Page 141 of Captivated

Joe stiffened. “I don’t understand what you mean.”

“The obvious answer, Joe, is that Rich is obsessed with her. He was probably following your girl. Maybe you didn’t see him, or maybe he just outsmarted you all. That’s the obvious answer to how this happened, right?”

As much as Joe hated to admit it—and fuck, he hated to think it, too—Cory was right, as usual. “Thanks for the info I already know, but I don’t need you shoving that fuck up in my face right now. It’s already obvious enough without you doing it, too.”

“No, listen, fuck-head.”

Jesus, save him.

Because Joe was going to kill him.

“I’m saying,” Cory continued, “that it’s easier to look at the obvious because that’s typically where the answers are, Joe, but what if in this case, that’s the wrong place to look.”

Joe hesitated, and then asked, “How so?”

“What if while everyone was busy looking at her and him, he was looking at you.”

“Cory—”

“I know, I know, Joe,” his brother rushed to say, coming off snappish and defensive, “you’re the fucking Shadow, and nobody sees you if you don’t want them to. But you’re not goddamn invisible, Joe. All right? You’re not. And you got mixed up with a woman who clearly had some baggage that you weren’t made aware of going in which might have made you a little more careful in some of the shit you did with her. So, tell me if it’s not remotely possible that someone was watching you, and you weren’t aware because of that.”

Well …

Shit.

“It’s possible,” Joe settled on saying.

But he didn’t like it.

“You don’t think it’s the case, though,” Cory argued, “I can hear it in your voice.”

“Wrong—I don’t want to think it was the case. Big difference.”

“Why not? It could mean you might find something someone else hasn’t found, Joe.”

“It also means I fucked up again, Cory.”

“You didn’t fuck up, man.” Cory sighed when Joe didn’t respond. “Where do you go from here, then?”

Well, that answer was easy.

He needed to stop retracing her steps, and start retracing his.

“I have to go,” Joe said, offering nothing else to his brother before he hung up the phone. He didn’t even let the screen blank out before he was dialing another number—Lucian’s. The man picked up on the second ring, unsurprisingly. He didn’t let Lucian speak before he was saying what was forefront on his mind. “I need … something.”

“Something like what, Joe?”

“Feeds—surveillance. From my hotel, and from Liliana’s show. That charity event, too. The coffee shop I used down the street, and hell, even the convenience store where I picked up my smokes.”

“Why would—”

“Can you get those videos, and have someone survey them, or not?” Joe demanded.

Lucian cleared his throat. “We’ve got someone. A hacker.”

Joe rattled off dates to make it easier. “That’s what I need … and any clips with me in them, I need sent to me.”

“It’s going to take a while.”