Juliet had been too traumatized to talk then, but two days later, when he found out the extent of what had happened, and who was responsible—Robert and Marco Avilo—Evan had made sure they had gone down. One was dead, the other in prison.
But had he missed someone?
“Was a third person there that night, Juliet?” Evan asked in the gentlest tone he could muster. He knew she didn’t like talking about it.
“No. I’ve gone over it in my head, believe me. The Avilo brothers were only the two people involved. One who held me down and the other—” Juliet put the pillow aside and stood up.
“The messages started almost a year ago. Honestly, at first I didn’t know what to think. Maybe that it was some twisted joke from someone inside Omega. And then…” Juliet was pacing now.
“And then what?” Evan finally asked.
“Remember when I took those personal days about ten months ago?”
He nodded. They’d all been relieved that she was going to spend a few days down in Florida with some girlfriends at the beach. It had seemed a step in the direction of healing.
“Well, actually, I went down to the federal penitentiary in Louisiana to talk to the warden.”
Evan instantly put together what she saying. “You went to see if Robert Avilo, the surviving brother, was the one sending you the emails.”
Juliet stopped her pacing. “Robert Avilo wasn’t the one who actually raped me, but he was there. He has the knowledge of the sick stuff in those emails. I had to know if it was him, Evan.”
Evan didn’t blame her. “What did you find out?”
“That it couldn’t have been him. That he had no access to any computers, nor had he sent or received any correspondence since he’d been in prison. Evidently, his brother Marco was the only family he had.”
“Robert didn’t strike me as someone who could’ve hacked an IP address, anyway. Marco always seemed to be the brains of their little ring. Robert took orders from Marco.”
Evan could see Juliet grinding her teeth from where he sat. She sank back down on the couch. “That was my thought, too.” She shook her head. “I know you told me Marco had been killed while resisting arrest, and I wanted that to be true with every fiber of my being.”
“But?” Evan could hear the but as clear as day.
“But I had to be sure.”
He was afraid he knew where she was going with this. His shoulders slumped. “What did you do, Juliet?”
“I got a court order and had the body exhumed. I checked it for DNA.”
“And?”
“And it was Marco Avilo. You were right. He had died of a bullet wound taken after he resisted arrest and shot at some officers.”
Juliet shrugged. “So that left me back at ground zero. Marco was dead and Robert had no access to any computer or any visitors. I just thought if I ignored the emails long enough, whoever was sending them would give up. I never responded. But it’s gotten so much worse in the last three months. There have been so many more emails.” She looked around as if seeing the shambles her house was in for the first time. “I should’ve said something.”
Evan couldn’t stand to hear the smallness of Juliet’s voice. She shouldn’t have tried to go through this alone, but she had nothing to be ashamed of.
He went to sit next to her on the couch, then picked her up and settled her on his lap, his arms around her. She drew in a startled breath, but didn’t pull away.
“Yes, you should’ve said something.” Evan put his lips against her temple. “But because this threat is real and anyone in this situation would need support, not because you’re weak.”
“I didn’t want to bother anyone. You all had your own cases, your own problems. I didn’t want to be a burden.”
Evan didn’t know whether to shake her or never let her out of his arms again. “Nothing about you could ever be a burden to me, Jules.”
“I was afraid I was losing my mind.” Juliet actually cuddled in closer to him. “Look at this place, Evan. It’s not healthy. I knew that, but I couldn’t seem to do anything about it.”
“Well, you don’t have to try to go through any of this alone anymore. That’s the first step.” He rubbed small circles on her back. “And we need to get some more people working on this email issue. Omega takes stalking seriously, regardless of the circumstances.”
Juliet nodded. “I know. But once we tell Sawyer, Cam and Dylan, they’re going to go crazy with the overprotectiveness. They’re bad enough as it is.”
Reluctantly, Evan shifted her from his lap. “Yeah, I should call them right now. We can let them know about this while we start working on a different plan for the case with Cady.”
“Why do we need a different plan for Cady?”
“Juliet,” Evan said softly, gently. “I was wrong to force you to go back undercover. You don’t have to do it. We’ll find another way.”
She shot off the couch, turned and glared at him. “You didn’t force me to go back under, Evan. I agreed to do it because it was the right thing, and because if those drone codes get out there, a lot of people are going to die.”
Evan looked around at the shambles of her house. “Jules—”
“Okay, I’ll admit I’ve been having problems. Here, alone at night, my demons come out and obviously I haven’t been terribly successful at battling them. But that doesn’t change the situation with Cady. Bob and Lisa Sinclair as a couple is the only good option for getting the codes out before they’re sold to someone else on the black market.”
What Juliet said was true, but the thought of doing any further damage to her psyche tore at Evan. He wanted to protect her more than anything else.
Juliet was
