Page 53 of Known By You
“We notified the LAPD, as well. He doesn’t appear to knowwhereshe is but found out her new number somehow.” Jack scowled, anger pulsing off of him.
“Cookie and Beast are running through all of her accounts now to shore things up and we’re told your assistant is obtaining another phone for her?” I said, trying to keep things moving toward the positive.
Jack nodded. Evie sighed and slumped back with her hands braced on her belly.
Liz moved around the couch and crouched next to her, one hand on the armrest of the couch. “We’re going to make it so he has no way to find you. For now, lie low, rest, and don’t let this steal your confidence in the plan.”
Evie’s lips pressed together and trembled, andthen she threw herself at Liz. She hugged her tight enough Liz didn’t fall backwards until Evie released her suddenly.
“Thank you. I’m sorry. I’m just… I’m a wreck.” Evie swiped under her eyes.
“You’re not a wreck. This is incredibly stressful, and you shouldn’t have to deal with it at all. We’re doing everything we can.” My gaze shifted to Jack’s, and he clearly read between the lines. Based on the tension in his shoulders and neck, he felt the same as I did.
Evie said thank you a few more times and Liz stood when she did. “Let’s see if the housekeeper has something for breakfast lined up,” Liz suggested, gently setting a hand on Evie’s back to guide her toward the kitchen.
I watched them go, appreciating how gentle Liz could be. She seemed like she’d be cold, even with clients, but she’d been nothing but warm and thoughtful and ready to help. She’d be great at this kind of work if she ever wanted to do more of it.
“You two involved romantically?”
Part of me hated to ask it, but we needed to know. Romantic dynamics wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, but if this was someone who was eventually going to step out in public with a man more famous than most people on the planet, we needed to know that, too.
Jack stiffened. “Just because she’s a beautiful woman staying with me doesn’t mean we’re dating.” He swore, clearly tired of being asked.
I held up my hands. “I’m sorry, man. I just need to know what we’re dealing with in terms of going forward. If she’s about to go out to the movies with you or something and get caught by paparazzi, it’s good to have that on the radar.”
Jack scrubbed a hand down his face. “No. She worked for me, and we became friendly enough. My house managerstarted noticing bruises and she tried to ask her about it, but Evie never said anything. I acted like an ass and sort of… held up my hands like it wasn’t my problem and if she wasn’t going to say anything, then that was it. Then she came to the house last week and I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t seeing it, so I sat her down. She let me help her, and here we are.”
He huffed and gritted his teeth, his jaw flexing in a way that probably made women the world over swoon if it’d been caught on camera. “What’s the point of being filthy rich if I can’t help someone who actually needs it?”
The tone said he was actually asking me and I sensed this went deep for him.
“You’re helping. You’ve got security in LA, you’ve talked to law enforcement, and you’ve got us here. Between all of us, we’ll figure out the best way to keep her safe until this baby arrives and we’ll get her set up with a new life when the time comes.”
Jack nodded, face still hard.
“Evie’s eating some breakfast. I think it’s time we get back to the office,” Liz said, pausing a few feet from us.
“We’ll circle back this afternoon with an update. You call us if anything else comes up, but expect to see us on and off, too.”
The local PD would up their periodic patrols in the neighborhood even though we had no concerns this sack of excrement knew anything about this location. Jack hadn’t ever stayed at this house, and though he’d visited Silverton a few times, he’d visited quite a few other small mountain towns here and, largely, hadn’t stayed long enough to make it somewhere even a particularly intelligent person might look.
We said goodbye and found our way to the car, bothsettling in with minds full of thoughts. Cookie and Beast would be on top of any trails they could find to help out, and I’d work on some contingency plans for local action if we needed them.
“I hate this,” Liz said, her voice low.
“Me, too.” I didn’t know whether she meant the whole situation and the idea that a man would hurt a woman like this jerk had Evie, or the way he was harassing her, but I got it. It was different than what she did, and it all felt a little futile when Evie was technically safe, but still running scared from someone so cruel and determined to harm her, even at a distance.
We drove the ten minutes to work, compiling a list quickly. I’d run back to the house to check on Kit in a few hours, but for now?—
“What the hell?”
A group of people in winter coats stood at the base of the stairs leading to Saint Security chatting with Bruce, Adam, and a thunderous-looking Stone, oddly enough.
But weirder, the group was familiar, and only because I’d just seen most of them in Vegas last weekend.
It wasn’t just a random group of tourists, no.
It was my family.
