Page 89 of Unleashed

To my relief, Pierce is more than willing to send someone to serve as Zara’s bodyguard until this is all cleared up, and assures me they’ll arrive before the end of the day.

One of the many perks of owning a private plane, I guess.

Once that’s arranged, I join Maren and Titus, but this time I can’t sit down. If I don’t keep moving, I’m going to lose my mind.

I pace the back of the room, going from one side to the other as I watch along with them, looking for anything out of the ordinary. From sitting outside her home, I’m able to identify a few of her neighbors—including the prick I ran off twice. Outside of that, I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to mark as unexpected.

Until I notice something.

I point at the screen. “Back that up.”

Stepping closer, I watch as the man walking his dog replays in front of me. I watched this in real time from my car, thinking I was going to have to kick his ass after the pup took a steaming shit on Maren’s lawn. That night, I was relieved when he crouched down to collect the pile in a bag. When I knew he was taking care of the mess, I stopped paying attention.

I wish I hadn’t. I don’t know that it would have changed anything, or if I would have noticed at the time that while he was picking something up, he was also setting something down.

“There.” I walk up to the screen, finger jabbing directly at the spot where he seems to shove something into the dirt. “What the fuck is that?”

Titus shakes his head. “I don’t know.” He backs the feed up again, standing directly beside me as we both confirm that prick definitely leaves something behind. “But if you didn’t see it when you were there, it can’t be very big.” He turns to Maren. “Did you notice anything weird in your yard?”

“I have a five-year-old kid, a full-time job, and your brother harassing me twenty-four hours a day.” She lifts her brows. “When am I gonna have time to do a complete surveillance of my yard?”

I know I shouldn’t be smiling right now, but hearing Maren’s spicy retort eases a little of the tightness in my chest.

Digging my phone out again, I dial Tucker’s number, giving him the approximate location to check. I wait as he does his search, the sound of his boots crunching over the grass carrying through the line. When they stop, so does my breathing.

“I don’t know what the fuck that is.” His boots begin to pace again. “But I think it’s probably some sort of a camera.”

My eyes meet Titus’s. “Is there any way for us to figure out where the feed is being sent?”

I’m sure the cameras I put up around Maren’s could be tracked to me—or at least McKinley—so there’s got to be some chance we can do the same.

“Possibly.” Titus props both hands on his hips as he considers. “If we can identify the IP address it’s using, we have a shot.” His eyes drift to the phone in my hand. “But it’s possible they’ll wipe it entirely before I get my hands on it.”

“Don’t pick the fucking camera up.” I snap out the warning to Tucker.

“Do you think I’m a dumbass? The second I figured out what it might be, I kept walking. I only looked at it for a second, so they might not realize we’ve found it yet.” Tucker murmurs something to my dad. “Are you all headed this way then?”

“Titus is.” I won’t be of any help in the situation. I can handle the basics of what Titus does, but hunting down IP addresses and network traffic monitoring are above my pay grade. “I’m staying here.”

“Good call. Now is not a good time for no one in the family to be in the building,” Titus explains.

“What do you mean, no one in the building?” My brows pinch together as I watch Titus collect his gear. “Where are Toby and Walker?”

I know Titus and I were both giving directions at the same time, but I’m pretty confident I would’ve noticed him sending Walker and Toby out to do something.

“They’re with Ruth at the police station, remember? Pierce got them into the cold case archives again.” Titus shoves his laptop into his work bag. “I told them to go. They should only be gone a few hours, and Walker’s already waited so long for this.”

Titus seems like he thinks I’m going to be mad. Upset my cousin is getting answers about his mother’s death instead of sitting here watching fucking camera feed videos with us.

“That was the right call.” I roll my shoulders, trying to ease the tension dragging them toward my ears. “Hopefully they find something that helps him finally move past what happened.”

At least then there would be some closure happening for someone. I’m not sure I’ll get as lucky, because Titus’s mouth is set into a grim line as he leaves. One that tells me he doesn’t have much hope he’s going to get anything useful from the camera in Maren’s front yard.

Once the door is closed behind him, I turn to where she sits, trying to gauge how she’s handling all this.

Maren looks… Surprisingly okay. A little murderous—but that’s normal for her. Possibly slightly unhinged—also normal.

And fucking stunning. Absolutely, totally normal.