Page 108 of Dirty Damage

“No, I’m not blackmailing Sutton. Nor am I threatening her.”

Confusion etches lines around Mara’s mouth. “But she agreed to marry a complete stranger. Why would she do that?”

“If she’s such a close friend, you can ask her.”

“I have,” she bites out like I’m an idiot. “She just tells me it’s complicated and she needed to do this. A bunch of vague shit like that.”

“And you want me to clear things up for you?”

She sighs, and for the first time, I see real fear crack through her brave facade. “I came to you because I think she’s scared.”

“I didn’t fucking threaten her,” I growl.

But Mara is already shaking her head. “Not of you—something else.Someoneelse.”

The possessive beast that lives in my chest stirs awake. “You know who it is. Tell me.”

“Drew Anton.” That fucking name again. Always that fucking name. “Her ex-boyfriend.”

“He isn’t a problem,” I say carefully, watching her reaction. “Sutton hasn’t had any contact with him in a long time.”

Mara’s frown deepens into trenches. “So, she hasn’t told you?”

My beast bares its teeth. “Told me what?”

“That he’s basically been stalking her the past several months? He’s obsessed with her. Every time she blocks him, he calls from another number. Every time she gets a new number, he manages to find it. The guy just won’t give up.”

I don’t even pretend to be unaffected now. My voice comes out in a lethal rumble. “Do you have any reason to think he’s still following her?”

Mara glances toward the water fountain, picking at her cuticles like she’s trying to dig out courage. “Sutton drives a shitty little Ford.”

“Drovea shitty little Ford.”

She waves me off. “Right, yeah, well before she moved in with you, she gave me the keys and told me I could use it whenever. But the woman hadn’t put oil in the damn thing in a decade, so I took it in, and… the mechanic found something.”

She pulls something out of her jacket pocket and unfurls her fist so I’m staring down at the shattered remains of a microchip.

“That’s a tracker.”

Mara nods. “The mechanic told me it has been there for a while. He said there was rust around the seal. I think Drew planted it.”

I take the destroyed chip from her palm, the weight of it nothing compared to the rage building in my chest.

“Why didn’t you tell Sutton yourself? Why come to me?”

“Because she has a lot on her plate right now.” She shoots me an accusatory glare and then drags a hand through her short hair with a sigh. “Life hasn’t been easy for her, and I don’t want to give her one more thing to worry about.”

I pocket the tracker and shove to my feet. “Thanks for this.”

“What are you going to do?” Mara asks.

Make Drew Anton regret ever hearing Sutton’s name.

“You’re a good friend,” I say instead. “Reach out. Sutton would be happy to hear from you.”

“That’s allowed?” There’s venom in her voice again. She’s really pushing the limit on my promise to not fire her.

“I won’t stop you.”

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