Page 41 of Triple Protection

We spend the next hour, the three of us, on separate laptops, chasing down leads. Brick checks out their social media accounts, Liam their employment and family members via and me pulling prior records. We're not above stretching the law, but we're going to try to follow it. At least at first.

"This one stands out to me," Liam says, holding up a dossier.

"Let's hear it."

"So, Sammy Muscles, real name Sammy Mendoza, competing influencer. Male. 33. Gym bro. Lives here in L.A. Single."

I do a quick search and confirm he has priors for public disturbance and aggravated assault. Could just have been a bar fight, or it could have been more. The details of the charges are never revealed.

Brick nods. "He's been a frequent flyer in her DMs as well." Brick pauses, his face going stormy. "Lots of comments about how they would make the perfect power couple, asking her out on dates, sexual innuendo."

My stomach sours. Fuck this guy if he thinks he can have her.

I do a quick google search for news articles with his name and a gossip column description of the incident of the night of his charges comes up. Not exactly a reliable source, but not always a lie. Apparently, Sammy was caught hitting on another man's woman and got into a bar fight. Not exactly stalker behavior, but also maybe a sign that he doesn't respect boundaries.

I pull up his social media. Dude's built like a shit brick house. He's easily bigger than Brick, and that's saying something. He would have had no problem grabbing Angela and manhandling her. Doubt begins to creep in.

We continue and identify our top five suspects. Are we grasping at straws? Absolutely. Do we have any other choice? Absolutely not.

"Should we have her block him?" Brick asks.

I shake my head. "No, if he doesn't have access to her it may make him desperate and cause him to escalate. Or, it'll clue him in to the fact that we're onto him and we may never catch him."

"So, what now?"

"I say we hire P.I. s to do more thorough investigations into each." I say, pointing to the five. "Tail them for a little while. See if we don't get any red flags that let us narrow down the suspect pool even more." I say.

"That'll be expensive." Liam counters.

"Our girl is worth it," I reply simply.

Chapter thirty

Liam

Liam

The next day my phone dings with a text message. It's my family group chat asking about plans for Thanksgiving.

"Hey Angel," I ask, jogging into the gym where she's currently doing yoga - my favorite thing to watch. "Do you have any plans for Thanksgiving? My family's asking." She scoops up into an upward dog before smiling at me.

"Nope. I usually just order out and watch a movie. You wanna do something for them here? They live nearby, right?"

"Yeah, in San Fran. Not too far."

"Let's have them over, we can do a big Thanksgiving! It'll be my first real Thanksgiving as an adult!" Her wide smile gets bigger the more excited she becomes. Her smiles always knock me off my feet. I've never seen something more beautiful.

"Alright," I say, as if I could deny her anything. "I'll book them a hotel." I open a tab on my phone to begin a search.

"Liam, sweetheart, don't be dumb. We have more than enough room. They have to stay with us!"

"You'd want that?"

"Of course! They're family, aren't they? You can't put family in a hotel room when we have like six empty bedrooms. We'll just have to buy a bed or two." Only two of her guest rooms are furnished. I guess after never having guests over having so many guest rooms is pointless. The three on the North side of the house remain empty.

"Baby, you don't have to do that. I'm sure they'd be fine on blow up mattresses or the couch."

She raises an eyebrow at me in challenge. "I'm the boss, aren't I?"