Page 175 of The Stalker

“I hate this so much,” Ariana said quietly from where she was sitting next to Gabriel before she burst into tears.

“Sorry, Ariana,” Sebastian said with a sigh before he went and sat in his armchair.

“It’s okay. I cry a lot right now,” she said and rolled her eyes.

Sebastian gave a small laugh, “Yeah, Lita had a terrible time with pregnancy hormones. Fuck”—his smile disappeared, and he looked ashamed—“I’m glad that Lita and Mira weren’t here to witness that. Sorry if I scared you guys, I just…lost it for a second.”

“Hey, Tati was here to protect us,” Gabriel grinned at her.

“Yeah. I never would’ve let you hurt anyone, not even Cooper,” she said, spitting his name out in disgust.

It was less than ten minutes later that Tanya arrived, looking concerned and trailing the FBI agents who were here to prep the guys for their press conference. Derek nodded at her when he saw her, and she forced a smile back at him.

They all went downstairs as a group to a large room that was buzzing with media from outlets around the world. This news was big, and she forced herself to take a few calming breaths as the men walked onto the stage. She stood at the side of the stage with Ariana, Heather, and the rest of the band’s entourage.

Gabriel was the one to read the statement, and he gave a tight smile to the room before he started to read.

“Hi, everyone. We want to thank you all for coming today. We’re here because Hayden Vega has been abducted, and we’re asking the public to help us find him. A man name Daniel Russo has taken him and is believed to be working with another person. A picture of this man will be given to all outlets. We’re begging anyone with any information to come forward. If you have seen this man or Hayden, please contact the authorities immediately.” Gabriel’s voice wavered and cracked before he finished, “We just want Hayden to come home safely to us, and we beg you all to help us search for him.”

The men stood there for a moment as camera flashes went off, capturing this moment with them looking beautiful and forlorn in their grief over their missing friend. No doubt, these pictures would be on headlines worldwide within the hour. She hoped desperately that something good came of it.

Derek caught her attention as he moved close to her while a serious-looking FBI agent took the stage as the band members left it. Derek didn’t look at her, just stared at the stage in front of them before he said quietly, “Have you read any classical books lately?”

“Yes. Quite a few, actually.” She, too, kept her face firmly forward.

“Okay, just checking. Maybe we could start a book club.”

She chuckled, and it was nice to find some humor in something. “Maybe we could.”

Derek’s boss, Special Agent McGuire, was the head of the taskforce to find Hayden, and she was still answering questions from the press when they left the room by a side door. They made their way back upstairs to Gabriel’s suite, which had somehow become their base of operations.

Her phone rang not long after they got back there and she was relieved when she saw that it was Mark calling her.

“Tell me you have something,” she answered.

“I don’t have a real name, but I did manage to get a picture of a woman who met up with Daniel at a hotel two days before the tour started,” he said, sounding pleased with himself.

A dart of excitement traveled through her that they finally had some kind of idea of who the stalker was. “Oh my god, that’s awesome!”

“I certainly think so. I’m running it through a few databases to see if I can get a hit, but I thought if you could show it to Hayden’s friends, they might recognize her.”

“Of course, send it through.”

She hung up and beamed at the group in front of her, who were all looking at her eagerly, having heard her side of the conversation.

“Mark has a picture of the woman he believes is the stalker. He wants me to show it to you and see if any of you recognize her.”

“That’s awesome,” Heather grinned at her.

The picture came through, and she passed her phone to Harrison, sitting on a sofa with Heather to her left, who looked at it and shook his head. “No clue who that is, sorry.”

Sebastian took the phone off him and stared at the picture for a full minute. “I wish I could say I remembered her, but I don’t.”

His shoulders drooped, and he frowned deeply, looking disappointed as he handed the phone off to Gabriel. Tatiana’s excitement at having this photo was fast diminishing. She was losing hope that any of them might recognize the woman.

“She looks kind of familiar,” Gabriel said, and a spark of hope hit Tatiana. “But we meet a lot of people.” He looked at the picture again, then shook his head. “Nope, sorry.”

He handed the phone back to Tatiana, and she wanted to cry. Their first big break in the case and it had amounted to nothing. They heard nothing more from Cooper, the agents on the case, or Mark for hours.

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