Part 80

The room remained heavy with the unspoken words between them as Caro stood up, her movements stiff and mechanical. She disappeared into the bathroom again, leaving the two brothers standing in a silence that crackled with unresolved tension.

Noel had barely pulled a clean T-shirt over his head when he caught Liam's shadow moving closer, 'You're joking, right?' Liam's voice was a low hiss, as he gestured vaguely toward the bed and the discarded belt Noel had just snatched up. 'She's clearly in shock and the best thing you could think of to do, was to shag her?'

'It wasn't like that,' Noel snapped, though the shame was already clawing at his throat. 'She asked..oh fuck off Liam, it's none of your business'

Liam let out a short, harsh laugh that held zero humor. 'She asked for it? really?'

At that moment, the bathroom door clicked open.

Caro stepped out, swallowed up in a pair of baggy jeans and one of Noel's black T-shirts, giving her that cool, oversized, casual look, her hair was swept up into a careless, messy bun, a few damp tendrils sticking to the back of her neck.

To a stranger, she looked like she had just rolled out of bed on a lazy morning, relaxed, soft, and completely at ease. The casual drape of the oversized cotton shirt and the loose denim hid the fact that her heart was hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.

She walked straight to the vanity, her movements stiff despite the loose clothing. She picked up her radio and shoved her phone into the deep pocket of the oversized jeans. Standing there, she took a long, shaky breath. She closed her eyes for a second, forcing the air into her lungs until the visible trembling in her hands subsided just enough to be manageable.

When she opened her eyes, she didn't look at Noel. She looked directly at Liam, her expression a fragile mask of professional focus.

'What room did you say they are in, Liam?' she asked. Her voice was thin and lacked its usual command, but it was steady enough to signal she wasn't taking "no" for an answer.

'Three doors down on the left,' Liam said softly, his voice heavy with a reluctant respect. 'They've got the small conference suite. Come on, I'll show you'

Caro nodded once, a sharp, mechanical movement. 'Thank you.'

She turned and marched toward the suite door, her small frame nearly lost in his T-shirt. She pulled the door open and stepped out into the hallway. From behind, she looked like a woman without a care in the world, but the way her shoulders were pulled back told a much more violent story.

She kept her eyes fixed forward, counting the doors as she passed them. Every step felt like she was wading through deep water, but she refused to let her pace falter.

Liam stayed close to her left, his presence a silent, grounding weight. He simply acted as a shield against the curious eyes of the few security guards stationed in the corridor. Behind them, Noel followed at a distance, his hands shoved deep into his pockets, his gaze burning into the back of his own T-shirt draped over Caro's frame, watching the woman he loved march toward a fresh hell.

They reached the third door. Liam reached out and opened it, revealing a small, dimly lit conference room. Inside, two detectives stood up immediately, their faces grave.

The moment Caro crossed the threshold, her professionalism didn't just return, she took over. She didn't wait for them to speak. She didn't sit down. She stood at the head of the table, her hands hidden in the deep pockets of her baggy jeans so they couldn't see the tremors.

'You have news about Rob,' she said, her voice dropping into that low, dangerous register of someone who had nothing left to lose. 'Please, tell me he's in a cell. Just tell me it's over.'

The two detectives remained standing, their eyes shifting uneasily between Caroline's pale face and the two brothers looming behind her. The officer cleared his throat, his gaze lingering for a fraction of a second on the oversized black T-shirt she was wearing, Noel's T-shirt, before he spoke.

'Ms. Di Benedetto,' he began, his voice gravelly and heavy. 'We've been working with the London units to track that burner phone. To be blunt, we can't find a trace of its signal anywhere in the Manchester area. The last ping we intercepted was from a cell tower in North London an hour ago. For all intents and purposes, the digital trail says he's still in London.'

Caroline felt a flicker of hollow relief, but it was instantly snuffed out by the expression on the second detective, a younger man, who stepped forward with a tablet in his hand.

'However,' he said, his voice dropping into a somber register. 'Our forensics team just finished a sweep of the backstage area at Heaton Park. They found pinhole cameras, Caroline. They were hidden in the ventilation of your trailer.'

Noel's posture stiffened into something lethal, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. 'You're telling me he's been watching her at the site?'

'It's worse than that,' he interrupted, leaning over the table. 'While they were tracing the feed from the park, they found an active uplink. We've intercepted images of you, Ms. Di Benedetto... Images from this morning. Images of you in the bedroom.'

The air left the room. Caroline's hand went instinctively to the collar of the T-shirt, clutching the fabric as if she could crawl inside it and disappear. The thought that her privacy had been breached, that a lens had been aimed at her while she was at her most vulnerable, made her stomach turn with a violent surge of nausea.

'We have a sweep team in your suite and Mr. Gallagher's room right now,' the officer continued, casting a quick, knowing glance at Noel. 'He didn't just target Caroline. He's placed cameras in your room too, Noel. He knows exactly which suite you're in. He knows the layout of your private quarters.'

'How?' Liam's voice cracked the silence, sharp and disbelieving. 'The security on that floor is water-tight. Pete's men don't miss a thing.'

The older officer now leaned in, his expression grim. 'That's the problem. These cameras weren't slapped on the wall by a stranger who snuck in. They're hardwired into the hotel's power and internal network. To get that kind of access, you need master key cards, building schematics, and hours of undisturbed time. This isn't just a stalker.'

He paused, letting the weight of the accusation settle. 'We believe this is an inside job. Someone on your own crew, someone you trust, Caroline, is feeding Rob information and providing him with physical access to your private spaces.'

Caroline felt the floor tilt beneath her. 'So the London signal..' Caroline whispered, her voice a hollow shell. 'It's a distraction? He's actually here?'

'We believe he's still in London, using the tech to maintain a digital leash,' the officer clarified, his voice devoid of comfort. 'But that doesn't make it better. It means he has an accomplice here. Someone who is physically in this hotel right now, acting as his eyes and hands.'

Caroline felt a cold sweat break out across her skin. If there were cameras, he had seen her breakdown. He had seen the shower. He had seen her and Noel against that wall.

'Who?' Noel's voice was a low, vibrating threat. He stepped forward, his shadow falling over the table, his eyes fixed on the detectives with a predatory intensity. 'Who has that kind of access? My crew is vetted. Give me a name!'

'We're cross-referencing the key-card logs as we speak,' the younger detective said, tapping his tablet. 'But whoever did this knew the blind spots of the hotel's own CCTV. They knew exactly when the maid service would be finished and when security rotations happened. This isn't just a fan who got lucky. This is someone who sits at your production meetings, Caroline.'

Caroline's mind raced, faces of her team flashing before her eyes like a deck of cards. Her head of transport? Her stage manager? One of the personal assistants? Every smile she'd received today now felt like a knife in her back.

Liam broke the icy silence. He leaned back against the doorframe, arms crossed, his gaze needle-sharp. 'And what about the Wembley shows?' he asked, his voice low but demanding. 'If he's in London, and that's where his "command center" is, then he's on home turf. If we don't find this mole here in Manchester, we're just sending Caroline straight back into his hands.'

The officer nodded slowly. 'That is exactly the concern, Mr. Gallagher. If the mole is someone with access to technical riders, they have the blueprints for Wembley too. They've had weeks to do there what they've done here: cameras, access to dressing rooms, maybe worse.'

Caroline felt a fresh shiver run down her spine. The thought of Wembley, being transformed into a minefield where Rob held the remote was almost unbearable.

'Wembley isn't happening if this isn't solved,' Noel snapped, his hand tightening protectively on Caroline's shoulder. 'No fucking way. We aren't going to London just to give him a front-row seat.'

'But we can't just kill the tour without knowing who it is,' Liam countered, looking at Caroline. 'Then he knows he's won. He stays in the shadows, waits for the next time.'

Caroline looked from the detective's tablet to the two brothers. 'Listen' she turned back to face the detectives, 'I think it's best if we nip this thing in the bud, and I give him what he wants,..'

Noel's head snapped toward her, his eyes widening with a sudden, sickening realization. 'Caroline, don't. Whatever you're about to say, stop, we've been over this..'

'I'm done being the one who's hunted,' Caroline said, her voice rising from a whisper to a sharp, brittle command. She stepped away from the table, her hands coming out of the deep pockets of the baggy jeans. 'He's watching? Fine. Let him watch. He wants me? Let's give it to him.'

'HAVE YOU LOST YOUR BLOODY MIND?' Noel roared.

The sound was violent, a raw explosion of terror and fury that made the detectives flinch and the walls of the small room seem to vibrate. He surged toward her, his face a mask of distorted, protective rage.

'You think I'm going to stand by and watch you dangle yourself like a piece of meat in front of that monster? Over my dead body, Caroline! Over my dead body!'

'Noel, listen to the logic..'

'THERE IS NO LOGIC!' he screamed, spinning back to face her, his finger trembling as he pointed it at the floor. 'He's in our bedrooms! He's watching us through the walls! And your plan is to give him a clearer shot? Are you trying to get killed? Is that what this is? A fuckin' death wish?'

The raw volume of Noel's voice seemed to suck the oxygen out of the room. The silence that followed was heavy and aching. He stood over Caroline, his chest still heaving, while she looked fragile and small, swallowed by the fabric of his shirt.

The officer stepped forward, but he didn't move with the cold authority of a cop. He raised his hands slowly in a soft, human gesture, waiting for the tension to settle. He looked at Noel, and then turned his gaze to Caroline, his expression softening into something almost fatherly.

'Mr. Gallagher, calm down,' he said quietly, his voice low and grounding. 'I know how much you want to protect her.'

He turned fully toward Caroline, leaning slightly against the table to meet her eyes. 'Caroline, listen to me. I see your courage. I know you want to end this agony for your sake and for theirs. But what you're suggesting..it's simply not a possibility. I won't allow it. It's not a solution; it's an unacceptable risk that no one in this room is willing to take.'

Caroline opened her mouth to protest, but he held up a hand, his voice remaining gentle.

'The only real way to end this right now isn't to walk into a trap, it's to disappear,' he explained softly. 'We need to take you completely off the radar. No confrontations, no baiting. Just silence.'

Noel looked up, his brow furrowed as the rage began to ebb into confusion. 'Disappear? He has eyes in our bedrooms. How do we disappear from that?'

'By making a move he can't see,' the officer replied. 'While your "mole" thinks you're still tucked away in that suite, we're going to move you. Not to another floor, but to a high-security location across the city. A place that has nothing to do with this tour or this hotel.'

He looked at the two brothers and Caroline, emphasizing each word. 'No one on the crew gets informed. Not even your head of security. We use an alias, unmarked vehicles, and a police detail that isn't on the tour's payroll. You'll be in a room with no cameras, no Wi-Fi, and no way for him to find you. For the next twenty-four hours, as far as Rob and the world are concerned, you simply don't exist.'

Noel's grip on the chair loosened. The idea of total isolation, of a place where the walls didn't have eyes, brought a flicker of hope back into his gaze. He looked at Caroline, his hand reaching out to tentatively cover hers on the table.

'Is that okay?' he rasped, his voice finally breaking with emotion. 'Can we just go? Just us? No cameras, no phones..just somewhere safe?'

Caroline looked at the detective, then at Noel. For the first time since the text message arrived, the frantic pounding in her chest slowed. The thought of being hidden away, wrapped in the safety of the unknown, felt like the only sanctuary left, even if it was only for 24 hours.

'Yes,' she whispered, knowing full well this was the calm before the real storm in London would hit, where there would only be 5 miles between her and Rob.