Listening to her apology, remembering what he'd done that morning, it was damn near impossible to stay quiet.<span style="font-family: 'Georgia'">"Hey, happy to help. You seemed a little rattled."</span>Alex mulled over her words, only nodding when she mentioned Andrew. Yeah, it'd be best if he was out of the loop for as long as possible. He was a valuable part of Alex's cover, providing him nearly all of his 'legit' work these days.<br/><br/>When she mentioned Mr. Chapman, it was hard to suppress an irritated twitch.<span style="font-family: 'Georgia'">"The guy you hung around at that Christmas party. Bad suit, didn't pay attention to you. Yeah, think I remember."</span>Again, no overreaction when she said the 's-word'. Beautiful women had stalkers. That was just how the world worked. Men were violent creeps, and men with money were the worst of them.<br/><br/>It was good that she at least had the grasp of the situation. The nearest clean cop was out at the Sherriff's office, and the nearest clean cop who could<i>do</i>anything about Chapman was in Washington. That was<i>D.C., </i>not the state. Yeah. It was bad.<br/><br/>Getting to the bird, Alex was very focused on remaining mildly surprised. But she got him. He'd actually managed to mess up. Nearly choking on a sip of his coffee, he had to play off his laugh as a cough. Taking a napkin to clean the table, he winced apologetically.<span style="font-family: 'Georgia'">"Sorry. It's surprising is all. Go on."</span><br/><br/>Damn right, it was surprising!<i>That gaudy bit of baublry was a men's piece?</i>Maybe he was just too old-fashioned, but holy hell. The thing had weighed like half a pound. Ok, now a smirk was trying to battle its way onto his face. Because Chapman really<i>would</i>wear something like that. Prick.<br/><br/>And then, while he was inwardly grinning and not paying attention, she went and dropped two bombshells on him. She was thinking about getting a dog, and<i>he'd left evidence of the tampering on the camera.</i>The deleted footage<i>should </i>have been replaced with an edited loop to avoid causing issues.<br/><br/>A dog would only make things more complex from here on out, but no point in talking her out of it. Might've been her joking, it was hard to tell. Instead, he focused on the security system.<br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Georgia'">"Hey, I don't want to scare you, but if he's got the connections you say he does, might be he's got a buddy at the alarm company. Greasing his palm to hide his doorbell ditchers. Freaking punks."</span>He put a scoff in his voice. Make light of it. Calm her down. Just immature pranksters getting their rocks off to being<i>anyone</i>at all in her life. After all, at the end of the day, that's all Chapman was.<br/><br/>Actually, this was an opportunity.<span style="font-family: 'Georgia'">"Y'know, I used to install home security. I could come over this afternoon, see if it really is a technical issue. Might even find evidence of tampering. Call it a favor to Andrew, since we're keeping him out of the loop."</span><br/><br/>Good. Root your concern back in the friendship to the brother. She was a friend's sister. That was all. His incredibly attractive and equally unlucky sister. Maybe it was shallow, but way back in high school, Alex had never gone for the prettiest girls in his year... even when they'd made eyes at him. Trouble followed good looks, sure as the sunrise.<br/><br/>Then again, that was stupid. None of this was Matilda's fault. Trouble followed<i>Chapman</i>. He had to be able to fuck it, eat it, drink it, or put it in a case in his office. That was every<i>thing</i>and every<i>one</i>in his life. That's how he saw them. Chapman was a... a fucking shark. That was it. A cold-eyed animal without empathy or passion for anything not totally barbaric.<br/><br/>Alex pretended to take a longer sip of his coffee than he actually did. Caffeine made him drowsy quick. Couldn't be asleep on the job.<span style="font-family: 'Georgia'">"Don't worry about Andrew. I'll leave him out of it for now, and make sure he's locking his place up. Where are you headed now? Let me give you a lift." </span><br/><br/>It felt odd asking that, when he was fairly certain he knew her whole day's agenda. Back when she'd been dating Chapman, he'd made it routine to know her schedule. The 'mirror' in his pocket helped tremendously with that.