Page 55 of Lion’s Den

His teammates remained still and waited. That didn’t surprise him. What did surprise him was Sedona’s response to his request. She remained still. He shouldn’t have been shocked. She was intuitive and could read a room almost as fast as he and his team could.

He combed through the past few weeks to the few times and hours he’d spent with Sedona and their friends from the sheriff’s department. And remembered a face, one that had pinged on his internal radar to watch for. The same man paying a little too much attention to Sedona. He couldn’t run a man through the computer database for looking at a beautiful woman, and Sedona was the most beautiful woman Cam had ever seen.

Feeling sick that he’d likely disregarded a man who might have kidnapped Sedona, Cam turned from the window to face her and his teammates. “Yes.”

Rhys lifted his hands from his laptop keyboard. “Talk to us, sir.”

“I noticed a man watching Sedona. I thought little of it because Sedona is beautiful and men notice beautiful women.”

“Looking back on it now?”

“His interest was too intense for a casual acknowledgment of beauty.”

“What does that tell you?”

“His interest is specifically in Sedona. The question is why? Second, when we track him down and question him, will the danger to her stop?”

“What does your gut say?”

He scowled. “I’m missing something vitally important. I don’t know what it is, but I’m positive we’re missing a key piece of information that will turn what we know or believe upside down.”

Isaac’s expression darkened. “Then we better get busy because I think your instincts are right on the money.”

Dread grew in his gut. Not good at all. His men had good instincts, honed in the crucible of war. If they said something wasn’t right, you could take that to the bank.

“Where and when did you see this guy?” Rhys asked.

“I noticed him the first time a month ago at the town festival.”

“You would recognize him if I found recordings of the crowd?”

“Of course.”

“Where were you specifically when you noticed this guy at the festival?”

He thought about that for a moment. “Outside the bank. That’s where the hot apple cider vendor was set up. I bought Sedona a cup of cider near dinner time.” He’d timed their unofficial date that way so he would have a natural excuse to ask her to have dinner with him.

He smiled slightly. It had worked like a charm, too. If only he’d known that he didn’t have to come up with excuses to ask her out, his stress level would have been considerably lower.

“Give me a minute.” Rhys’ hands flew over the keyboard for a minute, then two, then three. “Got it. Come see.”

Cam joined Sedona in looking over Rhys’ shoulders at his laptop screen. He tapped a key, and the crowd on the screen shifted into motion. Seconds after the crowd’s movement began, Rhys pointed to Cam and Sedona walking through the crowd toward the apple cider booth. When they reached the booth, Sedona placed her order and conversed with the vendor. Cam split his time between watching Sedona and scanning the milling crowd. He noted the exact moment when he spotted Sedona’s watcher for the first time.

He leaned closer and pointed to one man on the screen. “There. That’s the guy who’s been showing up all over town wherever Sedona is.”

“Let’s see if this guy is in the system somewhere.”

“I didn’t hear that,” Cam muttered. “So don’t get caught.”

Rhys chuckled. “You got it, sir.”

“Do you remember seeing him, Sedona?”

“Yes, of course. That’s Nick Stephens. We run into each other at least once or twice a week. He’s a nice guy.”

“That’s what the neighbors always say about serial killers,” Dario said.

She shook her head. “He’s no serial killer, that’s for sure.”