Page 35 of You Found Me

Satisfaction that he was right ramped up his irritation. For all she knew, the man she’d wrapped her legs around in the pool was the stalker. “Those weren’t friends. Those were party favors.”

“Excuse me?” Ms. Bellamy’s dumbfounded expression would have been comical if he wasn’t so pissed off.

“This little shindig of yours will be all over social media by now. Do you get what that means?”

“I—”

“He’sstalkingyou.” Ward bulldozed past whatever she’d been about to say in the low, tense tones of a barely controlled temper. “That means he watches everything you do. He scours the web for any sign of you, and now heknowswhere you are.”

He drifted closer to her as he spoke. His need to get his point across disengaged most of his filters. It wasn’t the first time he’d worked with a woman who couldn’t see how much danger she was in.

A lot of them lived in denial, and that always,alwaysgot them hurt.

Not this time.

“No he doesn’t,” Ms. Bellamy managed to say, but it came out breathy and unsure.

“It’s only a matter of time before your stalker shows up outside that gate, and from there all he has to do is figure out how to get in. What do you suppose he’ll do then? Think he’ll just leave a note? He’ll escalate. Maybe he’ll take something. Maybe he’ll takeyou.”

He was close enough to smell the strawberry margarita she’d had for lunch. “You might as well go ahead and put up a giant neon sign that says ‘Victim here. Come on in.’”

“Jesus,” Renic muttered.

“That’s—” She swallowed hard. Her gaze flicked to the security feeds, then back. “That’s not going to happen. This place is secure. Romi set it up.”

“Romi can’t keep someone out ifyougive them permission to enter. The stalker might have already sauntered in while you were doing shots by the pool.”

“No.” She rubbed her arms as if she were suddenly chilled. “No way he was here. He would have said something. Wouldn’t he?”

“He might have. How would you know? It’s not like stalkers come with name tags. And here’s a fun fact for you. In most cases, a stalker is someone the victim knows. Someone they’ve met. It could have been that guy you rode in the pool this afternoon.”

“Della,” Renic said with all the disapproval of a dad to a teenager.

Ms. Bellamy dropped her defensive posture and looked past Ward to Renic. “Scott isn’t a stalker. He’s a Baldwin.”

“He could be both.” Ward waved that away. “Here’s another tip for you. While you were playing in the pool, your stalker could have scouted the entire place. He could have the security setup, he could have the codes, hell he could have stolen your underwear.”

He hoped like hell that was an exaggeration. If his team hadn’t been patrolling the house and grounds while the party was going on, he’d be shopping for a new team.

“First you think Scott is a stalker, and now you think it’s someone else? Which is it?” His principal crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her hip exactly like his sister did when she was pissed. “It’s been three weeks,Warden. Where’s the progress? You have a crack team on this, right? So why haven’t you found him already?”

“He’s covered his tracks. He’s good.” Didn’t that little nugget of truth sting. “So far, the field of potentials is too damn big to narrow down. I’m trying like hell to anticipate the man’s next move, but I can’t do that if you insist on offering yourself up as a nearly naked tribute.”

He spared a glance at her swimsuit.

Her stare turned cold, and the challenge in her eyes made him want to punch something.

Dammit, he’d almost had her. She’d almost seen reason. One wrong word and she was back behind the veil of denial.

“You realize if the guy gets in here it won’t just be you who pays the price,” Ward said. “It’ll be me. It’ll be the security team.” He gestured to the camera where Diggs now appeared to be cleaning up the back patio. “It’ll be Diggs. We’re the ones who step in front of the bullet while you dance around pretending it doesn’t matter. But I guess to you we’re all disposable. So long as you get to have a good time, who cares about us, right? We’re just the hired help.”

He let the innuendo hang in the air like the accusation it was and felt a tiny flare of satisfaction when she flinched.

Her gaze lowered to the floor. “That’s not fair,” she said in a shaky voice.

“No, it’s not,” Ward agreed. “It’s incredibly unfair that we risk our lives for someone who refuses to get out of her own way.”

She lifted her gaze to meet his. Her eyes told him he was the biggest asshole she’d ever met.