Because honestly, Evan was worried for Juliet’s very sanity.
How had he not seen this? How had they all been so blind to what Juliet was really going through? She should have been getting better, not worse. And now, thinking someone was after her when it was impossible…
Evan walked toward where she stood in the middle of the room, moving slowly, as if she were a wild animal he didn’t want to spook. “Juliet, there’s nobody who can hurt you anymore. There hasn’t been since the arrest. You don’t need to be afraid of that.”
She looked torn between wanting to accept his embrace and argue the point further, but then froze when her phone chirped. The same sound it had made this morning.
Evan watched all the color leak from Juliet’s face as she stared at the device.
“That’s the reason I know someone is still out there, still after me. He’s been sending me—well, Lisa Sinclair—messages for nearly a year.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Evan pulled Juliet to his side—she had her fist clutched against her stomach again—and grabbed the phone. It was a link to an email she’d received as Lisa Sinclair, and that had been forwarded to her phone.
Are you thinking about me as much as I’m thinking about you? It’s so hard for us to be apart, isn’t it? Soon, sweetheart.
There was no signature line or name. Nothing to give away the identity of the sender.
The questions flew through Evan’s mind almost faster than he could ask them. “Juliet, what the hell is this? How long has it been happening? Why didn’t you tell anybody about it?”
Juliet shrugged. “I was trying to handle it myself. I don’t know who it’s from—and believe me, I’ve tried every resource Omega has to figure that out. It’s someone with advanced hacking and cloaking skills sending those messages.”
“How many have there been?”
“Dozens. Escalating in the past few months. Here, I’ll show you.” She led him back to the room that contained her computer.
Juliet opened the file with the emails and got up from the chair so Evan could sit there. Rage pooled in his stomach as he read.
It’s hard to be alone, isn’t it? Soon we’ll be together, sweetheart.
I’d never let anything so horrible happen to you. Don’t worry sweetheart, I know you’ll want me.
I’m much better for you than that no-good husband of yours, sweetheart. We’ll get rid of him so we can be together.
The only tears I’d ever make you cry are ones of pleasure, sweetheart.
Don’t worry, sweetheart. When we’re together you’ll never think of your past again.
Soon, sweetheart, soon. Be patient. I’m coming for you.
Thirty or so more, all like that. All with the same sick use of the word sweetheart, and many with intimate, graphic descriptions of Juliet’s rape a year and a half ago. The blood pounded in Evan’s ears, his desire to put a fist through the closest wall almost overwhelming.
He closed his eyes, tried to focus on the task at hand.
“They’re all addressed to Lisa Sinclair, with no link to you or anything with Omega?” He spun the chair around to face Juliet.
She sat on the couch, clutching the pillow to her chest. “No. I don’t think it’s someone who knew Lisa Sinclair was just my undercover persona. It’s someone who thinks she’s real. That I’m really her.”
Evan leaned back in the chair. “Have you had any indication of anyone following you? Is it possible that your association with Omega has been compromised?”
“No, I’ve never seen anyone. And believe me, I’ve looked. I don’t think it’s someone who knows me as Juliet Branson, but…”
“But it’s someone who has details he shouldn’t have about your attack,” Evan finished.
Juliet nodded.
She had never made the extent of her attack public knowledge at Omega. All details had been struck from her file. Most people knew she had been hurt—she’d been in the hospital too long for that to go unnoticed—but none of them would have the sick details present in these emails.
“It has to be someone who was there.” Juliet’s voice was barely more than a whisper.
The Avilo brothers had taken her in the middle of the night, while she was sleeping. Knocked her unconscious, then dragged her out to the nearby boat shed. Evan and Juliet had been undercover as Bob and Lisa, staying at a local weapons dealer’s mansion, for buys that were occurring all weekend. There had been multiple third parties around, including the buyers who had become so upset at Bob and Lisa’s success.
Evan had been playing poker with the men, trying to wring any information he could from them, and Juliet had been back in their locked room alone.
A single lock hadn’t kept out her attackers, which probably explained her need for a half dozen on her door now.
When Evan had gotten back to their room and found it empty, he had immediately begun looking for her. Juliet would not have left it in the middle of the night without giving him any notification, unless it was under duress.
It was under the worst possible duress.
Finding her haunted Evan’s dreams even now. She’d been mostly naked and tied to a post, with a broken leg, cracked ribs from brutal kicks, covered in bruises and blood. Moaning, barely coherent.
Both her eyes had been swollen shut from punches, and she hadn’t known it was Evan when he’d first approached her. She had tried to scream, but it had come out a broken croak, barely audible.
Evan had reassured her the best he could, untied her and wrapped her in his shirt, screaming for an ambulance. At that moment, he couldn’t have cared less that they were
