Page 102 of Chasing Shelter

I chuckled. “Your secret’s safe with me.” Any amusement slid from my face because I knew we weren’t done. I needed more information. “What about after you got to Sparrow Falls? Can you tell me a little more about how he’s contacted you since? What those messages were like?”

Ellie’s gaze slid to the side again. “Same cycle. But it was clear he was watching me—or had someone watching me. Said somethingabout me moving into this house. Sent flowers with a note that was more a threat.”

My eyes narrowed on her. “The ones you were throwing out the night Keely and I invited you to dinner?”

She nodded. “I changed my phone number, and that seemed to stop it, but…”

“What?” I pressed, trying to shove down the reminder that I’d known something was off about her changing numbers.

“My dad called today.”

My muscles wound impossibly tight. “From prison?”

“I don’t know why, but I took the call.” Ellie’s lips twitched, a move that didn’t make sense until she continued speaking. “I told him what an awful dad he was. That I didn’t want anything to do with him. And it felt so damn good.”

My hand found hers again, needing the contact. “Giving yourself that freedom.”

Ellie looked up at me. “I guess I am. He wasn’t thrilled about it. He wants me back in New York, living up to the Pierce name. What a joke.”

I struggled to keep my hand on hers gentle as rage coursed through me like a living, breathing monster. “What’d you say about that?”

“Told him to take a long walk off a short pier. He tried to manipulate and pull strings. But the thing about starting over? Throwing everything away and beginning again? He doesn’t have that hold anymore.”

“So damn strong, Blaze.”

Her mouth curved the barest amount. “I’m trying to be.”

She was, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have one more suspect to add to the list. This felt like more of a Bradley play, but if Philip had her new number, we couldn’t know for sure. “Can I get another contact on this?”

Ellie frowned. “Who?”

“Anson has a friend from his days at the bureau. His name is Dex. He was a black hat hacker the FBI…adopted.”

“You mean he could either work for the FBI or get charged with something.”

My girl was always ten steps ahead.

“Exactly that. But he’s helped us with a few different cases now. He might be able to get more information on the numbers and images than I can.”

Ellie tapped her feet on the floor but finally nodded. “Okay.”

I pressed a kiss to her temple and unlocked my phone, scrolling to Dex’s contact information. I tapped the number, and it began ringing. Once. Twice. Three times. Finally, someone answered. “What?” It was more grumble than anything else.

“Afternoon to you, too,” I greeted.

“I was sleeping,” Dex muttered, an extra rasp to his deep voice.

“It’s almost six back east.”

“I was up all night working on a case.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask which one, but it was none of my business. Dex’s time with the bureau had come to an end, and he was working freelance these days. “Sorry, man. I could use your help.”

A rustling sounded in the background, and I pictured a faceless guy surrounded by crushed energy drink cans. “Talk.”

“So verbose. No wonder you and Anson are friends.”

“You want my help or not?”

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