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Babies for my Ex’s Bodyguard

Page 120

by Summer James

I look back at the frozen image of Spencer beside the fountain.

Emma blocked his number, so he contacted her from another one. When the flowers failed to get the response he wanted, he came to her workplace and arranged an encounter she couldn’t avoid without walking back inside.

I scroll through another hour of footage, increasingly aware that every boundary Emma puts between them seems to make him search for another way around it.

Yesterday might have been designed for the cameras, but Spencer still needed to know where Emma would be before he could stage any of it.

I switch to footage from the previous Friday.

“If he’s been following her, I want to know where it started,” I say. “Work, the apartment, her usual stops. Anything that gives us a pattern.”

Theo lowers his phone. “You’re talking about expanding this beyond the building.”

“I’m talking about finding out whether yesterday was the first time Spencer showed up where he knew Emma would be or the first time we noticed.”

Theo watches me for a few seconds before nodding. “I’ll have security check what we can access around the block and start with the routes she uses most often.”

“And Theo.” He looks up. “Until we know whether he’s been following her, Emma doesn’t leave this building alone.”

His expression tightens enough that I know what’s coming before he says it. “She’s going to hate that.”

“I know.”

“She’s going to hate it considerably more if she finds out after you’ve already changed everything.”

I turn back toward the monitors because he’s right, and the knowledge does nothing to quiet the instinct telling me to close every gap before Spencer gets another opportunity to reach her.

“I want somebody nearby, not breathing down her neck.”

“That’s still going to feel like security.”

“It is security.”

“That’s not the part she’s going to object to.”

I look at him.

Theo lifts one hand. “I’m just making sure you’re aware of the explosion you’re arranging for later.”

“I’ll talk to her.”

“Before or after she notices?”

“Go brief security.”

His mouth shifts, but he has enough sense to leave the comment there. He heads for the door before I stop him.

“If anybody sees Spencer anywhere near her again, I want to know before he gets close.”

“You will.”

The door closes behind him, leaving the operator and me with the monitors.

I replay yesterday one more time while the search runs beside it. Spencer checks his watch and settles beside the fountain until Emma appears through the revolving doors.

Less than a minute later, he moves toward her without any hesitation, as though the encounter is unfolding exactly where he expected it to.

I pause the recording on the moment he sees her and note the timestamp beside the dates I’ve already collected. Then I pull up footage from the previous week and start looking for him.