Page 55 of Ruthless Rebel

I laugh as I rip into a brown envelope addressed to me by name and marked private. “You’re going to pay for that joke the next time I see you,” I warn, pulling out something printed on a thick card with a note attached to it with tape.

“I hope I’m paying with my cock,” he teases, that usual lightness in his tone that always brings me out of the dark, but I’m barely listening to him now as my eyes scan the page in front of me.

There is writing scrawled across the card in thick black letters that reads…

Are you a fan of my work

Superman?

Because I’m a fan of yours…

The words have me frowning in confusion, but it isn’t until I rip away the note and stare down at the photograph that I’m sitting up straight in my chair. Staring up at me is a picture of the abandoned cabin in the woods, the one where I take my victims. As in, the cabin that no one knows about, as in the one I chose because it’s in the middle of nowhere with nothing around for miles. I spent months watching it before I decided it was perfect, because no one ever went anywhere near it. So what the fuck is this?

Logan says something else, but I don’t hear a word as I interrupt, “Hey, can I call you back, something important just came on my desk.”

“I’ll come on your desk,” he claps back, clearly not sensing my serious tone.

“Logan,” I warn gently and he sighs.

“Fine, call me when your desk is clean, baby.” And then he is gone, and I’m staring down at the note and photograph, as my anger stirs to life.

This is a threat. It isn’t just a note and a photograph, it’s a warning. From who? I’m not sure, but I’m sure as hell going to find out.

I grab the envelope it came in and flip it over, checking for anything I might have missed. It just has my full name scrawled across the front and a red stamp with the word ‘Private’, which means it was hand delivered rather than mailed. I’m on my feet and storming from my office before another thought can even enter my mind.

“Eliza,” I shout, startling her a little. “When was this dropped off?” I ask, holding up the now empty envelope for her to see.

She looks just as confused as I feel, as she looks between me and the envelope. “Is that from the mail I gave you?” She asks, and I nod. “Erm, I’m not sure, any time during the month of November. I collect it all as one like you requested, whereabouts in the pile was it?” She questions, no doubt grappling for an accurate answer for me.

I think back to where it was, knowing I went through all the tabbed stuff first, but Eliza always keeps things in order, it’s one of the main reasons she guaranteed her job here so quickly. “It was second from the top after the tabbed ones,” I explain, and she nods again.

“Okay then it must be from sometime during the first week of the month,” she starts to explain, but I am already walking off towards the CCTV office.

I burst inside and find Sebastian watching the cameras like he always does, and before he can even open his mouth to greet me I bark, “I need all the CCTV footage from the 1st until the 7th of November pulled up, focusing solely on when anyone came in and dropped off anything with Eliza.”

Seb just nods, and starts tapping away, firing up all the monitors on the wall, and digging into all the files I need to find the footage I requested. I dip out to make some coffee, and then tell him to find somewhere else to be so I can do what I need to do. There are no questions asked as he leaves the office and closes me inside, and I spend the rest of the day trailing through every second of footage.

I’m not sure how much time passes, but I know it’s enough for Eliza to go home for the day, and the security guys to leave too, locking me inside. I go through endless cups of coffee, as my eyes remain glued on the screen, examining it frame by frame until I can find something. I’m almost ready to give up and go home for the night when I spot it, the envelope.

The man enters casually, a pile of stuff in one hand and a coffee in the other, without a care in the world, as he strides over to the front desk where Eliza is sitting. He smiles at her, putting down his coffee and reaching to the top of his pile, plucking off the familiar envelope. I click the screen to zoom, just to double check, and sure enough, there is the envelope that is now sitting in front of me. He says something to Eliza, but I don’t hear what, and she nods, taking the envelope from him and depositing it into the mail tray she keeps behind her desk, and then he is leaving.

I flick between the different cameras in the office until I find one with the best angle, and then I am zooming in on his face and capturing a screenshot of it. It takes a few tries to get the perfect one, but once I have it, I email it to myself and rush back to my office. Once there, I use a program on my personal laptop to enhance the image until it isn’t grainy anymore, and then I run it through the best facial recognition software I have access to.

After inputting a few parameters to narrow the search, I let it run, and then all I have to do is wait. I check my phone while I do, noting the multiple missed calls and texts from Logan, Jace, and even Asher, but I ignore them all. The only thing that matters right now is finding out who this man is.

It takes about twenty-minutes to finally get a hit, but when it pings, it surprises me. Not because it found the man I’m looking for, but because the man it found is a name I know, or I guess I should say,knew, because this man is now dead. He is one of the men who was murdered in town a couple of weeks ago, but it wasn’t me who killed him.

So who did? And why was he killed after sending me this message?

My eyes flick back to the note and the photograph, and the only thing I know for sure is that the cabin is now compromised, which means there is only one thing I can do.

Grabbing my phone I dial my brother, and it rings a few times before he answers. “Linc?” Jace asks, and it’s evident from his tone of voice that I have just woken him up. “Is everything okay?”

I don’t really want to bring my family into this, but I know Jace is the one who will do this with no questions asked, and I really need someone to have my back, just in case.

“I need your help,” I explain, and I hear him instantly moving on the other end of the phone.

“Whatever you need, man,” he agrees instantly, before I hear him again a little quieter, “No, Red, everything is fine, go back to sleep, I just need to go out for a while.” It’s only then my eyes flick down to the clock on my computer screen, and I note it’s almost 2am, and I curse inwardly for calling so late.

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