Natalie had a similar story, which he’d just learned about the week before. He wondered how many more of the employees had something in their past leading them to work there; to spend their time and hours and sweat making it a success. Taking care of people and giving them other options that wouldn’t be at their disposal if something happened to the clinic.
Those were the kinds of things he couldn’t pull up from a database on a background check.
Campbell nodded as he stepped off the ladder with the last camera hung and in place. “You’re all right by me. There should be more people in the world with your convictions.”
Jay shook his head. “I’m no one special. Just trying to make an honest living and hopefully make a difference while I’m at it.”
Not one to normally have a bromance, Campbell collapsed the ladder and nodded to the toolkit. “Grab all of that. Let’s get back in the IT closet and I’ll walk you through playback and all the bells and whistles.”
“Sweet.”
The guy didn’t linger on the past, didn’t whine and ask for sympathy or perpetuate drama. Wasn’t asking for a hand out or even a leg up. He was just doing his job and trying to maybe put some good karma back in the world. Campbell could appreciate that.
Maybe more than most.
* * * * *
Forty minutes later the digital video recorder was completely set up, recording and transmitting through the clinic’s high-speed internet.
Campbell had Jay pull it up on his phone and continued the tutorial. “Click here to bring up multiple cameras. Tap the picture for full screen.”
“And here for playback?” Jay pushed a couple buttons, brought up a calendar which only had several days of recordings on it, selected a day, an hour, and the infrared camera feed filled the screen for all sixteen cameras.
“You got it.”
“Awesome technology.”
“And these cameras have the newest 1080p technology. Think military grade.”
“Wicked,” Jay praised. “I was looking up info on them a couple nights ago. These aren’t scheduled to be released until summer of next year. How’d you get a hold of them?”
“It’s all about who you know.”
Jay nodded with a smile. “Ain’t that the truth.” He pushed a couple more buttons and flipped through two screens before shutting his phone down and pocketing it. “I can check the playback faster on the system, right? So each morning I can run through it all on 300x speed?”
“Exactly. Much faster here.” Campbell glanced at the standard display mounted at the top of the IT rack above the DVR. “And if you have a problem you just make a backup of it through the DVD or USB devices attached to it.”
“I’ll play with it over the next week and make sure I have it all down. I’ll hit you up if I have any questions.”
“Sounds perfect, and how many people have keys to this room?”
“Natalie and I do. That’s all I know of. You need a key?”
“I’ll get one from Natalie. No worries.”
Jay jotted down several more notes on the pad he’d kept since they started. “I’ll get all of this typed up and over to you to review. Make sure I don’t miss anything. Then I’ll get it to Natalie.”
“And a copy to Detective Wyatt, too.”
Jay nodded. “Okay. I’m looking for suspicious people hanging around, any kinds of vandalism that we haven’t had since the fire, people in Natalie’s office who aren’t supposed to be there. Anything else?”
“Why’d you say it like that?”
“Like what?” Jay looked up at him.
“Vandalism since the fire. The fire was ruled an electrical problem.”
“Yes it was.” Jay lifted an eyebrow, skepticism dripping from his expression.
“You don’t believe that.”
“What I believe apparently made no difference.”
“How so?”
“I spoke with the fire marshal after it happened. I had concerns. Didn’t seem to make any difference.”
“Why not?”
“The city had a rash of arsons around that time, and the fire marshal was getting ready to retire. My concerns couldn’t trump his desire to close the case.”
Campbell scowled, not that he was surprised. “Anything suspicious since?”
“No other fires if that’s what you mean. And I’m a world-class geek but I know little to nothing about fires. Without the department looking into it further there was nothing I could do. Or…”
Nothing else came. Campbell prompted him to continue. “Or?”
“Or the marshal knew exactly what it was and it was covered up. Money talks. Natalie taught me that a long time ago.”
“Money.” Campbell shook his head, tired of the assholes of the world screwing over good people like Natalie with good causes like the clinic. “That brings me back to my next point. Well, person.” Campbell brought up files on his phone and selected a picture. Holding it up, he flipped it around, allowing Jay to see it.
“Who’s the suit?”
“His name is Braden Currings. Recognize him at all?”
Jay’s mouth twisted and he shook his head. “Nope. Doesn’t look familiar at all.”
“He’s someone I think is tied to all of this. Not exactly sure how yet, but I want you specifically keeping an eye out for him.”
“Will do. Just email me the pic and I’ll make sure I check all the guys fitting his description. Shouldn’t be hard to spot. He’s not exactly our typical clientele here.”
“True enough.” Campbell cleared his screen and pocketed his phone. “I think that’s it. The cleaning people are going to hate us for all the little pieces of cabling and vinyl around the past few days.”
Jay chuckled. “I’ve had an ear full of it the last week.”
“Why hasn’t anyone said something to me?” Campbell scowled.
“Ha!” Jay guffawed and closed up the toolkit before putting it on a shelf at the back of the room “You’re kidding, right? The women here wouldn’t hurt your feelings for anything.”
“Uhh… Why?”
“Because you make Natalie happy, which is something none of them have ever seen before. They don’t want to do anything to run you off.” Jay shrugged. “When we all found out what was happening, we were freaked out. Scared for her. Upset she didn’t trust us with the info.” Jay rushed on as if he’d said something wrong. “She’s a very private person, which we all knew even before they took their jobs here, but we want to help. It’s family, you know?”
“I most certainly know.”
“We’ve all been pissed off since we found out somebody was messing with her. She does her best. Helps a lot of people and then someone’s trying to hurt her. It sucks balls.”
“Their jobs here?”
“What?”
“You said their jobs here. Not our jobs here.”
“Oh yeah. I was already here when she bought the place. Things took a complete one eighty after she took over. It went from an afterthought to someone’s passion. You can tell she cares about this place. The people. She’s kind of a mother hen to a lot of the girls who come in here. I don’t know if she set out to be that kind of influence but she is nonetheless.”
“Do you know much about her parents?”
“I know they’re made of money and they’re probably two of the most horrible people I’ve ever had the privilege to meet. Her hatred of them is completely well founded. They showed up here once. Right when she first bought the place. I knew who they were from newspaper articles and stuff but I’d never met them in person.”
“Bad in person?”
“Awful. And working here I do my absolute best not to be judgey and to make my own opinions. I think I wanted them to be awesome for some reason.”
“Not awesome?”
&nb
sp; “Horrible. They were the worst kind of snooty, rich, stereotypical New Yorker people. They showed up to see Natalie, unannounced of course. She was busy so I tried to help. Might as well have just been a bug. Pretty sure the mother got a migraine afterward for how hard she was looking down her nose at me. Horrible shitty people. And Greta ended up having to get Natalie out of a meeting to deal with them because the father was making a scene. Several people left. It was really bad. They’ll do anything to keep her out of her inheritance. That was what they came to talk to her about. Money.”
“Of course.”
Jay shook his head. “They threatened her with trying to shut down the clinic if she didn’t sell it or they’d just disinherit her.”
“What happened?”
Jay tried to hide his smile. “Natalie knows people. Several of the people she happened to be in the meeting with were a group of MMA fighters wanting to host a fundraiser for the clinic. They walked out when the father started raising his voice to Natalie and the rest of the staff. Seeing his face when four of the biggest motherfuckers you’d ever seen flanked Natalie? Epic.”
Campbell made a mental note to remember to find out who they were and call to thank them. Maybe he could buy tickets to a match too. Natalie and he could have a date.
A date.
Whoa. That came out of left field.
Didn’t feel half bad either.
He shook his head and started turning monitors and lights off. “Gotta love good people in the world standing up for each other.”
“I know that’s right.”
A doorbell went off, alerting Campbell that the food had arrived. “Let’s go get the chow and get done so we can clear out of here. Sound good?”
“Yep. Ting Wang is waiting for me.”
“Ning Wah. Seriously. Your relationship isn’t going to last if you don’t get his name right. I mean hers.”
Jay gagged and shut the IT room door, locking it behind them.
Campbell slapped him on the back as they moved down the hall.
“Chop chop, men. I’m starving.”
Just hearing Natalie’s voice made Campbell realize it had been too long since he’d touched his woman.
His.
Temporarily at least.
But he was starting to think temporarily wasn’t going to be enough for him, and he didn’t have a clue what to do with that.
Chapter Eighteen
Natalie
Several days later, Natalie paced behind Campbell, who was seated in her office chair.
“When did it come in?”
“Late last night. Ten or eleven.” Another email sat in her inbox, taunting her and the people trying to protect her. “It was a rare evening that I didn’t check my email at home.”
“Why was that?” Campbell asked with a bit more self-assuredness than he really needed to add.
“As if you don’t know?” She tried for miffed and sounded nothing but flirty. Ugh. Totally losing my edge.
“But I want to hear you say the words.”
Pausing behind him, she leaned over, specifically not looking at the email screen he had up. “Because I was in the shower with my legs spread for you. Is that what you wanted to hear?”
“You’re getting warmer. Any other details stick out in your mind?” He was pushing buttons and doing things she didn’t want to know about so she closed her eyes and leaned her forehead on his shoulder.
“You shaved my pussy instead of me going to the salon and I distinctly remember the taste of your cock on my tongue.”
“Mmhmm. Was my taste anywhere else? Anywhere else specifically?”
Running her nose up his smooth throat, she licked right beneath his ear just to hear him groan. He’d let her shave his stubble before they left the condo. Talk about sexy. “In the back of my throat, Campbell. Is that what you want to hear? Is that the spot you want me to remember since I’d never done it before? Because it was a definitive first I shared with you?”
“Hell. Yes. That you’d never deep-throated before, that my cock was the first ever to push in deep. Holy. Shit. I’m so hard for you. Never not ready to take you. Not ever.”
Natalie opened her eyes to stare at one thing.
Campbell’s lap.
Where his cock had gotten hard, taunting her, needing her. Just as she needed Campbell to make the ache go away.
She shivered, lost in needing him, and she swallowed remembering how he’d felt in her throat. Cutting off her air, fucking her in a way no one else ever had.
And it hadn’t been rough, dangerous. It had been…soft almost. He spoke to her, told her what to do, talked her through it. Enticed her, seduced her. He’d also told her to masturbate while she was doing it.
Her fingers on her clit as he fucked her throat threw her into some kind of whirlpool of need she’d never experienced before. She came so hard on her knees for him, the steamy water of the shower swirling all around them.
He came all over her tits in the shower a few minutes later. Thick ropes of cum jetted from his cock to cover her chest in his scent. His possession. Then he cleaned her, soaping her body, paying particular attention to the sensitive, completely bare folds between her legs.
With his hands and fingers he cleaned the slick juices from her pussy and then dried her off, put her in bed, and then licked her until she came again.
It hadn’t been even eleven o’clock when she fell asleep, which was before she normally did her final email check of the night.
She shook her head and stood up. Which was why she’d missed the email coming through and found it as soon as she sat down at her desk this morning.
Talk about turning a great morning into one filled with fear and anger. “I hate that this asshole keeps messing with me. Anything new? Anything that will help us?”
“Same things as always. Different IP that it came from. Different makes-no-sense generic email address. And as for the email, there really isn’t much to go on.”
“Always watching. Well, duh. Isn’t that kind of the stalker motto or something? Maybe they have a secret handshake to go along with it.”
“I’ve got a secret handshake for him and it’ll only take one finger to get the message across.”
Natalie smiled and rested her hand on Campbell’s shoulder. He automatically reached up and grabbed it, weaving his fingers through hers, rubbing her skin. Letting her know he was there for her in such a simple way wrecked her.
He wasn’t just slowly chiseling away at her walls. He nuked them. Obliterated them, rendering her defenseless against his advances into her heart where she didn’t want him. She didn’t need him there.
Surviving on her own with no one else was how she’d made it this far.
It was the only way she knew. The only thing that felt safe.
Until Campbell.
He kissed her hand and gave it a little squeeze.
Now she didn’t know how she’d ever go back to being without his presence. Without his voice or his touch. His possession.
She shook her head, trying to focus on the things she wanted to erase.
The man after her. The person she had no idea of their identity but they knew her. Why they cared who she was or what she did, there was no answer as of yet. Fear was her constant companion.
And only one thing could keep it away.
She stared at that one thing, and he glanced at her over her shoulder.
“Still no idea who could be doing this but he wants to taunt me. I don’t get it,” Natalie admitted.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m frustrated as all hell and tired of feeling like I’m sitting on a mousetrap, waiting for it to spring.”
“It’s sometimes like that though. We just aren’t putting the clues together right yet.”
Natalie squeezed his shoulder
as she took her hand back so she could pace again. “But that’s just it. It’s almost as if he wants to get caught.”
Campbell pushed a few more buttons and minimized the screen so he could swivel around in the chair and stand. “Email’s forwarded to Wyatt and more stalkers like this want to get caught. Don’t you roll your eyes at me. I will bend you over this desk.”
“That’s my desk.”
“Which we haven’t broken in yet, might I remind you.”
Trying not to smile as a man that good-looking pushed on her desk to test its sturdiness should have won her an Oscar. “You’ve reminded me of that fact every day for the last two weeks.”
“Just keeping you on your toes.”
“And while I’ve heard the whole bad-guy-tries-to-get-caught-but-not angle before, it just doesn’t make any sense to me.”
“Why does a stalker stalk?”
“FBI profiler is not on my resume,” she added dryly.
“Hardee har har. Come on. Why does a stalker do what he does?”
“Because he’s crazy.”
“Yes, but there’s more. Because he’s crazy about someone. He loves them, he hates them, he wants to be them. And when someone makes such a concerted effort to get your attention they most definitely don’t want all that masterminding to be attributed to something else.”
“Someone else.”
“Exactly. So this latest email, he’s getting antsy. He wants attention and in my experience he’s going to get bolder and bolder until he’s caught.”
Natalie grabbed onto the back of her neck and squeezed. “Caught would be awesome. Or Acapulco is sounding better and better. Maybe they need a clinic and we’ll just move everybody there.”
“Listen. We’re close. Just hang in there and—”
Knock, knock. “Hey, Campbell? Can I talk to you for a minute?” Thankfully he didn’t open the door.
“Just one second, Jay. Be right there.” He palmed Natalie’s cheek and stared down into her eyes. “Hold that thought.” He kissed her and then headed toward the door.
“I’d rather hold something else,” she muttered under her breath as she turned her chair around and plopped down in it again.
Ultimate Surrender: The Surrender Series, Book 2 Page 20