big smile on her face. Trent had to agree. Over the last few years, the Shadows Landing family and the Keeneston family had grown close after more than a generation of estrangement.
Trent saw Skye’s phone light up and glanced down at it. It was a text from Lenny ripping into her for firing Rebecca and Bernie. Next one came from Jim claiming she was in violation of her contract and he’d sue her for every penny she’d ever made.
Anger rose to the surface, but then Castle interrupted them. “Shaw found the man who attacked you.”
“Who is he?” Skye asked, instantly rigid. Trent put his arm around her as Castle put the phone on speaker and pulled up a picture.
“You’re on speaker, Shaw,” Castle told him.
“Skye, can you tell me anything about this photo?” Shaw asked.
Karri and Skye looked at the picture and frowned. It was the back of a man dressed in black getting into a black SUV.
“I can’t tell,” Karri said as Skye shook her head.
“I can’t tell either. It might be him, but I can’t tell from this angle.”
“I found video of him through some of your neighbor’s security cameras. I can’t prove it was him who entered your house. What sticks out is that I was able to ID the SUV. It’s owned by Star Power Private Security.”
“The same group who sent people to talk to our parents?” Skye asked.
“That’s right. And the same company that does a lot of off the books things for the rich and powerful in Hollywood.”
“Who hired them?” Trent asked after introducing himself.
“We don’t know yet. What we can determine is that when things are off the books, they aren’t paid in the usual way. Sometimes it’s cash, sometimes it’s a stock transfer, and sometimes it’s providing a trade for something Star Power needs. They claim all these on their taxes as gifts. When asked what they were for, their standard reply is that they are a thank-you for good service,” Shaw told them. “Right now we can’t prove otherwise. But based on their taxes, they received gifts from the who’s who of Hollywood.”
“Are you going to arrest them?” Skye asked and Trent could hear the worry in her voice.
“We don’t have anything to arrest them on. They lied to your parents, but they didn’t hurt them. They’re still hanging out in both Iowa and New York watching your parents, but doing so from the public road. They’re not doing anything illegal.”
“What are you doing then?” Trent asked.
“We’re trying to find out who the man in the SUV is. We’ve also put our own guys onto every Star Power security guard we know of. Further, we have people in Iowa and New York to make sure your parents are safe,” Shaw told them. “I don’t want to haul them in for questioning. I want to see if they’ll lead us to whoever hired them.”
“So they’re out there looking for me?” Skye’s voice had gone from worried to almost dead-sounding. There was no emotion in her as she stared down at the phone sitting on the table.
“Yes, but that’s why you have Castle with you. Castle, I need you in Shadows Landing to check in daily. I also need locals to do protection and surveillance.”
“Sheriff Granger Fox here. We’re on it. Castle can send you my contact.”
“Miss Jessamine, look!” Georgina said as she pointed at the television. Harper was already turning the volume up.
The anchor of the gossip show looked directly into the camera as they posted a picture of Skye from her last red carpet. “We have breaking news straight from Skye Jessamine’s new team. We are breaking the story here first. Miss Jessamine has fired her longtime attorney and hired Attorney Olivia Townsend of New York as her new lead counsel. Further, we have received evidence that Miss Jessamine and Miss Townsend have been very busy serving some of the biggest online gossip sites, news outlets, and media for posting the illegally obtained images of her to the tune of two hundred and fifty million dollars in damages.
“For the record, our show and network refused to post them. You can read the entire statement on our website, but Miss Jessamine says in part: ‘I take my privacy seriously and won’t let criminals profit from trying to humiliate me. What you did was wrong and illegal, and I’m standing up for all women who have had some creep snap a picture up her skirt, through her window, or any other time her