Forever Hers Walters, Ednah (best novels for teenagers .TXT) 📖

“No, it’s not,” Amy reassured her. “If you hadn’t rented to him, he would have gone to a different company.” Then something else occurred to Amy. What if Nolan had known about Lauren and their college connection? He was smart enough to have found out and sneaky enough to manipulate Lauren. “Did he ask to see your other listings, Lauren?”

“Yes. He wanted to know if we had other empty vacation rentals for both short and long term, where it’s safe for a child to play because he and his wife had two children. What a bold-faced liar. He just wanted to know which ones were empty, so he and his pal could rob them.”

“Did you show him empty houses?”

“Yes, although I pointed out the ones that were great for children, but were already taken. He must have gone to the other realtors and saw their listings too because how else would they have known about the other empty houses?”

Amy had a bad feeling about this. “Is the Fitzgerald’s home listed on your website?”

“Not under rentals because they own it and it’s not a time-share. It’s listed under homes we manage, but no one can access those without a password. They must have picked your house randomly. Still, I enabled this son of a bitch.”

Nothing that had happened to Amy the last six years had been random. Chances were Nolan must have found Lauren’s connection to Amy, probably hacked into the rental company’s system. Lauren was a meticulous business woman. Chances are she had a list of the people she employed to house sit all the homes she managed. The Fitzgeralds weren’t the only homeowners with a housesitter.

“Thanks for telling me about the tattoo, Lauren. I think you’re beating yourself up too much over this. The first three houses were burglarized over a month ago, way before this guy came to your office.”

“Yeah, that’s because he went to the other companies first.”

Amy had no time to placate Lauren. Eddie had just entered the house and he didn’t look happy. “I’ve got to go, Lauren. Will call you later, okay? Bye.” She studied Eddie’s face. “What happened?”

“They found prints, but their forensic team had trampled all over the damn place, it’s hard to tell which footprints are his. Then Briggs and Sally took off without saying where they were headed. It’s going to take forever for these people to find anything. By then the man will be gone.” He dropped beside her, reached out and rubbed her nape. “How are you holding up?”

Better than he was. “I’m okay. That was Lauren.”

“I know. I heard you.” He leaned forward, pressed a kiss on her forehead and pulled her into his arms.

For a moment, she soaked up his warmth and forgot about their problems, but she couldn’t keep what she knew from him. “Lauren rented a house to man with the eye of Horus tattoo on his wrist.”

Eddie sat up. “What? When?”

By the time Amy finished explaining, Eddie was pulling out his cell phone. “That explains why Briggs and Sally left in a hurry. I hope they catch the bastard.” He brought the phone to his ear. “It’s me, Sally. Okay. Call me back.” He finished the call and glanced at Amy. “She couldn’t talk. Do we have binoculars?”

“The ones we use to watch eagles are on the boat.” She caught his hand before he could take off again. “Why don’t you show me the surveillance videos of Nolan that the private investigator guy sent?”

“Why?”

Knowing Nolan had manipulated her for so long made her feel like she’d been a puppet and he the master. It plain pissed her off. “Seeing where he went, who he saw might trigger something.”

Frowning, Eddie tapped a key on his laptop then logged in at LASEC, Ken Lambert’s company, and found video links. “These four were for the last several days while this one,” he pointed at one that said Live Feed, “is what Rod and Hailey are taping right now.”

“Hailey?”

“Another one of Ken’s people. She’s good with security systems. Breaking into them.”

Amy clicked on the live feed, then shrunk the screen and moved it to a corner, where she can keep an eye on it. It showed the front entrance to Nolan’s house. She opened the first stored recording and studied footage after footage. Eddie left her side and disappeared outside, but she didn’t look up. Finally, she found what she was looking for—Nolan driving up to an old mansion with cedar shutters—her parents’ home.

Memories from the past returned, some good, others bad. Amy leaned forward as the door opened and her father appeared. Freezing the frame, she zoomed in. Her dad had aged, his hair more gray than black. She touched the cold screen.

“Is that your father?”

Startled, she glanced over her shoulder. She hadn’t heard Eddie come back inside. “Yeah, I wish I could just talk to them and make them listen. You know, really listen to me. Nolan is dangerous and I hate what he might do when cornered.”

Eddie walked around the couch and joined her. “We could fly to Charlottesville for a couple of days, so you can talk to them.”

The way he said it set off warning bells in her head. “You’ve been thinking about this, haven’t you?”

“It’s just a thought. If Nolan won’t come to us, we should go to him and draw him out.”

The thought of going back home sent a chill through Amy, yet she saw his point. This mess with Nolan needed to end so she could start rebuilding her life. She no longer had a car. Her insurance didn’t cover malicious damages, so she had nothing to claim. Still, taking Raelynn with them anywhere near Nolan scared her and leaving her with Lauren wasn’t an option either. Her parents were out of the question. She wouldn’t put it past them to start some legal crap to keep Raelynn away from her. Until they could prove Nolan was guilty, Raelynn was staying with her.

“Amy?”

She focused on Eddie.

“If by Wednesday the