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His expression was downright terrifying as he spun around to glare at me. “I’m going to be wherever you are. But I’m not going to be at a fucking press conference, becauseyouare not going to be at a fucking press conference.”
“And Steele and Echo and Nix will be there too, yes?”
“Did you not hear what I just said?”
“This needs to end.” I said it quietly, calmly, as if I were talking to a wild animal that had been backed into a corner. It didn’t work, if the deepening of his scowl was any indication. “For whatever reason, this stalker seems fixated on anything the Steadfasts do or say, so it’s an excellent bet that he’ll be watching whatever news conference we put together. At the very least, he’s going to want a medical update on the man he tried to kill.”
“But you don’t want it to just be amedical update.” He spat the words out like they’d done him dirty. “Oh, no. You want to be a shit-stirrer.”
He wasn’t wrong. “This news conference is a golden opportunity, Luke. I’m sure you can see that. In fact, if I weren’t the one involved in this opportunity—”
“But you are involved, Eden. You are.”
I watched my hands ball into fists before I consciously forced them to relax. “If I weren’t the one who was involved in this opportunity to provoke the stalker in the hope of luring him out, you’d be all for it.”
“Fuck that.” He paced along one side of the room, shaking his head. “Look, we have other avenues of investigation, so there’s no need for you to take any chances. Hell, we’re not even the only ones investigating this case anymore. Let the cops do their thing.”
“The cops have a strict procedure to follow, rules they can’t break, whereas we do whatever it takes to get answers, with Cap giving just a wink and a nod to actual current laws of the land.” Steele didn’t blink when Luke slashed him a glance that clearly told him to shut the fuck up. “That’s just one example of how our hands aren’t tied like the cops. She’s right, man. This news conference could be the tool we need that’s going to pry this asshole out from whatever rock he’s hiding under. We should at least consider it.”
“I’ll let you write my script,” I offered when I saw Luke struggling to come up with a decent argument to shut his friend down. “Feel free to coach me on how to act at the presser—what emotions I should and shouldn’t show, what buttons I should push, keywords that will drive him insane with fury. You’d have complete control.”
“Goddamn it, don’t play me, Eden,” he muttered, but with so much less heat I knew we had all but won the battle. “You’re just as much a pro at this as I am. Shit, you probably already have your bullet points in mind, don’t you?”
“Let’s see if they dovetail with yours.” I nodded, ticking them off my fingers. “First I’d refer to my father’s assailant as a spineless coward. After all, you’d have to be a coward to attack an older man who’s all on his own, and then leave him for dead. Not to mention the stalker attacked after tormenting my father for weeks and weeks from the shadows, hiding like a child. A real man, with a real spine and other manly anatomical parts, would come into the light and do his business where all the world could see him. Or at the very least, where I could see him.”
“That’s good,” Echo murmured almost to himself, then looked away when Luke tried to kill him with a scowl.
“What else do you think I should say?” I asked Luke, keeping my attention on him.
“Starting off with cowardice before sliding into questioning his manhood is the way I’d go as well,” Luke muttered so reluctantly it was as if the words were clawing to stay inside. “You need to show no mercy right from the beginning on that—keep hitting those two points over and over with every scornful comment you make, until they’re all he hears. But at the end of the presser you need to put the cherry on top of that shit sundae and make an appeal not to the attacker, but to all the people whose lives your father has touched over the years.”
“Why do that?” Steele wanted to know.
“Comparison value,” I said, smiling in sheer admiration at my monster. “My God, you’re brilliant.”
Echo raised his hand. “I’m sure you’re both brilliant, because you both know what the other is talking about, but you’ve totally fucking lost me. What doescomparison valueeven mean?”
“It means Luke wants me to compare the behaviors of these two men—my father, whose public face is that of a benevolent philanthropist bent on helping people find their greatness, versus whatever it is the attacker has done to me and my father over the past several weeks.”
“He’s a psycho, but everyone knows that,” Steele said, crossing his muscle-corded arms. “What’s the point of calling him on it now?”
“Comparing him unfavorably to Tru should be the stalker’s ultimate trigger,” Luke said, shaking his head. “Think about it—after everything this asshole has done, his actions have made it clear that he sees himself as some kind of romantic hero. He woos Eden with flowers and dick pics while trying to slay the conman cult leader who happens to be her father. He needs to be reminded that no matter what he personally thinks of Tru Steadfast, Eden and the rest of the world see Tru as both an innocent victim and a hero. Obviously this fucker has a problem with Tru and thinks he’s worthy of death, so if Eden talks about her dad like a he’s a sweet little angel that can do no wrong, our stalker’s going to lose his shit and waste no time in trying to correct her, probably in the worst way imaginable.”
“Which is where the gentlemen of PSI come in.” I tried to smile and almost made it. “And that leads me to the next item on my list of things to do—making sure everyone in this room understands how we manipulate the optics of this presser to our favor.”
Echo lifted a dark brow. “The optics?”
I nodded. “While I’m doing the press conference, it would be best if you, Steele, Nix and Luke not be a visible presence around me. Of course you need to be there,” I added hastily when both Echo and Steele began to frown and Luke cursed. “And I know you all will do everything in your power to keep me alive. But when it comes to the actual visual impact while I’m on camera, I’d like to sell the totally inaccurate point that I’m all alone in the world and oh, so vulnerable.”
“But he’s seen you’ve got hired muscle around you,” Steele said, frowning. “Remember, he saw us at the restaurant.”
“The only individual he saw for certain was Luke, who could easily have been seen as my boyfriend and not a bodyguard. My stalker might suspect I have my own hired muscle, but everyone knows I’m not wealthy like my father, and I’ve made it clear for years that I’m not under his protection. If I put on a show that has no visible security in it, I’m hoping I’ll prove too tempting a target to resist, and he’ll attack once I’ve, um, done my thing. You know, piss him off and publicly question his manhood.”
“You see why I’m not taking this well?” Luke muttered to no one in particular, flinging a hand my way. “With a plan like that, what the fuck could possibly go wrong, right? Except you could end up dead, Eden.”
“We don’t have to make a decision right this minute when it comes to whether or not PSI helps me take advantage of this opportunity that’s fallen into our laps.” With that, I rose from my chair and gathered my purse and jacket. “Have a meeting on it. Have a dozen meetings on it. But you should know that talking this through with you has convinced me all the more that this is the way to go. I’d like to do it in full cooperation with you and all the men of PSI, but if I have to I promise you I’m going to do it on my own with nothing more than a BB gun beside me to keep me safe. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go find out where they’re going to move my father.”
*
