by Janie Crouch
This room was obviously used often. Her desk, complete with lamp and computer, was like her office at Omega: meticulous and clean, the exact opposite state of her living room. No dust, no piles of junk. At the other end was a small couch, a pillow and blanket thrown over it.
Juliet pointed to the couch. “I sleep there every once in a while.”
Evan supposed that sleeping some nights on a couch might not be unusual for a person who had been through what she had. Heaven knew, he had his own nightmares about that day. He imagined Juliet’s were much worse, since she had lived through it.
“Nobody can blame you for having bad nights, Jules. Sleeping on the couch every once in a while happens to everyone.”
She studied him for a moment, then crossed into her master bedroom, motioning for him to follow. There were heavy drapes over the window in here, also, allowing in very little light. Her queen-size bed, with its beautiful four posters—Evan remembered how delighted Juliet had been when she’d found it at a secondhand store about five years ago—obviously hadn’t been slept in for months, maybe longer. Like the kitchen table and furniture in the living room, it was covered with stuff: jackets, boxes, papers.
But Evan was totally unprepared when Juliet pulled open the door to her walk-in closet and pointed down at the floor—to a makeshift bed of a couple blankets and a pillow. Next to it lay a rifle—a .308 Winchester, it looked like—and a Glock G42, similar to the handgun Juliet used as an agent.
“That’s where I sleep—attempt to sleep—almost all the time. I haven’t slept in a bed since the attack.”
She turned and walked out of the closet and her bedroom. Evan remained, staring at the pitiful pallet that spoke volumes about Juliet’s solitude and fear.
He’d had no idea. None of them had known Juliet was struggling to such a degree. All of them knew she spent a lot of time at work and hadn’t been home much. Looking around now, Evan could see why. No one would want to spend much time here. And obviously, a lot of the time she spent here was in fear.
Evan’s heart broke just thinking about it. But anger wasn’t far behind.
He followed her into the kitchen, where she leaned against the sink.
“So, obviously, I’m not fit for duty. You know I’ve been talking to therapists for months, all different types, but never seem to mention this.” Juliet laughed nervously and gestured with her hand. “This is barely a step up from that reality show about hoarding. Criminals probably wish I would become an agent again, because obviously, I’m damaged beyond—”
Evan pulled her into his arms. He didn’t care if the movement might startle her or make her tense. He just wanted her to know she wasn’t alone. Not anymore.
By God, never again would she have to go through any of this alone. If she wasn’t getting better, then Evan, not to mention her brothers, would help her. In any way she needed, whatever way she needed.
“Jules, why didn’t you tell us?” Evan whispered against her hair, glad that she didn’t try to pull away. “We all knew you didn’t like to be touched, but none of us knew you were struggling so much here at home.” Evan couldn’t wrap his head around it.
“I didn’t know what to say.”
“None of us expect you to just get over what happened, but hasn’t it gotten any better at all? This place…” Evan glanced into the living room. “It’s like you’re waiting for another attack.”
“That’s what I feel like whenever I’m here. Like I’m not safe.” Juliet removed herself from his arms and pointed at the locks. “Although it would seem impossible with all that.”
“Jules, why are you still so afraid? The man who attacked and raped you is dead. His accomplice is in federal prison. Neither of them can hurt you anymore.”
“Somebody is still out there, Evan.”
Evan ran a weary hand over his forehead and eyes. This was so much worse than he’d thought. If Juliet was still this scared after eighteen months, and thought someone was after her, then the psychological scarring must be much deeper. She was definitely not ready to go back undercover. He would need to cancel the mission and find another way to get the drone codes from Cady.
Because honestly, Evan was worried for Juliet’s very sanity.
How had he not seen this? How had they all been so blind to what Juliet was really going through? She should have been getting better, not worse. And now, thinking someone was after her when it was impossible…
Evan walked toward where she stood in the middle of the room, moving slowly, as if she were a wild animal he didn’t want to spook. “Juliet, there’s nobody who can hurt you anymore. There hasn’t been since the arrest. You don’t need to be afraid of that.”
She looked torn between wanting to accept his embrace and argue the point further, but then froze when her phone chirped. The same sound it had made this morning.
Evan watched all the color leak from Juliet’s face as she stared at the device.
“That’s the reason I know someone is still out there, still after me. He’s been sending me—well, Lisa Sinclair—messages for nearly a year.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Evan pulled Juliet to his side—she had her fist clutched against her stomach again—and grabbed the phone. It was a link to an email she’d received as Lisa Sinclair, and that had been forwarded to her phone.
Are you thinking about me as much as I’m thinking about you? It’s so hard for us to be apart, isn’t it? Soon, sweetheart.
There was no signature line or name. Nothing to give away the identity of the sender.
The questions flew through Evan’s mind almost faster than he could ask them. “Juliet, what the hell is this? How long has it been happening? Why didn’t you tell anybody about it?”
Juliet shrugged. “I was trying to handle it myself. I don’t know who it’s from—and believe me, I’ve tried every resource Omega has to figure that out. It’s someone with advanced hacking and cloaking skills sending those messages.”
“How many have there been?”
“Dozens. Escalating in the past few months. Here, I’ll show you.” She led him back to the room that contained her computer.
Juliet opened the file with the emails and got up from the chair so Evan could sit there. Rage pooled in his stomach as he read.
It’s hard to be alone, isn’t it? Soon we’ll be together, sweetheart.
I’d never let anything so horrible happen to you. Don’t worry sweetheart, I know you’ll want me.
I’m much better for you than that no-good husband of yours, sweetheart. We’ll get rid of him so we can be together.
The only tears I’d ever make you cry are ones of pleasure, sweetheart.
Don’t worry, sweetheart. When we’re together you’ll never think of your past again.
Soon, sweetheart, soon. Be patient. I’m coming for you.
Thirty or so more, all like that. All with the same sick use of the word sweetheart, and many with intimate, graphic descriptions of Juliet’s rape a year and a half ago. The blood pounded in Evan’s ears, his desire to put a fist through the closest wall almost overwhelming.
He closed his eyes, tried to focus on the task at hand.
“They’re all addressed to Lisa Sinclair, with no link to you or anything with Omega?” He spun the chair around to face Juliet.
She sat on the couch, clutching the pillow to her chest. “No. I don’t think it’s someone who knew Lisa Sinclair was just my undercover persona. It’s someone who thinks she’s real. That I’m really her.”
Evan leaned back in the chair. “Have you had any indication of anyone following you? Is it possible that your association with Omega has been compromised?”
“No, I’ve never seen anyone. And believe me, I’ve looked. I don’t think it’s someone who knows me as Juliet Branson, but…”
; “But it’s someone who has details he shouldn’t have about your attack,” Evan finished.
Juliet nodded.
She had never made the extent of her attack public knowledge at Omega. All details had been struck from her file. Most people knew she had been hurt—she’d been in the hospital too long for that to go unnoticed—but none of them would have the sick details present in these emails.
“It has to be someone who was there.” Juliet’s voice was barely more than a whisper.
The Avilo brothers had taken her in the middle of the night, while she was sleeping. Knocked her unconscious, then dragged her out to the nearby boat shed. Evan and Juliet had been undercover as Bob and Lisa, staying at a local weapons dealer’s mansion, for buys that were occurring all weekend. There had been multiple third parties around, including the buyers who had become so upset at Bob and Lisa’s success.
Evan had been playing poker with the men, trying to wring any information he could from them, and Juliet had been back in their locked room alone.
A single lock hadn’t kept out her attackers, which probably explained her need for a half dozen on her door now.
When Evan had gotten back to their room and found it empty, he had immediately begun looking for her. Juliet would not have left it in the middle of the night without giving him any notification, unless it was under duress.
It was under the worst possible duress.
Finding her haunted Evan’s dreams even now. She’d been mostly naked and tied to a post, with a broken leg, cracked ribs from brutal kicks, covered in bruises and blood. Moaning, barely coherent.
Both her eyes had been swollen shut from punches, and she hadn’t known it was Evan when he’d first approached her. She had tried to scream, but it had come out a broken croak, barely audible.
Evan had reassured her the best he could, untied her and wrapped her in his shirt, screaming for an ambulance. At that moment, he couldn’t have cared less that they were undercover. He’d just wanted Juliet to get the medical attention she needed. Although no one had figured out they were undercover, anyway.
Juliet had been too traumatized to talk then, but two days later, when he found out the extent of what had happened, and who was responsible—Robert and Marco Avilo—Evan had made sure they had gone down. One was dead, the other in prison.
But had he missed someone?
“Was a third person there that night, Juliet?” Evan asked in the gentlest tone he could muster. He knew she didn’t like talking about it.
“No. I’ve gone over it in my head, believe me. The Avilo brothers were only the two people involved. One who held me down and the other—” Juliet put the pillow aside and stood up.
“The messages started almost a year ago. Honestly, at first I didn’t know what to think. Maybe that it was some twisted joke from someone inside Omega. And then…” Juliet was pacing now.
“And then what?” Evan finally asked.
“Remember when I took those personal days about ten months ago?”
He nodded. They’d all been relieved that she was going to spend a few days down in Florida with some girlfriends at the beach. It had seemed a step in the direction of healing.
“Well, actually, I went down to the federal penitentiary in Louisiana to talk to the warden.”
Evan instantly put together what she saying. “You went to see if Robert Avilo, the surviving brother, was the one sending you the emails.”
Juliet stopped her pacing. “Robert Avilo wasn’t the one who actually raped me, but he was there. He has the knowledge of the sick stuff in those emails. I had to know if it was him, Evan.”
Evan didn’t blame her. “What did you find out?”
“That it couldn’t have been him. That he had no access to any computers, nor had he sent or received any correspondence since he’d been in prison. Evidently, his brother Marco was the only family he had.”
“Robert didn’t strike me as someone who could’ve hacked an IP address, anyway. Marco always seemed to be the brains of their little ring. Robert took orders from Marco.”
Evan could see Juliet grinding her teeth from where he sat. She sank back down on the couch. “That was my thought, too.” She shook her head. “I know you told me Marco had been killed while resisting arrest, and I wanted that to be true with every fiber of my being.”
“But?” Evan could hear the but as clear as day.
“But I had to be sure.”
He was afraid he knew where she was going with this. His shoulders slumped. “What did you do, Juliet?”
“I got a court order and had the body exhumed. I checked it for DNA.”
“And?”
“And it was Marco Avilo. You were right. He had died of a bullet wound taken after he resisted arrest and shot at some officers.”
Juliet shrugged. “So that left me back at ground zero. Marco was dead and Robert had no access to any computer or any visitors. I just thought if I ignored the emails long enough, whoever was sending them would give up. I never responded. But it’s gotten so much worse in the last three months. There have been so many more emails.” She looked around as if seeing the shambles her house was in for the first time. “I should’ve said something.”
Evan couldn’t stand to hear the smallness of Juliet’s voice. She shouldn’t have tried to go through this alone, but she had nothing to be ashamed of.
He went to sit next to her on the couch, then picked her up and settled her on his lap, his arms around her. She drew in a startled breath, but didn’t pull away.
“Yes, you should’ve said something.” Evan put his lips against her temple. “But because this threat is real and anyone in this situation would need support, not because you’re weak.”
“I didn’t want to bother anyone. You all had your own cases, your own problems. I didn’t want to be a burden.”
Evan didn’t know whether to shake her or never let her out of his arms again. “Nothing about you could ever be a burden to me, Jules.”
“I was afraid I was losing my mind.” Juliet actually cuddled in closer to him. “Look at this place, Evan. It’s not healthy. I knew that, but I couldn’t seem to do anything about it.”
“Well, you don’t have to try to go through any of this alone anymore. That’s the first step.” He rubbed small circles on her back. “And we need to get some more people working on this email issue. Omega takes stalking seriously, regardless of the circumstances.”
Juliet nodded. “I know. But once we tell Sawyer, Cam and Dylan, they’re going to go crazy with the overprotectiveness. They’re bad enough as it is.”
Reluctantly, Evan shifted her from his lap. “Yeah, I should call them right now. We can let them know about this while we start working on a different plan for the case with Cady.”
“Why do we need a different plan for Cady?”
“Juliet,” Evan said softly, gently. “I was wrong to force you to go back undercover. You don’t have to do it. We’ll find another way.”
She shot off the couch, turned and glared at him. “You didn’t force me to go back under, Evan. I agreed to do it because it was the right thing, and because if those drone codes get out there, a lot of people are going to die.”
Evan looked around at the shambles of her house. “Jules—”
“Okay, I’ll admit I’ve been having problems. Here, alone at night, my demons come out and obviously I haven’t been terribly successful at battling them. But that doesn’t change the situation with Cady. Bob and Lisa Sinclair as a couple is the only good option for getting the codes out before they’re sold to someone else on the black market.”
What Juliet said was true, but the thought of doing any further damage to her psyche tore at Evan. He wanted to protect her more than anything else.
Juliet was looking at him with somethin
g akin to pleading in her eyes. “Evan, is what you said in the park today true? Do you really feel like I have it in me to be a successful agent, to get the job done at Cady’s?”
Was he making her beg to do something she didn’t even really want to do?
“Juliet, wait—”
“Because I don’t want to get either of us hurt or killed. And I’m scared. But I’m more scared of the drones being used on innocent people. I couldn’t live with myself if I had a chance to stop it, but was too much of a coward.”
Evan couldn’t take any more. He rose and went to her. He gripped her biceps gently, running his thumbs along the smooth skin of her arms. “Yes, I believe all those things I said. Nothing has changed that—even though you’re now the one with the bachelor death pad.”
Evan kissed her softly, briefly. But he knew this wasn’t the time for anything more, so he pulled away. “You can do anything you set your mind to. I’ve never doubted that for a moment.”
“I’m afraid I’ll screw up.”
“I’m afraid I’ll screw up, too. But we won’t. We’ll just work together and do what we do best,” Evan said with a wink. “Catch some bad guys and save the world.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Something released inside Juliet. A weight lifted off her shoulders now that the truth about the sweetheart emails, as they decided to call them, was out in the open. They took her computer to Omega to be examined. She explained to Evan that she’d tried using Omega resources before, but agreed the sheer volume of emails she’d received over the past few weeks warranted a second look. Maybe there’d be some clue about who was sending them.
Evan also helped Juliet make a dent in cleaning up her house. It wasn’t actually dirty—she hadn’t left food out or anything that had attracted any sort of bugs, and none of it was garbage. Instead, the clutter consisted mostly of old reports, files, books, maps, mail.
Almost as if her subconscious had attempted to build a fortress of paper around her.
