“Which means he’s been watching the house and is well aware of our new security updates,” Rachel adds.
“I think you should move again,” Lynn blurts out as she pours coffee. “At the very least, check into a hotel.”
Rachel shakes her head. “No, this is good. This means he’s still fixated on her. She’s hardly been home a day, and he’s already reached out. If she goes into hiding, we lose our chance to catch him.”
“He’s watching,” I tell Lynn. “That means he’ll be easy to lure into the open.”
Joslyn doesn’t say a word. Leaning against the counter, she just sips her coffee.
I turn to Harry. “That’s where we need you. Joslyn and I have to go public with our relationship.”
“Relationship?” he asks in confusion.
“Fake relationship,” I amend. “Figure out the best way to get the news out to the biggest population of people.”
“Cara Peterson,” Harry says, and Lynn nods in agreement.
“Who is that?”
“Only the biggest talk show on TV these days,” Lynn explains.
“That will work,” I reply with a curt smile. Joslyn seems to be disconnected from all of this—stuck in her own head.
I leave it alone for now, addressing her manager and publicist. “For the next few weeks, book us in high-profile restaurants with paparazzi, secure tickets to shows, whatever it is you do to get your girl out there. I’ll be by her side the entire time, hopefully pissing this guy off.”
“We’ll do an official press release,” Harry says as he whips out his phone and starts typing notes into it. “I can get her on Cara’s show pretty easy. She owes me a favor.”
“I don’t like this,” Lynn reiterates, pointedly gesturing at Joslyn, who has her gaze pinned on her coffee cup. Lynn puts her arm on Joslyn’s shoulder, and she reluctantly turns to her manager. “I think this is just too dangerous.”
“She’ll never be by herself,” I reassure her, and Lynn swings my way, eyes heavy with distrust. “I promise she will be protected at all times.”
Giving my attention to Joslyn, I address her specifically. “But you have to be okay with this, Jos.”
She finally acknowledges me, the first time since she slapped my face, which I admittedly deserved. Her look is fierce, not in anger but in determination to get this solved.
She then turns to Lynn, taking her hand. “I trust Kynan to protect me. I want to do this. If we don’t do something affirmative, it could be weeks or months where I’m living in fear. I want to be able to move on with my life and put all of this behind me.”
Her words are simple, easily explaining where her head must be these days with having a stalker come after her. But I can’t help but feel those words are also specifically directed at me. That she wants to move past me, what we had, and what we did last night, ending with me giving her a metaphorical slap in the face by leaving her without talking.
Yeah, I totally deserved that actual slap.
“Fine,” Lynn says in capitulation, but then she pivots and points a finger directly at me. “But if Joslyn gets hurt, I’m going to cut your balls off.”
“She’ll be safe, I promise.”
Lynn nods and turns to Joslyn. They huddle with Harry, starting to make plans to out us to Hollywood as a couple.
Rachel leans in toward me to murmur. “You’ve got some explaining to do.”
“Not to you,” I answer, although I’ll probably tell her at some point about what happened last night. Rachel is the least judgmental person I know. But for now, we have work to do. “I need you to get on all the local flower shops to see if you can find out who bought those flowers.”
“That’s a needle in a haystack,” Rachel points out. “He could have bought those flowers four towns away.”
“I know,” I say with a wry smile. “But try, okay?”
“Of course,” Rachel says, then asks Bebe. “Can you print me a list of all flower shops in a twenty-mile radius? I’ll start with that.”
“Sure,” Bebe says as she starts tapping away at the keys. “But I can do you one better.”
“How’s that?” Rachel asks.
“I can try to hack into their systems to check their electronic records. It will take time, but at least it’s something.”
“You are brilliant.” Rachel beams at Bebe, who flushes under the praise but turns worried eyes to me.
“That is…” she says. “If you want me to do that. It’s not legal.”
“Go for it.” I’m not worried in the least. It’s for a good reason, and it’s not going to hurt the flower shop owners.
Bebe nods and gets to work, and I realize… if she has luck with locating the guy this way, this could be over with very, very quickly.
I had sort of set my expectations this could take weeks to resolve—certainly several days at the least. But if Bebe is as good as I think she is, and this stalker was stupid enough to leave a trail, then my time with Joslyn is quickly ticking away.