Hide (Lakefield Book 2)

by Jennifer Vester

  “I didn’t tell him but he knows. He was talking about the government and getting chips.”

  “Hmm,” was all he said. I heard his heart slow and his breathing become even. He drifted to sleep, and as I lay there up against his warmth, so did I.

  * * *

  I woke to a commotion in the hall. My internal clock felt like it was far past daybreak and likely into the afternoon. I couldn’t quite tell however because Holden’s room didn’t have a window.

  He was still sleeping soundly beside me so I very gently got out of the tiny bed. I grabbed some clothes off the chair in the corner that Aiden had indicated and went into the bathroom.

  I looked at my reflection in the mirror. My hair looked flat and I had a small bruise on my chin. Hopefully that wouldn’t get any bigger because Liv’s wedding was in two days. Needing a shower, I turned on the water in the small stall and stepped in. I let the water fall over me for several minutes before grabbing the soap. Although I had loved being up in the meadow at Ray’s house, the modern convenience of having a functioning bathroom was something I had missed.

  I heard voices in Holden’s room as I dressed and tried to dry my hair. I didn’t have a single bit of makeup on me but I felt so much cleaner and didn’t think Holden would care one way or the other.

  I opened the door and saw Allison and Roger standing in the room. Jake was shaking his head and eyeing Roger.

  They all turned to me when I opened the door.

  “Oh good,” my sister sneered. “We can just fill her in and take her back to California where she belongs.”

  Roger was glaring at me with a strange smile. An unpleasant shiver ran up my spine. He was just as large and menacing as I remembered him to be. He was over six foot easily and built like a professional wrestler. His request for sex the night of the Bansham producer’s party was still very much in the forefront of my mind. He was a sleazebag and he made my stomach turn just being in the same room.

  “Allie, what are you doing here?” I asked.

  “Trying to talk some sense into you. You’re throwing away your career over this asshole and you need to come back to start your life.”

  I crossed over to Holden and stood beside his bed. “Now wait a minute. You don’t call him an asshole. You don’t even know him.”

  “Well, after you two got your photos taken a few days ago, the media started going ballistic. And that little shooting at the bar made you both famous. Since I hold the legal right on your trademark I thought I would do a little digging into your new boyfriend.”

  Holden interrupted her. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Oh shut up,” she spat in his direction. Her face was red with fury.

  I held up my hand for calm. “I don’t know what you’re talking about Allison but you need to calm down. Do not talk to him like that!”

  She eyed me closely. “Did you have a ceremony yet?”

  “What? No. But we are married.”

  She smiled. “You have ninety days to have a ceremony. So technically you aren’t married yet Jules. Thank gawd!”

  I frowned at her. “What is your problem? I can marry whoever I want to. I love Holden.”

  Roger excused himself from the room with Jake following behind him.

  “Well, sis, you won’t want to marry him. He’s just after your money.”

  Holden sat up in bed. “You idiot, I don’t need her money.”

  “Don’t you?” Allison said as she reached for an envelope in her huge purse. She withdrew it with a flourish and took out the papers within. “Here’s a newspaper article that indicates you have a child with another woman.”

  I blanched. “What?”

  Holden sounded bored. “That kid is not mine.”

  Allison handed me the newspaper article. The headline read, “White Love Interest Playing Field” across the top.

  I skimmed the first paragraph but didn’t read any further. The journalist listed a woman by the name of Regina, that was claiming Holden was the father of her ten month old daughter.

  “Who is this woman?”

  Allison smirked at me. “Obviously, the mother of his child like the article says.”

  “Why are you doing this Allie?”

  She came closer and Holden growled at her from behind me. “Stay away from her.”

  Allison stopped and eyed him. “I’m trying to get you to understand that people in this world are going to lie to you and use you. Did he tell you he had a kid before you agreed to this sham?”

  “That isn’t my damn kid! Get the fuck out of here! I don’t even know where you dug that trash up. Stop filling her head up with this shit so you and Roger can sell her to the highest contract.”

  I wanted to believe Holden. But the article seemed very real. What if it was his kid?

  “Holden, did you know this lady?” I asked.

  “Fuck no, I have no idea who that idiot is and you need to understand that this kind of garbage is going to get written all the time when you’re famous. It doesn’t mean it’s true. It just sells papers and magazines.”

  Allison sighed and looked at me with what seemed like sympathy. “Jules, I’m your sister. Everything I’ve done has been out of love for you and your craft. I understand if you got carried away with this guy but honey, people’s lives get drug out into the light by media when you’re famous. He obviously had a skeleton in the closet and now he’s just trying to hang on to you so he can pay off this woman.”

  “Fuck off Allison. Get the hell out of here before I kick you out myself. That’s a blatant lie and you know it,” Holden barked.

  I wanted so much to believe her. She was blood. Only until recently had she really proved to be untrustworthy and that was based on Aiden, Brock and Holden’s opinion. She was my sister and what did I really know about Holden? He suddenly appears after a year, we leave and he seduces me in the mountains. Then we have to get married because of the trademark problem that they tell me is irrevocable.

  I shook my head. “That doesn’t sound right Allie.”

  Holden growled, “Damn straight it doesn’t.”

  Allison tilted her head. “Jules, I’ve been protecting you since you were little. I wouldn’t hurt you if I didn’t think it was true.”

  “Which it’s NOT!” Holden yelled.

  I rubbed my temples. This was too much.

  Turning to Holden I tried to speak but couldn’t. I gave him a sad smile. “I’m going to talk with Allison in the hall. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  I grabbed my sister’s arm and turned her away from him, heading for the door.

  “JULIA!” I heard him yell behind me as I shut the door.

  Several of Aiden’s guys were standing around by the nurse’s station looking at us both. I couldn’t imagine what they had heard, if anything. I turned my sister to the right and walked over to a bench much further down the hall.

  We sat down and I turned to her. “I don’t know what you’re doing but this is the most despicable thing you’ve ever pulled.”

  She looked hurt. “I’m just trying to help you. Roger found this article and spoke with the journalist. We were trying to get them to retract it but Roger said he wouldn’t listen.”

  “Roger is a snake, Allie. You and I both know it. He would lie to his mother if he thought he could get something that would make him money. You’re just the most convenient thing for him to use because you love him.”

  “You are such a bitch, Julia. You always have been. Trying to pretend you don’t want all this, then hitting on my boyfriend and making it look like he did it. I was willing to let that go. Roger told me all about it and said to just forgive and move on but this is ridiculous. I point out a legitimate reason why this man is lying to you and you turn it around on me. He’s a liar.”

  That was the very last straw.

  One thing I knew about Holden, is that he didn’t lie to me. Even before I realized I liked him I knew this as a truth. Deep down at his core he wou
ldn’t lie to me, which was one of the reason I respected him and felt safe with him. I wasn’t sure who wrote the article, but Roger clearly wasn’t the person to believe in this situation. He had told my sister a lie in order to worm his way back in with her and now he was saying some random journalist had dug up truthful information about Holden. The person I loved and who didn’t lie to me. The person whose presence threatened Roger making money off my voice.

  Enough was enough.

  The alarms went off in the hospital before I could reply and I saw the emergency lights flashing as people started running.

  Allison stood up and gestured for me to follow her.

  Shaking my head, I said, “Goodbye.”

  I turned my back on her and looked down the hall. There was a faint smell of smoke and I could see a lot of it around the corner. It was billowing down the hallway in my direction. I knew Aiden and Liv were in a room in that direction so I headed around the station to see what was happening.

  Several men, Jake and John included, had a stairwell open and were using fire extinguishers on a huge trashcan that was burning on the landing.

  I coughed several times and turned back around. The smoke was burning my eyes but at least it wasn’t anything major. Waving my hand in front of my face, I ran back to Holden’s room through the thick smoke.

  I opened the door and saw Holden trying to stand up out of bed. He had taken most of the monitor leads off and the machines were screaming.

  “Holden!” I ran to him. “Don’t do that. Lay back down. You’re sick.”

  He winced as I helped him sit back down.

  “Fuck this. I’m fine,” he said. Then he passed out.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The rest of the day was chaotic and I was mad at Holden. I was being reminded why he was an ass about every half hour when I had to check in with him. “Ordered” to check in with him was a more appropriate word because he had woken up about two minutes after passing out and had started yelling.

  In his mind, the trash can fire had been set by some unknown threat out to get me. When I argued that it was the least likely explanation and someone was playing a joke, he looked at me like I was ridiculous. Which really pissed me off. Then when I offered the plausibility that it was for Aiden and Liv, he barked at me and ordered me to check in every half hour.

  So, I marched from my room to his room on the dot as he’d asked for a few hours. I would stick my head in the door and yell something stupid like “I hate you” or “you’re an ass” and he would say thank you. Then I would march back to my room again.

  I didn’t hate him at all. Which made me even more furious that he was making me mad. I loved him. A lot. But having a relationship where one person doesn’t even consider the other person’s opinion was no relationship at all.

  I was pouting, I wasn’t afraid to admit it. If he didn’t think my opinion had merit then that was fine. But he didn’t have to dismiss it outright.

  Aiden and Liv had left for security reasons, but I knew that meant Aiden was being as paranoid as Holden where Liv was concerned. That was confirmed when I got a text message mid-day.

  Olivia: Is it too late to skip the country? Or maybe murder Aiden and then skip the country? Or maybe just murder him.

  Julia: Under house arrest?

  Olivia: You could say that. We’re at the damn dungeon again because Aiden thinks we’re in danger.

  Julia: Yeah I’m under quarantine. Half hour check ins.

  Olivia: I’m fucking getting married in two days!!! I’m having to Skype with my coordinator who is about to pass out!!! He cancelled the rehearsal dinner!!!

  Julia: I’m stuck in a hospital with a homicidal Holden, no guitar and no alcohol. I’ve watched two soap operas and I’ve had no caffeine. Like NO COFFEE for three days.

  Olivia: Yeah that sucks. I had a half a cup this morning. Sorry bitch.

  Julia: Yeah. Yeah. I think I’m about to start my cycle. I have no idea where my pills are.

  Olivia: Try not to kill him.

  Julia: You mean that overbearing, overreacting, totalitarian, armed psych patient that I’m married to? Okay.

  Olivia: Yeah that one. There’s a conference call here in a little while. Maybe I’ll see you if the “overlord” deems it safe. Brock you suck.

  Julia: Yeah Brock!

  I got up and went in search for caffeine. I found a machine down the hall but one of the nurses grimaced and shook her head. She led me to the lounge on the same floor and got me a cup of the good stuff. I was being trailed by four of Holden’s lackeys wherever I went. I pointedly ignored them because I didn’t like the fact that Holden was back in “job” mode with me, rather than just chilling out and trying to listen.

  This was the Holden that annoyed me.

  One of the goons brought my guitar to me while I was sitting in the hall waiting for another five minutes to do my check in. Because I wouldn’t want to do it early. I was going to see what pushing it past ten minutes would do to him.

  I got out my guitar and started tuning it out of habit. It was the kind of habit that all musicians had before performing. It settled the nerves and focused the mind because it was instinctual, and oftentimes necessary, if you were a one-man band. Or in my case a one-woman band.

  I eyed the clock again and started humming. Nearly time.

  I chuckled to myself and started playing a familiar song. It had been one of my favorites this past year while I was traveling. I didn’t realize until I had gotten back and things had started happening with Holden, why it had been stuck in my head for so long. It wasn’t about him. It was like a song to myself in some ways comparing my past to the present. Not all of it applied but it resonated with me in that way for some reason.

  I started singing “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac. It was an old one for sure but something my mother had sung to me once when I was young. It had stuck. Looking down at my strings I just concentrated on the melody and sang the way I had hundreds of times before. The hallway acoustics weren’t half bad.

  When I finished I finally looked up. There were several people from the hospital crowded around, along with a couple of Holden’s men. They were all smiling.

  I stood up and took an impromptu bow. A couple of nurses clapped.

  Jake, who had been standing to the side, coughed. “Julia, Holden is asking for you.”

  “Asking? Since when does he ask?”

  “Since I threatened to shoot him if he got out of bed to come find you.”

  I rolled my eyes and laid my guitar on the bench. He was probably just pissed I hadn’t checked in yet.

  I knocked on the door before I entered, then swung the door open and stood quietly at the entrance. My temper was calmer now that I had gotten my guitar back and was able to channel some energy. I was still irritated but not as much as I had been before.

  Someone had picked up the items on the floor and had cleaned off the cabinet where his personal things had been laying. There were no beeping monitors. I wondered if they had taken them off and if he was better. I should have been paying more attention over the last couple of hours when I barged in and yelled at him periodically.

  My eyes slid over to him. He still looked a little pale but he was alert and sitting up in bed. He had a laptop in his lap and was busy typing away at it. His brows were drawn together in concentration.

  I sighed. “Just checking in.”

  He looked up and the serious look he had on his face slipped away. His eyes roamed over my face softly but possessively. He gestured for me to come to him.

  I bit my lip and slowly made my way toward him.

  “Heard you playing. It was beautiful,” he said.

  I shrugged and stopped beside his bed.

  “You’re not leaving me. Didn’t Stevie Nicks write that as a breakup song?”

  I frowned at him in confusion. “What? No. I mean, yes, she did but no, that’s not why I was playing it. Unless I dedicate a song you, you’re safe.”

  He sighe
d and reached for my hand. His long fingers wrapped around mine.

  “I apologize if I made you mad. Your sister coming up here pissed me off. I feel like shit and I really just want to take you home.”

  I smirked at him. “And you’re frustrated because you can’t get out of bed and work.”

  “Nah. Well, maybe a little. You’re my only job right now though angel, and this fucking hospital stay is pissing me off because I want to excel at my current job.”

  Teasingly, I started tapping my chin with one of my fingers and was trying to look like I was considering his statement. “So, Mr. Saunders, what are your qualifications? I don’t just hire anyone.”

  He chuckled. “Well I love my wife, that should count. But to be honest I don’t have a lot of experience with this whole mushy relationship stuff. I can shoot stuff and I have a big dick. Does that count?”

  I giggled. “Hmm, I’ll take your application seriously and contact you early tomorrow.”

  One of his eyebrows lifted. “You’re going to be doing more than that in the morning. I’m busting out of here if they don’t release me tonight. They said I’m just under observation which is a shitty word for saying they don’t want to get sued if the nine different shots they gave me, didn’t work. When we get out of here, I’m taking you down to the car and I’m going to screw you in the back seat. I don’t give a shit who sees us.”

  “Yeah, that’s all we need splashed on the cover of some newspaper. You’re ass in a window. I’m sure those will make some sensational headlines.”

  He pulled at my hand until I sat down on the bed, then he started rubbing up and down my arm while he was watching my face.

  “Julia, you need to get used to seeing shit like that in the paper. Not my ass. Not unless we get caught screwing in the backyard or something. I mean, stories and photos. If you want a career in music, you’re going to read a lot of stuff that you’re not going to like. That bogus article your sister found for instance. I’m not even sure who that woman is but I guess it gets readers, and unfortunately it gets read by people who think it’s the truth. I promise you, I have no idea what that was about.”