Walker Spirit

by Bernadette Marie

  “I’m going to send somebody to the salon. Call Nichole and tell her…”

  Audrey’s phone rang, and she pulled it from her pocket. “It’s Lydia,” she said as she answered the phone. She listened to Lydia’s hysterical banter on the other end and disconnected. She looked up at both Phillip and Gregory. Tears were already rising in her throat and welling in her eyes.

  Gregory stepped toward her and took her hand. “Take a couple of breaths.”

  Audrey closed her eyes and did just as he said. Then, as she opened her eyes, she looked toward Phillip. “Somebody broke into the salon.” Her heart thumped in her chest, and her breathing became labored. “They threw red paint on everything. They ruined my salon.”

  Gregory pulled her into his arms and held her tightly. The flood of tears now broke through. Everything she worked for was ruined, according to Lydia. Now what?

  Phillip moved to them. “I’ll get somebody there. Let’s head over.”

  Audrey nodded. All she could think about now was trying to rebuild. What about Nichole? She had a family to take care of.

  Gregory kept his arm around her and walked to the car. Once she was inside, he closed the door and walked around.

  “I’m not going to say it will be alright. I know this is something that we all have to get through.”

  Her anger boiled to the point of explosion. “This is all because I got involved with you. All because you showed up that night and swept me off my feet. Everything was going to be perfect. Everything. Now because you slept with some crazy bitch, my life is ruined.”

  * * *

  Gregory remained quiet throughout the drive. He understood her anger. He was angry too. However, he didn’t believe that she blamed him deep down in her heart. He let her be angry. Hell, he’d give her space if that’s what she needed. But he wasn’t going to give up. He had never felt like this before, and he wasn’t going to let her go. But she needed her space. He understood that.

  There were already multiple police cruisers at the salon by the time they arrived. Lydia hurried toward the car as Audrey climbed from the other side. Gregory stepped back and let them mourn together. Nichole ran down the street toward them. She too enveloped them in a hug, and the three women held each other.

  That was when Gregory’s phone buzzed in his pocket. It was his manager, and at the moment the last person he wanted to talk to. He strolled down the street just a bit as he answered the phone.

  His manager’s voice was nearly as frantic as he had heard Lydia’s through the phone when she had called Audrey. He stopped with his back turned to the crowd behind him, and listened to his manager.

  New photos had been released. It seemed as though his getaway, which had been hijacked by Pepper Dawson, was about to go even more public. His manager told him about the details they received in a letter. Gregory Bishop was about to become a victim of blackmail, and he couldn’t see any way around it.

  He tucked his phone back in his pocket the moment that his manager hung up. He was torn as to what to do. After what she’d said, he was sure that Audrey didn’t want him around. His manager wanted him to meet and discuss a strategy to deal with the media. And yet, he wanted to stay by her side. Who gave a damn what happened to his reputation at this point. Audrey’s entire livelihood was at stake. He owed her the respect to get her salon back together as quickly as possible. Her party was the next day.

  Suddenly he had a mission, enough people, and money to make it happen. Audrey’s salon would be back open for business, and the party would go on as planned. He’d see to that.

  32

  Gregory ignored the pleas from his manager to head to the set. Even Bethany was helping to dodge calls from the production crew.

  Everybody who had been part of building the salon had started to come by. One by one Gregory met every one of her relatives. He kept himself in the background, as it was evident Audrey was too distraught to have him around. She blamed him. That was fine.

  He spent the morning making phone calls. As soon as Phillip released the site for cleanup, he had a crew.

  As lunchtime rolled around, and others showed up, Gregory ordered lunch to be delivered to the reception hall. He helped them set up a few tables, and they served lunch to everybody.

  Relief that so many people had come to help Audrey put her salon back together washed over her face, but the anguish was still there. He pulled a bottle of water from a Styrofoam cooler, which he ordered as well, and took it to her.

  “You look like you could use a little more water,” he offered as he sat down next to her. “And I know you blame me for this, so I’ll make this very short.”

  She lifted her hand and rested it on top of his. “That was wrong for me to say. I was angry, and I needed a reason. It was reason enough somebody messed up my house and now has messed with my salon, twice. But it wasn’t fair for me to pin that on you.”

  “Strangely enough it makes sense, because I love you, and because you love me,” he reminded her. “While you’ve been dealing with Phillip and the legalities, I’ve been putting a few things into motion. Your party is tomorrow.”

  Audrey dipped her head into the palms of her hands and ran her fingers through her hair. “I’m sure the news’ll get around quick enough, there’s not going to be any party. There is no…”

  Gregory held up his hand as if to stop her. “The party is on.”

  Audrey raised her head and looked at him. “You saw it in there. Everything is covered in red paint. It’s ruined. I put every dime I had into there, I don’t know how I can rebuild.”

  “I already have a crew mobilized. If they can do home improvement shows where they remodel an entire home in a week, we can clean up the salon by tomorrow night.”

  “How?”

  “Let me deal with it. It’s a fantastic opportunity to use my fame for good instead of bad. I already have a truck headed to pick up new equipment. There is a cleaning crew coming to try and get the paint off the floor. Russell is headed to buy paint for the walls. And we have a crew of about fifty ready to pull an all-nighter.”

  Audrey stared at him through stunned eyes. “Why are you doing that?”

  “I told you. I love you. And you know what, I do think that it’s part my fault. There’s a lot of attention on you that you didn’t ask for. Perhaps I have to do this to clear my conscience.”

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her palm. “Say you love me. Say you’ll stay with me when things get tough,” he said, because he knew things were going to get tough.

  “I do love you. Thank you,” she said, as Nichole signaled for her. “I’ll be back.”

  Gregory watched her leave the room, and he sat there alone for a moment. At some point, he would have to deal with the crisis at hand for himself. He didn’t know what kind of photos Pepper had. Anything was unauthorized, that was for sure. He hadn’t invited her to Las Vegas. She just happened to be there when he arrived. Yes, he was stupid enough to let it turn into something. He was probably careless enough, too, that anything could have happened. There was no assurance that whatever came out, whatever was leaked to the press, wouldn’t devastate his relationship with Audrey. He didn’t want that. All he wanted was her, and now he knew he wanted her for the rest of his life. But how could he convince her of that? The business she had worked so hard for, and invested everything in, was in shambles. She had a reputation in the town, and hadn’t she said she was from the wrong side of the Walker family?

  Gregory looked around the room and realized that he had never seen her father show up. He didn’t like that either.

  At this point, all he could hope for was that his love could be enough. Moment to moment, he thought. He’d take care of this. And he’d fight for her even if they had nothing left in the end.

  Audrey watched in surprise as her family, all of them, and people from the movie crew began to clean her salon. Ruined equipment was taken out. The floors were being t
aken care of, and Russell and his crew of brothers were painting her walls. She could cry, she thought. This was what family was all about, showing up when someone needed help. The obvious person missing, of course, was her father. He didn’t get it. He never got it.

  None of that mattered really. She had all these other people there.

  Susan, obviously too pregnant to do manual labor, had set up a sandwich buffet for dinner. Russell’s wife, Chelsea, also too pregnant to do manual labor, sat in Lydia’s reception hall with her mother-in-law making beautiful baskets to give away at the grand opening. Audrey now owed her business to the local beauty supply place. They had donated all of the samples and all of the gifts to replace the ruined ones.

  Gregory moved in behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “You have quite a community here.”

  Audrey smiled. “We do,” she said as she turned to face him. “Thank you. None of this would have started without you. Maybe in time, but not tonight. I love you.”

  He gently pressed a kiss to her lips. “That’s payment enough. Listen,” he began, “I need to go meet my manager. I don’t know how long I’ll be. This is going to go on all night, and I’ll be back.”

  “I hope they don’t fire you over this. You took a whole day to be here. I hope they see how gracious you are.”

  “It’s not about that. I’ll explain later.” He kissed her again and headed out the back door.

  Bethany, covered in paint, moved to her and handed her a paintbrush. “I know it’s a little bit overwhelming, but I certainly could use some help with the shampoo area.”

  Audrey took the paintbrush and kissed her sister on the cheek. “I love him.”

  Bethany grinned. “There’s not a person in this building who doesn’t know that. He’s got a good heart, Audrey. Kent likes him too, and you know he’s a good judge of character.”

  Audrey did know that. She also remembered that Kent had warned her against him. Well, not against him, but had warned her. Maybe there was more to it. Maybe it was because he knew something like this would happen.

  Well, she looked around at all the Walkers working so hard for her benefit, she knew that whoever did this had to be disappointed. They weren’t going to hurt Gregory, and they weren’t going to hurt her. Love and family were stronger than hate.

  33

  Gregory’s manager, Leo Frost, was waiting for him in the lobby of his hotel. He stood as Gregory walked through the door.

  “You’re a pain in my ass, Bishop,” he said as he hurriedly walked, matching Gregory’s pace as they headed toward the elevator. “Why do people keep hiring you?”

  “Because I’m the best at what I do. I’m not as big an ass as the world makes me out to be, and I’m sexy.”

  That had Leo laughing as they stepped onto the elevator and headed to Gregory’s room.

  “This is a huge mess you’re in. You know that?”

  Gregory nodded. “It shouldn’t be a mess. I spent two nights with the woman. I don’t have a relationship with her. I made a mistake. Now she’s going to kill someone if we don’t stop her.”

  As they exited the elevator, Leo slowed, causing Gregory to turn to him.

  Leo scratched the stubble on his cheek. “You think that Pepper Dawson did all of this?”

  “Yes,” he answered adamantly. “She’s jealous of my relationship with Audrey. I went from her to another woman, and she can’t stand it. She broke Audrey’s front window, broke into her house, and now has destroyed her business. She needs to be locked up.”

  “She’s in the pictures with you. She’s not the one who took them.”

  “Then she set someone up to do it. C’mon, this kind of thing happens all the time.”

  Gregory turned back to his door and unlocked it with the card he pulled from his pocket.

  Leo followed him inside and locked the door behind him. “Pepper is missing. You do know that, right? Her family has filed a missing person’s report.”

  “Yep, and don’t you suppose she’s in hiding?”

  Leo shook his head. “No. I think something happened to her. She might be a crazy woman, but I don’t think she’s this crazy, Greg. I want you to reach out to whoever sent us those photos of you two.”

  “Don’t you think we should turn it over to the authorities?”

  “No. I think you should keep this under wraps as much as possible. Greg, if you don’t fix this, your career is over.”

  He didn’t believe that for one second. And even if he did, all he had to do was to think about the pain on Audrey’s face when she saw her salon to know it didn’t matter. If his career brought someone he loved so much pain, it wasn’t worth it. He’d been raised a farm boy, he could certainly become one again.

  Gregory pulled two bottles of water from the refrigerator and handed Leo one. Just as he took a breath to debate the blackmail, Leo’s phone buzzed. Gregory watched the man’s face lose color. He set down his water to go to him, just as his own phone buzzed in his pocket.

  He pulled it out to see that a photo had been sent from an anonymous number. “Dear God,” he let the words slip as he looked at Leo.

  On their phone screens was a photo of Pepper Dawson tied to a chair. Her hair was covering her bloodied face.

  “Greg, you’re in some serious trouble.”

  “I didn’t do this.”

  Leo held his phone out closer to him. “That’s your trailer on the lot.”

  His breath caught in his lungs. “Call the police. I’m going to get to Audrey.”

  Leo only nodded.

  Gregory put a hand on his shoulder. “Call the police. Call the set. Get security into my trailer. Hurry.”

  He left Leo standing in his hotel room staring down at his phone. Certainly, he would come to enough to get some help. As for Gregory, he needed to get to Audrey before anyone else could. This wasn’t a crazy fangirl moment anymore. This was a matter of life and death.

  Gregory opted for the stairs, instead of the elevator. He handed the valet the tag for his truck, but a few moments later the attendant came back to him.

  “Sir, your truck isn’t in the lot. Are you sure you left it here?”

  At that moment his phone buzzed again in his pocket. And again, there was another photo of Pepper, still bloodied as she was in the first one, and obviously unconscious. This time, however, she was in the seat of Gregory’s truck, which he’d purchased from the Walkers.

  He raked his fingers through his hair and called Audrey’s number.

  When she answered, her voice was soft and carefree. He didn’t want to put panic in her, but no matter what he said, it would.

  “Hey, Phillip isn’t there, is he?”

  “Phillip? No. He stopped by a little bit ago.”

  Gregory winced. For the first time, he’d like to have the nosy cop standing there. “Message me his phone number, okay?”

  “Gregory, what’s wrong?” she asked, and he could hear the hint of worry in her voice.

  “Leo wants to talk to him. Movie stuff.”

  “Okay. I’ll send it over,” her voice had softened.

  He said goodbye, and a moment later the text came through with the phone number. Immediately, as he asked the attendant to get him a taxi, he called Phillip.

  Audrey waved to Nichole as she left. The salon was looking fantastic, and she had Gregory to thank for putting it all together. She owed him big now, she thought happily as she moved to the door to lock it.

  The red pickup which used to belong to her cousins, and now belonged to Gregory, drove down the street. She waited a moment for him to turn back, but he didn’t. Perhaps he was going around the back. She’d find him there.

  Just as she clicked the lock, she saw Phillip coming down the street at a hurried pace. Unlocking the door, she opened it for him.

  “I’m leaving. You don’t have to check up on me now. In fact, Gregory just drove by, so I think he’s parking…”

  “That wasn’t him,” Phillip said pushing open the
door and locking it behind him. “I just got off the phone with him. His truck was stolen. You’re coming with me,” he instructed as he walked to the back of the salon, his hand on the butt of his gun.

  “What is going on?”

  Phillip emerged from the back. “Where’s Lydia?”

  “At her grandfather’s house for dinner. Why she’d put herself in a position to have to put up with the man is beyond…”

  “Your employee is gone? Your cousins?”

  “All of them. Phillip, you’re freaking me out. What’s going on?”

  “C’mon. I’ll tell you in the car.”

  He waited by the door, watching the street, as she gathered her purse and personal items. She locked the door, and then he nearly pulled her down the street to his cruiser and shoved her inside.

  The moment he climbed into the car and started the engine, she had a lot to say to him.

  “What are you doing? Am I in trouble? Did I do something wrong? You yanked me out of my salon. Did you see all the work that went into it today? I don’t know what your problem is.”

  “I think you’re in danger, and you’re not leaving my side, now shut up,” he said in his warning tone that still was cool and in control. “I’m taking you out to the ranch.”

  “The ranch? Seriously, that’s forty-five minutes away. I don’t need to go out there.”

  “It’s exactly where you need to go, and you’re not going to argue with me.” He accelerated the car as they edged out of town. “Listen, Gregory is being blackmailed. We don’t know by who, but…”

  “Oh, I know by who. Geez, what’s wrong with that woman?”

  “Would you listen?” He snapped out the question as he shifted her a stern look. “He was sent photos of Pepper Dawson. Someone has her. Someone kidnapped her. The photos are being taken in areas that belong to Gregory.”

  “What do you mean ‘areas that belong to Gregory’?”

  “I mean they were taken in his trailer, and in the truck that was stolen,” he explained. “He sent me the pictures, and she’s not in good shape.”