Page 78 of Rescued

Ryder had only met the guy for a few minutes, but he didn't seem the type to stalk anyone, unless he was looking at it as a publicitystunt.

"Okay, I'll see him tomorrow at this event. I'll be sure to dig in on him a bit. What about the douchebag, Reynolds? I'd sure love to throw him behind bars if for no other reason than being anasshole."

"The only thing I've turned up on him is closer to my normal kind of job. He's hitting a married woman on the side. Woman by the name of GloriaMining."

Ryder had heard the story from Khloe, so he wasn'tsurprised.

"I think he's a deadend."

"Me too," his friendagreed.

"So who does that leave us with? The package to her parents proves to me that it's an insider. Who haven't we lookedat?"

Axe agreed with him. "Technically, it could be a fan, but I think you're right. The evidence points more to someone she works with. Did you meet anyone on the set who concernedyou?"

Ryder reran the prior day on a loop in his head. "I emailed over the crew names that I collected yesterday so you could run a check on them. There were about twenty names on the list. Now that I'm thinking about it, there was this one guy I didn't have on my original list. I had to ask around to get his name. It's Peter Hernandez. When I asked Khloe about him, she said he's the nephew of one of the producers or something. He's not playing with a fulldeck."

"I'll check him out. I'm expecting the security camera footage from the studio tomorrow. You did a good job scaring the shit out of the head of security. But the best gift we got was that package to her parents. I dug in and found the service the stalker had deliver it was a custom delivery service. At first, I almost eliminated everyone on the west coast due to the timing of the delivery. It came so soon on the heels of your arrival, that clearly scares them by the way, and just the logistics of physically getting a package to the doorstep of her parents in the Bronx after nine on a Fridaynight."

"Yeah, whoever is behind this is either stupid or has one big set of balls," Ryderreasoned.

"I'm going with stupid. It didn't jump out at me immediately, but up until now, all of the messages focused solely on Khloe. How they planned to be with her. Professing their love and devotion. This message barely mentions her. It's like all they care about is getting rid of you, someone they clearly see as athreat."

He should be flattered, but he was more relieved. He was used to playing with danger. If his presence drew the danger off Khloe and made the stalker make stupid mistakes, then he couldn't behappier.

"We need to find out where that package was sentfrom."

"I'm on it. It's getting late there. Keep your phoneon."

"Yeah, I will, but we may go downstairs for a bit. I won't be able to take my phone in with me. You still have that number for Spencer,right?"

The men had served together in the marines what felt like a lifetimeago.

"Yeah, but I'd rather not call him," Axegroused.

"It was fourteen years ago. You need to let it go," Ryder urged, remembering how the slightly older Spencer and Axe had always argued like siblings, picking at each other incessantly, but always there to cover the other's back whenneeded.

"It's not that." Ryder could hear the frustration in his old friend's voice. "Every time I talk to someone from the old days, the first thing they do is tell me how sorry they are for me. I don't want anyone's fucking pity." Axel's voice quavered with pent upemotion.

"I get that. I do, but it's hard to know what to say, man. Cut us some slack if we botch it." Ryder spoke from his heart, his own guilt for not being there for his friend when he needed him crowding inagain.

"You're right. Fuck it. I'll call him if I can't reachyou."

Axe ended the call without a goodbye. Ryder threw his phone down on the coffee table a bit too hard and looked up to see Khloe watching him from across the room, her arms folded across her chest. When their eyes met, she began her trek across the spacious room towards him. She didn't stop until she'd mounted his lap facing him, her legs spread so that her knees touched the leather couch and her clothed pussy pressed against his flaccidshaft.

"So when are you going to tell me what's going on with Axe? You barely told me anything last night when you got back from visiting him." He didn't want to waste their precious time together talking about or even thinking about how fucked up Axel's life was, but one look at Khloe's determined face as she wiggled her ass, grinding against him like a cat in heat trying to scratch their itch, reminded him of her control overhim.

"You don't want toknow."

"Of course I do. You said he's one of your oldest friends. I know next to nothing about you, Ryder. The only reason I met Aunt Ginny is because I didn't listen toinstructions."

He let his hand squeeze her tight ass through her jeans. "Thanks for the reminder. I never did punish you for that, didI?"

She wasn't deterred. "Please. You know almost everything about me. It isn'tfair."

Ryder didn't want to be the one to tell her that life was rarely fair in his experience. Considering all of the scary truths he was keeping from her, he decided sharing some of his history with Axe was some of his safestsecrets.

"We were childhood friends. Our fathers were in the same motorcycle club. We were in high school when his dad was killed and he came to live with my father and me for a couple of years until we both enlisted in the marines together. That's where we metSpencer."

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