“And Declan? Who’s he?”
I spoke up before the others. “A casual observer.”
His eyes rounded, but he didn’t comment further. He stared at me for several minutes before turning his attention back to Walker and the chief. Neither said anything until the guy fidgeted in his seat.
“Glenn, can you explain how you came to be Katie’s manager?” Walker asked.
The guy swallowed and answered the question. And all the questions that came after. Celeste came in at one point, joining me against the buffet where I leaned. She kept her mouth zipped, watching and listening. After several more questions, she patted my arm and left the room.
It didn’t take long for me to realize neither Glenn nor Marcie was working with the stalker, but I didn’t interrupt the questioning. There could be things they knew that we didn’t.
When Walker and Conrad wound down, they hadn’t asked a question I wanted an answer to.
“What did you make of Danny?”
“Odd.”
“A creep.”
12
MARCIE
Exhaustion seeped into the marrow of my bones after Declan, Conrad, and Walker questioned me and Glenn. I understood why they wanted to talk to us, but it didn’t make answering question after question any easier. I’d never been on the witness stand, but I imagine it was much the same.
As Glenn and the others left the room, Declan hung back, casually leaning against the buffet. He was tall, just not as tall as Hayden, who soared to the ceiling. But even slouched as he was, Declan still towered over me. Not sure if I should stay or go, I sat still, waiting for directions of some sort. While I did so, my eyes roved over him.
He was so freaking beautiful.
From the scuffed leather boots that looked expensive despite the wear and tear to the denim jeans encasing his long, long legs and the button up shirt, with the sleeves rolled up just enough to highlight the forearm porn I’d glimpsed earlier, he was the picture of a cowboy. He even had one of those buckles that was nearly big enough to eat from. His sandy brown hair held highlights, but not from a bottle like so many of the men I knew from Nashville. Rhinestone cowboys through and through. For the most part. Some of them were the real deal, but so very few of them were as real as this guy. The guys in Nashville who wore those buckles and dressed as he did made my eyes roll, but something about Declan seemed genuine. As authentic as authentic could possibly be.
As I watched him, I couldn’t help but catch the melancholy aura that enveloped him. As if something had broken him and he didn’t know how to put the pieces back together again. I noticed a similar air surrounding Hayden when I first laid eyes on him, despite how taken I’d been with him.
I didn’t know why that vibe filled the atmosphere around them, but it called to me. Drew me to them and made me want to get to know them.
It didn’t hurt that they were both big, strong, sinfully sexy men who looked like they could make a girl cry in all the good ways.
“You don’t have to stay.”
Declan’s voice startled me, and I gasped.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You didn’t.”
His brow arched, silently calling me out. Heat swept through me, and I dropped my chin so my hair would hide the embarrassment.
“No need to lie to me, sweetness, or to hide.”
The chair Glenn sat in moments ago scraped as it pulled out.
“Can you tell me some more about why you called the guy creepy?”
“He watches me.”
“In what way?”
I glanced up at him. He leaned back in the chair, slouched down with his long, long legs stretched out in front of him. One arm tossed over the back of the chair beside him, and the elbow of the other rested on the tabletop. My eyes betrayed me, I was sure of it, because they couldn’t decide what to stare at. The slight bulge in his pants that hinted at what he was packing, the forearms with the light dusting of hair, covering veins, muscles, and tendons that popped and rippled under the skin,
