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So I skim my way through the articles as I lie beside her. For a second, because I know her world is going to fully implode when she wakes up, especially after what she went through last night, I watch her sleep.
Her breathing is soft and even. Her eyelids flutter against her cheekbones. She’s peaceful and calm and resting. I don’t want to disturb her yet.
That will come soon enough.
In the meantime, I’m trying to figure out what the hell is happening. This seems like a controlled leak. I doubt any of Sloan’s friends would blab, which leads me to believe it’s someone from my team. Like we don’t have enough to deal with. Now, I have to find a stalkeranda traitor on my team.
Not the one I play for. Those guys would never. But my management team, the PR people, the agency that represents me, any person on their payroll could have done it accidentally.
That being said, this doesn’t seem like an accident. This seems more purposeful. Intended to disrupt.
Viv seems like a likely suspect, of course.
I need to get out in front of it. But for the life of me, I can’t stop looking at Sloan. Can’t stop watching her sleep.
The urge to kiss her awake is strong. Maybe she can feel it, though, because I’ve barely been watching her for a minute before one eyelid twitches open and she smiles sleepily up at me.
I smile back. It’s probably going to be the last smile I see for a while—until we work this leak out anyway—so I want to savor it for a minute.
I trace her lips with my finger. I can’t get enough of touching her.
“Good morning,” she mumbles. “Are you watching me sleep, you creeper?”
“Guilty as charged.” I tweak her nose. “You can’t blame me. You’re a very pretty sleeper.”
“‘Creeper’ doesn’t do it justice.” She turns on her side and tucks her hands under her head. “What’s wrong?”
I shake my head. I don’t want to end this minute because the next one is going to turn on her. But she looks at me, frowns, and lays her hand on my chest. I lay mine over hers and give a squeeze. “Sloan…”
She pushes herself upright. “What? What is it?”
I sigh. I guess we’re ripping the Band-Aid off this morning. “Someone leaked information about the baby. The press knows.”
She’s instantly wide awake. “Who the fuck…?”
“I don’t know. I’m going to find out, though, and there will be hell to pay. In the meantime, though, we need a plan.”
“What kind of a plan?”
“For starters, I’ll need to make a statement.”
Sloan nods. “Right. Yeah. A statement.”
The apprehension slumps her shoulders. Or the sadness. Or the weight of everything going on—and I haven’t even told her about my ruined car.
“We don’t have to mention you by name. I’ll just say that we’re excited, that we’re happy.” I take a deep breath. “That we can’t wait for the baby to get here, but until then, your safety and privacy are my main concern.”
She gulps and nods. “Okay. What else?”
“I texted my PI to see if he can find anything. He’ll get back to me in—” My phone buzzes. “Speak of the devil.” I scan his message quickly. “He said we should make a list of everyone who knows about the baby so he can check where the leak might’ve come from.”
Sloan’s brow pinches. “I’ve only told Monroe and Cassie.”
“They’ll never know he looked into them. We just have to include them so that we have a full picture, okay?” When she nods, I open the email app on my phone and start typing names. If her friends who know are on the list, mine need to be on there, too. I include Dix and Colin and LaDuke, the rest of the team, the coach, the training staff, her friends, my agency, Viv, the management team, even Sloan’s doctors and my house staff.
When I finish, I show her the phone. She nods, and we skim through the names together. But even as we read, both our frowns seem to dim in unison. It’s just all so unlikely. Most of them didn’t know or wouldn’t care.
It doesn’t leave a lot of options.
