“Will you at least let me help you figure out who’s got your journal so we can stop them from releasing anything else?”
Her teeth sank into her lower lip as she thought about it. “I don’t really see what you can do to help with that. I mean, there’s not really any way to figure that out, is there?”
“Well, you could start by telling me the truth about who just texted you and why they’re texting,” he said, trying one more time to get her to open up to him.
Nope. He watched her face shut down and go completely blank.
“I told you. It was Debra.”
Gabe ground his teeth together again. He’d been doing a lot of that the last few days. He purposefully loosened his jaw and shrugged a shoulder.
“Fine. Why don’t I make us a little something more substantial for breakfast and you can throw your stuff back in your room. We’ll be heading over to Jack’s for the party at three, if that’s okay with you,” he said.
The look of relief on PJ’s face when he dropped the subject had him worried.What the hell is she hiding?
He watched as she went to her room and shut the door, then stepped down the hall to his own room to change clothes. Once locked away in his room, he dialed Chad.
Chad Thompson was the head of Security and Investigations for Sutton Capital. If anyone could find the origin of the content of those texts coming to PJ’s phone, Chad would be the one to do it.
“Hey, Gabe!” came Chad’s voice on the other end of the phone. “You in town for the party?”
“Yeah, I am. I’ll see you guys later today. I assume you and Jennie and the baby will be there?”
Chad laughed. “Kelly and Jennie would both string me up if I missed it. I think they’re having pony rides for the kids.”
Gabe shook his head. Leave it to Jack to have pony rides for a two-year-old’s birthday party.
“Listen,” Gabe said and lowered his voice. “I need a favor. If I give you a cell phone number, can you see texts coming into that phone without me handing you the phone physically?”
Chad groaned. “Do I want to know what this is about?”
Gabe hesitated a minute before speaking.
“It’s Pru. She’s in trouble, but she won’t tell me what’s going on.” He didn’t have to explain who Pru was. Chad and Jack and Andrew all knew Gabe was more than a little infatuated with PJ Cantrell, and that he still called her by her pre-fame nickname of Pru. It was how she’d first introduced herself to him and it had stuck.
“What kind of trouble?” Chad asked.
“I really don’t know for sure. Have you caught any of what’s going on in the news?”
“Jennie said she’d been having a tough time lately. Something about rumors and leaks,” Chad said.
“It’s pretty bad. Someone has her journal, and they’re posting all kinds of personal stuff about her on the Internet and leaking similar things to the tabloids. But, I think there’s more to it than she’s telling me. She’s getting texts that seem to have her reeling, but she won't tell me what they’re about or who they’re from.”
Chad was quiet for a long time before answering. “Is she there with you at the house?”
“Yeah. She’s coming to the party later.”
“If I can get hold of her phone at some point during the party, I’ll duplicate her SIM card and put it in a blank phone for you so you can see what’s coming in. If we can’t get hold of her phone, I’ll have to load some software onto your phone and then, provided you’re both within range of the same cell tower and she isn’t having messages encrypted, you’ll be able to read them on your phone.”
“Thanks, Chad. I owe you one.”
“Shoot, you owe me a lot more than that. This is extraordinarily illegal and pretty damn immoral. Are you sure you want to spy on the woman you want a relationship with? This is beginning to feel stalker-ish,” Chad said.
“I can’t have a relationship with her if she’s not safe. I’m sure someone’s threatening her, Chad. I can tell from her reaction to these texts. I want to keep her safe, and if that means giving up a shot at a relationship with her, so be it.”
Chad was quiet for a long moment before grunting his agreement and hanging up the phone.
Gabe steeled himself against the guilt creeping into his gut as he remembered the kiss the night before. He went to the kitchen to make some breakfast. He needed to focus on PJ’s safety right now. Nothing else.