Center Stage (The Keller Family Series)

by Marie, Bernadette

  “Calm down.” John sat down next to her and put his arm around her.

  Arianna sucked in a deep breath and let it out very slow. Then, she did it again.

  John was keeping her very close. It was comforting. But the moment that the thought was clear—she could have killed John—the tears were back.

  “What if I’d shot you?”

  “You didn’t.”

  “I was going to.” She sucked back a sob. “I could have killed you.”

  “You were prepared.”

  “The front door wasn’t locked. And then the back door was wide open and…”

  John pushed back. “The front door wasn’t locked?” Arianna shook her head, and John stood. “I didn’t go through the front door.”

  Arianna covered her mouth with her hand as John moved to the door.

  He opened it and looked at the lock. “It isn’t jimmied. No one has messed with the door or the lock.”

  “So maybe I just left it unlocked?”

  “I think so.” He closed the door and locked it again.

  How could she have been so forgetful? In all her life she’d never left the front door unlocked. Maybe she’d been too excited to have dinner with the girls. That had to be it.

  “Listen. I have to get that furnace working. It is freezing in here. Go upstairs. Run yourself a hot bath and get yourself calm.”

  Arianna nodded.

  John kissed her gently and headed back to the basement.

  With the blanket still around her shoulders, Arianna walked out to the kitchen and picked up her purse and the gun. She slid the gun back into the pocket of the purse and headed upstairs.

  As she walked back through the kitchen, she looked down at the table. Simone’s business card looked back up at her.

  She must have dropped the card on the table when she pulled the gun from her purse.

  She walked back through the living room and up to the bathroom. Hopefully the hot water heater was still working, or a hot bath wasn’t going to soothe anything.

  John had heard the bathtub running, and a moment later, he had the furnace kicking to life. He was glad. If he didn’t get the heat going soon, they were going to have to find a motel for the night. He’d been tired and irritated from his findings at the site, but nearly being killed by the woman he loved had him a little jumpy.

  Why did she think it was necessary to pull her gun on him? Didn’t she say, just the other day, that she thought the worst was behind them, and no one was after her?

  Well, something had her scared enough to nearly kill him.

  He packed up his tools and thought he shouldn’t look at it that way. Yes, he could have been shot, but he hadn’t been. Arianna was prepared and cautious, that was all.

  By the time he’d made it upstairs, Arianna had tucked herself into bed, bundled in sweat pants, socks and a flannel shirt.

  “You don’t have that gun tucked up under there with you, do ya?” He smiled, but there were still tears in her eyes.

  “I’m very sorry.” She wiped her eyes. “What if I’d shot you?”

  “Let’s just hope you don’t have a great shot.”

  “I have four first place trophies for trap shooting, of course Regan has six.”

  John unbuttoned his shirt. “Great. She and her sister can hit moving targets.”

  Arianna sat up and looked at him. “I don’t remember not locking the door. I’ve never left a house without locking the door.”

  John sat down on the bed next to her. “Do you think someone was in the house?”

  “I don’t know. Nothing is missing. The door isn’t broken. It had to have been me.”

  He took her hands in his. “I’ll tell you what. Tomorrow we will look into a security system. Would that make you feel better?”

  She leaned in to him and rested her head on his shoulder. “Yes, but what if he is still out there? What if he’s not in Paris.”

  “He’s not going to touch you.”

  “What if he gets to me or Regan? Those boys can’t lose their mother.”

  The sobs were shaking her body, and he pulled her in closer. “Don’t think like that. This family is stronger than one man.”

  As he held her close to him, her breath began to slow.

  He’d protect her and her family with his life, if it came down to it. No one would hurt the Keller family. No one.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  John stayed home with Arianna the next day, and just as he’d promised, there was a crew there installing a security system.

  Regan had called her four times before lunch to check on her, and Arianna could hear it in her voice. She, too, was scared and now locked in her own house.

  This was no way of life.

  The bastard couldn’t just keep them living in fear, but he was. It had been four years, and he’d been the one to try and kill Regan. Why now was it so important to try and hurt them all?

  Of course there still was an obvious issue. Alexander Hamilton was apparently in Paris, and what if it was Eric who was terrorizing her? Then again, what if it was all her imagination?

  It was nearly three in the afternoon when the security system had been installed, and John was antsy.

  “You can go in to work if you need to,” she said as he poured water into the coffee pot for the third time that day.

  “I told you I’d stay with you.”

  “C’mon, I don’t want to be away from the theater just because I’m paranoid. I’ll go into my office for a few hours, and you can get some work done, too.”

  He filled the filter with coffee and pushed the brew button. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  She needed to stay busy, or she knew just contemplating things would make her crazy.

  John didn’t like Arianna being in her office when he had to be in his, out back of the theater. Too many people came and went out the building for him to keep track of.

  But, for a moment, the thought of her standing there pointing a gun at him humored him. He wasn’t sure why he was worried about her. He should be worried about himself and his own safety within their house.

  He spent an hour checking in with the crews and making sure they were on task. With his clipboard full of notes, he headed back to his office and sat down at his desk.

  He looked over the pile of papers and contracts. Surely he’d left them in better order than they were. It was almost as if they’d fallen on the floor, and someone picked them up and threw them on the desk.

  Now he was paranoid.

  He gathered the papers and stacked them into a neat pile. But at the bottom of the pile, flat on the desk, was a Benson, Benson, and Hart business card.

  REGAN KELLER

  EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

  John picked up the card and looked it over. How long had that been floating around his desk? Zach had fired Regan four years ago as his assistant.

  He tucked the card into his pocket and went back to work.

  They had agreed to head home at five, but when John looked down at his watch, it was already past six. He hadn’t seen Arianna in hours, and he didn’t like that at all.

  He cleared off his desk, put on his coat, and locked up the trailer.

  The stage lights were on when he walked through the back door, and he could hear music. He was very pleasantly surprised to find Arianna on the stage, dancing and writing down notes.

  The crews had gone home. She was alone, and she was happy doing what she was doing. That was what he’d wanted to see. That was the whole reason for this theater.

  She’d caught sight of him and smiled, but she didn’t stop what she was doing. There was a comfort about her when she was working. He liked how happiness looked on her.

  When she was done, she turned off her iPod and looked at him.

  John walked toward her. “What are you working on?”

  “A dance number for Clara for the grand opening.”

  “So what was that you were doing?”

  “B
locking out a dance number.”

  He nodded. “Those are your blueprints?”

  She laughed. “Yes, I guess they are.”

  John moved in closer until he was right next to her. He wrapped his arm around her waist, took her hand in his, and pulled her close until their bodies were pressed together. “It’s been nearly a year since we last danced together.”

  “You’re right.”

  John moved her from side to side and then spun her around. “You were lucky I didn’t have two left feet. I’ve seen your brothers dance.”

  She laughed again, and this time she let her head fall back and the dark curls swung at her shoulders.

  “I used to dance on my daddy’s feet. And my brothers used to dance on mine.”

  “I like the thought that we will dance together forever.”

  Arianna leaned into him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I love you, Forrester.”

  “I love you, Keller.”

  “I never knew I could be so happy.”

  “Oh, darling, my goal is to make you happy for the rest of your life.”

  He moved in to kiss her. As their lips touched, the lights above them sparked and flickered. Then the theater was dark.

  Arianna clung to him tighter.

  He kissed her forehead. “It’s okay. Just a lighting issue.”

  “I’m tired of those little issues that nearly give me heart attacks.”

  “I’ll have them look into it in the morning. Let’s go close up your office. I’ll turn the power off to the lights, and we’ll get home.”

  John had walked her to her office and then gone back to the booth to make sure the switches were all off. She gathered her notebook and the few sheets of music she had laid out and put them into her bag. As she flung the bag over her shoulder, she noticed that on the corner of her desk was another business card.

  CURTIS KELLER

  ATTENDING SURGEON

  Arianna smiled and pulled her cell phone from her pocket and dialed her brother’s number.

  “Hey,” he said as he answered the phone. She could hear Avery in the background crying.

  “I found your card. When did you drop by?”

  “What?”

  “Your business card was on my desk. I thought I missed you.”

  “Business card? The only place I have business cards is at the hospital. I think you’ve lost your mind.”

  Arianna swallowed hard. She was very sure she was losing her mind.

  “So you weren’t here?”

  “No. Listen, I have to get little miss fussy pants changed. Are you okay?”

  She gripped the phone tighter. “Yeah, I’m fine. I probably just dropped the card, and it just surfaced. I love you. Goodnight.”

  She tucked the card into her pocket and headed out to the lobby where John was just turning off the last of the lights.

  “I guess we should get some dinner on the way home,” he mentioned as they both walked out the front door of the theater.

  “I’m not very hungry. Maybe we can just eat something light at home.”

  He nodded as he locked the door. “Sensible. That’s why I love you.”

  “I didn’t know that was a qualifying quality.”

  “Honey, there isn’t anything you do that doesn’t qualify for a reason to love you.”

  The man was honest, and she liked that. He was comfortable around her, her family, and with himself. What wasn’t to love? Even better, he loved her no matter her short comings, and the more scared she was becoming, the more short comings she felt she had.

  John parked his truck out back. He realized that the backyard was always dark. They’d need to put a motion light back there. Why have a security system if the lighting sucked?

  He noticed Arianna was staring at him as he sat in the truck.

  “Everything okay?” she asked as she laid her hand atop his.

  “Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking of adding some lights back here.”

  “I thought we had one.”

  He gave it some thought. Perhaps they did. He didn’t remember it always being so dark. Maybe the bulb had just burnt out.

  Now he knew he, too, was frazzled. Little details like that didn’t just slip his mind.

  He climbed out of the truck and walked around front of it as Arianna climbed out and slammed the door. He took her hand, and they walked up the back steps of the house.

  As he slid the key into the door, he looked up at the porch light next to the door. The bulb wasn’t burnt out. It was missing. He pushed open the door and entered the code into the new alarm pad. Arianna turned on the kitchen light and went about hanging up her coat.

  She was at ease at home. He wasn’t going to mention that the bulb was missing from the light. He’d just put in a new one, and everything would be good.

  They’d forged dinner from the kitchen, watched a little TV in bed, and now Arianna slept soundly next to him. But John couldn’t sleep.

  His mind was racing with all the strange things that had been happening around them, but none of them harmful.

  Who had been in the theater that night? He knew it was a vagrant, who now was more homeless than before since they’d begun to renovate. But it bothered him that from time to time Arianna would have to deal with that.

  The red flags at the build site he’d had to attend to the other day were stupid little things his men never would have missed. It was as though certain items had been removed from the site to make it look as though they’d just been neglected. If it had been malicious, it would have to have been someone familiar with the building or with construction; more than likely someone who had been fired from the build. Hell, that wouldn’t be the first angry ex-employee story John had to tell. Then again, nothing was as horrible as the man who attacked Regan after he’d fired him. John would live with that guilt the rest of his life.

  But what if it was more?

  Who had taken the bulb out of the light out back?

  And did Arianna really leave the door unlocked the other day?

  He was beginning to think things weren’t as quiet as they’d thought they were.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  John had felt guilty letting Arianna sleep and not bringing her with him to work. She had lots to do, but she was exhausted.

  He’d set the alarm before he left the house. He’d left her a note on the table. Within a few hours, she’d be by his side, and he’d be more at ease.

  When he pulled up to the theater, all of his men were standing out back. They should have been working, and now that had him angry.

  “What’s going on?” He jumped from his truck and searched the small crowd for Paul, who was in charge of getting them started every morning.

  “Doors are locked, and we can’t get in,” Paul said as he moved from the crowd.

  “Key is in the lockbox.”

  “Lockbox is gone.”

  John didn’t like that at all.

  He moved through the crowd and to the door. Sure enough, the box was missing and that meant the key was too.

  John fished for his keys from his pocket, unlocked the door, and sent the men in to get their work done. He sought out the man in the group who could rekey the locks and set him to work changing every lock in the place.

  There would be no more lockboxes. John would just have to be on site before everyone—always.

  Arianna arrived just after eight with her signature Starbucks cup in her hand and her bag of ideas on her shoulder. He’d never been happier to see anyone in his life.

  He walked through the lobby and followed her into her office where he shut the door and quickly pulled her into his arms.

  She let out a grunt as his body slammed against hers, and then a moan when he took her under with a kiss meant for the bedroom.

  “Good morning, Forrester.” She smiled up at him. “Remind me to never let you hire women.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “If you greet them every morning like this, I’ll
have a problem with that.”

  He held her to him even tighter. “I’ll never kiss another woman like that again.”

  “Good to hear.” She tilted her head back, and he knew she saw worry in his eyes. “Something’s got you all worked up this morning already.”

  She moved out of his arms and put her belongings on her desk.

  “Someone broke off the lockbox and stole the key. The guys were locked out this morning.”

  “You think someone broke in here?” She began to look around the room.

  “No. I can’t find any evidence that someone tampered with anything. Just a jokester, I suppose.”

  She nodded and began unloading her bag. “Why didn’t you leave the alarm on at the house this morning?”

  John swiftly moved to her. “I did.”

  “It wasn’t on.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a card. “You left this on the table, too.”

  He looked down at the business card.

  ZACH BENSON

  CEO

  “I didn’t leave this.”

  “It’s not mine. I’ve never had one of his cards. I picked it up because I thought it was Simone’s, but the one she gave me was still in my purse.”

  John turned the card over and looked at the back. The word NEXT was printed on it.

  He swallowed hard. “Do you have a lot of work to do today?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “I just want to know you’ll be close.”

  She nodded. “I hope you don’t mind, I’d like to work on the stage again.”

  He didn’t mind that at all. That would keep her even closer.

  John hurried out of her office and back to his desk. He sorted through the desk and found Regan’s card, which he’d discovered last night. He turned it over.

  DIE

  He fell into his chair. His heart raced, and his palms had grown damp. Son-of-a-bitch was playing games with them.

  John headed back to Arianna’s office. She was on the phone, and he waited.

  “Okay, I’ll see you in just a little bit,” she said as she turned off her phone.

  “You’re leaving? Where are you going?”