Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 127201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
As long as Tilly is down to play, I’ll be there.
With everything Tilly-related under control, I get stuck into the work I’m actually supposed to be doing for the day, and by the time lunch rolls around, I have a notification from my team that the work order for Tilly’s surveillance system and surrounding areas has been completed.
Pride swells in my chest. I knew my team would get the job done without question, and considering the lack of angry messages from the she-devil that has occupied my mind for the past week, I can only assume that the job was complete without Tilly any wiser.
Logging into the system, I find the perfect view of the street outside Tilly’s building, the underground parking garage, and the hallway just outside her door. My curiosity to see inside her home is a feeling I’ve never encountered before, but these angles outside her home are what I’m most interested in. I need to see who’s coming and going, who has access to her home, and who the hell she spends her time with.
Taking a quick glance at the rest of the surveillance feed, I find two more cameras. One that captures both her living room and kitchen, and the other of her bedroom, which brings me pause. When I was locked up for the better part of a decade, I met a lot of fucked-up men, and it occurs to me that a lot of those assholes were in there for a lot less than what I’m doing right now.
It’s official. I’m a fucking creep.
Tilly should be filing for a restraining order. If she knew just how messed up I was, she’d be wise to run the other way.
My home security tells me that Zeph and Tilly have only just left my place, and I won’t lie, they both have a major assessment this week, so neither of them should be sleeping in until after lunch and wasting the day away, classes or not. I’ve seen Tilly’s grades in her background check. She’s absolutely fine, but my son could use all the study time he can get his hands on.
Barely fifteen minutes after they leave my home, I get a notification for a large truck pulling up outside Tilly’s apartment complex, and I’m just about to shrug it off when Zeph’s Range Rover pulls in behind it, and I realize this must be the delivery of Tilly’s new couch.
I shake my head. This isn’t exactly the time frame I insisted my son work with regarding this particular couch, but at least he followed through. Mostly.
Tilly and Zeph climb out of the Range Rover, and while Tilly heads up to her apartment and starts trying to drag the remains of her old couch into the corner of the living room, Zeph remains with the delivery driver, giving instructions before helping with the heavy lifting.
The couch is brought right to the door, and as it’s placed down in the middle of the hallway and they start figuring out a game plan to get it through the door, I notice Zeph staring straight up at the hidden camera in the hallway.
To anyone who didn’t know what they were looking for, they’d never notice the surveillance camera on the fly, but not Zeph. Despite his carefree, moronic nature, he’s got one hell of a head on his shoulders. Not to mention, my home is flooded with this type of hardware, so he’s more than familiar.
They get the couch inside the apartment, and as the delivery driver works on removing the old, broken pieces of the sofa, Zeph discreetly fires off a quick text.
It comes through to my phone only a second later.
Zeph: Why?
Hesitation flickers through my veins, and for a moment, I consider not responding at all, feigning any kind of involvement in this, but that shit wouldn’t fly with Zephyr. He’s a smart kid. His only problem is that his heart gets in the way. He’d let the wrong woman destroy him given the chance. Point being, he’d see straight through my shit.
“Ahh, shit,” I mutter to myself before letting my thumbs sweep across the screen as I type out a response. Besides, if Tilly really is going to be spending a lot of her foreseeable future with my son, then it’s in his best interest to know exactly what’s going on with this asshole on the internet. If it comes down to it, and he needs to step in to protect her life, he’ll be prepared.
Caesar: I looked into that creep online. Trust me, surveillance is necessary. I’ll tell you what you need to know tonight.
Zeph: Fuck. Does Tilly need to know?
Caesar: I have it handled. She’s safe. There’s no need to have her scared in her own home. This is just cautionary.
Zeph: Thanks for having her back.