Stars Over Alaska (Wild River #4) - Jennifer Snow Page 0,89
that morning. Heading back to face the music was only half as hard as leaving all her unfinished business here and her stomach was a mess about all of it.
Leslie headed into the noisy shop that smelled like gas and other car fluids and scanned the wall for an outlet. Locating one near the old woodstove in the corner, she bent to plug her phone in and the sound of a familiar voice behind her made her jump.
“Could you have picked a farther place to hide out?”
Eoghan’s teasing tone, thick with his Australian accent, seemed to hide an eerie urgency. “Eoghan? You’re here... In Wild River.” How? Why? What the hell? And why was her first reaction guilt about what was going on with Levi when there were a million other issues with Eoghan being there, like how he’d found them.
“Hey, Leslie. You here to pick up your car?” Doug, the shop owner, asked from behind the counter.
She blinked and nodded to him. “Yeah, Doug...just, uh, give me a sec?”
“Sure thing. Ring the bell when you’re ready,” he said, setting a dirty, oil-covered bell on the counter and heading into the back.
Leslie turned back to Eoghan. He was dressed in jeans, hiking boots and a winter coat that was obviously new. The North Mountain Sports Company logo suggested he’d been in town long enough to go shopping. Just how long had he been here? “What’s going on?”
He didn’t answer as he hugged her, his strong cologne making her hold her breath. “It’s good to see you. I’m glad you’re okay.”
Why wouldn’t she be? She pulled back abruptly and frowned. “What’s going on? When did you get here?”
“This morning. I took a red-eye flight last night when I couldn’t reach you.”
“How did you even know where to find us?” She looked around. She shouldn’t have left Selena alone.
“From these.” Eoghan handed her his phone, his expression now serious.
Instagram pictures with Selena tagged appeared. Pictures dated three days before. Leslie scanned the photos of the star that looked like they were taken on Main Street. But she could be anywhere. All small towns looked similar. But still, these photos were not good. Not good at all... How the hell had they gotten posted? Had Selena hijacked her phone at some point? Damn, the star really hadn’t listened to her about the danger she was in at all.
But Leslie frowned. “I still don’t know how...”
Eoghan stood behind her and zoomed in on the image. “Behind her. That street sign in the distance.”
Leslie squinted. Even zoomed all the way in, the street sign was unreadable. Too small and not at all in focus. She took a breath. “This is unreadable.”
Eoghan took the phone and opened an app. “Not if you upload the photos to this app.” He showed her the new image—crisper, clearer...readable. Wild River Resort. Oh no... But...
“But someone would have to use the app...or one like it.”
“Someone motivated enough—like me—could have,” he said. His mood turned deadly serious as he touched her shoulders. “The man they had in custody was released. His alibi checked out. He wasn’t the guy.”
Her entire body froze. Selena was still in danger. “They let him go?”
“No other choice, but don’t worry, the company is surveilling him.”
The company, right. Her boss. People who actually had believed that she was in on it, that she may have abducted the star herself. She shook her head. “I’m still confused though. Why did you come here?”
He looked slightly sheepish and his tone was affectionately embarrassed as he said, “I came here when I couldn’t reach you on your cell phone last night—you frightened me. I thought maybe the real stalker had found you and Selena.”
An awkwardness fell between them but telling him that whatever was happening between them was officially over had to wait as her guilt subsided quickly to panic. The real stalker was still loose and might know where they were. Selena should have known better than to take those selfies. And then post them to social media? What the hell had she been thinking?
Leslie started to pace. “Okay, but...we’re assuming the stalker is tech savvy...or still very motivated. Even if he did know where she was, he wouldn’t actually come all the way to Alaska, right?” In most cases, stalkers lost interest when the target was removed from sight or availability. They moved on, became obsessed with a new one.
“I wouldn’t be so sure. There’s more,” Eoghan said. “You should sit.”