Page 134 of Mayhem
Paetyn led her back into the building, and Erin thought loving on her man before she told him would keep him calm.
Cruz hadn’t been the happiest when Erin told him she was still receiving calls. He wasn’t upset with her for something out of her control, but he was upset with her for not telling them about it. He understood that since they were using text apps, there wasn’t a real way to track the person, and other than annoying calls; they hadn’t done anything until showing up at the club.
Nik checked the security footage and gave them the entire plate. Cruz sent it to Vega to run for them. He didn’t know how the other man accessed the DMV database, but he was sure it had not come by entirely legal means. Cruz didn’t care as long as it yielded information they could use to get whoever it was to stop harassing their girlfriend.
He was ninety percent positive that it was a man. However, Erin said she wasn’t sure from the voice since they’d been speaking so low, and they hadn’t said anything before setting off the rose petal cannon. That made him assume the nuisance was male because a woman would have likely tried to ruin her dress. Instead, the gesture had almost seemed romantic if tormenting someone with unwanted attention could be considered such.
He was waiting to hear back from Vega as he pulled into Erin’s building’s parking garage. She needed to pick up a few things before they headed home.
They were headed down the hall to her apartment when his phone vibrated. A text from Vega stated he’d call him in a few minutes. He hadn’t realized Erin had stopped short of her front door until he almost ran into her. He glanced down at her before looking at the door and found it slightly ajar.
“Stay here with Paetyn,” he instructed, stepping around her.
The lights were off in the apartment as he pushed the door open more. He turned them on and looked around the open living space. Nothing he could see was readily out of place, and he decided to check the other rooms, opening the closets and checking under her bed. He didn’t find anything and returned to the living room, where Paetyn stood in the doorway, Erin behind him.
“There’s no one here,” he announced. “Did you forget to set the alarm?” he asked her.
“I…maybe. We were in a hurry, and I must have forgotten,” she responded.
Cruz refrained from allowing his irritation to show. What was the point in the system if she didn’t remember to set the alarm, especially when she could do it from her phone? Even more so with the calls she’d been receiving. He understood she might have thought they were harmless and annoying, but that could change.
“Nothing seems out of place,” Paetyn stated, looking around. “Maybe you didn’t close the door completely,” he directed at Erin while Cruz went to the security panel.
The rest of their conversation was background noise as he pulled up the footage for the last few hours. He watched Erin leave, the sound of the door closing heard distinctly, and she locked the deadbolt with her key.
He then ran it at four times the speed from the time Erin left. At some point, the door opened, and the camera swung in, but no one was on the camera. It wasn’t until they left that he saw them, the back of the person wearing a black hoodie, head covered by a beanie.
Cruz didn’t like this. They’d avoided the camera on entry, which meant they knew it was there since it only picked up the front of the door so as not to infringe on her neighbor’s privacy.
“She closed and locked the door,” he stated as he paused the video with them on screen.
“Who is that?” Erin asked.
“I’m just as lost as you,” he responded.
“Why break in and not take anything?” Paetyn asked.
Erin paused, then turned back to the living room and looked around. She then went down the hall, returning as fast as she’d disappeared.
“Because they did take something,” she stated, going to the entertainment system under her television. She pointed to the several empty spots. “They took all the pictures I have with you.”
She was right. She’d had some of the pictures they’d taken at the botanical gardens and on vacation printed, framed, and placed around her living room, with two in her bedroom.
“We need to call the police,” Paetyn stated.
“And tell them what? Someone broke in to steal pictures?” Erin asked. “They’ll probably laugh.”
“When it was just calls, there was nothing they could do. Now, someone has broken in and attacked you in public,” Paetyn countered.
“I wasn’t attacked. They shot rose petals at me.”
“So then you enjoyed it?” Cruz asked because regardless of what it was, it unnerved her.
“You know I didn’t.”
“Then we’re calling the police,” Paetyn responded, taking his phone out.
“I’m telling you—”
