I pulled out my phone, happy to have something to do. Moving further I wedged myself in next to Killian in the far corner. Every angle of the building was showing on several different screens. It looked like there was a camera for every corner of the building and one on each floor. The good news was I didn’t see anyone outside any of the doors or the building except for the vultures at the front.
“Addy? What’s wrong?” Jonah clipped instead of greeting me.
“Um, we just got back from taking the dog for a walk,” I said on a rush.
“Yes, I know. Fitz sends us a text every time you leave and come back to his loft. It’s part of the deal and why you don’t have a bodyguard at all times. Because he’s capable of protecting you.”
“He texts you our whereabouts?”
“Addy, honey, why did you call? I’m busy here,” he said in a kind, but rather no-nonsense tone.
“The guard Frank is knocked out on the floor and we don’t know why. Killian called the police. Also, the paparazzi are blanketing the front of the building and he doesn’t think it’s safe for me to go into the loft to wait. We’re shacked up in the security room in the lobby.”
“We’ll be there in ten minutes. Don’t go anywhere. Wait for backup. I mean it, Addy.”
I swallowed against the dryness in my throat. “Okay. We’ll stay put.”
As I hung up, Frank started to move his head and limbs as though he were waking suddenly.
“Someone got the jump on me. I was muscled in here but just as I was going to go for my gun, my chest started to hurt and pain and numbness went down my left arm, and then it was lights out.” Frank said.
“Did you see your attacker?” Killian asked.
Frank pushed against the floor, his black boots leaving rubber streaks against the white tile surface. Killian helped him sit up and against the wall. He held his hand over his heart as though that side of his body still hurt.
“At first all I saw was a man enter with a hat on, his face down toward the floor. I called out to him, but when he got close, he lifted his head and I realized he was wearing a ski mask under the hat. All of a sudden he reached out and tased me, then pushed me in here which was when the pain started in my arm and I lost consciousness.”
Moments later, two police officers waded through the paparazzi and entered. Killian took the lead as I stood off to the side with Brutus literally sitting on my feet. Killian updated the cops and they tended to Frank and called an ambulance in to assist.
Killian led me and Brutus to the elevator.
“Jonah told me to stay put,” I murmured, feeling out of sorts but remembering very clearly that my soon to be brother-in-law wanted me to stay where I was.
“It’s okay. He’d want you out of the public eye. The police will deal with Frank and the FBI will look into it and find out what’s going on. I think we’ll be safer inside the loft.”
Numbly I followed him inside and watched as the numbers climbed to the last floor.
The elevator dinged and we stepped out only to find Killian’s door had been vandalized. Only it wasn’t graffiti or someone trying to break in that was so frightening. Taped to the huge wooden surface were at least twenty to thirty eight-by-ten-inch photos.
Of me.
Of my sisters.
Of Mama Kerri.
Of my niece.
All of them were candid shots. One of me and Killian entering Kerrighan house last week. Which meant the killer had been standing outside somewhere watching us rather closely. Another was of Mama Kerri and Aunt Delores working at the flower shop. Another of Genesis walking hand in hand with my niece to her day care in the city. Charlie with a few youth center kids playing basketball. Blessing sitting at a lunch meeting at her favorite place downtown. Liliana in a standoff with her bodyguard in front of the school she teaches at. Simone and Jonah leaving his parents’ house arm in arm. One of just my niece, a closeup of her sitting at the top of the slide at her daycare playground. In every picture with me in it, there was a big fat red heart over my face.