"About a mile, no more than that."
"Have you told anyone else that you can do this?" He needed to know if there was anyone else who could have a motive to hurt her in any way.
"Just my family."
"What about your ex-husband?"
How did she know he was going to ask that? "My ex was the stereotypical Hollywood actor who only cared about himself. He really didn’t care much about my feelings or what I wanted to do. It never felt right to tell him this because I was afraid of what he’d say. In the end, I’m glad that I never did tell him. He would have made himself look like the victim and plastered it all over the news."
The elevator stopped and they turned right down the corridor. "So why did you marry him, if you didn't trust him?"
Anne didn’t want to tell him that she just used him to get her career going. It would have solidified his opinion of her as being a Hollywood diva…Although she didn’t know why that bothered her. Why did she care what he thought of her? Her father already told her he was ashamed of her and her career choice. She broke her mother’s heart when she didn’t show up on the holidays. In his eyes, she was already a selfish person.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s all in the past. Hawk is down this way." She took him down a corridor and then they reached the back door.
“Hawk?”
“Yes, it’s what I call my car. I figured calling him car was just not good enough. He always seemed to swoop down when I needed him the most, kind of like a hawk.”
Before she could grab the door, Dean interjected, "Wait." He went to the door first and slowly pried it open. He peeked out and saw that there seemed to be no one there except Hawk, who was a few feet away from the bottom of the steps and was peacefully quiet.
"Okay.” He opened the door and they both jumped out and bolted to the car. Anne instinctively ran to the driver's side, but Dean interjected. "I'm driving."
"My car."
"Yeah, but I know how to deal with crazy people."
"What crazy people?"
"Those." he pointed towards the other side of the building where two people were running towards them. One had a video camera and the other a microphone. Reporters. Just what she needed right now.
Hawk saw them and started his engine and turned on his lights.
Dean pushed Anne in the passenger seat and slid across the hood and planted himself in the driver’s seat. Hawk leaped forward before he could even shift to drive and spun around the opposite direction as he tried to get away from the reporters and the crowd that would soon follow. As he approached the end of the building, he slowed down just enough not be too loud and attract attention. Anne stared at the hospital entrance. Daniel was right--there was a huge mob of people there. News vans had their satellites up and broadcasting. Other people had handmade signs with supportive words that Anne hoped her mother would be able to see.
"This is insane!" she exclaimed as Dean left the parking lot and then turned right and floored it. Nice thing about living in the country was the speed limit was much higher so he'd be long gone before the other reporters got wind that Anne left the hospital.
Anne sank into the seat as exhaustion began to take over her and the shock of seeing the paparazzi wore off. It finally dawned on her that in her lowest moment everyone wanted a piece of her and not all in a good way. Her distraught face would have been plastered on every tabloid along with ridiculous headlines. It was good that Missy had extra security outside her room and that her parents were both by her bedside. A picture of her right now would make someone a millionaire overnight.
“You okay?”
She stared at the headlights as the beams cut through the night. “I had no idea they would go after my family like this.” The moonlight cast a subtle glow on Dean as he kept driving Hawk. “I’m used to this. Ever since my last hit movie everywhere I go I have people who recognize me and take pictures, ask for autographs… For the most part they left my family alone.”
“Your dad’s shotgun probably had something to do with that,” Dean said with a smirk as he remembered Kenneth proudly showing off his collection of guns.
“Probably. Mom only mentioned one time a reporter stopped in to try and get some dirt on us and Dad solved that problem really fast when he brought out his Colt.” Anne could only imagine how fast those reporters drove off their property. She was actually surprised that it didn’t end up in the papers.
"Turn right here," she told him as they neared an intersection.
In the darkness she could see a grin form on Dean’s face. "I know."
"How do you know where my house is? No, wait, don’t tell me. My mom showed you."
"You got it." Hawk hugged the road to the right. He slowed down until he saw her house and then his heart sank. There were mobs of people there. Vans, cars, kids on bikes, you name it. They were all there.
"Wow, I can’t even have some peace and quiet here.”
“You’re a big star, Anne. They are going to follow you everywhere.”
There were at least two police cars that made sure no one broke in. One reporter saw them and waved to the camera man to zoom in on them.
"Shit," Dean muttered as he slowed down and began to turn into her crowded driveway.
"We're staying at your house. We have the police to protect us and I already know the layout well and know how to keep us safe here. We'll go in the back way."
Anne looked at the crowd around her house. There would definitely be headlines tomorrow and at the moment she just really didn’t care. Her emotions were completely drained.
Dean inched Hawk slowly down the driveway as the reporters shoved the cameras and bright lights in her direction. They engulfed Hawk and he roared his engine to scare them off but it didn’t even faze them. The police removed the bright yellow barricade and let them in. Dean drove the car to the end of the driveway and went around the other side to let her out. At once a flutter of lights went on and she had to look away from being blinded. They walked to the back door and Dean punched in the key code on the lock and opened the door. Anne ran inside and tried to catch her breath.
"I'm going to talk to the police and I'll be right back. Lock this door and don't unlock it for anyone."
His words really didn’t sink in and her legs felt wobbly as she placed her purse on the kitchen table. Taking her shoes off, she threw them in the corner. She plopped down in the chair and cradled her head. This was all such a nightmare. What had happened to cause Evan’s car to lose control like that? She should have been the one to pick up Missy but with Missy’s flight being delayed, there was no way she could have been in two places at once.
A chill went through her reminding her that she still had her dress on from earlier in the day. She dragged herself to the upstairs room and changed into a pair of pants and a blouse. Her stomach growled and she remembered she had not eaten since this morning. Did she even have anything to eat in the house? When she arrived last night she only had a glass of wine and this morning she rushed out to meet Cindy at the local diner for breakfast.
She went back into the kitchen and when she opened up the freezer, a smile formed on her face. Fortunately, it looked like her mother stocked her freezer with some of her famous homemade food prior to her arrival.
Mom made everything from scratch which made it incredibly delicious. Even after dining at the most elegant and highest rated restaurants around the world, nothing tasted as good as her mother’s cooking.
Grabbing a container of ravioli, she placed it on the countertop and grabbed a pot to fill it with water. As she set the pot on the stove to boil, she grabbed one plate and then stopped. It was a long time since she made food for someone else. When she was married, her husband John insisted on hiring a cook to make all their meals, especially since Anne rarely had time to cook when she was home.
The click of the door broke her out of her daze as Dean walked in. Automatically, he turned and locked the door behind him.<
br />
"How is it out there?"
"Total chaos. Officer Davis said that these guys have been here since the story of the accident broke and they haven't left. They really are just craving this story and want to milk it as much as they can."
He noticed the pot and plates she set out. "That is actually a good idea."
"There's enough for the both of us." She pulled out a wooden spoon from the drawer and stirred the water mindlessly. "I think there's some beer in the fridge. I usually don’t drink it so help yourself."
"Thanks." He opened up the fridge grabbed the bottle and popped the cap off.
"So does the officer know when these people will leave?"
"No, it may be a while though. Usually if there is a hot story they won't leave until something bigger comes around."
Anne opened up the container and dumped the ravioli into the boiling water. "I just want Missy to pull through. I honestly don’t care what kind of story they put together as long as Missy comes out of this accident." As she looked out the kitchen window, she could see the extra lights coming from the other side of her neighbor’s fence. She wondered how much those reporters paid them to camp out in their backyard. The anger inside of her started to boil like the water for the ravioli.
Dean followed her gaze. Then he slid over to the window and pulled the blinds down.
He sat down on one of the chairs by the kitchen table and took a sip of his beer. “Anne, you need to prepare yourself for whatever story they put together about Missy. It’s bound to be pretty ugly."
The water boiled and Anne continued to stir it. “I know, I’ve been down this road before with my ex. I know what kind of lies they fling out there.”
Dean saw his opportunity. “What happened?” She placed the spoon on the spoon rest and stared at the water. Since Dean was in the Middle East most of the time he probably didn’t even hear about her breakup. With him being her shadow for the next couple months he might as well know about her past. “I was traveling a lot while I was filming and one day we ended early so I decided to go back to our home in LA and have some R&R before my next trip. I came home to find him in bed with a seventeen- year-old actress.”
Chapter 5
Disgust flowed through Dean as his eyebrows shot up. “Seventeen?”
The raw hurt could be seen in her eyes. “Well, eighteen that day apparently, but I am sure it wasn't the first time they'd been together. He blamed me for the whole thing, of course, saying that I wasn’t attentive enough to his needs and that I didn’t try to make myself more attractive to him by getting a boob job.”
“What a bastard.” He didn’t hide the anger in his voice. Everyone on his team would have given their right arm to be able to date Anne, let alone marry her. When he first broke up with Alexandra he swore off women for the next decade no matter how gorgeous they were. Still, his mind began to change when he came back home and saw families with children around town. He realized that was what he wanted next, to fall in love and start his own family. He wanted to trade the late-night missions and nail-biting situations for late-night feedings and tense Little League games.
The black slacks Anne wore accentuated her slim figure while the pale yellow blouse brought out the highlights of long chocolate hair that practically dropped down to the middle of her back. Dean wondered what that hair would feel like in his hands. Would it be soft just like imagined her lips would be? And what would her lips taste like? He caught himself before his thoughts made him do irrational things. There was no way that she would date him--he was a nobody in her world.
“You didn’t deserve to be treated like that.”
“At the time I didn’t think so. Plus it didn’t help that the tabloids wrote that my prudish ways deprived him of any sex whatsoever. John’s PR manager spun it to make it look like he was the victim because, as he put it, I never wanted any sex--which was totally false!”
Dean felt his groin tighten at the thought of Anne aroused and wanting him. He gripped the bottle harder and he pushed away the erotic thoughts. “Don’t people have their own lives to worry about instead of butting into yours?”
She grabbed the spoon from the spoon rest and angrily stirred the water, creating a vortex in the pot. “That’s how they make their money. The more shocking the story, the more it sells, especially if it’s about a big star like me.”
“It’s flat-out wrong. He didn’t have any right to do that to you.” The shrill ring of his cell phone caught his attention. Stan’s name popped onto the screen.
"Stan, give me some news," he said as he answered.
"I don't know if it's something you'd want to hear."
"Why?"
"The preliminary findings show that the brake line was loose and popped out, causing a loss of brake fluid which ultimately means brake failure."
He ran his fingers through his hair as he tried to piece together what happened. "So what are you saying, someone rigged it?"
"I don't know. With Evan unconscious, we can't get his side of the story. Does anyone know if he recently was repairing his brakes?"
"I'm not at the hospital, so I'll have to ask them tomorrow."
"Ask what?" Anne coaxed as she placed the spoon back on the spoon rest.
"Hang on, Stan. Do you know if Evan was working on his brakes prior to the crash?"
"No, but Evan’s dad would know. I'll call him now." She dug through her purse and pulled out her cell phone. She frowned as she saw all the new text and voicemail messages. While at the hospital she turned the ringer off so she could concentrate on being with her family and Missy. She cleared the notifications and scrolled through her contacts to find Evan’s father.
"Anne's going to find out from Evan’s dad. What else did you find?"
"That was about it. We have a couple witnesses who said that some guy cut in front of him and that's when he swerved to avoid him and ended up hitting the median instead. The others behind him just tried to stop from hitting him and that's when the pileup happened."
"Unbelievable."
"How's everyone holding up?"
"As best they can. Helen and Kenneth are staying at the hospital tonight. Missy is in stable condition right now, but none of the doctors can give us an answer on her condition."
"That's so frustrating."
"Yeah, I know. It seems like Evan's in better condition, though."
"At least that's some good news. As soon as he's awake, we're going to need to talk to him."
"I have some questions for him myself." He looked over at Anne, who hung up her phone.
"George said that Evan hasn't worked on his brakes since last year. He has no idea what could have happened with them."
"Did you hear that, Stan?"
"Yup." He sighed heavily. "The only way to solve this is to talk to Evan directly. Let me know when he's awake."
"I'll let you know right away."
"All right, get some sleep and I'll talk to you tomorrow."
Dean looked over at Anne who stared back at him. "So why did he want to know about the brakes?"
"There's evidence of brake failure."
She grabbed a colander and shook her head as she put it in the sink. "Impossible. Evan took care of that car really well. As an EMT he knew what would happen if he didn’t, so he was meticulous on making sure everything was working right." She grabbed the lighthouse potholders and strained the water out of the pot of ravioli.
“Well, apparently something happened with the brakes and that’s what caused him to lose control."
Her shoulders tensed as she placed the pot back on the stove. "It doesn't make sense. Evan was so careful with his car. He wouldn’t let something like brakes go unchecked.”
"I don't know, Anne. This is what Stan thinks just based on the preliminary findings."
"Where's Evan's car?"
Dean frowned at her. "In the police impound, why?"
"I want to go see it."
"I can take you tomorrow."
"No, I want to go now."
"What?" He looked at her as if she’d grown another eye. "It's late and have you forgotten our friends outside?"
"How far is the impound from here?"
The fierce determination in her eyes made him realize she didn’t care about anything else but finding out the truth. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"
She walked over to him and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "There's one thing you have to learn about me: I don't quit."
"More like, you're a diva and have to have things your way," he smirked.
Anne leaned down closer to him. "Look, I don’t care what you think about me, Dean. For that matter, I don’t care about what the whole damn world thinks of me right now! My sister’s in critical condition at the hospital and my family is in emotional turmoil. I am not going to just sit here pouting and feeling sorry for myself! I want to go and find out what happened and why! Do you have a problem with that?!"
"If it puts your life on the line, then yes I do." He stood up and faced her. His head hovered above her by about six inches and it was enough to make sure he proved his point. "I know that you want to find out what happened--everyone does--but I have to ax whatever crazy ideas you have in your head that may put your life at risk."
"Going to a police impound is not putting my life in danger."
"Anne, are you blind!? Look outside!” He motioned towards the window. “Every single TV crew is out there just waiting to pounce on you! If we leave this house we have to plan it right."
"Right, so we'll leave out the back and bolt out to the other yards. We can sneak in between the houses and escape so they won’t see us."
"You are nuts!" He took hold of her shoulders and gently shook her. "There are probably reporters waiting back there for you to do just that."
"You need to relax. I'll find out." She went to the back patio door and looked out. She opened the door, and extended her hand palm up as if she was checking to see if it was raining. Instead, she heard a car start behind the house and headlights turn on. They flashed twice and a frown formed on Anne’s face.
Driven By Love (The Heirs 0f Orion Series Book 1) Page 6
