Page 81 of Duty Unbound

We got out on my floor, and he walked me down the hallway. “What are we going to do?” I asked. “Should we tell Nova?”

“Let me see what my team can discover first. If we can justget through one more performance, then we have a full week off. We can decide what to tell her while there’s some downtime.”

“Okay.”

“Was the box there when you went into the dressing room?”

I shuddered as I thought about it. “No, it was delivered by courier. I have his info here, to tip him.”

Ethan pulled out his phone, taking a picture of my screen. “That’s helpful. We’ll find him. I doubt seriously he’s the perp, but he might remember something.”

We reached my door. I fumbled with the keycard, my hands still unsteady.

“Let me,” Ethan said gently, taking it from me.

Inside, he checked every corner of the room—closet, bathroom, under the bed—before seeming satisfied. I sank onto the edge of the mattress, his jacket still wrapped around me.

“I can stay,” he offered, sitting beside me. “If you don’t want to be alone.”

I wanted to say yes. Wanted to lose myself in his arms, let him chase away the horror of what I’d seen. But his expression was already distant, his mind working the puzzle, connecting dots.

“No,” I said. “You need to go. Figure out who did this.”

“Mel—”

“I’m okay. Really.” I managed a weak smile. “Just need the hottest shower known to man and sleep.”

He studied my face, clearly unconvinced. “I’ll station someone outside your door. And I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“I know.”

He pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead, lingering longer than necessary. “Lock this behind me. Don’t open it for anyone but me or my team.”

After he left, I locked the door as instructed, then slid the security chain into place. I peeled off my clothes, leaving themin a heap on the bathroom floor, and stood under the shower until the water ran cold.

But no amount of soap could wash away the image of that raccoon with Nova’s rainbow wig. No amount of hot water could stop the cold fear spreading through my chest.

Someone had tampered with that door, meant to terrify whoever had been trapped inside.

And they’d succeeded.

Chapter 26

Ethan

I fucking hated leaving Mel alone when she was still so shaken. The image of her trembling in my jacket haunted me as I headed back toward the elevator. She’d insisted she was fine, but the terror in her eyes told a different story. Still, time was of the essence if we were going to gather evidence about who was behind these escalating attacks.

Our best chance of finding something and stopping this guy wasright now.

When I reached Nova’s dressing room, my team had already established a perimeter. The stench of decay hit me as soon as I stepped through the doorway, making my throat tighten with revulsion.

“This is seriously fucked up,” Logan said, his usually stoic face showing genuine disgust as he stared at the raccoon corpse still wearing Nova’s rainbow wig. “Who does something like this?”

“Someone who’s escalating,” I replied, pulling out myphone. “At least we’re back in Texas. I’ve got law enforcement connections here that can help.”

I stepped away from the group, dialing Corey Hollis’s number. He was the one who’d suggested Citadel Solutions to Mel in the first place. If anyone could help us navigate this situation, it was him. We’d worked together on numerous cases over the years, and I trusted his judgment implicitly.

He answered on the third ring. “Hollis.”