Behind the Scenes

by K. M. Scott

  Rolling her eyes, she laughed at his comment about millions of men loving her. For someone who was supposed to be such an object of affection for so many, she spent every night alone or with her best friend from childhood. That didn’t sound like anyone loved her.

  At least not the way she wished a man would.

  “I don’t know about millions of men, but trust me, Kyle didn’t want anything from me.”

  She hoped that would make him drop the subject, but he continued asking questions about that one stupid night. “Did anything change between the two of you after your time together?”

  “No. Believe me. You’re barking up the wrong tree, Hunter.”

  The wrongest of trees, but she didn’t want to explain to him how the man she turned to in a moment of drunken need couldn’t get it up.

  But still he kept focusing on Kyle and that night. “Has he ever mentioned it or shown any problem with you since? Have you ever gotten the feeling he wanted to talk about it, even if you didn’t?”

  Looking away, she desperately wished he would just drop the subject. “No, he’s never said anything about it, and he never wanted to. Kyle has been a loyal employee and nothing more, except for that one night and it meant nothing to either of us.”

  Hunter said nothing for nearly a minute, and Alexis hoped that would be the end of it and he’d just move on. When he began to ask about the other staff, she breathed a sigh of relief.

  “I had a cook named France who was with me for two years. She didn’t come with me to New York, though. She’s still back in LA taking care of the house, along with a maid named Pam.”

  “Any issues with either one of them?”

  “No, none that I can think of. I loved France’s cooking. I’m going to miss it, in fact.”

  “Did she know how much you loved her food?”

  Alexis chuckled. “Yes. I used to tell her all the time, and she used to tell me how she made everything low calorie while still making it taste good. The woman was a magician in the kitchen.”

  “Ever yell at either one of them? Ever chastise them in front of others?” Hunter asked with a knowing look.

  “You’ve been here less than a day and I know you’ve heard me yell already, Hunter. Let’s assume I did, but I really don’t think my staff cares about that kind of stuff. I pay them handsomely, so there is that.”

  He didn’t respond to her attempt at defending her behavior, and for one of the first times since she became famous, she didn’t like hearing herself say she yelled and screamed at people. True, she meant it when she said she needed a release from the rest of the world when she was in her own home, but his silence felt like judgment about the way she acted.

  She didn’t like it at all.

  As he wrote his notes, she said, “I know you probably think I’m some kind of spoiled prima donna because I’ve gotten excited a few times and let my emotions get the best of me. My staff understands I don’t mean anything by it, though. They know me well enough to know I don’t mean anything by it.”

  “Uh-huh. I’m going to need to contact both of those women in LA,” he said without looking up from his notebook.

  He said nothing more and just continued to jot down notes. Alexis didn’t like how his continued silence made her feel. She never meant to hurt anyone. Is that what had happened? Had she inadvertently hurt someone’s feelings and now that person wanted to hurt her back?

  Finally, Hunter lifted his head and asked, “Two years ago means you had a different cook before? Who did she replace?”

  “Shari Thompson. She left when she became pregnant.”

  “What about employees when you and your husband were together?”

  The mention of Jackson made her feel vulnerable and exposed, so she looked away and answered, “I’ll have to think about that and get you a list.”

  As she prayed to God he wouldn’t continue to ask about that time in her life, he said, “Okay. That leaves how many other employees?”

  “Just Carla and Lauren. Carla’s been with me for four years. She came on right before I got married. And Lauren’s been like my sister since first grade. Neither one of them would want to hurt me for the world.”

  “So no problems with either of them?”

  Alexis dropped her legs off the chair and sat up straight. “Absolutely not. They’re like family. They were there when I found out my husband was cheating on me. They were there when my husband and his girlfriend began showing up in the tabloids making me feel like a fool. They were there when less than a month after our divorce was final my husband married his girlfriend he’d been cheating with, a woman three years younger than me.”

  Her emotions began to get the best of her, so she stopped talking and looked down at her hands in her lap. The last thing she wanted to do was let Hunter see how talking about what Jackson did upset her. She never talked about it anymore, but it still hurt to even say the words. If she could, she’d never say them again.

  “Paul told me the first letter arrived three months ago, and since then, you’ve gotten one every week. Other than the package the other night, have there been any other packages in addition to the letters?” Hunter asked, thankfully moving on from the subject of her ex-husband and what he did to her.

  “No. Just that one.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hunter stand to leave. “I’m assuming you handed the letters over to the police. Do you have copies of them, by any chance?”

  Looking up at him, she shook her head. “No. We gave the police everything.”

  Her head began to throb from the stress of thinking of all the people who might want to hurt her. Having her life put under a microscope yet again just brought into focus how unsafe she truly was, even in her own home.

  It frightened her more than she wanted to admit.

  “I’ll get them on my own then. Don’t worry. We’ll find out who’s doing this, Alexis.”

  She smiled up at him and realized he’d used we instead of I, including her just as she’d asked him to earlier. Not one of the officers back in LA had ever made her feel like anything more than a passive target, a woman who could do nothing more than just wait until the next letter came and upended her life once again.

  “Thank you.”

  “Oh, I forgot to mention one thing. Your bodyguards can’t be so far away from you anymore. Paul told me they used to stay in another house back in LA, but here they need to be much closer.”

  “Closer? As in the same house? Because that’s not going to work. There aren’t enough rooms in this place. As it is, we’re practically falling over one another the place is so small.”

  Alexis knew how ridiculous it sounded for someone to say a three thousand foot penthouse apartment was too small, but if the four security guards joined her, Lauren, and Carla, that would be seven people living there. Just the thought made her cringe. They’d be packed in like sardines.

  “Well, you have a choice. You can find them a place to stay in this building and I can stay with them, or you can have me living here and they can go somewhere nearby. But not more than a block or two. In addition, I want one or two of them stationed downstairs at all times to make sure no one gets up here who isn’t supposed to.”

  She didn’t have to think long about the choice he offered. Alexis hated the idea of her security being so close. It’s why she made sure when she bought her house in LA that it had a second place on the property for them to stay. She didn’t want to be reminded every moment of her life that she needed protection. It made her feel helpless, and that was the last thing she wanted to be.

  “Fine. I take you living here, and for the rest of the guys, I’ll have Paul find somewhere nearby. I promise it won’t be further than two blocks away. Sound good?”

  “Perfect,” he said with that smile she’d already grown to like seeing.

  “I’m going to have to figure out how to fit all of us here, though,” she said, more thinking out loud than continuing the conversation.

&
nbsp; “It’s okay. No need to displace either of your assistants. I can sleep on the couch,” he said as he opened the door and walked out.

  Alexis hadn’t lived with a man since leaving Jackson three years before. She’d sworn if she ever let another man back into her home, he’d know who the boss was. Now that Hunter would be living under the same roof as her, she strangely didn’t care so much to be in control.

  Even though her stalker was still out there somewhere, likely preparing for the next time he would send her something and throw her life into chaos, she felt safer for the first time in months. She didn’t like the new apartment and she didn’t want to spend any more time in New York as the chill of fall settled in, but somehow knowing Hunter would be close by made her hate all of it just a little less.

  Chapter Six

  After talking to Paul and finding out the bodyguards would be put up in a hotel a few blocks away until he could find a place with enough bedrooms Alexis would approve, Hunter spent some time in the living room watching as people hurried all around him every time she yelled their names. He had to give it to her. She sure did know how to command an audience.

  He’d seen another side to her too, though, and it was only because he believed she was more than just the diva she showed the rest of the household that he had to admit he finally was beginning to understand why men around the world fell in love with her. Behind the gorgeous outside and past the demanding Hollywood star routine existed a strong woman who wanted to control her own destiny.

  For Hunter, that alone made him think that the gossip magazines got it all wrong when they talked about Alexis Marchand. Then again, showing her to be strong and independent wouldn’t sell as much as discussing the finer points of her personal life, which they seemed to relish, no matter who they trashed.

  The few he’d read before arriving in New York speculated on her having a secret love affair with one of her married co-stars from her last film, a long-lost relative that she allowed to live in squalor in a rundown trailer somewhere in the Midwest, and a penchant for spending thousands of dollars a day on special food to keep her thin and beautiful that she imported from some monastery in Finland.

  That last one had been a head-scratcher for Hunter. He had a hard time imagining monks spending their days specially preparing food for a movie star halfway around the world.

  A little basic investigative work showed him that the love affair with her co-star Jake Howard never happened. In fact, he was actually cheating on his wife with a man. Hunter had to admit he’d been surprised at that piece of gossip and even more shocked that the tabloids didn’t run with that story instead of the lie about Alexis and Jake.

  As for the destitute relative she supposedly refused to help despite having millions, she didn’t exist. Some woman in Kansas City claimed she and Alexis’s mother were related, but that proved false too.

  And the fancy food from Finland that possessed secret powers to make her thin and beautiful? Other than the bagels and cream cheese Paul had brought with him, all Hunter had found in the house was food any other person in America ate. Alexis certainly didn’t seem to be a sugar junkie since he hadn’t seen any sweets in any of the cabinets, but there did seem to be a large amount of vegetables.

  Not that anyone had cooked the entire time he’d been there. As far as he could tell, Alexis and her assistants hadn’t eaten a meal all day.

  So much for what the gossip magazines called The Glamorous Life of Alexis Marchand. It seemed more ordinary than extraordinary.

  Hunter smiled as he thought to himself that Gideon and Xavier would be disappointed to find out Alexis was like any other woman in the world. Well, except for being stunning and wealthy.

  By nearly midnight, the apartment had settled down. Lauren and Carla had gone to the room they’d share until someone put furniture in the fourth bedroom, and Alexis remained in her room with the door closed. Hunter hoped the place remained quiet so he could get at least a few hours of sleep before he had to wake up and start working on finding out just who the hell was stalking her and why.

  He closed his eyes and began to drift off to sleep as thoughts of suspects preoccupied his mind.

  “Hunter? Are you asleep?”

  The sound of a voice that felt sort of familiar roused him from a deep sleep, and he sat bolt upright, startled to be awake in what seemed to still be the middle of the night, if the darkness around him was any indication.

  Scrubbing the sleep from his face, he quickly sized up the situation around him. His gun sat on the floor next to the couch, easily within reach if he needed it. Alexis stood next to the couch staring down at him, but other than her, no one else was around. No lights were on in the living room, but in the dim light from the hallway he saw she wore a pair of jean shorts that showed off her great legs and a red tank top with no bra.

  All of this raced through his brain as he woke up in a matter of seconds. When he finally had a sense of where he was, he looked up at her and asked, “Is something wrong?”

  She didn’t answer him and instead asked him her own question. “What are you doing sleeping on the couch? Why didn’t you go with the rest of the bodyguards?”

  After she finished speaking, she turned on the table light and sat down in a chair opposite the couch, casually folding her long, tan legs underneath her.

  Had she woke him up to ask him why he was sleeping?

  “I need to be close to you if I’m going to protect you and find out who’s stalking you, Alexis.”

  He watched as a confused look came over her. “But you can’t sleep here on the couch.”

  “I told you that’s what I was going to do when we talked earlier.”

  “I know, but I figured you’d go with the others until we got things straightened out here.”

  “I’m fine. I don’t require much more than a place to lay my head for a few hours each night.”

  Alexis leaned forward, clearly interested in what he’d just said. “You don’t sleep much?”

  He shook his head. “Haven’t for a long time. Goes back to my time on the force.”

  “Me neither,” she said, frowning. “Some nights I’m lucky to get two or three hours of sleep.”

  Hunter studied her face and wondered how she could look so beautiful getting so little sleep. Maybe she did something with makeup to make her look that way, but she seemed so natural and unmade up. Then again, he knew nothing of how women made themselves look the way they did. He just appreciated the final outcome.

  “Is that because of the letters you’ve been getting?” he asked.

  “No. I haven’t been able to sleep much ever since my modeling days. Everyone tells me I should take something to help me get to sleep, but I won’t.”

  “Why not?” he asked, curious why she’d choose to not go to sleep.

  “That’s a road to ruin,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t want to become addicted to anything. Not sleeping pills or anything like that.”

  Her strength came through loud and clear, impressing him. It would have been nothing for her to have doctors giving her whatever she wanted for anything that ailed her. That she didn’t showed Hunter he’d been wrong about her. She wasn’t the person he thought she was when he first got this assignment.

  “That’s smart. Lots of stars have gotten trapped in that world. They don’t come back from it sometimes.”

  She smiled. “I bet you’re surprised to say that about me. That I’m smart.”

  Hunter shook his head, knowing his denial was at least a half-lie. “Why would you say that?”

  “Because you probably thought I would be just another Hollywood diva and not very smart. I mean, I never went to college, but I’m no dummy, Hunter.”

  He didn’t know what to say to that. He’d never judged her to be stupid. He hadn’t even thought of her intelligence, in fact. The truth of the matter was like with many other beautiful women, he’d never considered her in any other way than what he saw of her looks in the tabloids an
d what he heard from Gideon and Xavier before he met her, and that had colored his view of her from the very beginning. Then when he saw her acting spoiled, that seemed to just reinforce what he’d already thought of her.

  She fidgeted in her chair and began to look uncomfortable. A few seconds later, she stood and said, “I guess I’ll go to bed now. Have a good night.”

  He watched her hurry away toward her room before he lay back down on the couch, unsure what to think of Alexis Marchand. He’d been prepared for a spoiled diva, but her strength and confidence surprised him. Staring up at the ceiling, he thought to himself that Gideon and Xavier had no idea of who Alexis really was.

  A flurry of activity woke him up a second time, but now at least he’d gotten a few more hours of sleep. Lauren and Carla rushed through the living room with arms full of office supplies, but Hunter’s eyes weren’t focused enough to ask why or really even care. Alexis sure had a way of keeping those women busy.

  Whatever they were doing, he had to get a shower if he ever expected to wake up. And coffee. But first, a shower. He grabbed his gun from the floor and stuffed it into his bag behind the couch before slinging it over his shoulder and heading toward the bathroom furthest away from the bedrooms.

  As he passed by the office, he saw every piece of furniture had been moved out. Mumbling to himself, he said, “That explains why those two were running around with notepads and whiteboard markers.”

  Curious where everything had gone to, he backtracked down the hall and found Alexis’s entire office stacked up in the dining room. Slowly waking up, he looked around and wondered why.

  And where the hell was Alexis?

  He’d find out soon enough, he felt pretty sure. Making his way back to the bathroom, he ran into Carla. “Where is Alexis?”

  She stopped short and a box of pens fell to the floor. Crouching down, she scrambled to pick them up as she explained, “She and Lauren are downstairs waiting for a delivery. But don’t worry. She had the guys here early to help her, so they’re not alone.”