25
We returned to Hollywood the following day. The closer we got to LA, the quieter I became.
I wanted to be back home, of course I did. But I also wasn’t looking forward to seeing what remained of my house either.
In typical Marc style, he didn’t feel the need to fill the silence. As we reached the outskirts of the city, he flicked the stereo on and for the rest of the trip we listened to the Chili Peppers.
It seemed appropriate that Californication was playing when we pulled up at my front gate. Or tried to pull up at my front gate.
“Keep your head down.”
Reporters swarmed around the car. They’d been waiting for us.
Vultures.
My thoughts surprised me. Until now, I’d always accepted the media’s role in the Hollywood machine. But today, still recovering from surgery and faced with the aftermath of the fire, their presence felt cruel.
I closed my eyes.
The tinted windows may have protected us from prying eyes, but I could still hear them.
Lena!
Was it Campbell that set the fire?
Is it true he broke into your house?
Will you have a scar?
Are you thinking of reconciling with Duncan?
They shot questions at me like a firing squad. So far I was still standing, and their words weren’t powerful enough to cause anything more than shallow skin grazes.
Lena!
I jumped as a cameraman banged on my window.
Has your father been in contact?
I stared wide-eyed at the cameraman and a flash went off in my face.
“Head down.” Marc put his hand on my head and directed it downward firmly.
“Go,” I managed, white light still filling my vision.
Your dad says he would like to reconcile — will you talk to him?
What, I mouthed to myself. “Go!”
The engine of the sedan growled loudly and most of the reporters jumped backward. I’d never been so glad to see my team of suit-clad bodyguards, who were already rounding up the crowd.
Marc wasted no time in driving down the long driveway of my estate. We drove so quickly I barely had the chance to take in what remained of my house.
Marc cut the engine when we pulled up at the entrance. He let out a sigh. “Welcome home, Princess.”
I ignored him and surveyed my house. The cream stucco was ash gray around the windows of the upstairs level. Several of the windows were gone completely and plastic sheeting had been fixed into place. The area where my bedroom had been was crumbling in places, but as Jay had told me, most of the lower level appeared untouched.
“Looks like my castle could do with some work.” I opened the door with my free arm and stepped out into the midday sun.
“Lena!”
I wasn’t alarmed when I heard my name called this time. Instead, I raced up the steps toward the voice. “Ally! Oh, my God. It’s so good to see you.”
Just before we reached each other we came to a halt. Ally gave me a sad face and pointed at my sling. “How much longer?”
“A few weeks, I think.”
“Hmph. You need a hug.” She came to my good side and gave me a big squeeze. “I’m so glad to see you. We’ve been going out of our minds with worry.”
“I’ve been safe.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere. I’m still not sure of the exact location.”
Ally threw her hands up in the air. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Then she pointed at Marc. “He wouldn’t tell any of us either.”
I thought I caught Marc smile before he turned to shut the door I’d left open in my haste to get to Ally.
“I was safe and it was for my own protection.”
Ally’s brown eyes darkened with confusion. “I know that, but he could have taken you anywhere and we wouldn’t have any idea if something went wrong, we had no way of contacting you and—”
“You were able to contact me.” Marc’s deep voice cut through Ally’s rant.
“Oh, and you’re such a conversationalist!”
“I thought you trusted Marc?” I said.
Ally put her hands on her hips. “Well, I did. I mean, I do—but that was until you disappeared off the face of the earth. And no internet or phone calls, what the hell?”
“It was actually kind of nice,” I said.
Ally looked like she was about to fly off on another rant, but then her face fell. “Yeah, I actually get that. The media has been going crazy.”
I sighed. “Please tell me you cooked? I think I need your food while you update me.”
Ally grinned. “Lasagna.”
I put a hand to my stomach. “You’re an angel.”
Ally held up her arm and pointed at Marc again, who appeared to be returning to the car. “You.”
I’d been too busy paying attention to Ally to see that he’d been about to leave. I frowned. Was this it? Now that it was over would he disappear from my life once again?
“You,” she said again. “Are staying for lasagna. Only so I can grill you and make sure you took care of my best friend.”
Marc nodded, like he’d expected it. “I know.”
“Huh?” Ally and I said.
He popped the boot of the car so his head was hidden from view. A second later he set my bags at his feet. “You think I’d miss Valenti lasagna?”
Ally’s eyes nearly popped out of her head and she turned to me for an explanation. On several occasions in the past Ally had fed Marc when he’d been here investigating her stalker, but he’d never actually been nice about her cooking.
I shrugged and turned to walk inside, ignoring the wave of relief I’d just experienced.
*
The delicious smell of Ally’s lasagna enticed me through the foyer. The rich aromas almost covered the lingering scent of smoke, but not quite.
It didn’t matter. As soon as I set foot in the kitchen, I smiled broadly.
“Oh my God, Lena!”
Chloe ran toward me and then did the same sort of awkward dance I’d done with Ally to give me a hug. She giggled and her blue eyes sparkled. “Welcome home, superstar.”
“Air kiss,” called out Faith from the island bench.
“Me too,” said Jake, who was lounging on the sofa nearby. It didn’t bother me in the slightest that Ally’s boyfriend had made himself at home. If anything, it made the return to my fire-damaged estate easier.
OK, so I might have enjoyed the serenity at the ranch, but it was people that mattered most. I joined the others and the room erupted into excited chatter. Chloe and Ally lamented my security-imposed internet ban while Faith came around to study my sling. It turned out she dug scars because she appeared very impressed when I pushed the material aside.
Jake stood up from his seat and went to shake hands with Marc. The women saw the direction of my gaze and gave me a questioning look.
“What?” I said.
Chloe did thumbs up and thumbs down, her eyes rounded in keen interest.
“Sorry?” I shook my head at her, not understanding.
She drew a heart in the air in front of me.
“No!”
Marc and Jake looked over at us.
“No,” I repeated. “I cannot drink wine tonight. I had some painkillers earlier.” Being an actress occasionally came in handy.
Chloe’s face fell and she went to the counter to pour some wine anyway.
I fake smiled. I couldn’t believe she thought I’d been with Marc for the last week and half and I’d come back in love with him. Not even likely. I glanced over at Marc again.
He laughed at something Jake said and the muscles in my jaw tightened as I continued to smile.
“Quit fake smiling.”
I glared at Faith.
She rolled her dark eyes. “Like we can’t tell.”
I shook my head and went to sit down on one of the stools next to the island bench. “I can see you’ve been beside yourself with worry.”
“Frantic.”
I laughed. God, I’d missed her dry humor.
“Been pretty pissed at the media on your behalf I’ve got to say, though.”
“Do I want to know?”
“Probably not, but I’ll tell you anyway.”
“Faith.” Marc’s voice held a warning.
Faith gave him a haughty look. “I’m not scared of you, Romero, and she’s tougher than she looks.”
Marc caught my gaze and I swallowed.
Chloe was watching us with interest and I turned back to the rest of them.
“Yeah, I’m tough. Come on. Dish the dirt will you so I can enjoy some of Ally’s cooking.”
“Right,” said Faith. “So there’s been all the usual, ‘Poor Lena, her house has burned down, victimized by a stalker, oh my God she’s in hospital, but wait, now nobody knows where she is so it must be bad, and maybe she should reconcile with Duncan because he’d fix everything’, blah, blah, blah, blah.”
Marc cleared his throat at the mention of Duncan and took the beer Jake offered him.
“But that’s when it all turned weird,” Chloe interjected.
“Weird how?”
“Your father,” said Ally, confirming my worst fears.
I picked up the glass of water she pushed my way. I took a sip before I said, “What about him?”
Faith put the back of her palm to her forehead and pretended to swoon. “He’s out of his mind with worry, darling. He just can’t bear it.”
“Ha!” My sharp laugh sounded bitter even to my ears. I could feel Marc’s eyes on me but remained focused on my friends, a sinking feeling in my stomach. “So he’s gone to the media?”
“Yup,” said Faith. “Apparently he’s desperate to know where you are so he can find out if you’re OK.”
“What a load of shit.”
Everyone stared at me. OK, so I wasn’t known for my profanities, but it felt appropriate right now.
“What?” I said to them. “I haven’t spoken to him for years and now he wants to contact me? Give me a break.”
Marc came to my side. “How long has it been?”
I didn’t look at him and ran a finger through the condensation on the side of my glass. “I haven’t had anything to do with him since the funeral.”
“Your mother’s funeral.”
“Yes.”
Jake reached around and squeezed my good shoulder. “I feel your pain.”
I gave him a grateful look. Jake’s family issues had been all over the media earlier in the year so I knew he understood exactly what I was going through.
“That’s over fifteen years,” said Marc.
“Yep.” It didn’t surprise me he knew that. He was good at his job.
“Why do you think he would go public now?” he asked.
I finally turned to him. He’d gone into investigative mode, his dark eyes narrowed like he was suspicious with the world, because basically he was.
“Who knows, Marc? Can we find out if he needs money?”
He frowned. “That’s pretty unlikely.”
“Why?” said Chloe.
“He’s an investment banker,” I explained. “Or was. I suppose he could have come undone during the global financial crisis, but you’d think if that was the case I would have heard from him before now.”
“Maybe he thinks you’re worth more now,” suggested Faith. “You’ve got an Oscar and you’re in the middle of divorcing Duncan. He’s worth millions.”
My lip curled in distaste and Ally eyed me with concern.
“I’ve got my own money,” I told them. “I don’t need any of his.”
Faith held up her palms. “I get that. But does your father? Especially if he’s been reading the papers.”
“It must be some other reason.” I had a sinking feeling I knew exactly what it was, but I wasn’t going to air my thoughts here. I saw Marc’s troubled expression. He didn’t nod, he didn’t move at all, but I knew he was sorting through all the possibilities in his head.
Ally clapped her hands together and we all jumped.
“Enough of that,” she announced. “Let’s eat!”
*
“So are you going to stay here?” Ally asked after we’d all helped ourselves to second servings of lasagna.
“I hadn’t really thought about it. Until yesterday I wasn’t sure how long I was going to be stuck in the middle of nowhere at the ranch.”
“The ranch?” said Ally.
I felt Marc’s eyes on me. “Anyway,” I continued, “I had no idea of the extent of the damage to this place, but now I see the ground level is inhabitable I’ll stay here for a little while. But I’m going to start looking for somewhere else.”
Ally put her fork down. “You are?”
“Yes. It’s time. I’m moving on with my life and that includes fixing this place and selling it. I don’t really want to live here while all that goes on, so I’ll start looking straight away.”
“I’ll talk to Jay,” said Marc. He was sitting down the other end of the table next to Jake and hadn’t said much during dinner.
“What about?”
“Security considerations. Unless the new property meets certain criteria, you don’t want to touch it.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” said Ally. “We want Lena to be safe from now on.”
Everyone murmured their agreement.
“It’s nice in theory,” I said, “but as we’ve seen already, there’s no guarantees.”
“The price of fame,” said Marc, but I didn’t detect any sarcasm in his tone. Maybe just weariness. “I’ll put Jay in touch with Kaden, he’ll sort things out.”
“Kaden?” I didn’t disguise my surprise at the mention of his fellow Marine.
“Yeah. He’s in charge of the security consulting side of the business.”
It was the first time I’d heard Marc call what he did a business.
“Is it your business?” asked Ally. Obviously she wasn’t the only one curious about Marc.
“It’s ours.” He stood up from the table. “Anyway, I’ll check in with Jay before I leave.”
I got up too and followed him to the front door.
Before he could open the door, I reached out and touched his arm. “Was it your idea to start the business?”
“Kaden’s.” He didn’t let go of the doorknob, but he didn’t move to leave either.
“I had no idea you had a partner.”
“That’s because he’s the face of the company. We keep my role in the division quiet.”
“Division? What’s your division?”
He dropped his hand from the doorknob and turned to look at me. “Counter-terror.”
“Counter-terror?” I echoed. That didn’t make sense. I thought Marc only worked with Hollywood clients.
“Yes, Lena. Stalking is a form of terror, wouldn’t you agree?”
I wrapped my good arm around the front of my body. “Yes. You’re right.” I blew out a long breath. “It just sounds kind of over the top, that’s all.”
“I know I’ve expressed my dislike for Hollywood, but living in fear of your safety isn’t fair, no matter who you are.” He turned to go, but I grabbed his arm again.
“Marc? I know you probably don’t want to hear it. But you’re good at this. Really good. You’ve made a choice to be there for your family, which is admirable, and working in Hollywood is an excellent use of your skills.”
“You sound like Kaden.”
“He convinced you to go into business with him, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“It’s you,” I said, suddenly understanding.
He frowned. “What?”
“It’s you who doesn’t like the money, isn’t it? You use it as an excuse to do it, but you don’t like it, do you? You feel it cheapens all you stand for.”
A muscle in his jaw twitched and he didn’t say anything.
“Marc, haven’t you figured out by now that we’re just people? People who are trying to live our lives like everyone else, safely and freely, while still doing what we’re good at? There’s no shame in taking our money and you should be proud of what you’re doing. You served your country and now you’re using those skills to serve the people of America in a different way. So what if we’re movie stars? We need you. I need you.”
I stopped and let go of his arm, realizing what I’d just said. I cleared my throat then continued. “You can’t just be expected to come back and go sit at a desk somewhere. That’s not you. It will never be you,” I said with certainty. “Why do you think I hired Jay? I’m proud to employ him and his qualifications are second to none. You’re good at what you do,” I repeated.
After a beat of silence, he spoke. “Can I use that as a customer testimonial?”
I flinched.
If he noticed, he didn’t show it. “Thanks for the feedback, I’ll pass it on.”
Then he was gone.
I stood by the door, at a loss and deeply disappointed. I thought after he’d shown me his scars, he’d let me in and was prepared to open up to me, but obviously not. Rather than feel hurt, I felt like an idiot. He’d put me back in my place with a few words. I was his client and he ran a company, and I’d tried to make it personal.
Marc wasn’t a character to figure out. He was a real person with scars on the inside as well as the outside and his personal feelings were none of my business.
He’d found the stalker so now his job was over. End of story.