Page 84 of Her Devoted HERO

He shoved the gun into her ribs.

“Ow!”

“Shut up and put this piece of shit into reverse.”

“Where did you come from?”

“I was following you. Do what I say, or I’ll shoot you.”

“No, you won’t. You want to torture me.” She’d had enough of this shit. Kenna turned to grab the door handle of the car.

“You’re right, I do,” he said dropping the gun and grabbing her hair. He held up a garage door opener and put it to her neck. Kenna felt the sharp electrical current going through her. Fuck, it was a stunner, not a garage door opener, she thought as he continued to hold it against her. She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing would come out.

She collapsed. Her eyes drifted shut. God, she was going to end up dying after all.

***

“We’ve got some proof,” Griff’s voice came over the speaker in Dex’s jeep.

“What did you find?”

“There’s pictures of Kenna plastered all over a small room in the basement. He’s got a veritable shrine set up.”

“You don’t sound really happy,” Dex said to Griff.

“It’s Dalton. He’ll explain.”

“Hey, Dex,” Dalton’s smooth, thoughtful voice permeated the inside of his cab. “I think we need C.S.I. to come out and look at this. There are some anomalies.”

“Dammit, Dal, I don’t have time for you to be absolutely fucking sure. What are you seeing? What are you sensing? I would take your intuition over a C.S.I. report any goddamn day!”

“Okay,” Dalton said and blew out a breath. “To start with some of the pictures are old. They’ve obviously been taken over the last year and printed out. You can see where they’ve faded with time. But all of the tape that was used to adhere the pictures to the wall? It’s new. None of it is faded. If I had to guess, these photos were taped up in the last few days, if not the last day. I think these were brought here from someplace else.”

“You think it’s a set-up?”

“That’s what my gut is telling me.”

“Tear that fucking house apart. If it is a set-up, then Buddy’s a victim too. In the meantime, I’m calling Clint. There has to be somebody else who would tie in both Buddy and Kenna.”

“Gotchya. We’ll call if we find anything.”

Dex hit the steering wheel...again. Then pressed in Clint’s number. He relayed what Griff and Dalton had found.

“Are you coming back towards La Jolla or San Diego?” Clint asked.

“No, she was last seen heading east, this is as good as direction as any. I need you to tear Buddy’s e-mail accounts apart.”

“It’s already hacked,” Clint said. “I was trying to see if he was sending any e-mails to any of the victims, or if he had set up any new accounts. I’ve cloned his entire office network.”

Dex gave a low whistle. “Did you check his incoming e-mails?”

There was a pause. “Nope. Been looking at his outgoing.”

“Check his incoming. See if Buddy has any enemies. See if the Starbucks IP address ever sent an e-mail to Buddy.”

“I’m on it.”

After the call disconnected, he stared at Hunter’s electric blue truck in front of him. There had to be a connection somewhere, and he just wasn’t seeing it.