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Mitchell flinched at my harsh command. “Mr. Rivers, we have a full psych profile on this guy. While his actions have manifested in disruptive and harmful cyber-related activities, there is a distinct absence of overt physical violence in his history. His motivations are based on overcoming his own psychological vulnerabilities rather than a direct desire to cause physical harm. We categorically believe that Stef is perfectly safe.”
“I don’t care what you believe. She’s not to go anywhere near him.” If I’d doubted myself on this, the complete lack of argument from Stef would have overcome that.
Mitchell cleared his throat. “Understood. We don’t think it’s necessary, in any case. Our guys are working twenty-four/sevenon the NGI, backtracking to the day he dropped off the phone to Stef. We’ll find him.”
“What the fuck is the NGI?” Rhett was the real MVP tonight.
“It’s our facial recognition system. So long as we can keep him on the hook with Stef, we’re golden. We’re confident that, given his character and attachment to Stef, if he makes any decisions that mean he won’t be able to contact her, he’ll let her know. So we’ll have a heads up, in that regard. That’s all we have for now. Are there any questions?”
There weren’t, so that ended the briefing. Stef went to stand, but I stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll have a few minutes alone with Stef.”
Mitchell nodded and the room was cleared in less than thirty seconds. Without a word, Stef slipped into my lap and laid her head on my shoulder.
“You deserve a spanking,” I said, pressing a kiss into her hair.
“Mm, yes, please.” Her tone was light, but her arms tightened around me. This whole thing was bothering her much more than she was letting on. It was impossible to stay mad at her.
“I hate that this is happening.”
“Me too. And I know you’re mad at me. I’m sorry about that. It was just that when he first texted me, I figured it would be helpful to reply. It’s kind of snowballed from there.”
“I want to take you away from it all.”
She heaved a sigh. “I know you do. Part of me wants you to, I’m not gonna lie. But we can’t do that. For all the reasons I couldn’t do it weeks ago, in New York. And for all the new reasons, likethe fact that I’m the best chance we’ve got. This guy is bad news. He needs to be put away. That’s all there is to it.”
“I fucking hate it.”
“Me too. And you know, if his psych profile didn’t sound so…what’s the word…benign? I’d be jumping on that plane tonight. But I trust Daniel. He’s promised me he’ll look after me and I believe him. Plus, he was shit scared of you already and he’ll be even more so after tonight.” She raised her head and smiled at me, her whisky eyes glowing with amusement. “Your reputation precedes you, sir.”
“Bullshit. You told him I was a giant teddy bear.”
That made her giggle, which made me smile. “Look, I might have mentioned it once. Or twice. But I’m pretty sure he didn’t believe me, so we’re all good.” She leaned in, brushing her lips lightly across mine before dropping her head back to my shoulder. “I suppose I should go.”
“Yeah, I suppose you should.”
She didn’t make a move, though, so I just held her, running my fingers through her hair until the tension left her.
Then the door opened. It was Farris. “Sir. I’m sorry, but we need to go.”
Stef dragged herself from my lap, and I stood.
“One more moment, Farris.” I just needed…
The door closed quietly, and I took Stef’s face in my hands, looking into her eyes for the longest moment. There was that ache, right under my heart. That pull, that had all sorts of words rising in my throat. Words I didn’t quite understand. But theywere whispering, and it was only a matter of time before they started screaming.
For now, “Be careful.”
“I will. Kiss me one more time before we go.”
CHAPTER 45
Stefania
Atale of two burner phones. One that never rang. And one that rang fifteen to twenty times a fucking day. It was the worst of times and the even worse of fucking times. I was so over it.
Even though the FBI briefing had clarified that it was highly unlikely that Ethan Blackwood was any real threat to me, in terms of violence, the guy still creeped me the fuck out. So I was still hunkered down in Scarlett’s flat with Patti, feeling restless and on edge every second of the damn day.
“I can’t tell if you want that phone to ring or not.”