Page 60 of A Reclusive Heart

Even after five years, it was more than obvious that they were more in love now than when they first got married. He knew from the few times that he went out with Edward to catch a game or grab a drink that the man wasn’t playing around. He never so much as looked at another woman and whenever someone mentioned Dana, his expression said it all. There would never be another woman for him and Dana would never have to worry about Edward breaking her heart.

Jamie deserved to have someone like Edward by her side and as much as it pained him to admit this, he would never be that man. The last thing that he wanted to do was hurt her, but he knew that it was only a matter of time before he fucked this up.

Shoving away those rather depressing thoughts, Nick took a quick shower. Twenty minutes later, he was stepping out of the bathroom and wrapping a towel around his waist when he spotted something on the floor. He didn’t give the large white envelope much thought when he picked it up, thinking that it was just promotional paperwork that one of the vendors had the front desk slip under his door. When he turned the envelope over, he felt his heart drop to his stomach.

YOU CAN’T HIDE

Cursing under his breath, Nick quickly pulled on a pair of pants, grabbed his key card, and left the room, more thanfucking ready to kill someone. When he didn’t find anyone lingering in the hallway, Nick checked the stairwell, hoping to find someone lurking in the shadows, but there was no one there. The son of a bitch hell-bent on tormenting his little recluse had been close, too fucking close.

After one last look around, Nick made his way back to their room and nearly fucking sighed with relief when he found Jamie curled up in bed, fast asleep. He pulled the covers over her shoulders as he leaned over and kissed her forehead. He watched her for another minute before he grabbed his cell phone, double-checked that the door was locked and made his way to the bathroom. Praying that it was just a sick fucking joke, he carefully opened the envelope only to swallow hard a moment later when what he found had him reaching for his phone.

“I don’t carewho you are, you’re not watching them without me!” Jamie snapped, taking everyone by surprise.

For the past two hours, she’d waited patiently in an interrogation room while Nick paced the small room like a caged animal. The only thing they were told was that the detective needed to call the police department back home to verify their story while Jamie was left struggling to hold it together.

She still couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching her. When she saw the death threats the other day, she’d told herself that this was an unfortunate part of her job. She’d hoped that if she ignored it that it would go away, but she was wrong.

“Miss Harris, perhaps it would be best if you allowed us to view the video first,” Detective Mathers, a middle-aged man with a warm smile, said gently.

“I’m staying. I want to know what’s on those discs,” Jamie said firmly as Nick’s hand tightened around hers. “I’m staying as well.”

With a resigned sigh, the detective picked up the disc marked “Jamie Harris the whore” and placed it in the disc drive. He typed something and seconds later, an image of the pool from the hotel popped up on the flatscreen mounted on the wall in front of them. Her breath caught in her throat as she watched Nick storm onto the screen, carrying her over his shoulder.

“Oh, God, no,” Jamie mumbled weakly.

“Stop the movie,” Nick demanded, getting to his feet, but thankfully, he didn’t let go of her trembling hand.

“Is there a problem, Mr. Quinn?” Detective Mathers asked as he paused the movie.

Nick gestured to the other officers in the room. “I think it would be for best if we cleared the room for this.”

“That’s fine, Mr. Quinn, but please realize that this video may have to be viewed by other officers at a later time,” the detective explained as he gestured for the officers to leave the room.

“That’s fine, but I don’t think they need to be here this time,” Nick said with a nod of thanks as he sat back down and put his arm around her.

Once the door was shut, the detective re-started the movie.

“Why are we down here?” the recorded version of herself asked as Nick double-checked the lock.

“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?” Nick asked as he made his way to the pool and-

Forgot how to breathe when the camera moved with the action.

Whoever recorded them had been in the room with them last night.

“Nothing’s wrong!”

“Do you by chance have your cell phone on you at the moment?” Nick asked as he walked towards the deep end of the pool.

“No, why?” she asked, sounding confused.

“No special reason,” Nick said before he tossed her into the pool.

Knowing exactly what was coming, Jamie dropped her face into her hands and listened as the rest of what happened last night played out. When it was done, she sighed with relief. That is, until Nick started flipping out. Wondering what was going on, Jamie looked up and felt her stomach drop when she read the words written across the screen.

You’ll be dead within the month, but before that happens, I thought the world should know that the famous J.L. Lewis was nothing but a whore.

By 10:00 AM, this video and the audio I recorded of your bedroom activities will have already hit the internet.

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