“Shit,” I growled.

“Yeah, shit. I don’t know how I didn’t catch that,” Techie said, rubbing the back of his neck. “But look, she moves them back when she’s about to leave the room, and it’s only for no more than fifteen minutes at a time.”

“You should have. Do you have anything else of her on the same day and around that time?” I asked, not cutting him any slack. If he would have been keeping up on shit, whatever was going on with Catarina could have been avoided.

He plugged back in, pulling up more camera footage. Catarina was getting out of the car, clutching her bag in front of her, her eyes darting back and forth like she was afraid of something. Scraper was with her, though, so I wasn’t sure why she would be scared. The next frame was of her in the hallway in front of the office, clutching the same bag. I needed to know what had been in that bag.

I stood up, desperate to get in that office before she came home from work. “Keep a better fucking eye on her,” I growled at Techie, who was lucky I had some place to be. I would deal with him later.

I left, rattling off to Dan where we needed to go. We entered Catarina’s house with the help of Techie disarming the alarm from his house, and I headed straight to the office.

I opened the door and did a quick sweep around the room. Sappy romance novels lined one bookshelf, while the other had books dealing with numbers and the stock market. Pictures were put in perfect place.

Doing a quick search, nothing was out of the ordinary. The only drawer I couldn’t get into was the one in her top desk drawer. It was locked. I would bet my ass whatever was inside was the reason for all this bullshit.

I grabbed my pick out of my pocket as I sat down in her chair. I held it up to the lock then stopped.

I needed her to tell me. I needed her to trust me to open this up and give it to me. I could just break in and find out what was inside, but that would only make a bigger rift between us.

As much as it killed me, I put away my pick and moved over to the couch, far enough away so I wasn’t tempted to take the pick to the lock.

My mind raced at what could be inside of the drawer. Maybe a letter or document. The drawer was only about two inches tall and sixteen across. Whatever was inside had to be something pretty flat, but I had no idea what it could be. Therefore, I waited.

It had been a long fucking day, and I felt my eyes getting heavy, so I kicked up my feet and rested my head on the arm of the couch, quickly falling asleep.

***

Crying. Who was crying? I woke to the sound of it, rubbing my face and trying to process its location. It was coming from the other side of the door.

The knob began to turn, and the crying got louder. Catarina’s eyes were cast down as she opened the door and shut it. As she leaned her forehead to the door and sobbed hysterically, my heart broke. Fucking shattered.

Getting up, I quietly moved behind her and wrapped my arms around her body. She gasped and thrashed in my arms, kicking and hitting me with her powerful thrusts.

“Get away!” she screamed.

“Shh … Dolcezza. You’re safe.”

Her body sagged in my arms as her knees gave out. I hooked my arm under her legs, pulling her close to my body and carrying her over to the couch as her sobs intensified. Her hand clutched onto my shirt, pulling with all her strength.

I sat her on my lap and calmly rocked her back and forth. The hurt in my heart grew for her with each tear she shed. Whatever this was, it was tearing her apart.

I continued rocking her even when the sobs faded into hiccups, which were pretty fucking cute. Once her breathing finally slowed down, I looked down at her trembling, tear-streaked face, and when I spoke, her entire body flinched.

“Please tell me what’s going on,” I said as calmly as I could, not wanting to scare the little rabbit any further into the hole she had created for herself.

“Everything’s fine.”

“Bullshit. Look at you. You’re a hot mess, babe. Tell me so I can fix this shit.”

Her eyes closed, and as clear as day, I could see the gears turning in her head. It was like she was at war with herself, trying to work something out. I kept quiet and waited.

“I got another one today.” Her words quivered out of her lips when she finally spoke.

“Got what, baby?” I rubbed my hand absently along her arm for her comfort and because I damn well needed to touch her.

“A note. After you left, it was on the seat of my car.”

It was my turn to stiffen under her. “Can I see it?”

She nodded and made a move to rise out of my arms. I was reluctant to let her go, but I had to. She reached into the pocket of her suit jacket and pulled out a slip of paper, handing it to me with wobbly hands.

I unfolded the paper and looked down at the words. I told you to stay away from Jag. Now you all will die.

I looked up at Catarina whose eyes were closed so tightly the wrinkles on her forehead looked like they hurt, and my stomach twisted as the anger inside me came to a boil. Someone had been threatening my woman and scaring the shit out of her. I did my best to put on a stoic face, to not let the anger come through in my expression because I knew it would scare her. That wasn’t what she needed right now.

“You’ve been getting these for a while?” I tried my best to remain calm.

She was still in her timid, rabbit stage, wanting to fly out of the room at any time. I needed her to talk, but she continued to stand in front of me, unmoving.

“Months,” she finally whispered.

“Show me.”

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

She opened her eyes and moved to the other side of the room, but it wasn’t near a door, so I felt all right about it.

“It’s bad, Jag.” She shook her head and wrapped her arms around her body, protecting herself from whatever she needed to tell me.

I stood, walking across the room to her. “I promise, whatever it is, I’ll be fine. I care about you, Catarina. If someone is threatening you, I will take care of it.”

Her eyes met mine, the depth of the sadness inside crushing, and I wrapped my arms around her, which she didn’t resist. I nestled her head against my chest and wrapped her arms around my body firmly.

“I want this to be over. I can’t take it anymore,” she whimpered.

“It’s a very big burden to bear. Let me take the weight from you.”

Her body sagged farther into mine, and I could feel the walls crumbling. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t. Please.”

She nodded then released me to dig into the pocket of her jacket, pulling out a key. She walked over to the desk and pulled the chair out. After she pushed the key into the lock and opened it, I moved closer to her and watched as she pulled out a manila envelope.

“This is it.” She threw the envelope on top of the desk and stepped back.

I took her place and sat in the chair, opening the flap of the envelope. Dumping out the contents, I saw pictures and notes fall out, scattering across the desk. I picked up the eight by ten pictures and stared at my father and Sal. I wanted to laugh at the picture in my hand, but from Catarina’s face, I decided against it. Instead, I answered the question that filled her eyes.

“Dolcezza, these pictures are from the Halloween before my father’s murder. They were actually used by the prosecution in your father’s case to try to say these were pictures of him committing the crime. The problem with that was, there were tons of people at this party, and each of them stated the same thing. This was my father and yours goofing around at the party. The pictures were thrown out of court.”

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” she growled, her fists balled at her sides, her sadness turning into fury almost instantaneously.

“Did you think your father did it?” I questioned, puzzled.