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“Any sign of forced entry?”
At my question, his gaze narrowed. “You a cop?”
“Are you?” I shot back.
“Justin!” Olivia hissed as the officer’s cheeks grew ruddy and our eyes deadlocked.
“Because I’m not sure,” I ground out, ignoring her. “Seems to me you’re asking the victim of the crime to go tromp around in a crime scene without having properly worked it for potential evidence.” I folded my arms across my chest to hide my clenched fists. “Seems like policing 101 to me, but who am I?” I shot Olivia an angry glance. “What do you think? Should we ask your brother? Think Camden would approve of the Huntsville PD’s handling of this?” I snapped back to Barney Fife. “Because I sure as fuck don’t.”
If looks could kill, I would’ve been incinerated on the spot. But he stepped away from us and spoke into the radio on his shoulder, calling for backup and a crime scene unit, so I’d made my point.
Olivia snapped around at me. “Really?”
“What? All of that should’ve already been in the works when we arrived. He was just being lazy.”
We sat back in my truck and waited until the rest of them arrived and got to work, Olivia watching on dejectedly as they swarmed her beloved dance studio. At one point, she shot a text message to Sofia to check on Elizabeth, but mostly, she just watched as police officers moved in and out of her place of business.
I stepped out and made a quick call to my boss, Kade, to update him on this latest development.
“The police are still doing their thing, but it looks like the threat level is escalating quickly. Just wanted to let you know.”
“Thanks for the heads-up. Is there anything you need?”
“I think I’m good for now.”
“Good, good. But even though I trust that you’ve got this well in hand, I think it goes without saying that I need you to do whatever it takes on this one, Justin. Whatever it takes. You hear me?”
Camden Creed was a gold star client. Message received. “Yes, sir. It’s all under control.”
“Good to hear. You call me anytime if you need me.”
“Will do.”
I peeked into the cab to check on Olivia, who had her head back on the headrest with her eyes closed. I had no explanation for the protective feelings she stirred in me... or the other, more primal, feelings she brought alive in me that I seemed to have no control over. I just knew I had to find a way to get a handle on that and fast.
Turning away, my next call was to her brother, Camden. This news would likely piss him off, but I’d promised to keep him up to date, so I would do just that.
He was pissed, yes, but at himself. Because he threw me a sudden curveball when he told me we needed to meet—because he had a new, viable suspect that had nothing to do with Olivia, and everything to do with him.
Thirteen
Olivia
After what felt like hours of waiting and feeling totally out of control of my own life, Justin and I were finally allowed to go inside of Colomba. He spoke in hushed tones with the officers still milling by the door as I peered around, trying to get a clue as to what had happened to cause all the concern.
The front desk seemed in order, the stack of papers still neatly piled on the corner where I’d left them that evening. No broken glass, no upturned drawers. Nothing to make it look—
“Ma’am?”
“Yes?” I turned to the young officer with kind green eyes and ruddy cheeks, my gaze landing on the wall of photographs just beyond his shoulder. Several of them were of past dancers who had gone through my studio, the other teachers, our recitals, but there were also some professional shots of my time in the Houston Ballet.
“Oh God!” My mind froze with what I saw, scarcely able to comprehend the horror. My stomach seized up and I suddenly thought I might vomit. My hand flew to cover my mouth and I spun away as terrified tears flooded my eyes, but try as I might, I couldn’t block the images from my mind.
Every photo had been left intact, except for the ones of me. Every single picture of me had been violated in some way. My eyes blacked out, horns drawn on my head, the word WHORE scrawled across one. And the largest—my last and biggest part in Swan Lake as Odile the black swan—had been completely eviscerated with red marker, DIE BITCH written in bold letters across my face.
I startled when a hand settled gently on my lower back. “I’ve got you,” Justin murmured for my ears only. He waited until I met his fierce, icy gaze. “You hear me?”
Something warm and solid settled in my chest, reassured by his presence and his words, even in the midst of this crazy circumstance. “I hear you.”