by S. E. Rose
Lunch is brought in, and we spend it listening to different tracks for her new album. She makes notes and suggests changes as does Sal. Dave, her manager, stops in at some point to see how it’s going. I don’t really like Dave much, and I sense a weird vibe between Vanessa and him. I make a mental note to ask her about him later.
We wrap up around 2:00 p.m. I realize that I’ve been so fixated on her that I haven’t done much work.
“Mind if we lie low this afternoon?” I ask as we pile back into my car. “I have some work to get done.”
“Sure, no worries.”
As we head back toward Vanessa’s I notice Pierce’s eyes checking the rearview mirror every few seconds.
“What’s up, Pierce?”
“Sir, there’s been a white SUV following us since we left the studio. I’ve made some unusual turns to see if he’s following and, so far, he’s kept up with us.”
I look into the mirror and see the car. I stop Vanessa’s head from turning. “Keep your eyes forward,” I say quietly. “What do you suggest?”
Pierce calls someone on his phone. “I have a potential 11-56. Please advise. Yes. They are both in the car. Yes. Right. Will do.”
“Pierce, what’s the plan?” I ask, a bit perturbed that he’s not including me in the conversation.
“Sir, I just spoke with Bryce. He would like me to take you to a safe house.”
“What? What safe house?”
“The firm has safe houses near all major U.S. cities. We have one not far from here. I’ll need to switch you to another car, sir. Dexter will pick you up in a parking garage near here. We rendezvous with him in ten minutes.”
“Alright, what about Vanessa? She’s coming with us.”
“Yes, sir.”
I call Bryce.
“Jesse, we’re on it. I’m not sure how you got a tail on you, but I’m working on figuring that out right now. In the meantime, do as Pierce and Dexter instruct and we’ll get you two somewhere safe.”
“Bryce, I want to be kept informed. I’m in charge, don’t forget that.”
“Sir, with all due respect, I am in charge. You pay the bills and at the cost of my bill, I think you are well-advised to listen to me.”
“I’ll take that under advisement,” I huff and hang up.
I turn to Vanessa who is wide-eyed. “Is everything alright?” she asks.
I squeeze her leg. “It’ll be fine. They are worried about a car that appears to be following us. Bryce wants us to go to some safe house just to be sure. We’re going to switch cars in a minute. Just do as they say, OK?”
She nods, and I can see her eyes are glassy. I lean in toward her and brush a kiss on her cheek. “It’ll be alright, mon étoile.”
She leans against me, and I put my arm around her, gently rubbing her shoulder with my thumb.
We pull up to a non-descript garage at an office building ten minutes later. The car is still following us. Pierce turns to us.
“I’m going to park right by the stairwell on the next level. Get out quickly and go down one flight of stairs. Dexter will be waiting. Get in and don’t be slow about it.”
We both nod. We do as he says and as soon as we are in Dexter’s car, he rolls out of the garage quickly.
“Where are we going?” I ask him.
“Just a little place Bryce keeps, not far from here,” he explains. He asks us to put our heads down, and we do.
“Just stay down for a while, alright?”
“Yep,” I say as I crouch down. I look at Vanessa who is still wide-eyed. I kiss her forehead.
“It’ll be alright.”
She nods. “I need to let Kev know where I’m at,” she says. Shit, I think to myself.
“Your phone is traceable isn’t it,” I say. She nods.
“Yeah, Find Friends app. Kev can see where I’m going and when he sees I’m not heading home, he’ll freak out,” she explains.
Dexter turns and looks back at us. “She needs to lose the phone. Both of you do.”
I put up a hand. “I got this,” I say. I take both our phones and disable tracking. I send Kev a text that we are safe but going off the radar for a little while. I turn off our phones and remove the sim cards and hand them to Dexter.
“Keep those safe, we’ll need them back later,” I tell him. He nods.
We drive for about twenty minutes, and then he pulls up to a small cottage-style house.
“We’re here,” he announces.
We get out and walk inside with him. He checks the house.
“All clear,” he says to someone on the phone. Then he looks at us. “You’ll need to stay here tonight. We want to monitor both the hotel and Vanessa’s house.”
“Fine,” I say.
“But, I don’t have any stuff here,” Vanessa says. “And my cat.”
I look at her. “You have a cat?”
She nods. “Winter, she’s at the house.”
“I’m on it,” Dexter says. “Don’t worry about the cat, miss. I’ll make sure he’s alright. I will have Pierce bring over clothes for you later. I think you’ll find all the food and toiletries you need are here. Call us on this secure number from this burner phone if you need us. Otherwise, we’ll contact you in the morning.” Dexter hands me a cell phone and leaves.
Vanessa and I stand in the foyer staring at each other for a very long moment.
“Well, this has been a most unusual ending to my day.” Vanessa finally breaks the silence.
I run a hand through my hair. “What’s been going on with your stalker, Vanessa?” I ask her, and her eyes go wide.
“There’s been more notes and flowers last week,” she says with a sigh as she runs her hand through her hair.
“And does your security or the police have any leads?”
She shakes her head and sits down on a sofa. “Do you think that was him?”
“How do you know it’s a ‘him’?”
She looks down at her hands and picks at an invisible thread on her pants. “The notes.”
I sit down and push her chin up until her eyes meet mine. “What about the notes?” I say sternly.
She blushes. “They said things…sexual things. A woman…a woman would not write like that.”
“Such as.”
She shakes her head.
“Vanessa.”
“It’s too crude. I won’t repeat it.”
I caress the skin of her cheek. “Try.”
She looks into my eyes, and I see fear. “He wants me…sexually speaking. He talks about all the things he’d like to do to me. The police think he has…fetishes.”
“Like what?”
“Like tying me up and using things on me.”
“I see.
“What else does he say?”
She shrugs. “He’s seen me. He’ll say nice blue jacket, or I looked sexy in my floral dress, you know like he’s been watching me.”
The wheels in my head start spinning. “And can you trace those outfits to certain days?”
She nods.
“And can you remember where you went those days, what you did?”
She nods.
“I keep a journal,” she says.
“A journal?”
“Yeah, you know, like a diary of sorts.”
“And you write what you wear?”
She nods. “It’s not what it sounds like. I’m not narcissistic or anything. I just write basic stuff, calendar stuff. I do put down what I wear, only because wearing something twice for media purposes is pretty much like career suicide around these parts.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, sounds crazy, I know. Some celebrities have been trying to do it on purpose, you know, change perspectives on it. Anyhow, I pulled up the days and neither the police nor my security folks could figure it out. They went through CCTV tapes of places I’d been. They pulled paparazzi photos and nothing.”
“Well, what if I hire Bryce to look into it?”
“What?”
“Bryce Gallagher, my security guy.”
Vanessa rolls her eyes. “Jesse, for the tenth time. I have security folks. Don’t be such a control freak.”
“Vanessa, I’m not being a control freak.”
“Right,” she says, her voice laced with sarcasm.
“Fine, I’ll drop it for now, but we are going to talk about this later.”
“Whatever,” she says as she gets up and begins to walk around the house. I follow her into a kitchen with an eat-in nook, two bedrooms and a bathroom are down a hall and there’s a small back yard with little more than a few pieces of plastic furniture neatly stacked against the house. It’s all well-kept. In fact, it resembles a flip house on one of those HGTV shows, impersonal, but clean and modern. I roll my eyes as I think of my sister and all the times she’s made me watch such shows.
Vanessa sits back down on a stool at a small breakfast bar in the kitchen. “What do we do now?” she asks. I smirk. She rolls her eyes. I look around and on a shelf in the living room I see games. There’s no TV, but there are old-school board games.
“Uno? Yahtzee?” I suggest as I motion to the shelf. She looks perplexed for a moment and then sees the games. She grins.
“Monopoly,” she says. Now it’s my turn to roll my eyes.
“Really, that game takes forever,” I groan.
“Exactly,” she says with a smile. And so begins our epic three-hour Monopoly battle. She wins because I let her.
Chapter 11
Jesse’s Playlist: “Feel It Still” by Portugal. The Man
We make a dinner of spaghetti with what is in the pantry. Vanessa is very quiet, too quiet.
“Penny for your thoughts?” I ask as we clean the plates.
“I…Jesse?”
“Yes?”
“I’d like to hire Bryce.”
I try to contain my smile. “I’ll call him now.”
She nods.
I pick up the burner phone and dial the one stored number. “Jesse? Is everything OK?” a voice says on the other line.
“Bryce?”
“It’s Pierce.”
“Oh, can you get me through to Bryce?”
“Hold one second.” The phone line is silent for about ten seconds.
“This is Bryce.”
“Bryce, it’s Jesse—”
“We’re working on the situation as fast as we can, Jesse, but I need more time. I need you two to stay—”
“That’s not why I’m calling,” I say, although I’m curious what he’s found out.
“Oh?”
“Bryce, Vanessa wants to hire you.”
“I see. Let me get this situation handled first and then I’ll fly out there to meet with her.”
“Thanks, man, I appreciate it.”
“No problem. And, Jesse?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t let her talk to anyone on her team until I green light it OK?”
I frown. “Sure, why?”
“Call it a hunch. Just maintain radio silence there, and we’ll be in touch tomorrow morning. Sorry, but I don’t want to say anything yet.”
“OK.” The line goes dead, and I look over at Vanessa.
“So?” she asks.
“He’ll come out to meet you once he figures out what happened today. We have to stay here tonight, alright?”
I see a frown form on her lips. “OK,” she says slowly. “I’d like to call Kev and let him know.”
I shake my head. “Sorry, I’ve been instructed not to let you call anyone.”
“Wait, what?” she says, her voice several octaves higher.
“Sorry,” I say softly as I touch her arm, trying to reassure her of, I don’t know what.
I see a look of panic in her eyes. I pull her against me, and I hold her tightly. “It’s OK. I won’t let anything happen to us, alright? Bryce just wants to take every precaution. He’s good, the best. We should listen to him.”
I kiss the top of her head and breathe in her scent. She smells of flowers and the ocean. She nods. I hear the quietest sniffle ever and I pull back to see a big, fat tear roll down her cheek.
“Come here,” I say as I lead her down the hall. It’s late now and we are both tired. I decide she needs sleep and only sleep. I garner all my willpower and strip her clothes and then my own. I help her into bed and turn out the light, pulling her close against me in the darkness of the room. She turns in my arms and curls into a ball. I place my arms protectively around her and kiss the back of her head.
“It’ll be OK, Vanessa,” I say soothingly as I stroke her arm.
“How do you know that?” she whispers.
“I just do,” I say, and I mean it.
We fall asleep like that, as my mind wanders to the events of today.
I wake with a start. It’s not quite daylight outside yet. The room is basked in hues of gray. Vanessa is wrapped around me. I hear a sound and my body tenses. I slowly peel her off me and quietly make my way to the door. I look around for any type of weapon. I don’t see anything at all. I silently curse myself for not having looked around earlier. I creep down the hallway. I hear another sound. Shit! I make it to the front door and peer through the window. My muscles visibly relax. I open the door and see Pierce in the driveway.
“What the fuck, man? You scared the shit out of me,” I say, trying to control the volume of my voice.
“Sorry, Mr. Ryder. I was trying not to wake you. I have some provisions for you and Ms. Tourney,” he says as he pulls two shopping bags out of the back of the car. He hands them to me.
“Thanks,” I mutter. “Any word from Bryce?”
He shakes his head. “Stay inside,” he adds as he gets back in the car and drives away, leaving me standing in my boxer briefs in the driveway. I half-laugh as I realize I hadn’t bothered putting on pants. Thank God it’s early!
I go back inside. I’m walking down the hallway and Vanessa appears in the doorway of the bedroom. Her eyes are sleepy, and her hair is a mess of wild blonde waves. She’s in her bra and panties and she looks hot, even in her sleepy state. She blinks at me.
“Everything OK?” she asks. “I was worried when you weren’t in bed.”
I nod and hold up the two bags. “Everything is fine. Pierce brought us a change of clothes.”
“Oh,” she says and turns, climbing back into the bed and pulling the covers over her.
I want nothing more than to remove those last two pieces of clothes and have my way with her right now, but I can tell she’s still exhausted. So, I lay the bags down and crawl back in bed. I pull her against me and she sighs, a contented cute sound escaping her lips.
“Go back to sleep, mon étoile,” I murmur against her ear as I stiffen my grip on her warm body.
She’s asleep in minutes, and I lie there in the very early morning hours watching her sleep. I however, don’t fall back asleep for a long time.
Chapter 12
Jesse’s Playlist: “Distraction” by Angels and Airwaves
“Jesse?” I hear my name.
“Jesse? Your phone?”
I feel small hands nudging my ribs and then I hear the telltale buzzing of my phone. I reach over to the nightstand and grab my phone. It takes a minute to realize it’s the burner phone, and not my own. Without opening my eyes, I answer it.
“Yes?”
“Jesse, it’s Bryce.”
I sit straight up and open my eyes. Vanessa is sitting next to me and her eyes go wide at the sound of my voice.
“Yes?”
“Is Vanessa with you?”
“Of course,” I answer, half-rolling my eyes.
“I mean in the room with you.”
“Yes.”
“Put me on speakerphone, please.”
I play around for a second and then put the phone on speaker.
“I have information that isn’t going to be easy for you to hear, Vanessa.”
“Alright…,” she says with trepidation. I place my hand on hers and give it a sq
ueeze. She looks up at me with eyes filled with fear and confusion.
“We’ve traced your stalker. We’re fairly certain that was who was following you yesterday, but our information on the stalker actually is completely separate from our investigation into the car.”
“Oh?” I ask.
“Yes, let’s just say I stumbled upon some intel and it made me curious, so I pursued it on the side while figuring out what the hell was with the car tailing you.”
“And?” I prod.
“And, you won’t like what I found out, Vanessa.”
“Just tell me,” she says.
“You don’t have a stalker,” his voice is deadpan.
“What!?” she yells.
“It was Dave and Kev,” he says.
“Wait. What? I don’t understand,” she says rapidly, confusion blanketing her face.
“There was another car following you. We haven’t figured out why. The one you all saw was Kev. We did some tracking and it appears he was hired by Dave, yes?”
“That’s correct,” Vanessa concurs.
“Well, apparently Dave wanted you to get more press coverage, so he paid Kev extra on the side to deliver notes and such to you. That’s why the police couldn’t figure it out. It was an inside job.”
Vanessa’s face goes white. “You mean…Kev was going to…no, no, you have to have it wrong,” she says, her voice panicky.
“I’m sorry, Vanessa, but I have enough evidence to put both of them away for a long time. I don’t think they would have actually done anything to you; however, I’m turning this over to the LAPD after we end this call. I don’t take chances with my clients or my prospective clients.”
Vanessa sucks in a long, steadying breath. Her eyes fill with tears, and I pull her against me. “I just don’t understand. I trusted them both. They were supposed to protect me,” she whispers and her voice trembles.
“Well, there’s more,” Bryce adds.
“What?” she asks meekly.
“Dave has been taking money from you as well. Not a lot, but enough,” he adds.
I kiss the top of her head as I feel her will crumble and hot tears splash onto my arm that is wrapped around her.
