Coincidence or premeditation?

“Great work. Keep tabs on him and we’ll see if he tries to make contact with Kay. I’m not sure why the package would have come to me, though. Why not send it directly to Kay?”

“Makes no sense to me. But I’ll let you know if anything changes. Also, I ran a search for those names you got from Jeremy King and I found one of the women he claims he sent letters to. Actually I didn’t have to dig far. She’s in our database.”

“Wait? You’re saying one of the women he stalked was under our protection?”

“Yes. Weird, right? Tanya Cook is a lawyer whose firm hired private security after they lost a high-profile case. It appears he sent letters to Tanya right before he sent the letters to Kay. The bad news is there seems to be no connection to Timothy Banner. He’s never used her firm and they don’t have any common associates. It’s like they live on different planets completely.”

“What about the other girl?”

“I still haven’t found any leads on Elise Able, but I’ll keep looking.”

A dark feeling settled over Eli. This didn’t fit the profile of a stalker at all. Obsession didn’t leave much room for alternates. If this guy was obsessed with Kay, then he wouldn’t have been following and harassing other women at the same time.

“Keep looking. These women may be our only lead on figuring out whether Banner is our guy. Maybe they’re old girlfriends or colleagues. Cross-reference them against his family members and known associates. If there’s a connection between Banner and these women, I need you to find it.”

Eli thanked him and then hung up.

He pulled up the e-mail he’d been looking at again and sighed. It had been so long since he’d been a member of the Circle that a lot of his intel was no longer applicable. However, he recognized their MO for recruiting new members. Find guys who are slightly isolated, strong, healthy, and with a need to belong to something.

His desire to make a difference, to make a mark, had been exactly what the group had used against him. He’d been so starved for purpose that he’d been willing to accept any facsimile of it he could find. Now he could only hope to help the authorities catch as many members of the Circle as possible.

Maybe it would prevent another young man from losing his soul the way he had.

AFTER THE DISASTER of their first meeting, the last thing Kay expected to see in her e-mail inbox was a message from Danny. Apparently Mara had explained everything and he wanted to take her to dinner.

That night.

She got a curl of embarrassment in her stomach every time she thought of their last date. Despite that, she wished she could have been a fly on the wall when Mara had told him what was going on. What could she possibly have said to explain that train wreck of a date? Hopefully no one her mother knew had been in the restaurant. Otherwise, she’d be hearing about it soon since Eli had announced to the entire room that she’d seen him naked.

She glared at him as he sat in the waiting room looking at something on his tablet. He’d claimed he could be inconspicuous, but he didn’t exactly blend into the background. Every client who’d come in so far had done a double take when they’d seen him sitting in the corner. He looked dangerous.

And way too sexy for her peace of mind.

“Kay. Kaylee?”

She snapped to attention to see her boss, Nicholas Alexander, waving a hand in front of her face. Instantly, Kay was ashamed. How long had she been sitting here daydreaming?

Nick tucked his hands in his pockets as he regarded her. “Are you okay? You know, no one would blame you if you wanted to take some time off.”

“No! That’s not necessary. I’m fine. Really,” she added when he looked doubtful. Staying at home was not an option. Twenty-four hours a day with Eli? She fanned herself absently with her hand. She’d spend her days locked in the bathroom trying to avoid him and her nights delirious from sexual frustration. Being at work was definitely preferable to that.

“I sent you a calendar reminder for two meetings I set up for next week,” Kay reminded him, determined to keep her mind on business.

“I got them. Except they were set up for last year.”

Kay’s mouth dropped open and she turned to her computer. A few key taps later, she had his calendar open. Sure enough, she’d set the correct month and day on both events but with last year’s date.

So much for being fine.

“I am so sorry about that. I’ll fix them immediately.”

“No worries. To be honest, I think I’d rather these appointments be last year anyway.”

Kay smiled weakly when he turned to talk to Eli. She had to get it together. The last thing she wanted was to let Nick down. He’d hired her as a favor to Jackson, but surprisingly, they’d turned out to be a great team.

Nick was sometimes a ball of energy as he paced around his office tossing out ideas for his charity foundation, other times quiet and contemplative when running numbers for his financial clients. She could never predict what her job would be from day to day, but it was always interesting and never predictable. Plus, he didn’t expect perfection. When she made mistakes, he was patient enough to teach her how to correct them.

He was also very understanding when she needed time off.

“Actually, I think I’ll take you up on the offer for time off. I’m a little tired. But I finished that memo you needed.” She pulled it from her outbox and held it out to him.