Page 102 of Madden
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Madden
I’ve noticed Abel and Kyla checking on me more than they did with the break-in. I’m starting to think they’re waiting for me to go off the deep end.
To be honest, I am too.
Everything is slowly starting to pile up on me. They are still searching for Hanna and all the shit they stole out of my house. Rumors have been swirling about who was helping her.
Abel keeps telling me to be patient, to let the police do their job, but I’m running out of patience.
Then, there’s Brielle.
All weekend, my mind was a fuckin’ mess over her. I read her text message, and dammit, she was right. We agreed to talk things out, and I made a promise to her I wouldn’t run away when shit got hard.
At first, she wasn’t honest with me about who she was. I didn’t even blame her. She wanted to separate herself from the Granite name and the pressure that came along with it.
If I could understand anything, it was that feeling of all eyes being on you. She wanted to stand on her own two feet, and I respected the hell out of her for it.
Why did she have to lie to me about this, though?
Not only did she work for Hollywood Tea before starting at Limelight but she was sneaking behind my back.
For what reason? Was she feeding them information on me and the guys?
I exhale a heavy breath, pressing my elbows to my knees and burying my face in my hands.
“You good, man?” Abel croaks.
“I’m fine, Abel. I just want to be left alone.”
He stays silent for a minute. “I understand, and I’ll leave you to it, but I have an update. You told me to tell you when I finally have good news, and I think you’ll want to see this.”
I exhale, dropping my hands to sit up. Something about his indifferent expression doesn’t make me feel any better.
“What? Just tell me.”
“I got a phone call from the police sergeant. They found Hanna and the two guys who helped her and brought ’em in. He said they believe they were able to recover what was stolen.”
“Are you fuckin’ serious?” I say, letting out a shaky laugh. I press my palms against my eyes, feeling like I’ve finally taken a deep breath.
“Even better, you remember how I told you I talked with the security company and they told me they may be able to retrieve the footage?”
“Okay, and?”
“They managed to extract the surveillance footage from their cloud backup. So even though they stole the hard drives, we were still able to recover it all.”
I pipe up then. “Well, that’s good to hear. At least we can retrace their steps and see what all they took while they were here.”
He nods. “There’s more.”
“What?”
“C’mere, I want you to see for yourself.”
I push myself to stand and stalk behind him through the house to the office. Abel took care of increasing the security after the first break-in, equipping us with full video surveillance around the property, covering damn near every inch and angle of the house.
He takes a seat at the desk and starts scrolling through the footage, stopping on Brielle in the kitchen with Hanna. I wince at the sight of her, dressed in her cotton shorts and her tank top.