Chapter 35
By eleven o’clock, the party was starting to thin out but it was by no means over. The music had been turned up outside and about ten or so guests were attempting to dance 60s go-go style near the pool. This included Ally and Jake who had arrived a couple of hours earlier.
Ally looked awesome in a multicolored paisley mini dress and white knee-high boots. She’d let her dark curls hang loose and matched the outfit with massive white hoop earrings. They swung in time to the music as she pumped her hands in the air. Jake looked amazing in his outfit, too. It was like he’d just stepped off the set of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. in his tight gray pants, blue turtleneck and brown suede jacket. The best thing of all was their beaming faces. It was so great to see my oldest friend happy and paired up with such a genuinely nice guy.
Ally waved as I walked by. “Come and join us!”
“Give me a few minutes. I just need to check on some things.”
Ally nodded and I went inside. The food was finished for the night and the catering staff were already packing up in the kitchen. Poor old Jay would likely be hovering by the bar for a couple more hours yet.
After a short conversation with my personal assistant, who assured me everything was all taken care of, I turned to go back outside and bumped into someone.
“Ben! There you are. I haven’t had a chance to talk to you all night.”
“That’s OK. I was probably going to leave soon.”
“Oh? Really?”
I looked at him a little closer. He was wearing one of the plaid suits he’d borrowed from the production, but he didn’t seem his usual happy self.
“I didn’t see your girlfriend tonight,” I added. “I was looking forward to meeting her.”
His mouth flattened itself into a long thin line. “She didn’t come. We’re not together anymore.”
“Oh, Ben. I’m so sorry. Why didn’t you say so? Here we are in a celebratory mood and the last thing you must feel like doing is partying.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t want to be a downer.”
“Of course you’re not a downer. Do you want to talk about it?”
He gave me a shy glance from under his boyish long lashes. “You don’t want to hear about my love life.”
“Why not? I can’t say I’ve always made good decisions, but I’m happy to listen.”
His expression turned hopeful. “Actually, that would be awesome, but not here if that’s OK? I don’t want anyone to know I’m that pathetic, lovesick guy. I saw you taking some people on a tour of the house earlier. Mind if we walk and talk?”
“Sure. And you’re not pathetic. That’s just something we tell ourselves when a relationship doesn’t work out because we’re feeling sorry for ourselves. Come on, this way. How about I show you the library?”
“Everyone’s been raving about it. Yeah, I didn’t want to come across as negative tonight, but it’s hard. Have you ever been lovesick? Actually, don’t answer that. I doubt it.”
“Of course I have.”
“When?”
I stopped at the door to the library. I was usually a very private person, but what could it hurt? Ben was a sweet guy and it sounded like he could do with a boost. “Well, there was my first love. Or at least I thought he was my first love at the time. He was a guy I met during my modeling days.”
“How did you meet?”
“I was spending a week in Greece with some modeling friends.”
“Oh, right,” he said, a knowing sparkle appearing in his eyes. “You got lucky.”
I ushered him into the library. “We were young.”
“Like me?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“What about Duncan? Did you feel lovesick when that ended?” Ben asked.
That was a little too close to home and something I wasn’t prepared to talk about quite so easily. “That was more complicated.”
Ben followed me into the library and turned around a few times taking everything in. “Wow. This is great. No wonder you love it here. What about the new guy? Nathan? I hope he hasn’t made you feel lovesick.”
I stopped in the middle of the room and felt grateful for my acting abilities because I managed to flash him a bright smile instead of look embarrassed. Yes, Marc made me feel lovesick, I thought, but in a much different way. “Hopefully not. Fingers crossed.”
“Not even when you broke up?”
I covered a frown by turning to the window overlooking the pool area. Ally and Jake were still dancing and I felt a smile touch my lips. “We never broke up. Not really. It was just a break before things picked up again.”
“That’s what she said. When we broke up. That she wanted a break.”
I walked over and touched his arm. “But it’s not what you wanted?”
“No. I was really into her. I think all the celebrity bullshit scared her off.” He was practically pouting and I rubbed his arm in sympathy.
“Come on. I’ll show you the rest of the place.” He followed me back into the hall. “Ben, I’m not going to lie. This industry can be hell on relationships. If the celebrity doesn’t scare people off, others are only interested because you are a celebrity, so you need to be careful.”
“Trust me. I’m going to be. I never thought about all this stuff when I got the call.”
“To work on this movie?” I showed him the bedrooms and we waved to Kaden and the rest of the crew in the garage. I kept forgetting this was his first big break. He’d only acted on a few commercials and done some modeling before this movie.
“Nice set-up,” he said, when we retreated down the hall. “Yeah, I mean I was so blown away that I got the part I didn’t consider all the rest.”
“I’d like to say it gets easier, but that’s not necessarily true. You do get better at taking it in your stride though.”
“What about all the stuff with your dad?”
I’d been determined not to think about the situation with my dad tonight, and there was no way he could have known how much worse things had become. “It’s hard. Really hard. Having your personal life made public like that.” There was no point in sugar-coating it. He was a talented actor and his success in the industry would be determined by how well he held himself offscreen as well as when the cameras were rolling.
“Maybe that’s where I went wrong. I thought she got it because she was associated with the industry. Now I understand why so many actors date actresses,” he said.
I was about to point out that I was living proof that Hollywood relationships didn’t work either, but he touched my arm lightly.
“Hey, is it true you have a real life panic room? Call me a big kid but I’ve never seen one of those. Any chance we can take a look?”
I smiled. He looked like a little boy who had just asked if he could stay up late for a party. I hadn’t been showing people the basement, but if it would brighten his mood there was no harm in it. “So long as you promise not to tell anyone else, or they’ll get jealous.”
“My lips are sealed.”
I waved him up the hall again and into my bedroom, then pointed at the floor. “It’s really just a basement level they’ve made into a secure room. It’s not actually all that exciting.”
“It’s still cool though. Is that a secret door?”
I laughed. “Hardly.” I slipped my fingers through the circular handle embedded into the floorboard and lifted the panel in the floor.
“Awesome,” Ben breathed when a set of concrete stairs and a heavy-duty door was revealed. “I want one.”
“Let’s hope you won’t need one.”
I took each of the steps carefully in my precariously high boots and keyed in the code. The door released and opened. I stepped inside and turned the lights on.
“It’s like a bunker down here,” he said.
“I guess it is, isn’t it? I let the security professionals set it up for me.”
“It’s great. You’ve got everything you need down here. Food, water, you name it. A
nd now good company,” he quipped, and I laughed.
I had to admit, they’d done a great job. Utilitarian metal shelves lined one wall with a few non-perishable snacks and some bottles of water. Other than that there was a small comfortable sofa and a phone hooked up to a separate line so I could call for assistance if I needed. I’d only been down here once before and, if I was honest, the place kind of gave me the creeps.
“See? Not all that exciting. I doubt I’ll ever need it but I guess it’s good to have.”
Ben patted the concrete wall. “Looks really solid. It’s a shame you didn’t have one when you had that fire at your old place.”
“Maybe.” I didn’t want to think about my scorched estate. “It was a different layout though. I’d never have gotten to a panic room in time.”
He walked back to the door. “No, you wouldn’t. But then I don’t think the fire reached your room, did it?”
“No, it didn’t, thankfully.”
He held the door open for me. “It was almost as if someone had planned it that way.”
I frowned. I wouldn’t put it past Martin Campbell, but he was in jail so I wasn’t going to dwell on it. “It doesn’t matter. I’m safe.”
“Yes, you are.” Before I could reach the door he closed it.
“Ben?” I stopped a few feet away, confused.
“Yes?”
“Why did you close the door?”
“Because you’ll be safe in here, Lena. With me.”
Chapter 36
“Ben?” I said again. “What are you doing?”
“Keeping you safe.”
The undisguised excitement in his eyes made my stomach twist.
“I am safe,” I reminded him. “This house is like Fort Knox and my security crew are upstairs.” Was this some sort of game? Did the idea of a panic room thrill him so much he wanted to try it out?
He took a step toward me. “No, Lena. This house isn’t secure. Did you know that?”
I ignored the way my heart was pounding and gave him a firm look. “Of course it is.”
He pushed away from the door and went to examine the shelves. I only hesitated for a second before rushing over and inputting my code into the keypad. When I hit OK, nothing happened.
“It won’t work.”
I tried it again, my gut clenching with fear. “Why, Ben? Why won’t it work?”
“Because I changed the code.”
My hand hovered in mid-air as the code was rejected once more. Forcing myself to breathe, I turned to face him. “Please open the door, Ben. This isn’t funny.”
He picked up a bag of chips and opened them. The metallic sound of the foil made me want to cringe.
“It’s not meant to be funny.” He picked a chip out of the bag, studied it and then popped it into his mouth with a decisive crunch.
“Then what is this?” I said quietly.
“This,” he said, strolling over to me, “is how it was meant to be all along. Just you and me, Lena.”
“Ben, have you been drinking?” That had to be it, because this couldn’t be happening. Obviously he was so completely lovesick about losing his girlfriend, he’d drowned his sorrows. “I know you’re sad about your girlfriend—”
“You’re my girlfriend!”
I startled as if I’d been slapped and attempted to take a step backward, but he grabbed my wrist and twisted it so hard I cried out. “Ben, please. You’re hurting me.”
He immediately released his grip. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t touch your bad arm though.”
Sweetheart? What was going on? This had to be some sort of nightmare, but even as I hoped it, I knew it wasn’t. The infatuated look in his eyes told me otherwise.
“No, I’m OK,” I said, thinking fast. “I know you wouldn’t hurt me.”
He nodded. “I’d never harm you.”
My mind was whirling and my chest felt so tight I could barely breathe, but I tried to stay focused. “What happened with your last girlfriend, Ben? Did she hurt you?”
The bag of chips crunched as he balled his hand into a fist. “Katie was a bitch, do you hear me? Nothing like you. She had none of your class. I wasn’t really into her, anyway.”
“Because you like me?”
He took a step toward me and I had to stop from flattening myself against the wall. How was it only weeks, days, earlier I had been able to pretend to be in love with him for the cameras?
He reached out and trailed a finger down my cheek and I flinched.
“Don’t be like that,” he said in a low voice, as if he didn’t want to scare me.
“Ben, think about it. How do you expect me to be right now?”
He tilted his head and regarded me. “Oh, you’re surprised, of course. I get that. I know you didn’t even consider me, but that’s going to change now.”
“Ben, please think about what you’re doing. I already have a boyfriend.”
Rage flared in his eyes. “That bastard? You’re out of his league, trust me.”
“I do. I do trust you, Ben, which is why I know you know this is wrong. If you want to talk—”
“Talk?” I flinched again and he appeared to regain himself. “Lena, we don’t need to talk. I know you felt it, too. Every time we kissed for the cameras on-set, I could feel it. I could see it in your eyes. You love me, you’re just too scared to act on it because of our age difference and what the media will say.”
What the media would say? After the last six months of my messed-up life, I’d given up caring what the media said. And if Ben were thinking clearly, he’d realize that me dating a guy ten years younger than me was no more newsworthy than being married to a man twenty-five years my senior.
“Ben, I’m sorry if you feel this way, but I was acting. I like you as a friend, but that’s it.”
He shook his head back and forth like he was trying to clear it. “No! Don’t say that.” He planted his hands on the wall either side of my head, trapping me. “You’re just scared to believe in us after all the heartbreak you’ve been through.”
Scared? Yes, I was extremely scared, but not for the reasons he was claiming. And I needed to change tack if I had any hope of getting out of here.
“Ben? You know, I think you might be right.”
He nodded, his light blue eyes transfixed.
“I have been through a lot of heartbreak and I’m still figuring things out.” I attempted a shy shrug but I wasn’t sure how good my acting abilities currently were given the fear coursing through my body. “I guess I never ever thought you’d be interested in me. I’m so much older.”
Ben’s eyes widened and he stroked my cheek again. This time I managed to stay still. “You’re beautiful, Lena. How can you not know that?”
I shrugged again and bit my lip. “Divorce is tough. It can make you doubt yourself. I never even considered you might share my feelings. You’ve got your whole career ahead of you and I wasn’t sure you’d want to get involved with someone my age and—”
“Shh.” He put a finger on my lips. “I understand. I know that’s why you’re with Nathan. He’s a bit of eye candy but that’s it, isn’t it? He has no real talent, not like me.”
His touch was enough to make me gag but I managed to swallow the feeling down and shake my head. I reached up and took his wrist in my hand, removing it from my mouth. “No. He’s nothing compared to you, Ben.”
“Oh, Lena.” He leaned in to kiss me but I didn’t give him a chance.
I kicked him as hard as I could in the crotch. He cried out, doubling over in pain, and I shoved him back into the shelving. It crashed down on top of him, but I didn’t waste any time to see the damage and raced to the phone in the middle of the room.
I picked up the headset and pressed the button frantically.
“You fucking cow! I’ll kill you.”
Oh God. Why wasn’t the phone working? It had to work. I tried again, but it was dead, the line was dead. I held back a sob of despair and scampered back to the doo
r. I knew it was futile to put in the code again so I pounded my fists against the door and screamed.
“Help me! Please! Help me!”
“Bitch!” The back of Ben’s hand connected with my face and I was sent sprawling, hitting my head against the concrete wall as I fell.
He towered over me, the fury in his eyes making him look much older than his twenty-two years. “You’re just like her! You’re just like all of them!”
I couldn’t reply because my vision blurred and a sharp pain pierced my skull.
Ben took another step toward me. “I should have let you burn, do you hear me? I should have let you burn!”
Somehow his words cut through my pain and I stared up at him. “The fire? That was you?” I whispered.
He threw his hands up in the air. “Of course it was me, you bitch! Who else would it have been?”
“Martin,” I murmured. I put a hand to my forehead. The pounding in the back of my head was so intense, nausea rose in my windpipe.
“Martin?” Ben boomed, his deep voice echoing around the small space. “That loser? I would have burned him myself if I could have gotten my hands on the bastard. For scaring you like that. He deserves to die, just like Nathan!”
I dropped my hand to the ground to steady myself and peered up at him through hazy eyes. “What? Nathan? What do you mean?”
Ben shook his head and crouched down in front of me. I was too scared, too hurt, to move.
“The fire was for him, Lena. After all the media coverage when you attended that movie premiere together, I couldn’t let him live. Not when you’re mine. But then he got to you and saved you.” He spat the word ‘saved’. “What a load of shit. You could have died jumping from that window.”
I looked away, tasting bile in my mouth. “Ben, please. That’s enough.” I couldn’t act anymore even if I’d wanted to.
“You’re right. It’s enough. It’s our time now, Lena. You’ll see.” He leaned forward onto his knees and I had no strength left to fight him.
“Lena! Are you in there?”
Ben jolted backward at the pounding on the door and unbalanced, landing on his backside.
I scrambled up and ran to the door, the room tilting dangerously. “Marc! He’s got me locked in here. He’s changed the code and I can’t get out.”
Heartbreaker (Hollywood Hearts Book 2) Page 23
