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Riss’s dark eyebrows merged. She knew the man’s name as I’d added him to a list of people we had concerns over. “Keep eyes on him. We’ll be moving on shortly.”
I nodded and returned to my watch.
After another few minutes, Alex stood and exited the box, Riss sticking with her on their path around the stadium to the far side where the charity box was located. Few knew the plan, and to any casual onlooker, they could assume she needed the bathroom or refreshments.
Yet the second she left her seat, Malcolm Dennis stood and abandoned his own.
I watched him trot down the concrete steps and disappear into a tunnel. He hadn’t stared after her in surprise. He hadn’t craned his neck to see where she was going.
I radioed the change to Riss and pursued my team, catching up with them to take my position. Will and Johnnie formed the sides of our diamond, and I was at the back.
That same sense of wrongness haunted me. Stadiums and arenas were my bread and butter. We moved Leo through them regularly. Yet every doorway and stairwell had me panicked like we were about to be jumped.
On the far side of the huge venue, we safely escorted Alex to rejoin the charity party, and I could finally take a breath.
Riss positioned Will and Johnnie in the hall, taking me with her into the charity box. A wide room held leather sofas and a catering table, opening out onto a private terrace with seats to watch the match. A railing and a drop protected attendees from others, but as I scanned the audience, my heart stopped.
Malcolm Dennis was right there, that little camera in hand, trained once more on Alex.
How the fuck had he known where she was going?
“Riss, that same paparazzo followed us.” I spoke directly to the team leader through my comms, cutting out the rest of the team.
Across the room, she blinked. “I thought you said he was across the stadium?”
“Aye, he was, but somehow he’s made it here in the same time it’s taken us.”
Which only left one conclusion. He’d known exactly where Alex was going to be.
My mind raced to fill the gaps. It was typical for paparazzi to cover all bases and have multiple tickets for an event with segmented locations. That was a common tactic to be sure they could get into position wherever they needed to be, and Dennis could have predicted that his target would be in the boxes on one side of the stadium or the other. But for him to have followed—no,preceded—her meant he’d been aware of Alex’s movement plan.
The cold crystallised into ice in my blood. How many others knew? Her team, obviously, and the stadium coordinator. Had that rippled out to the wider stadium security team? To the admin or TV crew?
On cue, the cameras briefly trained on the royal box, the huge screens showing it was empty. That was a no, then. The TV crewassumed Alex was still there and had wanted another shot of her pretty face.
Riss appeared beside me and checked out Dennis. Calculation played out in her eyes. “That’s unexpected.”
“Someone told him where she’d be. Exactly like with the nightclub and with how her outfit was revealed.”
I shot my gaze back to the entertainment room behind the seats. Will and Johnnie were in opposite corners, looking bored. It had to be one of them. There was no other possibility.
“We need to leave,” I said.
Riss gave a single shake of her head. “This is unusual, but our principal is not in any danger from one lone photographer.”
“No, but she is if her team is selling her information.”
The team leader’s eyes darkened. “That’s quite the accusation to make without evidence.”
I bit back frustration. “What is this if not evidence?”
Riss observed the photographer one more time then turned. “I hear you, but a risk event has not been triggered. Therefore, we’ll continue as planned. Take a breath, Raphael.”
She left me to stew in my own juices. One thing I was certain of was that I wouldn’t leave Alex’s side. Not while I was the only person who seemed to give the tiniest damn about her safety.
Chapter 17
Alexandra