleted from your server is it gone forever?”

“No way. Our servers back up everything up, even folders a client deleted on their end.”

That was it. The missing piece I needed.