CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Rule No. 10: Everything I have, I never wanted. Everything I wanted is taken away. I’m afraid that, one day, you’ll fit in both categories.
The police arrived within ten minutes of Jackson making the call. Three uniformed officers walked into the lobby, Donovan’s head snapping up when Jackson let them in to the back room and they turned the corner to enter Donovan’s office. Remembering the favor Jackson had asked of me, I hurried over to where Donovan was sitting and I took the seat beside him.
Brows pulling together, he looked between Jackson and the police before asking, “What is all of this? What’s going on?”
Taking a deep breath, Jackson admitted, “I found some files I think will link Trevor to Dark Realities and Mia. But I found something else, Donovan. And before we explore it any further, I thought it might be a good idea if we have the police here with us to look it over.”
Reaching out to touch, Donovan’s arm, I felt the tension that drove through his body. He didn’t say a word, didn’t make a move. He simply sat and waited to here what Jackson had found.
“Trevor isn’t just following Mia. He has at least twenty files on different women.”
Donovan blinked. Jackson sighed. “Including one on Jennifer.”
The muscle in Donovan’s arm tensed more, and when I looked down at his hands, I noticed his knuckles had turned white from how hard he clutched the armrests of his chair. His breath quickened, becoming more shallow, as his face turned a sickly shade of white. But before he could say anything, one of the officers stepped forward, an older man with silver at his temples, his lips pulled into a grim line.
“Mr. Stone, my name is Officer Chase McDaniels. I was asked to come here to obtain any information you may have on an unsolved murder and a complaint filed by Ms. Jennings regarding a stalker. I understand that this situation is sensitive for you, so you may want to step out of the office while we examine the files to see exactly what your friend has found.”
I hoped Donovan would agree to step away, but I knew by the expression on his face that it wasn’t going to happen. Cutting his chin to the left, he declined the officers suggestion before clearing his throat. “If there is something Trevor has on Jennifer, I want to see it.”
Jackson’s shoulders withered to know that whatever was found would be found with Donovan watching, but rather than arguing, he stepped up to the desk where the computers were arranged and glanced down at me. “Would you mind if I steal your seat, Mia?”
Shaking my head, I stood from the chair and moved to stand behind Donovan. I kept my hands on his shoulders the entire time Jackson found and accessed the files on Trevor’s servers. After saving all of them to a separate drive where they couldn’t be erased or destroyed once Trevor learned they’d been accessed, Jackson opened mine first, a gasp tearing from my lips as video after video of me popped up. Not only had Trevor been watching me on the streets, he had videos from inside my apartment.
Tears slipped from my eyes as Jackson made note of what he’d found, but decided against watching the videos in order to avoid invading my privacy. I know the videos would go to the police and I was afraid of what they revealed. I knew he had to have caught me getting in and out of the shower and getting dressed. Thankful that Jackson decided to simply copy the files to a external drive and set them aside, I waited with bated breath as he opened Jennifer’s file.
There weren’t many files, and the videos were limited to shots from the street, but it was obvious he’d followed her, obvious that he’d had an obsession with Donovan’s fiancé before she’d died. Jackson went through all the information with a fine toothed comb while Donovan watched in silence, but I knew the instant one of those videos rang home with Donovan because his shoulders tensed beneath my hands.
“That’s the night she died,” Donovan said, his voice cracking even more with the anger and grief he felt. He was following us the night Jennifer died.
Pausing the video, Jackson took a deep breath. “Maybe we should let the police watch this while we all step away. If this shows-“
“No,” Donovan argued. “If that son of a bitch had something to do with her death, I want to see it.”
I felt like I was intruding on Donovan’s privacy by standing in attendance, but when he reached up to take my hands with his, I realized that he was holding on to me for support while a tragedy in his life played out before his eyes.
The video was heartbreaking to watch, but I stood strong for Donovan with even more tears slipping down my cheeks.
There was no sound thankfully, but just the picture was enough for me to understand what happened that night. It was enough to make an educated guess as to why Donovan blamed himself for Jennifer’s murder.
Shot from an alleyway across the street, the video showed Donovan and Jennifer walking out of a restaurant and turning left down the street. Donovan stopped and pulled his arm away from Jennifer, his expression angry and distant as he answered his phone. It appeared to be late at night and I knew the area of town they were in wasn’t the best. But I also knew many people often went there anyway for the small restaurants that offered exotic cuisines. Rachel had invited me to try out several of the restaurants in that part of town, but I’d always been too afraid to go because of events like what I knew was about to happen.
While Donovan was distracted by the phone call he’d taken, Jennifer walked ahead, her own face twisted with anger and impatience. Several times she turned back to him to ask him something. He shoved her away when she attempted to take the phone from him, the call more important to him in that moment than whatever she had to say. Even more angry now that he’d blown her off, Jennifer walked past another shadowed alleyway and was grabbed by a man who attempted to drag her away from the sidewalk. She screamed, which drew Donovan’s attention, but before he could reach her, a flash of light could be seen from the shadows and Jennifer’s body fell to the ground.
Donovan’s hands tightened over mine, and I didn’t miss how badly his body was shaking.
There was no point watching the rest play out, and I was thankful when Jackson stopped the video before Donovan had to relive the last moments of Jennifer’s life. Paused at a point where Donovan was falling to his knees beside her, his mouth open on a scream, his face twisted in panic, Jackson closed the video and began the process of copying it over to an external drive to give to the police.
The entire room was silent as we processed what we’d just watched. No, Trevor hadn’t been responsible for Jennifer’s death, but he did have evidence pointing to the man that was. Only, rather than going to the police with that evidence in order to get justice for Jennifer’s death, he’d kept it to himself to avoid being caught for stalking.
Clearing his throat, Officer McDaniels stepped up to take the external drives from Jackson. “I think we have enough here to arrest Trevor Branch. If we need anything else, we’ll be sure to contact you. We’ll be in touch once the charges are filed and we’ve apprehended Mr. Branch.
There was nothing else to be said. Quietly thanking the officers, I watched as they walked off, my hands still firmly gripped by Donovan. The officers let themselves out, leaving Donovan, Jackson and me silently staying in place, none of us moving or saying a word.
Jackson was the first to break that silence. “Listen, I’m sorry I gave that son of a bitch access to your system, but -“
He fell silent again when Donovan held up a hand to stop him. “Just go home, Jackson. I need to process this before I make any decisions about what I want to do.”
Jackson looked stricken to be brushed aside so easily, but I could understand why Donovan was mad. It wasn’t the right time for me to point out that if Jackson had never given Trevor access, it would have never led us back to Trevor’s servers where that video was kept. It felt weird wanting to jump to Jackson’s defense when he had been quick to attack me in the past, but I understood he was trying to protect his friend.
Standing from his seat, Jackson gave me a pointed look before glancing down at Donovan. He was worried I’d leave Donovan alone, but the only way that would happen is if Donovan ran off without telling me.
Somehow, I knew that wouldn’t be the case.
After Jackson left, I moved to take a seat next to Donovan, but he grabbed me before I could and pulled me to sit in his lap instead. Wrapping my arms around his shoulders, I let him hold me, hating how his body trembled next to mine, either from rage or pain, or a toxic mixture of both.
I’m not sure how much time passed before he spoke. “I’m sorry you had to watch that.”
With my cheek pressed against his hair, I answered, “I’m sorry you had to live through it. I can’t imagine how horrible that must have been.”
More silence fell before his arms tightened around me. “You’re staying at my place tonight. And tomorrow, we’re going over to your apartment to find those cameras and rip them out.”
I didn’t want to intrude, didn’t want him to feel obligated to let me go home with him. “I can stay at Rachel’s.”
His arms tightened more. “No. I want you where I can see you and know you’re safe. And it-“ He sighed, his body tensing more before he finally said, “Just let me hold you when I fall asleep. I think that will help.”
Donovan had made a breakthrough by finally talking again today. Who was I to deny him that small comfort? I knew we wouldn’t be getting hot and heavy while staying at his place, but I couldn’t deny I didn’t like the idea of falling asleep beside him. “Okay. I’ll stay with you.”
Pushing to my feet, I took Donovan’s hand and led him from the office. After shutting off the lights, we walked hand in hand out into the halls, took the elevator down to the garage, and didn’t let each other go until he was opening my door for me and watching me with sad, bruised eyes as I buckled myself in.
We didn’t say a word to each other as we drove to his place. It wasn’t unusual, and the silence was comforting while we both processed everything that had occurred. Thankfully, Donovan didn’t drive like a madman, and by the time we reached his place, I was yawning and ready for sleep. How long had it been since I’d slept an entire night without waking up fearful of nightmares from my past or the stalker who’d taunted me for the past month?
So tired that I didn’t pay attention to our surroundings as we entered his building and took the elevator to the top floor, I followed him into his room and sat on the bed while he disappeared into the closet to strip off his suit and slip on a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. Handing me some clothes to wear, he laughed when I walked out holding the pants to my hips to keep them from sliding off.
“Too big?” he asked, his voice soft and exhausted.
“Don’t worry about it,” I answered as I climbed into his bed to lie down. Patting the mattress, I smiled and invited him to lie beside me.
We fell asleep in each other’s arms, and for the first time in as far back as I could remember, I slept the entire night through, feeling safe and warm.