Page 22 of No Mistakes
“What have you been doing, Adam?” I whisper to myself as I hover over the first file.
My finger clicks the mouse before I have the chance to second-guess myself, and the screen flashes black for a moment before a series of images load.
I stare at them as I open them one by one. The first one is grainy, taken from a distance, but the photo is of me and Eva parked outside the yoga studio.
“What thefuck…”
This was taken the day I met Flynn when he posed as someone else. You can see Eva laughing, no doubt talking nonsense, while we sat and waited in the car for Rachel to appear, completely unaware that we were the ones being watched.
My throat goes dry as I prepare myself for the next image.
It's me and Flynn.
I recognise it instantly, it’s the same photo Flynn showed me weeks ago. One of us is sitting at the restaurant, enjoying eachother's company. This was the image that made them take me when I was sleeping. Something I will never forgive them for. I can’t help but scoff at the memory because the feelings I had towards him then are completely different now.
My heart hammers against my chest when I realise this isn’t just some personal project. This is surveillance. Someone has been following us, watching us. Butwhy?
I close the image, completely unprepared for the final photo.
I feel my body go cold as I stare at Eva lying in the hospital bed. Her face pale, her eyes closed while she slept. Wires and monitors surrounded her like something out of a goddamn nightmare.
I don’t understand why Adam would have these, and who thehellhas been following us?
The door flies open, and I panic, quickly shutting everything down before removing the USB from the laptop, tucking it into my pocket.
“Next time,you’redoing the coffee run. I don’t know why you’re the only one that gets the discount, and I have to pay full price.” Eva mumbles as she dumps the drinks on my desk.
I force a smile,prayingshe can’t hear the way my heart is doing cartwheels in my chest, while my thoughts scream louder than the damn ceiling fan above us.
“Because I have a pretty face and no shame in flirting with baristas, who probably still live with their mothers,” I mutter, grabbing the coffee like it’s going to save me from this whole situation.
Eva snorts, dropping into the chair across from me, but there’s a heaviness in her that wasn’t there before. The kind of weight people carry when they’re pretending they’re fine, but in reality, they’re barely holding themselves together.
I watch as she stares down into her drink, as if she’s hoping it will give her some answers like the tea leaves in Harry Potter.
“I ran into Riley,” she says softly. “She wants to go over some case note things.”
I nod, not saying anything because what else am I supposed to do? Tell her I just found surveillance photos of us that shouldnotexist. That someone was close enough to take a picture of her unconscious in a hospital bed, and she never even knew?
I can’t fucking do that, she’s already at breaking point. She has been since she found out about Axel. I know what she’s thinking, I know because I see it in her eyes every time she thinks I’m not watching.
She’s wondering if it was all a lie. If Axelevertruly cared about her, or if she was just another pawn in a game, none of us signed up to play.
I warned her this job sometimes has risks, but fuck, I never accounted for something like this happening.
“You know I have your back, no matter what, right?” I ask. She looks at me, giving me a small smile before nodding her head. “I know you do, Mandy. You always have. It’s just… hard.”
Her words hang in the air, and I swallow the lump forming in my throat. I nod, pretending like I don’t feel the weight of my own secrets pressing down on me, or that my thoughts haven’t already slipped back to him.
To Ant.
Fuck, he didn’t even say a god damn word, but the silence between us in that parking lot at the shooting range? It said enough. I felt the attraction to him, but did he feel it towards me?
I can’t help but think about the way he looked at me before I got in the car, like he wanted to stop me, like he had a million things to say, but no voice to say them. I wanted to stay, to just have those few extra moments with him to see what would happen, but nope, I walked away like a coward.
Something about him crawled under my skin and made a home for itself, and the worst part about all of it? It didn’t scare me. Instead, it settled me, which is even fucking worse.
I don’t even know whatthisis between us. All I know is that I haven’t been able to get him off my mind since, and the urge to see his name on my phone is getting stronger every minute.
