Page 17 of Ready or Not

“Would you like to tell him or should I?” Ranger asks, pulling a plastic crime scene bag from his pocket. “This was found in the shrine Andrew Landis had for Vale.” He tosses the bag at me.

It’s a restaurant notepad with a message from Garza.

“Vale has a stalker,” Mercy says, appearing at my side. “You clearly spoke to him after your night together.”

“What?” Garza chokes out.

“She never called because the pad was gone by the time she woke up,” Ranger says in his disinterested tone. Mercy gets the same sound at times, but where his comes from the fact he’s thinking something through, Ranger is just dead inside.

“He told me she and her roommate had a gimmick where the roommate would sneak in and rob the guy Vale was with.” Garza stares blankly at the wall. “All my cash was gone the next morning.”

“That means he was likely in the room while the two of you slept,” I snarl as my vision goes hazy. There’s an actual red sheen to my peripheral vision.

Oh yeah, this is a big fucking problem.

Chapter Six

Mercer

Igrab the bag from Bishop’s hand, so he doesn’t destroy the evidence as his fists clench.

“That means he was likely in the room while the two of you slept,” Bishop growls.

“No way,” Garza says. “I would’ve woken up if there was a threat.”

“We’d all like to believe that,” I say, studying the note on the pad of paper. “But you were obviously quite relaxed.”

I grimace.

That was the wrong thing to say.

Bishop’s teeth grind together so violently, I think he might chip a tooth.

“It was either the roommate or the stalker,” Ranger says, stretching his hands behind his head. “Have we checked to see if the roommate is in on the trafficking situation?”

“Trafficking?” Garza chokes out, looking paler by the second.

I take the lead and fill him in on exactly how Vale and Bishop know one another and the events that brought her to us. “I’m not sure Hargrove and Merryweather are objective enough to discern Kate’s involvement, but I will ask them to look into her.”

“I don’t think Kate had anything to do with it,” Bishop says, exhaling heavily. “She and Vale have been friends for years. Since before Landis was even in DC. According to the profile, he would have been in Myrtle Beach when Kate and Vale met.”

“That’s a good sign,” I acknowledge.

“Vale is the cam girl you’ve been in love with for two years?” Garza asks, looking a little like he might try his luck at taking Bishop out.

“You left her with no way to tell you she was pregnant!” Bishop growls. “Do you know the risks involved when a female omega doesn’t have access to alpha pheromones during pregnancy? It can cause miscarriage, preterm labor, and other severe complications for the mother and the baby. You can ask your brother all about it tomorrow when we go get her checked out.”

Garza’s eyes fall shut, and he pulls a hand up to wipe over his face. “You’re sure the guy I ran into was stalking her?”

I stomp over to the coffee table and retrieve my phone. It’s a quick process to pull up the pictures of Andrew Landis. I purposely select one next to the pictures Bishop caught of Andrew in Vale’s bedroom.

“That was the night before she came here.” I nod to the phone when he scrolls to the image I wanted him to see. “Is that the man you spoke to?”

“Yeah.” Garza nods. “Holy fuck. I thought she never called because she got back together with her boyfriend.” He glances between us like he’s desperate for someone to believe him.

The terrible thing is…

I already do.

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