Page 75 of Tiny's Law

I watch from the pitch darkness in the cab of my truck as she makes her way inside her house. I wait for the porch light to switch from the motion sensor one to the one she keeps on when she’s home before backing out of her driveway.

By the time I get home, my own house is dark and silent. Mom must already be in the bath or in bed. Making my way to my office, I lock myself inside and drop into my desk chair.

Shaking the mouse, my screens come alive, and I smile as I see her in her bathroom, washing her face. I switch over to the views of her office and make the sixteen-camera views the only thing on the big screen.

Something must have happened today. Why was it a hard day? I decide to backtrack through her day to pinpoint what went wrong and if there is anything I can do to fix it.

I’m out of my damn element here. When a problem arises, I fix it. It’s what I do. Problem pops up; I research it, obsess over it, break it apart piece by piece, and then I solve it.

But with Kourtney? How do I create a life for her that is free from worry? I know that isn’t realistic. You can’t make another person’s life completely trouble-free. But you know what? I’m going to try like hell.

I bring the cameras back to eight a.m., when I know Kourtney usually gets to the office, and fast forward them slowly throughout the day. I study every single facial expression she makes to see if I can figure out when her day went to shit.

I watch as she works at her computer, makes some phone calls, and jots notes down in her blue notebook. I chuckle to myself that I’ll never have to guess what my girl’s favorite color is. She and Emma eat lunch in her office together, and then the rest of her afternoon looks much the same. Her face remains light the entire time.

I’m nearing the end of the day and switch over to regular speed when I see her slam her phone down on the holder. She pushes up from her desk, and I follow along on the cameras as she makes her way into Emma’s office and puts a document down on her desk. She smiles brightly at the girl, and it seems like they have an easy conversation. Okay, that’s not it. I press fast-forward again, watching as the office slowly empties until she’s the last one left.

She eventually packs up her bag, and as she goes to leave, I see a man dressed in a suit approach the front door. Stepping inside the lobby, I watch the exact moment when Kourtney sees him. My blood starts to boil when I see the harsh surprise on her face. It doesn’t escape me either that she slowly begins to back away from him until she butts up to the receptionist’s desk.

I’m cursing myself for not adding audio to the rest of the office cameras. I only added audio to the ones in her house and the ones in her actual office. There's no way I’d be able to hear anything with how far they are from her office. Goddammit.

I watch with clenched fists as he leisurely steps forward, like he hasn’t a care in the world, as he corners my girl against the desk. Kourtney’s posture tells me everything I need to know. Her arms are crossed over her chest, and her pinched brow tells me this man isn’t welcome. But who is he?

The two angles I have of the lobby don’t show me the man’s face, only his back, but I can clearly see Kourtney’s wide-eyed expression. She pinches the bridge of her nose. Maybe she really has a headache, but it’s obvious that this guy paying her a visit, whoever he may be, is the cause of her bad day.

The man’s shoulders shake, and Kourtney’s arms fly up in exasperation before he steps even closer to her, invading the last bit of personal space she has. I see red when I watch his hand go up to her face, and I can taste the bile rise to the back of my tongue as his thumb runs along her lower lip.

Whoever this fucker is, I want to break every single finger in his hand that dared to touch my woman.

As I watch him hold her face, I slam my fist down on my wooden desk, causing a loud thud and my hand to throb with how hard I can tell he is squeezing her cheeks in his grasp through the screen. Her plush cheeks bulge out on the top of his fingertips, indicating just how fucking hard he’s holding her.

Motherfucker.

She says something, and within an instant, he releases her and takes a step back, but not before trailing his fingertips along her face.

I’m going to break both hands.

I watch as they talk for a few more minutes, and then he leaves, as cool as ever, through the door just the way he came. The cameras on the street show him pulling sunglasses out of the pocket inside his suit and sliding them on before he slips into a waiting taxi.

He must not be staying in Desert Rose because the Taxi he slides into is one from the next city over. Rewinding through the entire time he was there, the same Taxi sits in its place. I jump back to watch Kourtney stare off into space until her phone rings. I vaguely see a small smile pull at her lips as she talks.

Looking at my own call history, I’m happy as hell to realize that it was me who she was talking to. I’m the one that put the smile on her face after whatever that encounter just was.

I’m restless as I ponder just what the hell to do now. Do I wait for her to open up and tell me?

Nah. She would’ve said something tonight with how many times I asked her if she was okay. Right?

Maybe that wasn’t the right thing to be asking.

Maybe this is one of those instances when a woman tells you everything’s fine, but everything is clearly not fine.

Do I go to her house right now and confront her? Make her tell me who the hell that man is, why she seemed so scared, and what he said to her to make her so spooked tonight?

The memory of his hand squeezing the hell out of her face is all the ammunition I need as I shove away from my desk and grab my phone.

But fuck. Maybe she really doesn’t feel well and is already sleeping.

Clicking out of the views of her office, I bring up all her house views and quickly find her. Laying on her side on her bed with Meatball tucked against her chest, I can easily see the soft shake of her shoulder as she cries. The wetness covering her cheeks shines on my screen, and I see red.

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