The Wild One

by Vanessa Miller

  She threw the shopping bags and her purse in the car, buckled Natua into her car seat, got in the driver’s seat and then locked the doors as she put the keys in the ignition and started the car. Natua started crying and squirming in her seat. As Dee Dee backed out of the driveway, she told the child. “We’re just going for a little drive.”

  “I want Daddy.”

  She pulled the car over and told Natua. “Okay, honey, I’ll call Daddy.” When Drake answered the phone, Dee Dee didn’t waste time with small talk. “Someone has been in the house. Natua’s room has been torn apart. What are you doing? Can you come over?”

  “Slow down. What are you talking about?”

  “Drake, we need you. Please come to the house. Natua is very upset.”

  Without hesitation, Drake said, “I’m on my way.”

  Dee Dee hit the end button and threw her cell phone back in her purse. She leaned over and wiped the tears from Natua’s face. “Daddy’s on his way. Everything’s going to be all right. You’ll see.”

  “Daddy’s gon’ punch 'em in the face for tearing up my clothes,” Natua said, while balling up her hands and swiping at the air.

  Dee Dee wanted to tell Natua that she might as well give up her dreams of seeing a fight. Drake would more likely get on his knees and pray for the soul of the intruder. Shaking her head, Dee Dee wondered for the hundredth time how someone as fine and sexy as Drake Milner could be as rigid as Moses carrying the Ten Commandments. “How about we go get some ice cream while we wait for Daddy to get here?”

  A loud cheer came from the back as Dee Dee pulled off. If traffic was decent, it would still take Drake about thirty minutes to get to the house from where he lived. The ice cream shop was just down the street, so Dee Dee knew she could go there and get back to the house before Drake pulled up.

  And that’s what she did. By the time Drake pulled his Range Rover next to her car, Dee Dee and Natua were happily finishing their vanilla and chocolate swirl ice cream cones. The car door was still locked just in case whoever had ransacked Natua’s room decided to bum-rush them while they were enjoying their ice cream. She unlocked the doors, and Drake helped Natua out of her car seat.

  “Daddy, Daddy, I knew you’d come,” Natua screamed, as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

  “You didn’t have to worry about that, hon. Now let’s go check out your room.”

  Shaking her head furiously, Natua said, “I don’t want my room anymore, Daddy. It’s broken.”

  Drake glanced over at Dee Dee and silently communicated his concern. “I’ll fix it for you, baby. It’ll be like new.”

  They walked into the house. Natua and Dee Dee stood in the foyer while Drake went up the stairs. When he came back down, he was holding clothes that had been ripped apart. “Who would do this to a child?” Drake demanded.

  “I don’t know. At first, I thought it was you.”

  “Me?” He held up the torn clothes for all to see. “What in the world would make you think I would do something like this?”

  “I didn’t think you'd destroyed Natua’s room. I’ve been receiving these emails, and then there was a note on the refrigerator. I thought you had sent those notes, but once I entered Natua’s room, I knew you had nothing to do with it.”

  “What notes?”

  Dee Dee walked into the kitchen with Drake and Natua trailing her. She grabbed the note and handed it to Drake.

  After reading it, he said, “Call the police.”

  “But Drake, if I call the police, it will be all over the news and entertainment television. And you know as well as I do that if producers find out that I have a stalker, they’ll put me on the bubonic-plague list,” she whined.

  “This isn’t about your career, Dee Dee. Whoever this guy is, he has been spying on Natua. We have to protect her. I’m going to check this house from top to bottom, and if you haven’t called the police by the time I finish, I will.”

  “Get the bat out of the garage. If he’s still in here, you’ll need something to knock him out with.”

  “I’ve got all I need with me right now.”

  Dee Dee didn’t see any weapon in Drake’s hand, so she asked, “What do you have?”

  He responded, “Holy Ghost power.”

  Murmuring something under her breath, Dee Dee marched to the garage and grabbed the bat.

  “All clear,” Drake said when he returned. “Did you call the police?”

  “Well, no, I was hoping that you’d find him in the house, and then we’d beat the living daylights out of him.”

  Drake picked up the telephone receiver. He dialed 911 and when the operator came on the line, he told her about the situation and then gave her the address.

  When he hung up the phone, he turned to Dee Dee. She was leaning against the wall with her arms wrapped around her chest. “I guess you’re mad at me.”

  She shook her head. “No, you’re right. It’s one thing to stalk me, but this nut obviously has also been stalking Natua. We need to do something about this.”

  Drake stared at his wife for a moment, then quickly turned away from her. “The first thing we need to do is pray.”

  Rolling her eyes, Dee Dee unfolded her arms and moved away from the wall she had been leaning against. “Instead of getting on your knees, you need to learn how to ball up your fist. Or better yet, go buy a gun. Natua and I don’t need a prayer warrior. We need a man who can take care of business.”

  Drake ignored Dee Dee’s taunts as he continued walking to the room in the back of the house that he used for his prayer time.

  She went into the family room with Natua and said, “Well, Natua, it looks like you and I are going to be the ones balling up our fists.”

  “Daddy can fight too.”

  “No baby, Daddy doesn’t like to fight. He prefers to pray.”

  “I’m going to pray with him.” Natua ran down the hall to Drake’s prayer room.

  “Guess I’m the only one in this family that’s willing to put up my dukes and go to battle,” she said dryly.

  The doorbell rang. While shaking her head in disgust, Dee Dee walked to the front door. Seeing that two police officers were standing on her front porch, she opened the door and welcomed them in.

  “We received a call about a home invasion.”

  “Yes. Let me show you my daughter’s room,” Dee Dee said, as she took the detectives upstairs. “This is how the room was when I arrived home today.”

  The taller of the two police officers looked around the room, took notes and then asked, “Was any other room disturbed?”

  “No, but he left a note for me on the refrigerator.”

  “Do you still have it,” the shorter police officer asked.

  Dee Dee noticed that the shorter officer had startlingly gorgeous green eyes and a face to match. LA was full of beautiful people. But most of them couldn’t act and had to find other work. “Yes. Let me take you to the kitchen where I left it.”

  By the time Dee Dee walked into the kitchen with the officers, Drake was in front of the stove fixing Ramen Noodles, or as Natua called them, perfect noodles. The child had access to the finest cuisine that Los Angeles had to offer, but she preferred Ramen Noodles over Penne or Linguine. Dee Dee didn’t understand it a bit.

  “Here it is,” Dee Dee said, as she handed the note to Detective Beautiful.

  He took the note and read it. He pointed upward, toward Natua’s room. “So, the person who wrote this note, also left that pink outfit on the bed upstairs?”

  “Yes, I’m sorry that I forgot to mention that. With everything that has happened, I’m just a bit shaken.”

  “Okay. Well, we’ll take that outfit and this note to see if we can get any prints off of them. Is there anything else?”

  Dee Dee walked over to the kitchen table and sat down in front of her laptop. “I received an email a few days ago. At first I thought my husband had sent it, but now I’m not so sure.” She booted up the computer, opened her Outlook file and th
en clicked on the message.

  Drake stepped behind the officers and read the email as well: "Leaving me isn’t going to be as easy as you think. I’m not like the others."

  “You thought I sent an email like that to you?” Drake asked incredulously.

  “Drake, can we please stick to the issue at hand?” She turned her attention back to the police officers and said, “I don’t know why this guy is fixated on me or why he’s so interested in Natua’s wardrobe, but I need him to stop.”

  “We’ll do everything we can.” The taller officer handed Dee Dee a business card. “Send that email to this email address.” He pointed to the spot on the business card where his email address was displayed.

  “We’ll be in touch,” Beautiful said, after they'd collected everything. They headed to the front door.

  Drake walked them out. When he came back to the kitchen, he took the noodles out of the pot, cut them up and gave them to a smiling Natua. “Eat up, hon. I’m going to talk with Dee Dee for a minute and then I’ll be back in here to check on you. Okay?”

  “All right, Daddy.” Natua began slurping noodles and forgot all about the grown-ups around her.

  Drake and Dee Dee walked into the living room and then he said, “I’m not leaving. I’m moving back in until we figure out who this maniac is and what he really wants.”

  “Natua and I will be fine now that we’re in the house. I do have an alarm system, remember?”

  “And somehow, this guy was able to get in the house anyway."

  “I just don’t think that it’s necessary to change our living arrangements.”

  “I don’t care what you think, Dee. I’m not leaving the two of you alone, and that’s final.” Drake walked back toward the kitchen, leaving Dee Dee standing with her mouth hanging open.

  Chapter Three

  Standing on the balcony, Dee Dee watched the palm trees sway in the breeze. She inhaled the salty fragrance of sea water and exhaled. She felt good here…like she had finally done the right thing.

  “Come back to bed, baby.”

  She smiled. His voice was like slow jazz on a warm summer night. He meant everything to her, and she owed her father a world of thanks for introducing them. “I’ll be in soon. This breeze just feels so good.”

  He got out of bed and sauntered over to her… pulled his wife into his arms and nibbled on her neck. “You feel good. Come on, I can’t get to sleep without you by my side.”

  Laughing, Dee Dee said, “I know you, husband, you aren’t hardly thinking about sleep.”

  He kissed her ear this time, her neck, and then her shoulder. “Come back to bed and find out.”

  She allowed him to pull her back inside. Once in bed again, he began to hungrily kiss and devour her. They made love, and Dee Dee was swept away. She had never been emotional during lovemaking, but he made her feel things she had never experienced before. She opened her mouth and screamed, “Drake, oh Drake!”

  Dee Dee shot up in her bed and clamped her hand over her mouth. She looked around, making sure she was alone in bed. She took her hand away from her mouth as she verified that Drake was not in bed with her. Why she was still dreaming about their honeymoon, Dee Dee didn’t understand. The resort had been beautiful and exotic, and she and Drake had truly been at peace there. But the moment they'd returned home, he was on her case about attending church and praying with him. When they’d first married, Dee Dee thought that the fourth time had to be the charm, but Drake was too much like her father.

  There was a quick knock at the door and then Drake opened it. “Are you okay?”

  With hands on hips, Dee Dee asked, “Why did you barge into my room?”

  “You yelled my name. I thought something was wrong.”

  Dee Dee’s eyes focused on Drake's chiseled arms and bare chest. She turned away and picked up her cell phone to look at the time. “It’s four in the morning. Why are you still awake?”

  He sat down at the foot of the bed, put his head in his hands and rubbed his face. When he looked back at Dee Dee, he told her honestly, “I couldn’t sleep. Just the thought of someone breaking into this house with only you and Natua in it has really shaken me up.” He grabbed Dee Dee’s hand and squeezed it. “If you or Natua had been attacked, I don’t know what I would have done.”

  Was Drake actually admitting that he didn’t have all the answers? she thought.

  “I know things haven’t been that great between us lately,” he continued. “But, I hope you know how much I love and need you in my life.”

  Dee Dee lifted her free hand. This was not a conversation she wanted to have at four in the morning, while Drake sat on her bed with nothing but his pajama pants on. “Look, Drake, maybe you should go back to bed. We can talk about this tomorrow.”

  Realizing that he was on the bed, holding hands, Drake stood up and cleared his throat. “Sure, sure. We can talk tomorrow.” He walked toward the door. “Get some sleep,” he said, and then closed the door behind him.

  Dee Dee fell back on her pillow. She picked up the pillow from Drake’s side of the bed, covered her face with it and screamed. Why, why, why was that man so sexy? She had wanted to pull back the covers and invite him to sleep with her for the rest of the night. But Dee Dee knew that by morning she would be feeling just as inadequate as usual around Mr. Perfect. She couldn’t…no, she wouldn’t put herself through a life filled with sexy Drake at night, and preaching and praying Drake in the morning. No, thank you. She turned over and went back to sleep.

  ***

  “Oh my God, I’m going to be late.” Dee Dee jumped out of bed and ran to Natua’s room to get her ready for daycare. Her feet were frozen to the floor as she stood in front of Natua’s empty Princess Tiana bed. Fear clenched her heart as she checked the window in Natua’s room to make sure that it was locked. It was. Where was she, Dee Dee wanted to know? Had Natua gotten up in the middle of the night and gone to Drake’s room, or had a psycho stalker come into their home and taken her while she’d been lying in her bed dreaming about Drake? Dee Dee was frantic as she headed out of the room, yelling, “Natua, Natua, where are you?”

  “I’m right here,” Natua said, while holding her favorite princess towel around her body as she and Drake walked out of the hall bathroom.

  Dee Dee pulled the girl out of Drake’s arms and hugged her so tightly that Natua protested. “Hey, that hurts.”

  “I’m sorry,” Dee Dee said, as she released the child.

  “I figured you needed to sleep a little longer. So, I decided to get Natua dressed and to take her to daycare on my way to work this morning.”

  Some days Drake was so good to her, she just didn’t know why she kept resisting him. Combing her hands through her hair as she turned to leave, Dee Dee said, “Thanks Drake, I appreciate that. I have a brunch meeting today with the producer from that movie deal I’m trying to work out, and I really didn’t want to be late.”

  Drake smiled at her, showing off his dimples. “You go get that lead part, and don’t worry about us. I’ll get Natua dressed, fed and off to the daycare.”

  Dee Dee walked back to her room and got in the shower. When she'd agreed to adopt Natua, she hadn’t thought there was much to parenting. But she had to admit that she didn’t know what she would do without Drake’s help. In her book, a single parent should receive the CNN Hero Award every year.

  All things considered, Dee Dee was in a good mood by the time she jumped into her Mercedes and headed out for her brunch meeting. So much had happened since yesterday, that she felt as if her meeting with her agent had occurred a week ago. But it had only been yesterday that Nick had informed her that she would have to audition for the role she had been salivating over ever since Michael Mavs had mentioned it to her. Michael was the producer, he was the one putting up the money to back the film, so she didn’t understand why he was letting some two-bit actor like Jarrod Lovett make decisions about this film that were absolutely none of his business.

  But she was sure goi
ng to ask Michael to explain himself the moment she sat down with them for her audition. The very thought of Dee Dee Morrison having to audition for a part that she could do in her sleep galled her to no end. She had half a mind to take that money her father wanted her to use for charity work and start her own studio. But if she knew Joel Morrison like she thought she knew him, there was some clause that the accountant would have to adhere to before giving her the money.

  That galled Dee Dee also. Her father was rich beyond belief, and the old man had decided to simply write his children out of his will. He eased his conscious by telling himself that each of his children had gone out and made a success of their lives, so they didn’t need his money and would be honored to help him give it all away.

  It was all bull, and Joel Morrison knew it. His children had been strong-armed into this, and that’s why Dee Dee had simply decided to hold onto that money until her father passed away. By then she would be able to find some loophole to get the money away from his accountants.

  Dee Dee knew it wasn’t right to be plotting against her father, because he was a good man. But she simply didn’t agree with what he wanted to do with money that rightfully belonged to her and her siblings.

  Her father was the reason why she had decided to do R-rated films. If Joel Morrison wasn’t going to keep her in the style to which she was accustomed, then she would have to do it herself. That meant she needed to earn bigger paychecks, and the only way to do that would be to grow a bigger box office audience.

  Dee Dee felt that she had reached her highest earning potential with the PG crowd. So, bye-bye sweet little daddy’s girl, hello R-rated diva. If Dear Daddy didn’t like the thought of his daughter going nude in films, then he shouldn’t have stripped her of her rightful inheritance.

  Dee Dee was pumped as she drove down Interstate 10 headed toward Santa Monica. She was meeting Michael and that ole turncoat, Jarrod, for brunch at Ivy at the Shore. The tables at the Ivy were a tad too close together for everything Dee Dee needed to say to them, and that was probably why they'd decided on this location. They'd thought that she wouldn’t get them told if others could hear, but they were wrong. Dee Dee had starred in fifteen high-grossing films, co-starred in five box offices successes, and she had worked on a very success sitcom for nine seasons. She wasn’t about to let them forget any of that.