Her cheeks burned as she yanked her stare away from him and peered over at Simon. He was frowning. Staring suspiciously at her…and Eric.

“We need to know the people who are close to you,” Simon finally said. He pulled a small laptop from his bag. She hadn’t even noticed the bag until that moment. He’d had the satchel slung over one shoulder. “Let’s make a list because that’s going to be our starting point.”

She took one step toward him. “You really think the person doing this is someone I know?”

“Odds are good that he is,” Eric replied in his deep, dark voice. “Crimes like this aren’t usually random.”

“But they can be random?” It couldn’t be someone she knew. This—everything that had happened—there was so much rage. Rage meant hate, didn’t it? Who could hate her this much?

“It can be random,” Simon allowed with his fingers curled around the laptop, “but we’re going to be smart about this. We’re going to investigate the people close to you and then work our way outward. It’s the way Eric always operates in these situations.”

These situations. She risked another glance Eric’s way. “You do so much more than just design security systems for homes and businesses.”

Eric inclined his head toward her. “Personal protection was the logical, next step in my business plan. I wanted to offer a total package to clients.”

“You’ve…stopped other guys like this?”

He reached for a pen on his desk. His fingers balled around it. “Yes. And we will stop this one, too.”

He said the words with such certainty that some of the tension eased from her shoulders. “Thank you.”

He gave her a small smile. “But we need the list, Piper. I get that it’s personal, but we need to know everyone who is close to you.” He waved to the chair in front of his desk. “Why don’t you take a seat and we’ll get started?”

Okay. Let’s do this. She eased into the chair. Her sneakers slid over the floor. “Ben.” It felt crazy just to say his name. “I mean, obviously, he’s not the one doing this. But he’s the person closest to me. The one who knows all of my deep, dark secrets.”

Simon settled into the chair next to her. He put his laptop on Eric’s desk. “Do you have a lot of those secrets?”

She laughed, then realized he wasn’t kidding.

“Because dark secrets can attract dark people,” Simon added. “If you’ve got something in your past that you’ve buried deep, this is the time to tell us.”

He was dead serious. “There’s nothing.” Her head turned toward Eric. “There isn’t!”