Chapter One
6am Saturday - Sydney, Australia
“Fuck. This guy has a serious hard-on for our girl.”
Stone grunted in acknowledgement and glowered at the four walls boxing them in. Every square inch—including the ceiling—was covered with photos of Sophie Collins.
She was a good-looking woman—hell, she was hot—and you couldn’t hold it against a man for admiring the sexy songstress, but these pictures made Stone’s gut churn and his blood boil.
This went beyond normal admiration. It wasn’t the work of an overzealous fan either. What was spread out in front of them took this case from fanatical follower to obsessed stalker in the blink of an eye.
Something familiar snagged his gaze and he leaned in closer for a better look. Recognition slammed into him. Sophie’s bed. “Holy shit. He’s got a feed into her house.”
“What?” Ford Moreland charged over, shouldering Stone out of the way and bending to study the picture he pointed at. “Get someone in her fucking house right now, Aiden,” his boss yelled. “I want whatever link this cock has shut down.”
Stone liked working for Aiden and Ford Moreland. The brothers might be a little rough around the edges most of the time, but he liked that there was no beating around the bush. If a job needed doing it got done ASAP. Their company, Landlocked, dealt with all forms of security—high-tech systems for buildings, computer networks, etcetera—and Stone’s favorite, and area of expertise: personal protection.
Except they hadn’t done a great job of protecting Sophie Collins.
She was missing.
Eighteen hours and counting since anyone had lain eyes on her.
Chip burst through the shed door behind them, laptop in hand. “You’re not gonna like this, boss.”
Ford laughed, the sound humorless as he turned to face the other man. “Yeah, ’cause I’m liking what I’ve seen so far.” Sighing, he nodded. “Give it to me.”
“He piggy-backed our system to get a visual inside her house. He also hijacked our trackers. That’s why all the feeds went dead. I reactivated them but nothing’s pinging.”
“Jesus fucking Christ. Whoisthis guy?” Ford growled. “I want a name and I want itnow.”
Stone knew how Ford felt. He’d wanted the guy’s name a week ago when they thought they were dealing with nothing more than an overzealous fan. If the fact the owner of this property, Henry Whittaker, appeared to be a ghost hadn’t clued them in then the shed they stood in blew that notion to smithereens. They’d either underestimated this guy or he’d escalated one thousand percent in the last week.
He hated to admit it, but they’d miscalculated. They weren’t dealing with a simple fan gone rogue.
They had to get a handle on the situation. Fast.
The bastard had dodged them at every turn though. Hell, the fucker had not only gotten inside Sophie’s house on their watch, he’d stuck around long enough to make himself a meal, for Christ’s sake. Even left a plate with heating instructions—among othergifts—for Sophie, all while avoiding being caught on camera.
In the last eighteen hours, everything had gone pear-shaped. He couldn’t remember a more FUBAR job. If they didn’t find Sophie soon, he feared this guy would—if he hadn’t already—and Stone didn’t think the prick had anything pleasant planned for the pretty pop star.
The only thing they had going in their favor was Sophie had left her house alone. She appeared rushed and a little stressed but she’d definitely been by herself when Landlocked’s security cameras taped her lugging a suitcase through her front door. But with her location still unknown they couldn’t protect her and with the evidence in front of them Stone had to acknowledge she needed they protection far more than any of them had thought.
“Any intel on where she is now?” Stone asked. If anyone could track the un-trackable, it was Chip.
“I might have the answer to that.” Aiden strode through the shed door, eyes focused on the tablet in his hand. “But Ford isn’t gonna like it.”
Ford snorted. “Oh, yeah, because Ford’s in love with every fucking damn thing so far.”
Stone’s lips twitched. His boss always managed to put a smile on his face in spite of whatever shit-hole they found themselves in. Ford’s warped sense of humor had saved their sanity on more than one job over the years.
“First, this guy isn’t as smart as we think. Jack’s grabbing the genius behind the hacking now,” Aiden offered.
“For fuck’s sake,” Stone cursed. This shit just kept getting better and better. “There aretwopeople involved?”
“Explain,” Ford growled over Stone’s words.
“Give me a sec…” Aiden tapped away.
