Page 76 of Taken Off Camera
“But it doesn’t make sense.” My fingers find one of the tiny devices, tracing its plastic casing. “How would Travis know which day I’d be gone?”
“He wouldn’t need to know,” Sebastian answers. “He just needed to watch and wait. He already had your address from his job at the mail sorting place. You have patterns, habits. If he’s been surveilling you long enough, he’d recognize an opportunity when it presented itself.”
The thought sends ice through my veins. How long has Travis been watching me? Planning? Waiting?
Saint picks up one of the larger cameras from the pile, one of Sebastian’s, not Travis’s, and turns itover in his hands. “How did you not catch this when you installed the security system at Micah’s place?”
Gabriel pushes off from the wall and circles the table, coming to stand behind Saint’s chair. “If these are what I think they are…”
He reaches past Saint to pluck a tiny camera from the pile, examining it with the practiced eye of someone familiar with surveillance technology.
Saint shifts in his chair, discomfited by Gabriel’s proximity.
“RF transmitters,” Sebastian confirms, holding the device up to the light. “Old school, but effective. They don’t connect to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. They broadcast continuously to a receiver.”
My stomach sinks.
Saint’s brow furrows. “Which means?”
“It means,” Sebastian explains, “they wouldn’t show up on a network scan when I ran a search for devices connected to Micah’s internet, or ones broadcasting on standard frequencies. These operate independently.”
I hug my elbows. “I would have found them right away if they were Wi-Fi-based.”
Saint uncrosses his arms to lean forward, his distrust of Sebastian overshadowed by concern for mysafety. “So, how would Travis access the footage? If they’re not uploading to the cloud?”
“He wouldn’t need to,” Sebastian says, the leash on his anger holding on by a thread. “He’d just need to be close enough to receive the signal.”
A muscle jumps in Saint’s jaw. “How close?”
“Within a hundred feet at most,” I say, my lips numb. The room tilts, and I grip the edge of the table to steady myself. “He’d have to be…”
“In your building,” Gabriel finishes. “Or parked outside.”
Saint’s hand comes down hard on the table. “So while you’ve been playing security expert, this guy has been sitting outside Micah’s apartment, watching him through hidden cameras?”
Sebastian’s lips flatten into an unhappy line. “I had people monitoring the building perimeter. No suspicious vehicles stayed long enough to?—”
“To what?” Saint interrupts. “To get his rocks off watching Micah shower? To watch him take a piss?”
My stomach lurches at the thought, and I press a hand to my mouth. Each time I’ve been in the bathroom, believing myself alone, the man sending me threatening packages has been watching, witnessing moments meant to stay private.
“Why the RF technology?” Saint asks withfrustration. Not knowing what’s going on always grates on him. “What’s the advantage for Travis?”
Sebastian picks up one of the smaller units, his fingers dwarfing the tiny device. “RF transmitters are short-range and don’t leave a Wi-Fi trail. As Micah said, he had to be within a hundred feet to pick up the signal.”
He sets the camera down. “The advantage is that they’re impossible to detect without specialized equipment. And they leave no digital footprint.”
A visible shiver runs through me as the full implications hit home. Travis wasn’t some faceless threat operating from a distance. He was nearby, possibly in my building, definitely close enough to have approached me at any time.
Sebastian rounds the table to kneel beside my chair, his hand finding mine. “Micah, I’m so sorry. I should have been more thorough.”
“I do my own regular checks and never found anything,” I say. “You couldn’t have known.”
“I should have,” he insists, his fingers tightening around mine. “This is what I do.”
The warmth of his hand anchors me as my mind spins with horrifying possibilities. How many nights had I paced my apartment in my underwear? How many times had I talked to myself, thinking Iwas alone? Every moment of perceived privacy was a lie.
“We need to find him,” I say, steadier than the turmoil inside me.
