Page 57 of Stuck with the Billionaire Celebrity

His hand tightens around the phone, his knuckles white. "Are you telling me we’ve been duped? That the man we caught—he’s not the stalker?"

There’s a long pause, and I watch as Theo’s expression twists with fury. His whole body is rigid, like he’s barely holding himself together.

"Paid him?" His voice is a low growl now.

"So, you’re telling me this bastardpaidsome lowlife to wear his damn jacket so he could slip through security while we were distracted with the decoy?"

I cover my mouth, trying to hold back a gasp. My stomach turns. The room feels like it’s spinning.

How did he know?

It wasn’t him. It wasn’t the stalker. We didn’t catch him at all.

I’m still in danger.

Theo takes a sharp breath, trying to regain some semblance of control. But his voice shakes when he speaks again.

"Where is he now? Do we have any leads on where the real guy is?"

There’s another long pause, and I feel like I’m going to be sick. I can’t hear what Tad is saying, but it can’t be good.

Theo’s expression darkens even further, his grip tightening on the phone as if he might crush it in his hand.

"Find him," Theo growls. "I don’t care what it takes, Tad. I want this guy found."

He ends the call with a sharp tap on the screen and throws the phone down on the table so hard it bounces. The sound echoes through the room, loud in the oppressive silence that follows.

I stand frozen, my heart pounding in my chest, my mind racing to process what I just heard. Theo looks at me, and for a second, I see something in his eyes that I’ve never seen before.

Helplessness.

But it’s gone as quickly as it came, replaced by that simmering anger he’s so good at containing.

“He got away,” Theo says, his voice rough.

“The man they caught—it’s just a paparazzo. Some scumbag the real stalker paid to show up in his place.

All so he could slip away unnoticed while we were too busy celebrating a victory that wasn’t even real.”

I stare at him, my throat tightening with fear. "So… he’s still out there. Watching. Waiting."

Theo nods, his jaw clenched so tightly I’m afraid he might break a tooth. "And now we have no idea where he is."

“How did he know it was all a setup?” I whisper, my hands shaking as I go back to the kitchen and grab a dish towel off the counter.

“He might not have really known. Guys like this are paranoid so they will sus out everything they can beforehand. It may have just been a lucky guess for him,” the security guard interjects.

“I’ve hired the best of the best. There’s no way that there’s a mole amongst our ranks.”

“But all the actors and…”

“There’s no way,” the security guard answers. “He couldn’t have known what we were doing. It’s got to be just dumb luck, paranoid luck on his part.”

I’m not convinced.

I don’t know what or who to believe anymore. None of this seems real.

All the relief I felt and the hope that this nightmare was finally over is gone. Replaced by an icy fear that settles deep in my bones.

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