Page 173 of The Stalker

“Twenty-six hours, Mark,” Tatiana said, ignoring the intense fear that threatened to tear her to pieces again.

“I know. I’ll get back to you in the next few hours with anything I find.”

She thanked him, and they ended their call. She told the band what Mark had found out, and it was a short while later that Sebastian looked up from his phone’s screen and gritted his teeth tightly together.

“Shit. The paparazzi know Hayden’s gone missing,” Sebastian announced, looking down at his phone. “I wondered how long the illness story would last.” He looked up and over at Tatiana. “Cooper’s just gotten off a plane and he’s coming here. Apparently, the FBI thinks we should do a press conference and beg for Hayden to be let go.”

Tatiana frowned at him. “I don’t think it’ll work, but it might turn up a lead. Someone who’s seen something, especially if they get Daniel’s photo out there. I should probably leave before Cooper gets here, though.”

“Fuck him,” Heather snorted.

“Exactly, lover. We still want you here, Tatiana. You actually have a hope in hell of turning up information about Hayden’s whereabouts.” Sebastian gave Tatiana a wicked grin. “Plus, the only bright spark in my life right now is the idea of seeing Cooper’s face when he sees you here.”

“Hayden did tell me once that you were trouble,” Tatiana told him.

“Sebastian ‘Trouble’ Fox, that’s what they call me!” he told her, seeming amused with what Hayden had said about him.

It was another twenty minutes before Cooper arrived in the hotel suite. Tatiana was sitting with her back to the window and facing the room, so he noticed her immediately.

“What are you doing here?” he growled at her.

Tatiana had been expecting this reaction, so she kept calm when she replied. “I told you that I haven’t been fired yet, so what I’m doing here is working with these guys to try and find Hayden.”

“Get her out of here,” he snapped at Gabriel.

“No.” Gabriel shrugged his shoulders.

“Did you have something you wanted to talk to us about, Cooper?” Sebastian asked, his delight at Cooper’s frustration evident in his expression.

Cooper turned his glare to Sebastian and said, “Not with Tatiana here. Do you understand that it’s her fault Hayden was kidnapped? After we’ve been paying her a fucking fortune to prevent that from happening.”

“The way I see it, whoever hired Daniel is the one that gave him access to Hayden in the first place, and that wasn’t Tatiana,” Sebastian said in a cool voice.

“All that matters is that we get him back, and arguing about Tatiana’s presence isn’t helping that happen. She’s here for the foreseeable future, so what do you have to tell us, Cooper?” Harrison said in a calm voice.

He glared at Harrison, then at Tatiana again before turning back to Harrison and saying, “You three have a press conference downstairs at three. The FBI has prepared a statement for you to read, then they’ll be the ones answering questions.”

It made sense. If this was her case, she wouldn’t want to risk a terrified rock star saying anything other than something she’d scripted for them. It was such a delicate situation and they were already on the second day. The weight of needing to find him now that a full twenty-four hours had passed seemed to be crushing her, but she took a deep breath and pushed it away. She could worry about him the next time her alarm went off.

“Anything else?” Sebastian raised an eyebrow at him.

“No. We’ll come get you when it’s time to go, I guess.”

“Great. Sayonara, Cooper. See you later,” Sebastian casually dismissed him, and Tatiana had to withhold a laugh.

Cooper snorted and turned on his heel before leaving the suite without another word.

“God, I hate him,” Heather spat as soon as the door shut behind him.

“Don’t we all,” Sebastian said. “The second our contract is up, we’re getting new management, that’s for sure.”

Tatiana’s phone pinged, and she looked down to see a text from Mark.

I’m finding stuff about this Jane. Following a trail of literary pseudonyms. Also digging more into Daniel’s family.

She read the text aloud to the room before replying.

Thanks, keep me updated.

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