“No, no, no.” I grabbed on to him.

He cradled me to him, his hand leaving my neck to smooth down my back in comfort. He propped his chin on top of my head, his other arm holding my shoulder, holding me to him. “This is for the best.”

I winced, closing my eyes even tighter, as I burrowed into his chest. I didn’t want to let him go and even thinking about it, I wrapped my arms tighter around him.

I drove Jo home myself. She was quiet on the way, and a few times I looked over. I felt like I should say something, anything, to ease her pain, but it was weighing on me, too. And when she held my gaze, right before getting out of the car, I saw the same pain in her eyes. There was nothing to say. Anything I said would’ve cheapened the situation, or taken away what we were both feeling, but when she got out without a word, it was like a silent rejection.

I drew in a shuddering breath, gripped the steering wheel tighter, and tried not to think about who I was driving away from as I went back to my penthouse. Once I got inside, my phone rang. It was Cal, and he never called with good news, not this late at night.

“What’s wrong?”

“She’s public.”

My blood turned cold. “How?”

“You didn’t tell me that she’d left a note for you in the hotel room.” His tone was accusing.

My eyes narrowed. I bristled. “Because that was none of your business.”

“Yeah, well, it’s my business now. A housekeeper had to go back into the room. She’d left something from cleaning it in the morning, and then she saw the note. She was so kind to take a picture of it, and Jo had signed it as Jordan.”

“It’s been days. Why is this now going public?”

“It took time. She sold the note to a local news station. They went to the hotel and got the tapes. There’s a tape of her leaving the room. They backtracked from there, and you guessed it.”

Shit!

“They found Jo Keen, and they think it’s hilarious that her roommate was one of the reporters who interviewed you.” Cal paused, grunting into the phone. “Find her. Call your lawyers. Call her lawyers. Shut this down now.”

“I dropped her off at her place.”

“Did you put the tracking app on her phone?”

“She was sleeping when I got back before, and I did it then.”

“Hold on. I can trace her from here, and…she’s on the move. She’s not at her apartment.”

“Her roommate mentioned a party. Give me the address. I’ll get her.”

“No, I’ll get her,” Cal argued.

I was already out the door and hurrying for the stairs. “I’m already on my way.”

“Damn it, Kian. Your face is going to make it worse. Let me do this. I didn’t alert you, so you could run after her. I called you, so you could call your team and start devising a plan.”

It didn’t matter. I was already down the stairs and through the garage door. The penthouse had the closest parking spot—perks of the wealthy. So, I was in the car within minutes. Jo wouldn’t have wanted to go to the party, but she would’ve gone to make her friends happy.

“I need the coordinates,” I said to Cal.

“This is crazy. You’re going to make it worse. Let me get her.”

“I’m already in the car. Coordinates, Cal.”

After he gave them to me, he grumbled, “I’m going to meet you. You’re going to need help.”

I didn’t argue. I might need him after all, but I’d learned a few things in prison, like how to be discreet and how to disappear.

When I pulled down the street, it wasn’t hard to find the party. Thirty cars lined the sides of the streets along with eight cars packed into the driveway of a lit, large house. The music wasn’t too loud, but after parking and heading down the sidewalk toward the house, conversation and laughter became clearer. In the back were a beer-pong competition and a group throwing a football around. I stayed on the outside of the house but close to the shadows. Most of the windows were open, and I thanked the partygoers for that small blessing. It would make my job a lot easier.

I saw Jo, and the wannabe boyfriend was hovering over her. His hand was on her back, and my teeth gritted. The need to wrench his hand off her was rising quickly in me. I scooted closer to a window. They were moving to the kitchen. I followed. A group had taken up the space by the back door. A girl saw me, but I pulled my hood over my head and lit up my phone. Holding it to my ear, I turned my back to her and waited. Glancing back, I saw her attention had returned to her group, and I moved closer to the side of the house.

She wouldn’t be able to see me from her angle, but I could still see Jo. I couldn’t then. She wasn’t there anymore. Scanning the kitchen from my view, the wannabe boyfriend was there. Another guy I saw with Jo before was there.

Wanker?

I looked for the roommate. I saw her earlier, too, but not now. Jo must’ve been with her. Leaving my view of the kitchen, I moved further to the front of the house. I couldn’t find her. That raised my alarm. I’d have to go inside. I was regretting that I hadn’t grabbed a baseball cap, but I would have to proceed without it.

Spying an open window on the second floor, I stepped up on a closed window frame and hoisted myself the rest of the way, grabbing ahold of the house’s jetty to swing my legs up. Once I had a secure foothold, I moved to the window and removed the screen. I slipped inside a bedroom. The hallway was lit up, and I heard voices.