by Zoey Parker
Abby wasn’t thrilled—in fact she was scared and worried—but I kissed her like fire and told her I would come back, I would protect her, she would be safe. In the end, she left me go only because I swore it wouldn’t be more than a couple of hours.
I kept my promise. The hotel wasn’t too busy at that time of day, so I lucked out and was able to question the staff. They refused to give me a name because I wasn’t the police and didn’t have a badge, much less a warrant, but they confirmed that a few redheaded guys had stayed there in the last month. And when the manager of the hotel bustled off to take care of something, I was able to ask some of the guests, too. Most said they didn’t know anything or hadn’t seen anything, but before I left, a young woman—blonde, pretty, and a little similar to the way Abby looked—said that she’d had a redheaded man hit on her at the hotel bar.
“He was nice enough, I guess,” she told me, fidgeting slightly. “But there was just something about him. I felt awkward and uncomfortable the whole time. You know how some people just make you feel like that?”
I nodded, sensing that this had to be the same man. This woman looked very similar to Abby and it was possible that he was trying to use her as some temporary fill-in for Abby until he could actually get to her. If that was the case, I had to tell the woman it might be best to avoid redheads for a time, but it was good for me. It meant I was getting closer.
“Did you happen to get a name?”
She shrugged, thinking hard about it. “It was James something. His last name was like a city name or something.”
“Angeles? Niguel? Pasadena?”
But she shook her head, frowning a little. “No, no, nothing like that. Like—oh, I remember! Texas! His name was James Austin.”
I thanked her and gave her a gentle warning that there was someone unsavory around who liked pretty blondes like herself. She seemed flattered by the compliment and slipped me her number. She told me that a decent, sexy man like me was more than welcome to chat her ear off.
Though I wasn’t going to use the number, I shoved it in my pocket so she wouldn’t think I was being a complete ass and waved as she left. Then I pulled out my cell phone.
“Caleb, it’s Kade. I got a name: James Austin.”
Chapter Fifteen
Abby
Kade told me he had some luck at the hotel, which surprised me. It was only a name, but a name went a long way when just a day earlier, we didn’t have anything at all. I was relieved that Kade was back, regardless of what he got, though.
“I’d like to go to the hospital today,” I told him, finishing up touches on my makeup, preparing to go out. He stood in my doorway, leaning against the frame with his arms crossed over his hard chest. He looked wonderful, delicious, and I had the urge to just stay in and play games with each other’s bodies, but reminded myself that my dearest friend was in the hospital. “To see April.”
He frowned, clearly not liking the plan. And for once, I acknowledged why. He was trying so hard to protect me and I knew that I didn’t make it easy on him. But this was my life and these were the things I had to do. I wouldn’t let this stalker—this James Austin—ruin my life, control my whole world. And that meant doing what I was sure seemed like trivial activities to Kade. That was my explanation for the awards shows and the auditions, but this was different.
Seeing April was important to me, because she was important to me. Honestly and truly.
Maybe he saw that on my face because he finally sighed and gave in. “Alright, we’ll go to the hospital. But you don’t get a ladies’ room break this time, so I suggest you go here. You stay with me no matter what.”
I bit my lip. “Can you at least wait outside when I talk to April? There are glass windows so you can see in,” I hurriedly added when I saw the no forming on his lips.
He made a frustrated sound a rolled his eyes, but ultimately said, “Fine.” Even if he did sound grumpy as he said it.
We went to the hospital shortly after that conversation. He drove and the entire way he made sure that I understood I was not to leave his line of sight. And that meant if there were no windows that looked in on April, he was coming in with me. I tried arguing this point, but it was impossible. He wouldn’t budge. I was beginning to think the man was just as stubborn as I was—maybe even more so.
Still, as we parked beneath the building, I couldn’t help but notice I wasn’t all that annoyed. No, I didn’t appreciate being treated like a child or a porcelain doll. And yes, it annoyed me to no end knowing that I wasn’t going to get an ounce of privacy if Kade didn’t allow it.
But there was also the sense that I was truly and honestly being protected. That with Kade, I would be safe, no matter what was thrown our way.
And that’s hard to be truly angry about.
April’s room was on the third floor. We took the elevator and got lost twice before I managed to ask a doctor where her room was. He was helpful, moderately attractive, and did absolutely nothing for me. It was amazing how easily I looked away from attractive men these days, but I supposed having one who was even more attractive protecting you like Kade helped with that.
I was pleased to see that April’s room did in fact have windows. I looked over at Kade triumphantly, who looked moderately annoyed, but waved me on anyway. “Fine,” he told me. “Go. I’ll be here.”
Pushing open the door tentatively, trying to be quiet in case she was sleeping, I poked my head inside the room. “April?” I half whispered.
She looked over at me and her face broke into a smile—which looked painful. “Abby! Come in! I didn’t think you’d come today.”
I waved off her words. “Are you crazy? Of course I was going to come today! And if it weren’t for my crazy bodyguard—”
“Crazy sexy,” April amended with a wink, but I ignored her.
“—I would have been here a while ago.” I went over to her bed and sat down on the side of it, taking one of her hands in mine. “How are you feeling?”
She looked awful. The bruises and cuts looked worse, not better, in the bright florescent lighting of the room. She looked pale and a little ghastly with the yellow and purpling spots smattered across her face. The swelling looked like it had puffed up as much as it was going to, meaning that only one eye was stuck shut and her right cheek looked three times its normal size.
Still, she straightened herself up and stubbornly said, “I’m fine. Really.”
I didn’t believe her for a second, but didn’t call her on it. At least she was in the hospital, getting treatment. And she was safe. James the Stalker wouldn’t come for her here. Not with the cameras and all the staff. No, I had to believe she was safe here.
“Well, good,” I said finally.
After that, we chatted a bit about the hospital. How was the food? Was there anything on TV? Should I bring in some extra pillows that weren’t just awful? But as our conversation dwindled, I couldn’t help but bring it to something that had been nagging at me.
“April, I…I don’t want to ask, but I feel like I should,” I told her, feeling bad for having to remind her of the other night.
“What is it?”
“Have you spoken to the police?”
Quickly, April looked away, and I knew that she hadn’t. “They stopped by,” she told me seriously.
My lips pulled down into a frown. She didn’t seem happy with this line of questioning, but I thought it was important that everyone was on the same page. If April had gone to the police about this whole incident, then I wanted to cooperate. I wanted to help. Even if that put Uncle Caleb in a tricky spot, I had to do the right thing by April. She didn’t deserve any of this.
“And? What did you tell them?”
She worried at her lip. I almost yelled at her to stop that, it looked so painful given her current state, but then she released in and looked over at me. “I told them that I…that I didn’t see anything useful. That it was just a burglar trying to take my TV.”
I frowned. “Di
d you see anything?”
She shrugged her shoulders, looking upset and a little guilty. “I don’t know. Yes, I guess. I mean, I don’t think any of it was useful anyway, you know? Just some guy in a ski-mask with blue eyes and super pale skin surrounding them. Eyelashes so light that…” She shook her head. “I don’t know. Like I said, nothing useful.”
“But why didn’t you tell them that? They might have been able to—”
April sat up suddenly and gripped my hand so hard that I felt the bones press together. “Because he threatened to kill me!” she said suddenly, desperately amidst a choking sob.
“Oh god, April.”
She shook her head and said, “He said that if I told the police anything, if I told anyone anything, he’d come back and he’d finish the job. He’d…” She let out another sob, and I shifted my position on her bed so that we were side by side. I slung my arm gently around her shoulders and let her cry, shushing her and telling her that it would all be okay, everything would be fine.
And I told myself that it would be, just because Kade was going to find this asshole and then we wouldn’t have to worry about him ever again.
But as the thought ran through my head, another was hot on its tail. Kade would do whatever he could to protect me. No matter what. Of that I had become undoubtedly sure. I believed in him like I had never believed in anyone, not even Uncle Caleb. It had to do with the way he looked at me, like he didn’t feel like he should be looking at me but just couldn’t help it in the end.
It was a heady feeling to know that I was that important to him—and I believed it was me, not just a job commanded to him by his boss. It made my insides squirm and twist in pleasant ways and it made me want to throw myself into his arms and stay there forever. Which, of course, was an embarrassing thought and more importantly an impossible reality.
Still, the feelings he brought out in me were strong and very unexpected. But I liked them. I hoped to hold on to them for as long as I could. I hoped that he felt the same.
All of this was good. Except for the realization that the person who was lying in the bed beside me, sobbing uncontrollably, looking like she had been used as a punching bag, was someone I loved very dearly. Someone who meant the world to me. Someone who had been there for me through thick and thin and had been a bright spot in my often stressful life.
And she’d paid for it. Dearly.
I hadn’t asked for that result, and if I could take it back, I would. But that wasn’t an option. And I couldn’t make my crazed stalker forget about April now that he knew how important she was to me, so I immediately disregarded any crazy notions about abandoning her. Fighting with her. Telling her she had never been important to me.
That wouldn’t help in the long run regardless.
But that connection to me had definitely put her in harm’s way. Which meant that the other people I loved were in danger, too. Caleb, for instance. It was no secret that he was important to me. He meant the world to me and I talked about him nearly every time I won an award, telling the world that he was the reason I’d gotten as far as I had.
I need to warn him, I thought as I stroked April’s hair.
Maybe it was a silly thought. After all, Caleb was leader of a motorcycle gang and dealt with some pretty dangerous people on a regular basis. And he was digging into this man’s past. Of course he was in danger—and likely already knew it. But I decided I would warn him anyway. I wanted him to know that people I cared about were being targeted, that he was in more danger than all the rest.
But if I were being honest with myself, the person I was most worried about now was the man standing outside the door right now, keeping guard over me.
Maybe this James Austin didn’t know yet how deep my feelings had begun to grow for Spear. Maybe he didn’t know that I had let him into my bed last night and again this morning. Maybe he didn’t know, but he knew so many other things that it was hard not to think of him as omnipotent. As though he could see anything and everything all the time.
It sent a shiver of fear down my spine.
James Austin was coming after me. I was his target. I wasn’t the one he was going to hurt to get to me. It was going to be April and Caleb—and Kade, because whether James Austin realized it yet or not, I was falling hard for Kade. And that would be impossible to hide soon.
The knowledge made me want to run out of the room right then and there and throw myself against Kade. It made me want to plead with him to leave me, to save himself. It made me want to beg him to run away with me and leave everything behind.
I didn’t know which was the smartest of those ideas, but it didn’t matter. I couldn’t do any of them and Kade would probably tell me I was nuts anyway.
No, we were going to have to see this through to the end. No matter what.
Chapter Sixteen
Kade
Abby was quiet on the drive home. She was lost somewhere in her own thoughts, probably being eaten up by her own personal guilt over what happened to April. I hadn’t gone in the room as promised, but through the window I could see what kind of shape April had been in. It wasn’t good. In fact, she looked like a patchwork quilt of ugly colors. Her face was swollen and one eye seemed stuck shut.
She didn’t look good and I knew Abby well enough now to know that that didn’t sit well with her. She’d gotten it into her head that April was her responsibility, but the truth was this whole thing was my responsibility.
I couldn’t be everywhere at once and I wasn’t stupid enough to assume anything to that effect. But April was my responsibility by proxy. She was something that belonged, in a way, to Abby, something important, and I was trying to keep the things important to Abby intact. Besides, the fact that that asshole got to April told me that I wasn’t doing a good enough job.
Because Abby had gotten hurt. Maybe not physically, but emotionally, and sometimes that was worse. If I’d gotten to that hotel sooner, if I’d gotten Abby’s phone to Caleb sooner, if I’d just insisted that Abby stay in that night or that April stay here with us…well, there were a lot of things I felt I could have done differently to have protected that young woman. But I didn’t do any of them and that was something I was just going to have to live with.
I parked the car in the garage and we both went upstairs, Abby still silent.
“Coffee?” I offered her.
She considered me a moment and nodded her head. “Yes, please. I’m just going to freshen up. Wait for me here?”
Though the urge to follow her everywhere she went was strong, I ultimately nodded my head and forced myself to stay in the kitchen as she went upstairs. After seeing the state April was in, I wasn’t too keen to let Abby go anywhere without me, but I reminded myself that the house at least was safe. As long as we were both here, she was alright.
I made a fresh pot of coffee and poured two steaming mugs. I set one down on the counter and nursed the other in my hands for a bit, blowing across the top of it in a vain attempt to cool it enough to drink right then.
Finally, I put it down because as much as I wanted coffee, I didn’t want to burn off my taste buds at the same time.
She’s taking a long time, I thought as I waited for Abby. I was starting to get anxious—I should have done a thorough check of the house first before I let her go anywhere without me. Cold fear suddenly washed through me. What if someone was in the house? What if they’d been waiting upstairs this whole time, lurking in her bedroom, springing at the chance to get her alone?
My fears maybe seemed paranoid, but given the situations lately, they were justified. I sprang into action, running to the staircase. I opened my mouth, about to call out for her just as I hit the bottom step of the stairs, but a second later I froze.
She stood at the stop of the staircase, wearing a silky robe that fell across her perfectly curved body, draping her in shimmering white silk that left little to my imagination. Her hair was let down, cascading about her shoulders in perfectly shaped curls. Her bright blue
eyes were fixed on me as she began to descend the staircase.
My words caught in my throat, my eyes riveted to her. Her hips swayed as she walked, her robe long enough that it caught the step behind her as she stepped down, catching on the carpet and pulling back away from her long, smooth legs all the way up to her creamy thighs.
I sucked in a breath. She’d changed, clearly, and I was suddenly intensely interested in what she was wearing beneath that robe.
As she came closer and closer, I cleared my throat, trying to find my voice. “Abby? What…what are you doing?”
