by Lily Silver
“What happened?” His voice was fraught with concern as he placed a hand on Jessie’s back, guiding her inside the elevator.
“Darrell was trying to stab my brother and I got in his way.”
“Yeah, sure.” Darrell laughed. “That’s right, blame it on me. We were downtown and this guy came out of nowhere, man . . . tried to steal Jessie’s purse, and when she wouldn’t give it up, he stabbed her . . .” Darrell gave her a pleading look. “Right Jess?”
Jessie didn’t answer. She just glared at him, savoring the feeling of outrage that hid her more tender feelings for the man standing beside her.
“Dr. Roberts is waiting.” Lex pressed the elevator button. “Steve said you wanted to avoid publicity.” He said as they were taken to the fourth floor.
The doctor’s office was more like a reception room for an elite Hollywood starlet. Dr. Roberts was the private physician of many of the stars in Malibu and L.A. His discretion and anonymity came with a steep price. Steve was right, Jessie needed stitches. Four, to be exact. She’d taken a blow to her left arm, just below the elbow. Lex and Darrell were allowed to stay with her through the procedure, while Steve took Jack and waited in the plush private waiting area so no one would notice Jack was toasted on coke.
“That’s a nasty puncture wound. You’ll need to rest your arm for about a week or two. No guitar playing. No sports, just pillows and a sling. Percocet should take care of the pain, but you shouldn’t drive while you are taking it.”
“That’s okay, I’ll let my drugged out band mates drive me around.” Jessie snapped.
“A chauffeur will be available.” Lex answered with all the authority of an overly protective spouse. “I’ll see to it personally.”
“Yeah, we’ll take care of her.” Darrell echoed with a tinge of guilt.
“By the way, where is that purse you felt the need to risk your life defending?” The doctor asked. “Was it Gucci or Prada?”
“I didn’t have a purse.” Jessie returned without cracking a smile. The doctor assumed it was a joke and laughed as he left the exam room. Darrell turned away with a grimace while Lex remained stoic and silent as he studied Jessie with severity.
Jack burst into the room. “So, you’re set, Jess. Nothing serious. What’s a little bit of blood-letting among band members, hey? No harm, no foul.” Steve followed Jack’s grand entrance with a silent, irritated scowl.
“I see nothing’s changed.” Lex moved to stand in front of Jessie so she had to look at him. “Still babysitting the boys, are we, Jessie?”
Jessie was about to give Lex a sharp set down for his comment. She stifled it when her eyes met his. The ominous look in his eyes brooked no argument. Yeah, that pretty much summed up her life in the past month. She nodded, despite her outrage at his alpha male, leader of the pack aura.
“I’ll take her home.” He told the three stooges and they all nodded like obedient little wolf pups before their leader.
Lex had that effect on everyone. He exuded a powerful presence that other males easily surrendered to. And females, well, they swooned at his feet.
Rick, the sound engineer could never compete with such a man for her heart. Rick was a nice, polite, milquetoast sort of date. Gangly, apologetic, uncertain. The Danny Kaye sort, while Lex was the embodiment of a romantic hero; self-assured, confident, thoroughly capable of taking the heroine’s heart captive as well as her body. As she ruminated on the hopelessness in ever ‘getting over’ such a man, Jessie found herself being wheeled out of the hospital by the arrogant rogue and helped into his El Dorado.
What’s wrong with me? Was it that shot of morphine they gave her that made her so pliable and easily maneuvered into his keeping? The engine started, and they were moving out of the parking lot. Jessie was going to have to fight this growing lethargy if she was to have any control over the attraction she still had for the man beside her.
Why did he insist on taking her home when her brother and two friends could easily escort her? Jessie licked her lips and tried to appear amused as she asked, “Are you trying to rescue me?”
Lex gave her a penetrating look. “Do you need to be rescued?”
“Maybe a little. My guys always take care of me.”
“Steve called me. Jack is dusted, and by my observations, I’d say so is Darrell, which is why he probably stabbed you instead of Jack. Which leaves Steve.” He paused, giving her a fierce look before continuing. “Who, as I stated before, called me.”
“And you were just sitting around the castle, waiting around for the call to arms?” Jessie laughed, but the sound she intended to be amusing turned out to be caustic.
“Steve and I have an understanding.”
“Oh?”
“We care about you. We’d both do anything to protect you, even if it means keeping you away from your family.”
Jessie hissed sharply, gripped the seat with her free hand and swallowed her panic.
“What is that supposed to mean?” She insisted with all of the outrage she could muster, under the circumstances. “Jack would never hurt me.”
“Not intentionally. But that’s not what I was talking about.”
Jessie took a deep breath to clear her head.
“I missed you.” She found herself saying and wished she could slap herself to make her head clear. That shot was starting to affect her. She felt relaxed, so relaxed that she was confessing things she didn’t want him to know.
“I’ve been very busy.”
“But you’re always home?”
“I’m pleased you noticed.” Lex looked away from the road to give her a languid smile.
“Yeah, well . . . I . . .” She started to say, as the painkiller the doctor gave her flowed delightfully through her system. “I wanted to . . . to call you--but . . .”
“Your pride got in the way?”
An uncomfortable silence grew between them. It seemed to be taking ages to go the few miles from the hospital to their exclusive neighborhood. Jessie looked at the passing landscape, feeling a bit dizzy.
He was past the turn off for their neighborhood. “Where are you taking me?”
“For a short ride.”
Jessie gazed at his profile as he drove. She realized she was glad to be with him, however briefly.
“So, tell me?” She asked. “What do you do all day at home? Watch talk shows or those nauseating soap operas?”
“Mysteries.” Lex offered with a smile.
“You read mysteries . . . all day?”
“No, I write them.” Lex turned off to park at the scenic overlook, and turned off the engine. He gazed wistfully out at the rolling waves of the Pacific Ocean.
“You’re a writer now?”
He leaned back, placing his arm about the back of the car seat, and turned slightly so that he was looking at Jessie. “Yeah. I just signed a six book contract. Remember my abrupt trip to New York a couple of months back?”
Jessie nodded. It was the night he thought Steve was her lover. He left for New York the next morning without a word.
“The novel I spent the past year writing was accepted by a major publisher. I’m under contract to write five more as part of a series. So, yes, I’m always home; writing.”
“That’s wonderful.” Jessie felt her spirits soaring in a strange exuberance that had to be drug induced. “Lex, I’m so happy for you.” She moved impulsively to give him a hug. His arms surrounded her as he obliged her intentions with a wide grin.
“Oh--Oww. Ssssss.” Jessie exclaimed, hugging her aching limb protectively.
“Behave or I’ll have to get out my leather restraints.” Lex quipped, winking at her with pure fun in his eyes.
Jessie gave a weak laugh at his oblique reference to the stuntman she’d told him about. “What about your music career?” She leaned back into his familiar frame as his arms remained about her in a loose hug.
“I’m retiring. Don’t you read the gossip rags?”
“I’ve been up to my eyeba
lls in our newest album release. We had to haul it hard to meet our deadline with the label in this past month. I’ll been sleeping with my guitar, when I sleep, and it’s usually not a planned event.”
“I’m jealous . . .” His sultry blue eyes pinioned her. “Of that guitar, sweet thing.”
Jessie giggled. “Don’t be, it’s cold. Smooth, but cold.”
They stared at one another, not knowing what to say, reflecting back a thousand apologies in a still whisper between their souls. Slowly, as if in a dream sequence, it seemed to Jessie, they were merging together. His lips were soft and full, their intention sincere as they plied her own.
He withdrew slightly, whispering, “I’ve missed you, Babe.”
“Don’t call me that. I hate it.” Jessie was quick to reply.
“Is that why you broke up with me?” Lex drew away from her.
“I didn’t break up with you, Lex. You left me.”
“You refused to marry me, just like Crystal did.”
“No, I didn’t refuse.” Jessie sat up straight, coming to attention with his abrupt change from sweet to sour. “You wanted it now, today. I asked you to step back, wait a while and you were offended. You stomped off in a huff. You left me--just like those guys who always want sex on the first date when I say ‘no, not yet, we’re moving too fast, they split. They dump me.’”
Lex turned the key and the engine started. He checked the rearview, shifted and pulled onto the road again.
“Right, so just drop me off at home.” Jessie insisted in a sharp hiss.
“What are you hungry for?” he offered instead of acknowledging her accusation.
“I’m not.”
“You have to eat. You just said you’ve been living on the edge for a month with your new album coming out. It’s no wonder your band mates are trying to kill each other.”
“Will you just chill? You don’t know what happened, what kind of pressure we’re under with Kyra ditching us and the record execs pushing Jack and me into the forefront of publicity. We have jealousies cropping up and egos---” She was shouting, nearly crying, wanting more than anything to just open up the car door and jump out, leave his arrogance and self assurance ass behind her.
“Don’t I?” He pulled his gaze from the highway just long enough to give Jessie a heated look. “We left Phoenix when we were eighteen, four of us, with a vision, just like you and the guys left Wisconsin. Fourteen years later, Mike Parks is the only original member of the band he and I started. It’s the hard times that pull you together. Not the money. The success and the publicity inflates egos. I’ve been there and I don’t want to be there anymore. I’m retiring, starting a career as a writer which means I’ll probably lose Mike’s friendship now, too, for not providing him with an easy income off my royalties for another ten to fifteen years.”
“Does he know?” Jessie asked in a controlled voice. Lex was nearly snarling back at her, and he was right. He knew, better than she the hardships of the rock lifestyle.
“Yes and he’s not too happy with me right now.” Lex pulled into the drive through of the burger joint and ordered two cheeseburger meals. He fell silent as they waited at the window, a hard grimace on his face as he stared directly ahead, his fingers gripping the steering wheel with tenacity. The window opened, he paid the waitress and took the bag without returning the woman’s wishes for a great day.
“Here.” He shoved the bag at her. “I’d take you out for a decent meal, but you really should go home and rest, like the doctor said.”
Jessie took the bag of cheeseburgers from him. She was hungry, not so much for junk food, but as the scent of fresh grease, fried onions and meat filled the front seat she couldn’t resist reaching into the bag to snag a burger. Unwrapping it was a chore, as she had her arm wrapped tight and the shot they put in her IV was making her clumsy. In the end, Lex unwrapped the burger for her as he drove quickly down the Pacific Coast Highway to their exit.
After she devoured a burger and several salty fries, Jessie felt a little a more like her old self, albeit, a sort of buzzed, fuzzy headed self.
“So, did I tell you I’m seeing a past life therapist?” She said in what she hoped was an offhand manner as she gazed out the window at the passing scenery.
“What?” Lex sounded a little panicked. “Who is it?” He made the turn and suddenly pulled onto the gravel shoulder and yanked the car into park.
“Oooo, touchy aren’t we?” Jessie noted, feeling a wee bit satisfied to have unnerved him. “I would think you would want me to explore the past, since you claim to have been an important part of it.”
His face became severe as he turned her. “Jessie, you can’t play around with this stuff. It can be dangerous--anyone can claim to be a past life therapist--“
She laughed and it felt damned good to do so. After all, he probably was right, anyone could turn this into a scam. Then again, maybe it wasn’t so funny after all.
“Jessie . . .” Lex sighed and hit the steering wheel with the palm of his hand. “Who is it? Maybe I should go with you to your next visit, just to make sure she’s legit.”
Jessie rolled her eyes and stuffed a French fry in her mouth. “Yeah, like they have a certified board of specialists and a license for that sort of thing.” She muttered. “I went to Madame Aria from that Unicorn something shop on Rodeo Drive. She was highly recommended, too.” She waved her diet soda cup in the air for emphasis as she replied in a mocking tone. “By my makeup artist. Can’t get more legit than that, not in California, can we?”
“I don’t mock your beliefs.” Lex said, sitting back in the seat with his hands gripping the steering wheel.
“I don’t have any to mock.”
“Then why are you seeing a past life therapist?” He shot back, almost as an accusation.
“Because I keep dreaming about you!” Jessie set the drink in the cup holder with jerky movements.
Lex glanced at her, his eyes uneasy. “Has she helped you? Have you remembered anything significant?” He looked really scared, as if expecting something horrible might be revealed.
“Yes, I found out you were cheating on me--with my best friend, Kyra.”
“What? No, that’s not possible.”
“Oh, well, that’s what I remembered. The two of you chatting it up at the castle, planning to continue your affair behind my back. Sorry if it doesn’t fit your romantic notions about our past together. I remembered you were a womanizing jerk back then. You wanted me to run away with you to Paris and get married. But all along you were planning to go back to Normandy and keep boinking my best friend. And probably other women since they all wilted at your feet. Kyra’s name was Lucy then. Guess that explains why I was a little hesitant to jump the broom with you in this life, doesn’t it?”
“I don’t remember any of that.” Lex said, as he stared straight ahead at the road before them. “Honestly, I don’t remember anyone named Lucy.”
“How convenient.” Jessie quipped. “You were a court musician, a troubadour. You made the rounds touring castles entertaining the wealthy by singing beautiful songs for the ladies, making them cry and swoon. I guess having one woman wasn’t enough.”
“Jessie. We can’t recall every detail from a past life.” He turned to look at her, his eyes pleading, his hand cutting the air to emphasize his words. “It’s usually only the trauma we remember, the terrible events from a past life; lost loves, children, death. You were important to me and you were taken from me, most cruelly--“ He stopped cold and looked away from her.
Jessie watched him with interest. He was behaving a little strange. Or maybe, just maybe, she was a little stoned. That might skewer her perceptions a little bit.
His breathing increased and his hands clenched the steering wheel as if he wanted to snap it between them. “Jess, it’s a dangerous path you’re treading. Don’t go back to Madame Aria. You don’t need to know the rest. Trust me, I wish I could forget it.”
Lex put the car into drive and gla
nced into the rear view mirror. Seeing the road was clear, he pulled out and drove toward the gates of the Malibu colony.
The sun was setting as he showed the gatekeeper his I.D. and drove them into the compound. The gates clicked behind their car. The landscape was bathed in a golden glow of sunset. It was a beautiful time of night to be out on the beach, when the sun made the waves glisten with yellow fire and the muted tones of peach and pink painted an idyllic portrait of absolute calm.
Jessie was feeling anything but calm. Even with the medicine coursing through her, she sensed a change in Lex, a scared sense of doom.
“What do you mean?” She asked. “About it being dangerous to pursue past life regression therapy?”
“Well . . . sometimes people remember being tortured, executed or other terrible things. It’s not pleasant, Jess. In the long run, they say it brings healing in this life, a type of soul healing if you face the trauma of a past life that is holding you back in this one. But revisiting old traumas, reliving your death can be a very disturbing experience.”
“What happened to me? You said I was cruelly taken from you. How? Did I die of the plague or something?”
Lex pulled into his driveway. He turned the key, shutting of the engine and just sat there staring at the garage door. After several tense moments he said, “Don’t go back to Madame Aria, sweetheart. If you want to go to a therapist, let me go with you. Please, for your own safety?”
“So, not the plague?”
“No, not the plague.”
Chapter Twenty One
“Tell me, please. What happened?” Jessie touched his hand. “I died, didn’t I?”
Lex’s fingers wound about hers, and he pulled her hand onto his thigh. His big hand was hugging her own, squeezing it in a comforting way. “We all died.”
“No, that’s not what I mean, and you know it.”
“Don’t push, let it come.” Lex admonished. “Stay here tonight, please?”
Jessie had been staring at his profile, but as he said the last, he turned his head to face her. The longing in his eyes was unmistakable.
