Page 110 of Caught Looking

“He’ll get everyone else. You four with me.” Mercedes punched the button for the ground floor.

“Why are we evacuating?” Seth held me in a tight grip. The kind he only used when he was worried about my safety.

Mercedes kept her eyes on the doors. “We have Owen Montgomery in custody. He’s been arrested.”

Finally.My heart thundered in my ears because while this should be good news, obviously something else was very, very wrong. “Then why are we evacuating?”

Mercedes’ jaw ticked. “We caught him just after he planted an improvised explosive device.”

“Awhat?” Chris barked.

“A bomb,” Mercedes clarified.

A bomb?I clung to Seth as my head swam. Did Owen really want to kill me? Was this some sort ofif I can’t have you, no one cansituation? “Why would he do this?”

“I don’t believe the man has ever been mentally well, Ms. Ryan. He’s been slipping further and further from reality with each encounter.”

“So he resorted to trying to blow us up?” Seth growled.

It was the longest elevator ride of my life.

“Obsession leads people to act drastically.”

We’d been the object of a lot of obsessions lately. The paparazzi, the fans, and Owen. Most of the fans I truly believed were just fascinated. Enjoying a real-life fairytale. They cheered us on in our careers and our love life. A few took it too far, but we ignored them. The paparazzi were a little more dangerous because their obsession was financial gain. Most of them didn’t really care about us at all.

But Owen’s obsession was very different. He didn’t view me as a human being. Maybe he never had. For a few years he had lots of things to keep him occupied, other people to obsess over. But once our lives brought our paths back together his need to possess me, to control me, must have grown darker and more pointed with each day he failed. Until he realized the only way he could get to me was to take much more drastic measures.

“Planting a bomb is the kind of thing that will keep him in jail this time, right?”

“It fucking better,” Seth cut in just as the elevator finally dinged, letting us out onto the ground floor.

Mercedes held the doors. “He skipped bail last time and missed every appointment and check in. They’ll see him as the flight risk he is. Plus he’s now a clear danger to society. This way.” She led us down a hallway and out the double doors to the loading dock. “We’re going to have everyone stay in the park until the bomb squad gives us the all clear to return you to your cars. I’m sorry the party was cut short.”

“I’m not,” Olivia muttered. “I’d much rather be here. Or at home.”

“The park is nice,” Chris said, trying to diffuse the anger-bomb that surrounded Seth.

“At least there are benches.” I sat down on the closest one before my knees gave out. My legs started shaking the moment the wordbombentered the conversation and kept getting worse. Olivia joined me. But Seth and Chris paced. “And Owen has been found. He can’t get to me.” Maybe he needed to hear the good news a few more times.

Seth stopped and stared down at me. “I’m sorry, babe. I just can’t calm down. Not yet.”

I didn’t blame him. While I was relieved that Owen was done and probably wouldn’t be out of a jail cell for a long, long time, the fact that everyone Seth worked with was still in some sort of danger because of us was more than a little unsettling.

But the crowd around us grew quickly as the party joined us outside. Everyone from the security team to the wait staff to the guests were herded into the small park beside the stadium, waiting for word that the bomb had been disabled and Sunshine Stadium was in the clear.

Willa joined us on the bench, looping her arm through mine and babbling from the moment she saw me. “I worked with Owen once. My second job out of college. He was quiet, but he always gave me the creeps. He has this way of watching everyone that isn’t normal. I always wondered why he shot to fame and stayed there. I guess it was because he’s so good at learning people, finding dirt on them, and blackmailing them.”

“That’s his style,” Seth muttered.

Willa kept on babbling and I realized it was because she wanted to distract me. So I let her. She word-vomited until the first Suburban arrived to start ferrying people back to their cars.

“It’s all clear,” Janet said as she glanced between Seth and me. The nervous energy in the park almost instantly dissipated as everyone let out a collective sigh of relief. “The IED has been disabled and safely removed. Owen Montgomery is in custody. You’re finally free.”

I sagged against the bench while Willa hugged me tight.

“You’ll stay on him?” Seth asked.

“We will check and double check everything we can, try to piece together where Owen Montgomery has been hiding, and continue working with the authorities until he’s convicted. We’re not going anywhere.” Then she glanced at me one more time. “You are safe, Ms. Ryan. And you’re finally free of a burden you never deserved. I’m sorry we couldn’t find him sooner.”

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