Maya
I loved hearing Logan’s low, soothing voice say my name as I crouched near the door rather than calling me Ms. Bexley—something I told him to ditch when we headed to the Q and A at the theatre. I didn’t mind if people thought he was my date rather than my bodyguard. I was not interested in making it obvious that I required extra protection.
I was relieved when he burst through the door. He calmed me in a matter of seconds as he rubbed my bare arm before moving off. I had no idea when the delivery was made, by whom or if he had somehow gained access into my room.
Whoever was sending me stuff was a sick person to keep hurting beautiful birds. I had received three others all with the same message, just varying the last line to coincide with things or events I was about to attend. Each time the bird and box style changed. I had received a brown and orange finch, a bright green parrot, a white dove, and then a peach and turquoise love bird. All arrived looking terrified and missing their wings. Each time I ached for the pain they had suffered on my behalf.
Most of them had been delivered to my door. None of them had ever been placed on a nightstand next to my bed or anywhere else inside. That was probably what caused me to scream so loud. I had been shocked in the past when I had opened each package but I had never actually let out a bloodcurdling scream.
“Maya, let’s get you dressed.” He held out an opened white hotel robe for me and I stood and let him wrap it around me—I hadn’t even noticed that I was huddled up in the corner naked. He continued to speak, directing me to sit on the sofa and handing me a bottled water. “I don’t want to touch too much. We can let the police see if there are any fingerprints other than yours and mine—”
“No police! They can’t be involved. Not good for the studio and the movie and…”
I could hear my agent warning me about making a big deal. Drawing attention to the fan was not a good idea.
“Fan?” I had questioned immediately. “What kind of fan does this?”
Logan almost used my same exact words as I explained to him how I was told to keep the bird deliveries out of the press. They could cause bad press. The public could think it was a publicity stunt. It wasn’t common for someone to receive dead birds. They also believed that if I ignored them, the fan would lose interest when the deliveries weren’t revealed to the media. And they told me to get used to crazy people coming out of the woodwork to get close to me after the movie released worldwide.
I did as they instructed but became a little more scared when a location was mentioned on the second bird which kept me away from that event. I couldn’t do the same when the film festival was named on the third note.
“So that was why I was hired by your agency?”
“Yes. I insisted on extra protection. They gave in, asking me to not make it so obvious that you were my bodyguard. They actually mentioned having you act as my boyfriend. I told them no way and that it sounded more like they just wanted me to hire an escort. I just wanted the bird killer to know I had someone looking after me.”
“Speaking of your people, where is your assistant? I assumed she was staying in your suite.” I shook my head and explained that I liked my privacy.
She ran a variety of errands for me, showed up at my door when I needed her and accompanied me everywhere I needed her. However, when it came to our travel accommodations, she usually stayed down the hall and helped me whenever I asked or according to a schedule.
“That works out perfectly. When my buddies arrive, I will go grab my things and move right into your second room. I will respect your privacy to a point because me staying anywhere else is not going to happen.”
Part of me wanted to say that it wasn’t necessary but I had a feeling that it would do me absolutely no good. Also, I wasn’t about to go against him when two good looking musclebound men arrived to go over the bedroom with a fine-tooth comb before other people arrived to clean up the room. It was all taken care of in a matter of a couple of hours without the hotel or police being involved.
I didn’t even bother to mention anything to my assistant—at least one of us had to be on the ball for all of the events. I was going to be running on fumes and prayed that I didn’t fly right off the back of my treadmill from lack of sleep. And truthfully, I didn’t need to lose her to the psycho, she was scared enough when she handed me one of the boxes at my house.
I may have to figure out how to explain to her why Logan was sleeping in my suite without divulging the bird incident. Maybe I just needed to let him handle it since he seemed to know what to say and do about everything. If he didn’t, it appeared that his team did. They were even going to run a battery of tests on the bird, the note and the box through their security company filled with ex-military personnel. And they already had one of their guys tapping into the hotel’s security system.
I felt safe thanks to Logan. It had been months since I felt that I could breathe.
“Get some rest, Maya. I’ll get you up for a run in a few hours.”
His words were magic to my ears. I was going to get out on the street instead of running on the dreaded treadmill in a room that was once beautiful to me. If I hadn’t been so exhausted I may have spent hours imagining Logan in a pair of shorts and shirtless jogging. But after a few yawns, I crashed hard.