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Ryker twined his fingers through hers, and brought her hand to his mouth to kiss her knuckles. He kept scrolling through the latest tweets and news articles with his other hand. “I think it’s Rosé’s attempt to force you out of hiding. He can’t find you, so he’s setting the masses on the lookout.”
He opened his Skype app and clicked to chat with Roark. The app rang several times before a dark screen opened and they heard Roark grumble, “Someone better be dead.”
A light fumbled on in the background and Roark’s groggy face appeared. Roark’s buzzcut and sharp jaw appeared on the camera.
“What the fuck, man? I just fell asleep. I did not want to wake up to your ugly face. Make this shit quick so I can get back to the dream I was having about my favorite celebrity deep-throating me.”
Ryker rolled his eyes and blew a kiss to Roark. “Love you, too, dickhead. You know I wouldn’t distract you from your beauty sleep if it wasn’t important. The fantasy’s going to have to wait. I’ve got an assignment for you. Start guzzling coffee. Do you have details on Nelson and Rutherford this week?”
Roark rubbed his eyes and the camera’s movement looked as though he sat up on his bed. He roughed a hand through his short hair, and when he focused back on the camera, he looked more alert.
“Affirmative. Nelson’s with Benny while the band’s on break. They’re supposed to be running down leads. That boots-to-ground shit you like to do. Rutherford’s at his apartment in New York. Diesel is watching him. We have some of our trusted contracted guys with the band members.”
“There’s a new development to the stalker situation. Jade and I have to leave the cabin.”
Roark sighed. “Ah, shit. Sorry to hear it. I know you love that place. What’s the latest?”
“Someone obtained a fan photo of Jade, taken about 12 hours ago. They got a news site to tweet it under the guise of a ‘find Jade’ challenge. It’s trending. I’m sure the picture contains location information. It’s only a matter of time until someone finds us. I need you to make sure both suspects are under someone’s thumb and have our tech guy check their browsing and phone records. See if he can run down where that tweet originated. And check the cabin phone records, too. I got a weird call on the cabin line, so I think whichever prick it is found our trail. Jade and I are going to pack up and drive out ASAP. We’ll find somewhere random to lie low for a few days. Use the burner phone if you need to reach me.”
“All right, gotcha. Be careful, man. I’m on it.”
“Thanks, Roark. Oh, and can you talk to the band’s management about a press release to control this mess?”
“Dude, I got this. Not my first rodeo. Go take care of your woman.”
“Thanks, man.”
Roark saluted with two fingers and ended the call.
Ryker put his phone down and squeezed Jade’s hand.
He said, “We need to pack. Also, you should message anyone who needs to know that you’ll be unavailable for a few days. We have to pull the batteries out of our phones before we leave here so your stalker can’t track them.”
The names he mentioned on the call bothered her. “Who are Nelson and Rutherford?” she asked.
“One of them is Rosé.”
Jade rolled her eyes. “No shit. I gathered as much from your call. I don’t recognize those names, though. I mean, I don’t know everyone on the road crew, but I thought I knew most of the regulars.”
“They aren’t road crew.”
“Then who are they?”
“You might know them better if I say ‘Tyler’ Nelson or ‘Jake’ Rutherford.”
“Tyler or Jake...” The names finally clicked and anger hit her with the recognition. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Unfortunately, no. I’m pretty sure one of them is Rosé. I’m just not sure which one yet.”
Jade growled. “You’re seriously telling me Rosé is one of the band’s own security team?”
Rage flowed through her. Both those guys had been with the band from the beginning.
Ryker nodded. “Yes. Rosé’s been with you, behind the scenes, with full access to your hotel rooms and tour buses from the start.”
“Those rat bastards!” she exploded. “Next time I see them, they’re both getting their asses kicked!”
“We still have to prove which one it is.”
