Chapter 17 - SOMEONE HAD BEEN INSIDE KAYLA’S APARTMENT WHILE GUNTHER SLEPT BESIDE HER
Gunther woke because Kayla stopped breathing normally.
Not literally.
But close enough.
He sat up.
“What?”
She handed him the phone.
He saw the photograph.
Everything inside him changed.
Old Gunther returned in less than a second.
“Don’t move.”
He reached for the nightstand.
No gun.
He no longer kept one there.
Good.
Annoying.
Useful.
He called building security and police.
Not Victor.
That mattered.
Officers arrived.
No forced entry.
Window locks intact.
Hallway camera showed no unknown visitor.
Then a detective looked at the image metadata.
“This wasn’t taken tonight.”
Kayla frowned.
“What?”
The detective zoomed.
The sheet beneath Gunther was dark gray.
Tonight Kayla had white sheets.
Gunther looked at her.
“When?”
Kayla recognized the photograph.
“Three weeks ago.”
One of the first nights Gunther had stayed at her apartment after release.
Someone had either entered then or accessed a device.
They checked her laptop camera.
Clean.
Phone.
Clean.
Building maintenance logs.
One entry.
Three weeks earlier.
Fire-alarm inspection.
Contractor name:
Baines Security Compliance.
Gunther’s face changed.
Thomas Baines.
The former federal investigator Victor had hired.
Now everything pointed toward Victor again.
Gunther called him.
“Did Baines ever enter Kayla’s apartment?”
Victor sounded genuinely confused.
“What?”
Gunther explained.
Silence.
Then Victor swore.
“I hired him to trace the Anthony Vega leak.”
“Did you give him Kayla’s address?”
“No.”
“Did he know we were together?”
“Everyone knew.”
Gunther’s voice dropped.
“Find him.”
Victor hesitated.
“Police?”
“Yes.”
Another mark of growth.
Baines disappeared before detectives reached his registered apartment.
Now the blackmail made sense.
Partly.
Baines had information about Victor.
Maybe he had created the blackmail himself.
Except the financial trail disagreed.
The extortion account belonged to a shell corporation opened by a paralegal who once worked for Caleb’s defense team.
Caleb denied involvement from prison.
Gunther believed none of them yet.
Kayla moved temporarily.
Not into Gunther’s house.
That surprised everyone.
She stayed with Sam.
Gunther did not argue.
“I have security.”
Sam’s apartment had upgraded locks funded through his own business.
Two cameras.
An alarm.
Kayla wanted family.
Not fortress.
Gunther respected it.
Barely.
Three nights later, Sam found Gunther sitting in his car across the street.
He knocked on the window.
Gunther lowered it.
Sam stared.
“Seriously?”
“I’m not following her.”
“You’re parked outside my building at one in the morning.”
“I’m watching the street.”
“That is following with architecture.”
Gunther glared.
Sam folded his arms.
“Go home.”
“No.”
“Did Kayla ask you to sit here?”
“No.”
“Then go.”
Gunther looked toward the third-floor window.
Every instinct screamed stay.
Sam’s voice softened.
“She’s safe.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Neither do you.”
Gunther looked at him.
“That’s the point, isn’t it?”
Control had always been his solution to uncertainty.
Sam stepped back.
“If you want her to trust you, you can’t become another thing she has to defend herself from.”
That hurt because Sam was right.
Gunther drove home.
At 1:24, Kayla texted.
Sam said you were outside.
Gunther typed.
Deleted.
Typed again.
Yes. I left. I’m sorry.
A minute later:
Thank you for leaving.
Not thank you for protecting me.
Thank you for leaving.
Gunther understood the distinction.
The next morning, Baines was arrested at a bus terminal.
He claimed he had not blackmailed Victor.
He had been gathering evidence because someone hired him separately.
“Who?”
Baines refused until counsel arrived.
Then he gave one name.
Elias Ward.
Kayla stared at the detective.
“No.”
Gunther said nothing.
That frightened her more.
May you like
Because for once, he did not look satisfied to have a reason to hate Elias.
He looked afraid.
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