Chapter Forty-Seven: Hurricane
Lincoln
Since that god awful night in Los Angeles when Sienna's world turned upside down, I've been doing everything in my power to try and find this fucker she unfortunately has to call her ex. I don't have much to offer other than my knowledge after a few years in college studying criminal justice. Archer is the one who graduated. Archer is the one who is an actual police officer. He gets to live the dream we both had at one point before I got sucked into taking over my father's business.
I don't have personal access to police records, but Archer does, and he was able to swipe the file on Travis. I'm not surprised that there's nothing recently reported. A twenty-six-year-old male with a documented jagged scar across his chin... But this version of him in his mugshot is a lot different from the version I saw of him that day of the conference. In his mugshot, he's freshly shaved with a head full of hair, but on that day he was bald, and the beard he grew covered up most of that scar, making it barely recognizable unless you got close to him. Smart.
This guy used to be a former Marine.
What the fuck?
I don't understand how a man who served our country could become so off the rails, but a part of me is actually glad he was in the service. This gives me an advantage as I know there's probably a full workup of his background that they must have done before he went in.
Rummaging quickly through the stack of papers, I breathe a sigh of relief when I see the Marine Corps symbol centered on one of the pages—his fingerprints and a list of known relatives included. Jackpot.
I stare at the cold-blooded gaze of Travis in his mugshot, the anger brewing deep down in my gut. If I catch him, he better hope it's not just the two of us. Without a shred of a doubt, without any hesitation, I'll kill him. Better yet, I'll tie him up and keep him stored somewhere and Sienna can tell me what to do to him. I want her to watch me tear this man apart piece by piece.
Reaching for my phone, I call the private investigator I've hired to look into Travis and his whereabouts. An ex-navy seal with ten years experience working in the secret service. He's worked with me plenty on pulling background checks on all the women my mother used to set me up with, so I wasn't afraid to ask him to help me with this. I know he'll be discreet.
"Good evening, sir." His husky voice echoes through the line, the sound of chatter and clinking dishes in the background. I glance behind me and realize that the sun has already set, and that it is, in fact, evening. He must be eating dinner.
"Sorry to bother you, Cal, I just had some names I'd like for you to take down for me. I need phone taps and pin registers on all of them. Immediately."
He clears his throat. "Sir, I don't really have that authority to—"
"You were in the secret service for ten years. If you can't do this, then I know for certain you know someone who can. I can ensure that you will be paid handsomely for your efforts, as well as the person you find capable enough for the job."
There's a long pause of silence. I hold my breath until he says, "Yes, sir. Will do."
Good choice.
"Perfect. Sorry to interrupt your night. We'll speak on Monday."
When we're off the phone, I notice that my entire staff seems to have gone home for the night. The overhead lights are shut off above the desks, just the backup generator low lights glowing about. Investigating Travis has taken up a lot of my time lately, but I get so engrossed in finding this fucker that time passes too quickly. I haven't even eaten dinner yet, but I've been waiting for Sienna to call. The last time we spoke she was heading over to her townhome to start packing up her things.
I smirk just at the thought. Living with Sienna is a dream come true, and although she'll still keep her townhome as a property of hers, her home will be my place. Well, our place, now.
Almost as if she knows I'm thinking about her, my phone starts to ring, a photo of us staring back at me that I saved as her contact picture. It's of us lying on the couch with the fuzzy blanket of mine that she loves. She's cuddled up to my chest, a tiny smile on her face as she stares into the camera. I'm kissing her forehead, relaxed and content.
"Hey," I say, placing the folders of Travis into a locked cabinet underneath my desk. "Sorry I'm late, I—" My body stills when I hear her sniffling on the other end. Panic strikes through every ounce of me. "Sienna? What's wrong?"
"My house," she sobs. "Someone broke in. It's fucking destroyed, Linc."
My free hand clutches onto the edge of my desk, my knuckles turning white. "Is security with you? Where are you? Are you safe?"
More sniffles. "Yes. Tom is inside checking to make sure it's clear and Marcus is with me right now outside."
I'm texting Robert to meet me at my building, and before I leave, I pull up the building's security cameras to see if I notice anything suspicious. Ever since that night, now that I know that I'm on this fuckers radar too, I installed a top of the line system that covers every spec of this place.
Nothing looks out of place, so I quickly head toward the elevators, hearing her rapid breathing through the phone. "Breathe, Sienna. It's okay."
How does he keep knowing the perfect time to strike? Just when she's recuperating and getting out of the house, he decides to pop back in and fuck her life up again. He can't keep doing this to her mental health.
My hands are shaking when I see Robert outside, holding the door open for me. He can see the anger radiating from my body, but he knows better than to ask. While I climb inside, I'm picturing Travis's face as I twist a knife deep into his heart. I'd move it slowly, painfully, until he'd pass out from the pain and never wake up.
"T-This is not okay, Lincoln! How can you think this is okay? I shouldn't have left your house. He found me. He knows where I am, and what would I have done if he were here? I can't defend myself. I'm fucking weak."
My heart is breaking as I hear her speak about herself like this. Leaning over to roll up the divider between Robert and me, I let out a frustrated sigh. "You are not weak. You're the furthest thing from weak. I'm twenty minutes away, but in the meantime, I need you to call the police and report the break in. Archer is going to meet us there, but it needs to be called in, alright? I want them checking for fingerprints on every fucking surface. I won't let them leave until they do."
I don't want to hang up, but Sienna calling the police is more important right now, so with reluctance, I let her go and count the agonizingly long minutes until Robert finally pulls up outside her home. Police cars are already surrounding it—their flashing blue and red lights dancing across the brick.
Marcus meets me out front, shaking his head. "I'm not sure what they were looking for, sir, but the place was ransacked."
I push him to the side and send him an evil glare. "I could give two fucks about the home, Marcus. Where is Sienna?"
He points behind two cops, and when I peer over his shoulder I see Sienna huddled up on the front steps with someone's jacket around her shoulders. Marcus is only wearing a long-sleeved shirt, so I'm assuming it belongs to him, but I can't get angry at that. I can't get jealous. He was just trying to help her, and if she was cold and I wasn't here, I'm glad he could lend her his.
"Oh, thank god," Sienna whimpers when I join her and tug her to my chest, letting her cry softly into the crook of my neck. "Linc, I don't know how I'm supposed to handle this. How am I supposed to go about things normally when this shit keeps happening?" She waves her wave toward her home. "If it weren't for Marcus and Tom, I wouldn't have been able to move. My body froze up, and I just...stood there."
"You were in shock," I say.
"It wasn't shock, it was terror. I don't want to be afraid of him anymore. I don't want him to have such control over my life. When I see him again, I want to be able to drop kick him myself. I don't want to need security."
"Then let's get you trained."
She pulls away to look up at me. "What?"
"I'll train you," I tell her. "I've been boxing my entire life. I'll make sure he doesn't stand a chance against you."
As she contemplates it, I almost breathe a sigh of relief. I thought this break in was going to set her back, but she seems more determined than ever now to get back to her old self. I think this just lit a fire under her ass, and I won't feel sorry for Travis when he gets to see the hurricane he whipped up inside of her.
"Okay," she agrees. "I'll do it."
I give her shoulder a squeeze just as Archer exits her house. He has plastic booties covering his feet, along with a pad of paper and pen in hand. "Sienna, can I ask you a few questions?" They're searching for fingerprints now, but I just need some details about the times and everything. We'll look up the street cameras to see if we can track him that way."
She nods. "And if you find him, what happens then?"
"Well, if the CCTV footage gives us a match through facial recognition, then we can put a warrant out for his arrest."
I send a hopeful look her way. "See? That's promising."
She shrugs, still not seeming convinced as another cop steps out of the front door with a ziploc bag in his gloved hand. There's a piece of paper inside of it. "Excuse me," I step in front of him to block his path and point at the evidence in question. "Can I ask what that is?"
He flips the bag around to the other side so I can read it, and as soon as my eyes scan the thick, black lettering, bile immediately rises into my throat.
Found you.