Page 26 of Shrouded Past

Piper shrugged. “I have no idea. But whoever those initials belonged to, they were loved by Marina.”

“We just have to find out the connection.” Bryce photographed it and then sent the photo to JT. “I’m going to give him a call.”

Piper nodded and sipped her coffee. She hadn’t thought much about the Apple watch. She must’ve had it for years. The rose-gold band was worn and scratched. Had she picked it out for herself or had someone else? The only thing that worked on it was the clock. When she’d first woken to her new life, Piper had tried to make a call but the service had been shut off.

“JT, hi.”

Piper’s attention went to the conversation. Bryce put the call on speaker so she could hear as he told JT about the watch and the inscription.

“Good thinking. Does the watch still have any type of service?”

Bryce looked her way, and she shook her head. “I tried to make a call many times but it just told me the service wasn’t activated.”

“Did you hear that?” Bryce asked.

“I did. I can see the serial number on the watch. Hopefully, we can track it from there. I’ll get Rachel on Piper’s clothing to see if she can track down where they were purchased. She’s a bulldog when it comes to gathering information from nothing. Any sign someone may be watching the place other than the neighbor?”

“No, nothing,” Bryce assured him. “I’ll take another look around outside, but there’s been nothing unusual.”

“Good to hear. The DNA results may take a while. Who knows if it will yield any useful information anyway. If the kidnapper isn’t in the system then . . .”

They’d be out of luck.

Would the watch or her clothing be able to help identify who Piper was? She sure hoped so. She didn’t want to continue living in a world that only began when she woke up to find Protector standing over her. She wanted to know who she really was. The good and the bad. Why Protector had believed her life was in jeopardy. Was it all just a figment of his imagination? Or were the people looking for her the ones that should have been there to protect her from him?

Chapter Five

Bryce tossed the covers back, abandoning sleep entirely. His thoughts wouldn’t shut down. Waiting was the hardest part. He was used to being a cop. Having authority and access to resources. Bryce wanted to dive in, examine the evidence, work the case. He wasn’t used to being on this side of a case.

He slipped from bed and dressed before heading past Piper’s room. The time on his phone confirmed it was as ugly as he thought. Two a.m. A lot of hours standing between him and daybreak.

Coffee might be the last thing he needed, but he made it just the same. While he waited, Bryce checked the weather. Hurricane Henre had slammed into the Florida coast at a Category 5, causing millions of dollars of damage and taking several lives. Power was still out in many parts of the state. Emergency services were arriving to provide much-needed relief.

Henre had moved out into the Atlantic and was heading up the coastline, apparently regrouping.

Bryce didn’t like the sound of it. If Henre turned toward their location, they’d have to evacuate. He didn’t like the idea of having to move Piper again. Not in such a chaotic situation with one—maybe even two— kidnappers still out there and no idea what was really going on.

Bryce filled his cup, hoping the coffee’s fragrance wouldn’t wake Piper. He pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and sat down as he sipped the steaming liquid. Bella padded into the kitchen.

“Hey there, little girl.” Bryce picked the kitten up. “I thought you’d be snuggled up next to your new friend.”

Bella meowed her answer, and Bryce chuckled. He could almost swear the cat understood him at times.

“You hungry?”

Another mew confirmed she did in fact understand hungry.

“Alright, alright.” He placed the cat on the floor and filled her food bowl. In his head he could hear Jenna laughing at him. She was always rescuing animals. She’d had several cats at the time of her death and used to tease him about being a secret cat lover. Bryce had given the cats to Eric because he couldn’t look at them and not remember his wife.

Jenna would be pleased to know she was right. He was turning into a cat lover.

For reasons he couldn’t explain, Bryce brought up the live video feed to his house on his phone. His muscles tensed at what came up. The place had been ransacked. Someone had gone inside his home after he and Piper left and had wrecked it.

He pulled up the feed from earlier in the day and realized it had gone offline, probably due to the storm. Nothing was recorded when the intruder was inside the house or earlier when he’d searched around the outside.

He checked when the surveillance had gone back online. Sometime around eleven a.m. in the morning he and Piper left to meet with JT in town.

The perp may not even realize he had security cameras set up—not that it would have mattered. Without electricity, they were basically useless.

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