by L A Dobbs
“I am.” Jan stepped forward.
“Great.” She smiled at Jan then glanced at her head. “Nice hat.”
“Thanks.” Jan looked at Dino and bit back a smile. “I’m her cousin.”
“Cousin will work.” The woman motioned for them to have a seat then directed her attention to Stacy. “Ms. Winters, my name is Deborah, and I’ll be your intake partner while you’re here with us. Does that sound all right to you?”
Stacy shrugged but remained silent.
“Awesome.” If the woman noticed anything out of the ordinary, she didn’t show it. Then again, considering what they dealt with on a regular basis in a place like this, Stacy probably seemed like a piece of cake, Jan supposed.
Deborah printed out several forms and explained them to Jan before she signed on the dotted line. An hour later, they kissed Stacy good-bye, and Jan promised she’d be back four days later, after Stacy completed her mandatory detox period.
Dino took her hand again as they walked back out into the sunshine. “I know that was hard for you, but you did the right thing.”
“I just hope she gets the help she needs.”
“This is one of the best facilities in the country. She’ll get the best care here, I promise.”
Jan stopped in front of one of the many small waterfalls decorating the plaza in front of the parking lot. “It seems lovely here, anyway.”
“Yeah.” He slipped his arm around her waist, his gaze never leaving her. “Beautiful.”
Warmth suffused her system, and she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For everything.” She took his hand and led him toward the car once more. “Now let’s get back to my place before I tackle you right here and have my wicked way with you.”
23
The next morning, Jan and Dino headed back to Treble Studios, as usual. Except everything wasn’t as usual. Not anymore. She glanced over at Dino in the driver’s seat and found him looking at her as they waited for the stoplight to turn green. She grinned, and he squeezed her hand, entwined with his on top of her jeans-covered thigh.
“Happy, sweetheart?” he asked, his brilliant-blue gaze dropping to her lips before returning to her eyes.
“Yeah, I am.”
“Good.” He leaned over and kissed her, his lips warm and soft and infinitely inviting. Since they’d gotten back together, she couldn’t seem to get enough of him, always wanting to touch him or hold him or kiss him. Making up for lost time, she supposed.
A honking horn behind them had Dino pulling away from her, his expression reluctant. He waved to the irate guy behind them in the rearview mirror then took off again.
Jan chuckled, checking her appearance in the mirror once more as they pulled into the small studio parking lot. No matter how thrilled she might be to be back together with Dino, it still felt tentative. Things were good, she knew, but inside she still had that niggle of doubt, that feeling that the other shoe was about to drop. It was all part of her problem with trusting anyone. A problem she was trying hard to defeat.
Her trust issues aside, she didn’t want the world to know about their budding relationship just yet. Tabloid gossip was one thing. Showing up to work with mussed hair and smeared lipstick was quite another.
Dino pulled the Tahoe into a parking space and cut the engine then reached over and took her hand again. “You going to be okay in there today, after what happened with Lou?”
“I’ll be fine.” She flipped the mirrored visor back up and took a deep breath. “I mean, it’ll be weird and all. I’m so used to having him around all the time, watching everything I do in there, but I think it’ll be good. I’ve got a couple of new song ideas I want to hash out, so that’ll keep me busy.”
“You know I’m here for you, right?” He reached over and smoothed an errant lock of her long brown hair away from her face. “Not just as your bodyguard. Whatever you need, you tell me, okay?”
Jan frowned. “Wait, do I still need a bodyguard?”
“No, but I plan on guarding your body as long as you’ll let me.” Dino waggled his eyebrows.
“Okay.” She giggled and pressed a quick kiss on his lips then exited the car and walked into the studio, Dino following behind her. She knew it wouldn’t be long before he got tired of following her around and got another client. Then he’d be hers after hours only. She wanted to enjoy spending every minute she could with him until then.
After climbing upstairs and greeting her producer, she kissed Dino then settled in one of the music rooms with her guitar and a notepad and began working out the notes and lyrics for the music in her head. Two hours later, she had the beginnings of two new songs drafted and took them in to the producer to see how they would work with the string arrangements and background vocals he’d add in later.
In the recording booth, she laid down a couple versions of each track for him to play with then headed downstairs to find her new dressing room with her bag in hand. The thing was heavy, and she really wanted to lock it up somewhere safe so she wouldn’t have to keep lugging it around all day. Now, if she could just find out where they’d moved her to, she’d be all set. Lou would’ve known, but well… Lou wasn’t around anymore, and Jan had to learn to take care of herself professionally again, at least until she could find a good replacement manager.
Dino would know, too. Except Dino hadn’t been waiting for her on the sofa upstairs like he usually was, so she’d taken matters into her own hands.
She rounded the bottom of the steps and headed for the opposite side of the lobby from where her original dressing room had been located, vaguely remembering Dino mention that there’d been an open dressing room somewhere in this area. The receptionist was away from her desk as well, which meant asking for directions was out. Seemed nothing would be easy today.
Jan rounded the corner into a small hallway and spotted the silhouette of two figures at the other end, unrecognizable in the bright sunlight. From what she could see, they looked rather “busy.” The outline of a curvy female reached out to place her hand against the chest of a much taller and broader and obviously masculine form. The woman leaned closer to the man and traced her hand lower down his front. The whole thing looked pretty intimate, and Jan hated to interrupt whatever they had going on, but she was on a five-minute break and needed to get back upstairs to her producer.
“Um, I’m sorry.” She inched forward, a strange tension blossoming in her stomach. “I hate to bother you both, but I’m looking for an empty dressing room and…”
The man cursed, and the woman giggled, and the sun outside slipped behind some clouds, giving Jan her first real view of the couple in question. At first she just stared, not quite comprehending what she saw, mouth open as her speech faded.
“Jan, sweetheart.” Dino stepped away from Erin, who’d somehow managed to get even closer to him in the short seconds since Jan had discovered them. “This isn’t what it looks like.”
Emotions, too many to count, too many to process, tumbled through her head in a cyclone of chaos—hurt, anger, betrayal, outrage. Dino grabbed her by the arm, but she shook him off. “What’s she doing here?”
“She and Stacy are friends. She was worried about her when she didn’t show up for their dinner plans last night. She knew I’d helped Stacy before, so she came to check on her.”
“I see.” Jan took a step back, then another, crossing her arms against the sudden chill that had invaded her body. “And checking on Stacy involves touching your chest?”
“What?” Dino scrunched his nose. “Oh, that. No. Something happened to her shoe, and she was using me for balance.”
“Right.” Jan retreated farther back into the lobby, her heavy bag smacking against her hip with each step. Her gaze darted from Dino to Erin. Was something going on between them? No, Dino wouldn’t do that, would he?
As if in answer to her question, Erin stepped out from the hallway and behind Dino, placing her hand on hi
s shoulder. Dino never moved, just kept his narrowed gaze locked on Jan.
“Dammit, sweetheart. I swear this is nothing. I barely know her.”
Jan’s insecurities and trust issues swamped her common sense as she kept backing up until her butt hit the edge of the receptionist desk. She’d assumed that Dino had wanted an exclusive relationship, but he’d never said as much. She reminded herself that he wasn’t a seventeen-year-old boy anymore. This wasn’t high school where you “went steady” with one person. Dino was a grown man, one who probably had a string of girls vying for his attention. Her cheeks heated with embarrassment that she’d been presumptuous enough to think she was the only one he wanted.
“You know what? It doesn’t matter.” She slung her bag over her shoulder and headed toward the front door. “Sorry to interrupt.”
She shoved outside, only to be confronted by a wall of paparazzi, all jostling for photos or interviews or whatever piece of her they could get. Already overwhelmed and raw from what had just happened with Dino, she lost it. Head down, she tried to push forward, but the men surrounding her just kept shoving her back into the middle of the small circle they’d created, kept hounding her for information, kept berating her about Lou and the new song and…
“C’mon.” Dino emerged through the crowd and took her arm to lead her out of the melee and over to his SUV. “Jan, please. We need to talk about this.”
“There’s nothing to talk about, really.” She fished her phone out of her bag and dialed a local cab company. After giving them her location, she ended the call and looked at him, trying to appear calm even though her heart was in turmoil. “We’re both adults and free to take up with whomever we please. I just don’t think this is going to work between us, though.”
“What are you talking about?” The look of pained confusion on Dino’s face twisted her heart. But the old feelings of betrayal perched on the edge of her consciousness, reminding her that she shouldn’t trust him. Or anyone. After all, she’d trusted Lou, and look where that had gotten her.
Jan leaned around him to see if her cab had arrived yet and spotted Erin standing outside the door instead. She fought down the jealous rage that bubbled up inside her. “Erin’s waiting for you.”
“She can wait forever for all I care.” Dino leaned closer, jaw clenched. “I told you already, there is nothing going on. I swear I barely know Erin. She seemed really upset when she came here this morning, and the guards downstairs called me, said she’d asked to speak with me personally. I don’t even know how she knew where to find me. Maybe Stacy gave her my card or something.”
Jan believed him. Believed that nothing was going on before, but now … now was a different story. Judging by the way they’d been standing so close together in the studio and the predatory gleam in Erin’s eyes right now. Either something was going on, or was about to be going on very soon.
A yellow taxi swerved up beside the Tahoe, and Jan hustled over to it, with Dino trailing behind. He caught up with her as she opened the door. “Where are you going?”
“What does it matter?” She tossed her bag onto the backseat then put one leg in the car. “You don’t need to know where I am every minute of the day.”
“I’m still your bodyguard.”
“The stalker’s been caught. I don’t need to be guarded. Maybe your time would be best spent finishing up the paperwork so we can get this whole thing wrapped up and be out of each other’s hair for good?”
“Jan, sweetheart. Let me come with you.” He raked a hand through his hair. “We’ll talk and work all of this out. Please.”
The rough pain in his voice damned near made her forget what she’d seen inside, but as Erin emerged from the crowd of paparazzi and moved closer to them, Jan steeled her heart. She couldn’t do this. Not again. Not with him. Not after what they’d shared together this past week, last night, this morning…
It would be easy to give in, but she loved him too much to share him with anyone. She reached up and touched his cheek one last time.
“I’m sorry Dino, but this is good-bye.”
Jan turned away, shutting the door and signaling to the driver. As the cab pulled into traffic, she glanced out the back window. A memory from that fateful day when she’d said good-bye to Dino fifteen years ago flashed through her mind. There he stood, staring after the cab, looking almost exactly as he had looked that day in front of her house—completely lost and completely bedraggled.
She sank down into the backseat and sobbed, not caring if the driver was staring at her or not. Fifteen years ago she’d made a stupid decision that had almost ruined her life. Had she just made the same exact mistake?
24
Dino’s day went from awful to whatever was worse than awful, if that were possible. Part of him wanted to charge over to Jan’s house and demand she listen to him, demand she stop acting like a little kid and work to save what they’d waited years to rediscover between them.
The other part of him, what was left of his rational brain, knew he was too angry, too hurt, too close to see what was really going on in this crazy, fucked-up scenario. Something rankled with this whole situation, something about it just seemed too convenient, too staged to be merely coincidence, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what that was yet.
And for a man who earned his living off of his instincts, that was bad.
He’d just finished writing up his report on Jan’s case for Blake when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and stared at the screen. The number he recognized, but it wasn’t possible. Stacy’s cell phone had been confiscated when they’d checked her into rehab the day before. Standard procedure, her intake partner had said. All devices were returned after the mandatory detox lockdown period. Which meant either Stacy’s phone had been stolen from the clinic or…
“Hello.” He answered the call on the third and final ring. “Who is this?”
“Dino?” Stacy’s voice slurred through the line, and his blood froze.
Only a family member could have gotten her discharged from the clinic. But why would Jan do that? They’d agreed Stacy needed professional help.
Heart racing, he pushed to his feet and strode across his living room. “Where are you?”
“I-I don’t know…” Stacy sounded more out of it than he’d ever heard her. “It’s really dark, and I’m cold, and I don’t feel so good, Dino.” She hiccupped, halfway between a laugh and a sob, and his chest constricted. “Can you come help me, Dino? I’m scared. I’m so scared.”
Fuck.
He had his coat on and was halfway out the door before he remembered to go back inside and grab his wallet and keys. “Keep your phone on, okay? I’m on my way.”
Dino ended the call with her and dialed the Rockford IT team. “I need you to trace a location on a SIM card for me,” he said as he climbed in behind the wheel of the Tahoe. He rattled off Stacy’s number as he started the engine and backed out of the drive, the call now going through the SUV’s Bluetooth system. “Let me know as soon as you find her.”
“Yep,” the tech on the other end of the line said. “Got it pinpointed. Looks like the call is originating from somewhere near 128 Fremont Street.”
“Great. Thanks.” He ended the call and took off for downtown Vegas. Of course Stacy would go back to Binion’s. He should’ve known. What he didn’t understand was why Jan checked her out of rehab to begin with. It made no sense.
He called Jan, but there was no answer. With call waiting and their recent fight still looming, he hadn’t really expected her to pick up, but it had been worth a shot anyway.
Frustrated, he dialed the number for the rehab clinic and asked for Deborah, the intake partner they’d spoken with the day before, hoping to get some answers.
“I’m sorry, sir,” the receptionist said. “Deborah’s off today. Is there something I can help you with?”
“I’m trying to get information on who might have discharged a patient today. Stacy Winters?”
&nb
sp; “We’re not allowed to give out personal information over the phone, sir. Are you a member of Ms. Winters’ family?”
“No.” No matter how much he wished he was, with Jan by his side—as his partner, as his wife—that wouldn’t help Stacy right now. Neither would lying. “No, I’m not. I don’t need anything specific, just a description. Did you happen to be there when she left?”
“All I can tell you is that it was a woman, maybe five-six or five-seven, with long dark hair.”
Dino frowned. Jan had dark hair, but she was short, five-four at most. Still, other people’s perceptions were different—it was sometimes hard to judge height. He thanked the receptionist then ended the call as he swerved into a spot at the end of Fremont Street then cut the engine and got out.
Traffic was busy for an early afternoon, and he had to wait longer than he wanted to jog across the street and down the block toward Binion’s. He checked around the entrance first but found no sign of Stacy. Next, he headed inside and made a quick survey of the perimeter of the room then weaved through the craps and blackjack tables that Stacy liked to frequent. Still nothing. His heart plummeted to his toes. If she wasn’t inside, that only left one other place to look, which meant Stacy was in even worse shape than he’d originally thought.
Dino jogged back outside and around the corner into the shadowed alleyway behind the casino. There, amidst the scattered trash and dumpsters, he spotted Stacy, slumped on the ground against one wall, her makeup smeared and her hair ratted and dirty.
“Shit,” he muttered under his breath as he knelt in front of her and checked her over for serious injuries. “What the hell have you done to yourself this time?”
Stacy blinked up at him with heavy-lidded eyes, her pupils blown wide to all but obliterate the light-green of her irises. “Dino, you found me.” She smiled, her lips trembling. “I knew you’d find me.”
