Page 72 of Betrayal In The Bay

“Whatever,” he says, rolling his eyes. “Anyway, she couldn’t tell if Phoebe was there, visiting, or not, but she said Phoebe looked pretty shaken up. It bothered her so much, she checked the files to see if Phoebe had a relative admitted.”

“How nosy of her.”

“Dude, you want to hear the rest of this? I could leave out the part where Lilly found out Phoebe was the one who’d been admitted.”

My head snaps up. “What the hell for?”

Ty shrugs. “Lilly didn’t know. She just said Phoebe was admitted the day after that Vinyl article came out about you and Billy, and she stayed for three days.”

Numbness washes over me as Vivian’s words echoe in my head.

“Don’t test me. I can ruin it all for you. You’ll lose your career, your adoring fans—even your precious Phoebe. I have ways to ruin her you can’t begin to imagine.”

Vivian.

Why didn’t I see this coming?

My stalker has been right in front of my face this whole time.

Twenty-Eight

Phoebe

So what if he shows up?

So what if we’d planned weeks ago to attend the book publicity party together? So what if he’d probably arrive with a new girl on his arm?

So fucking what?

I stand by the elevator, gripping my club soda so hard I’m shocked the glass doesn’t shatter in my hands. I thought I could save what little face I have left with Ralston Media by coming here. However, if the radio silence from my coworkers is any indication, my actions proved to be more than a party can fix.

“Come here often?” a familiar voice calls behind me.

Still hypersensitive of my surroundings, I whip around, ready to fight. The move spills the entire glass of club soda down the front of my dress. Cursing, I look up to find the kind eyes of Nate Jacobs staring at me.

“Oh shit, Pheebs, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you.”

I dab my chest with a cocktail napkin “It’s fine, I’m just jumpy these days.”

Someone broke into my apartment and tried to kill me. Oh, and it’s probably also because I’m pregnant with Julian Bale’s love child.

“You work too hard, Phoebe. You need to get some R and R.” Taking the glass out of my hands, he places it on an empty table.

I laugh for the first time in four weeks. “Yeah, because nothing says ‘I need a vacay’ quite like wearing your drink.”

Without warning, Nate dumps his entire drink down the front of his suit. “There, maybe they’ll give us both time off.”

“Oh, my God, Nate! What the hell? I can’t believe you just did that.”

“Now if people talk, they at least have a couple of subjects,” he said, grinning.

Laughing, we high-five each other as the elevator door opens. With my eyes lowered, I walk directly into a figure still blocking the doorway. Nate pulls me back, and I lose my footing, stumbling backward into his chest.

Then I look up.

The moment our eyes meet, my stomach flips. He claims me with a smoldering stare that darkens by the second.

Oh God, no…