Page 12 of Romeo

“Okay.”She doesn’t fast-forward.“Oh man, look at that guy.Great looking dog, too!”

I don’t have to ask to know who she’s talking about because none other than Riley Hunt is seen crossing the street on the security footage, leash in hand as his dog trots happily beside him.

Women passing by turn to look at him, and it only irritates me more.No man should look that good.Especiallyone as arrogant as he is.

“There’s your ex again,” she says as the hooded man bolts down the sidewalk.He rushes around to the driver’s side of a black sedan with no plates then peels off onto the road.“I don’t know how much help that will be.Couldn’t see his face.”

“It is so much help.”I snap a picture of it with the pay-by-the-minute phone I grabbed a week ago.“Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome.Don’t—uh—don’t tell anyone I did this, okay?”

“I won’t.You have my word.”

Two hours later,and I still have next to nothing.

Well, not entirely.Thanks to the security cameras outside of the motel, I got to see him jump down from the window and use the fire escape to sneak off into the alley.It wasn’t much, but I was able to watch him climb into that car.

So that’s something, at least.Be on the lookout for dark sedans.That’s a rule I’ve added to my brand-new survival handbook.

I finish making notes in my notebook then lean back against the pillows on the bed and groan in frustration.I’ve thought about calling Odie at least a dozen times since that night.

One of those times, I even picked up my phone and dialed his number.

But doing so won’t help me get answers, and all it will do is put him in more danger.Ihaveto do this.Not just for me but for him and my grandfather.I’m no idiot—I know Odie has always considered me a liability to the family.

And I definitely can’t blame him.When I finally made my way back home from the hell I’d gotten myself trapped in, I spent years partying.Doing anything I could to wipe the memories from my brain.

Nothing worked, and it had only led me deeper into hatred for myself and the world around me.My grandfather put me in a program, and I relapsed six months later.Then, two months after that, I got sober again and have been ever since.

Nearly ten years.

But Odie never fully trusted me again.

Grandfather did though.Tears sting my eyes.He always told me how proud he was of me.How blessed he was that God gave him a granddaughter like me.I’d told him that I wasn’t sure I’d be thanking God for a screwup like me, and he just shook his head and told me I was being foolish.

That, even if I was perfectly flawed, just as we all are, I was still his perfect little girl.

My throat constricts, emotion I’ve tried so hard to keep buried resurfacing.Riley Hunt had accused me of being a murderer.Of killing my grandfather.Does that mean Odie suspects that I did?

Does he really think me capable of such things?

Or was that merely a manipulation tool used to try and get me to come home?

My grandfather’s face swims into view again.Green eyes he passed down to my father, who then passed them down to me.Wrinkled cheeks and a smile that never faded.Not until that killer stole it from him.

From all of us.

I clench my hands into fists at my sides as anger burns through the grief in my chest.How anyone could steal a life, I’ll never know.Even as angry as I am, as desperate as I am to catch this guy, killing is just not something I can do.

No matter how badly I want to see him suffer just as my grandfather did.

Chapter6

Riley

“She didnotget away,” I say again over the Bluetooth speaker in my rented truck.

“That’s what it sounds like to me,” Tucker replies.“Mr.Charming has finally met his match.”