CHAPTER FIVE
‡
“Natalie, you should have told me.”
Camryn spit the toothpaste out into the sink, stooping to the stream of warm water to rinse away the remaining residue. Considering she didn’t have a toothbrush here, she’d rubbed the mint paste over her teeth with her index finger from the tube that had been out on the bathroom counter. She reasoned it was better than going throughout the day with bad breath.
She’d used her frustration over having to resort to this level of discomfort to keep her determination at a combative level, knowing that she was going to have to press Sawyer later on certain issues.
“You and I both know that we get hundreds, if not thousands, of letters and packages a day that are addressed to the actors this firm represents. That number goes up after the latest film release.” Natalie Whelan was in her fifties and had been around the block more times than the average agent. She wasn’t one to give an inch even in the toughest tangles, and she wasn’t about to claim responsibility for mishandling this situation. “I’d like to know how you are aware of those letters in the first place. It was your publicist, wasn’t it? Did Jamie tell you?”
“Jamie is currently dealing with the hospital, trying to take the sting out of last night’s visit. She’s doing her best to keep a lid on this thing.” There wasn’t a chance in hell Camryn would sell out Sawyer and the means by which he’d acquired the evidence needed to take to the local police. “Are you not seeing the issue here? This guy has gotten so out of control that he ended up pushing me off a curb. There could have been traffic. As it was, I spent the evening in the emergency room, but it could have been much worse. Am I the only one seeing a serious problem with this? And to answer your question, it doesn’t matter how I know that this guy has been escalating his pursuit of me over two years. I’m going to have no choice but to contact the police now. I’ve delayed giving a statement as long as I can. You should have told me, Natalie.”
Camryn cringed at the sight before her in the mirror as she pressed a towel to her mouth. She considered brushing her hair, but decided against it when the thought of even the slightest pressure to the bump on her head made her eyes water.
She pulled the phone away from her ear and set the mobile on speaker mode before laying it on the countertop and picking up the hair tie she’d used yesterday. A loose, messy bun would have to do for today.
“I heard back from Clive regarding your screen test yesterday.” Natalie was very good at changing the subject, and Camryn found she didn’t have enough energy to dole out any more lectures regarding the handling of her stacks of fan mail. “He’s extremely interested. I’ll hold off a day or two with your answer while you wrap this bit of a muddle up, and then we’ll schedule a dinner to talk over details. That means you’ll be in Louisiana a little bit longer, but you aren’t due back to the set until the end of the week. You need to be looking your best. I’ll also have my assistant ensure that Dylan and a full-on support team are in New Orleans by the end of the day.”
Business.
Money.
Success.
Those three monoliths were all that mattered in Hollywood, and Camryn had better not forget it. They stood over every deal in their town like the giant heads on Easter Island. Changing from movies to television due to her age and the current juncture of her career wasn’t out of the ordinary, but it still wouldn’t circumvent the fallout that followed situations like the one she found herself in now.
No one knew exactly how such an incident like this might be portrayed by the media. It could be that an actress was attacked while in NOLA to audition for an exciting new role on television, or it could be exposed that a washed-up drunk stumbled and fell due to an addiction to alcohol that had ravished her cinema career and resulted in her seeking trashy TV bit parts. It was always just a flip of a dime.
“Fine.” Camryn resisted the urge to tell her agent that her assistant, Dylan, would make his own arrangements. She bit her tongue. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you in a few days then. We can discuss this further at that time.”
Natalie was the one who disconnected first, leaving Camryn’s anger still simmering with no outlet. Well, that wasn’t technically true, was it?
Camryn walked out of the bathroom and down the hall to the room she’d spent the night in, glancing at the alarm clock on the nightstand. She still had time to make a couple more phone calls, and the next one up in line was about to face the firing squad.
“You knew this entire time, and yet you didn’t say a damned word,” Camryn accused Jamie without so much as a hello. “This guy has been sending me some kind of screwed-up horseshit practically every day for the last two years, and you didn’t tell me that I had a world-class stalker? How could you do that to me, Jamie? How could you let me come here not knowing and without so much as a friendly face to watch my back?”
“Let me guess,” Jamie countered, not one to lay down and take it when someone was attempting to step on her neck. “Natalie threw me completely under the bus. Well, let me just say that she was the driver. We discussed the potential complications at length a couple of months ago. I was aware that Noel Cassi was going to become an issue, but she’d hoped you’d be done with the movie before we had to sink our teeth into this. Natalie thought it would make great PR—world-renowned, beautiful actress has a crazy stalker. It could have been a big nationwide story to pump up your stock just before going into the television pilot and the subsequent negotiations. Neither one of us believed it would get to the point that he would come after you physically.”
Camryn choked back a scream as she sat on the edge of the bed she’d already made after a restless night’s sleep. She’d gotten used to the lengths people in the business would go to in order to keep their names in the headlines, but she’d never sunk so low as to willingly hop onto that bandwagon. Now they were talking about knowingly putting her in danger, all for the sake of promoting her transition from film to television. It wasn’t right. All of this could have been prevented with the simplest of precautions.
“Jamie, I’m going to the police station in a few minutes to tell them what this Noel Cassi has done. They’re going to want all the evidence collected and provided to the investigating authorities, so I’m going to have Dylan stop by Natalie’s office to pick up everything—and I mean everything this guy has sent to me—before Dylan heads to the airport. I’m sure the detective in charge is going to need it.”
“I totally understand,” Jamie said with what sounded like true sincerity. “Camryn, I hope you believe that we never thought it would get to this point.”
“It did, though,” Camryn replied with regret, her headache coming back full force. She didn’t want to be in this situation any more than the people behind her name wanted to deal with the possible negative fallout in the press. “I was totally vulnerable to his attack because no one saw fit to tell me he was out there. I’ll let you know what the police are going to do so you can minimize the impact in whatever form it takes.”
“You and I both know there is virtually no chance of damage when it comes to this type of publicity. You were the unwitting victim of a ruthless stalker, who is going to try to portray you as anything other than America’s sweetheart.” Jamie only spoke the truth as far as the percentages went, but Camryn was well aware that the flames could be fanned by leaked information the police might not want to divulge just yet. “But I’ll do my best to keep it contained, Camryn. You’re going to need to keep a low profile while you’re there, though. Do you want me to send Matt or Bartholomew along with Dylan and the support team?”
She wanted to decline the offer of the two additional bodyguards that Natalie utilized only for her actors during certain red carpet events, but even Camryn was aware when her back was to the wall. She relented and eventually ended the call, certain that she’d made her point.
After typing a rather long-winded text to Dylan with an update on the day’s events and a list of everything he needed to do before flying to New Orleans, Camryn was finally ready to head downstairs. The plan was for Dylan to take over for Sawyer, and he could then get back to his job racing after serial killers. She started to stand, only she wasn’t quite ready yet. She would have thought her head was the only thing that would still be hurting this morning, but her entire body ached from landing on the unforgiving asphalt. It was a dull throbbing with momentary peaks when she moved this way or that.
Five minutes.
Camryn just wanted five more minutes of solitude before she once again had to defend her decision not to let her brother in on what had transpired over the last twenty-four hours. Sawyer didn’t understand that if Brody were to get wind of this Noel Cassi and the things he’d sent, let alone his actions last night, they would wind up not speaking for months on end. It had happened that way before.
What would the headlines read then? What would happen to her hard-earned career? She just wanted to avoid any of it occurring again, and she could do that if she were given time to clean up this mess her own way.
“I thought you could use some ibuprofen.” There was compassion laced in that soft declaration by Sawyer. Camryn had let herself fall back against the fluffy comforter, even after all the trouble of making the bed. She didn’t bother to sit up but rather turned her face toward him to save her energy. He was leaning up against the doorframe with a glass of water in one hand and the other holding what appeared to be two orange tablets. “You’re going to have to move sometime, you know.”
“Brody was right,” Camryn said, forcing herself to push against the bed and shift her legs so that she was sitting up in an upright position. Sawyer’s penetrating blue eyes took in every movement, but that didn’t surprise her. He was constantly aware of every detail of his surroundings, as well as those people he was forced to deal with during any difficult situation. “You have this dimple that makes you seem harmless, but there’s this…lurking predator right underneath the surface.”
“I get the job done, Camryn. I make no apologies for who I am.” It was more than apparent Sawyer didn’t want to conduct small talk, and she got that he was angry with her for even putting him in this situation. He strolled toward her until he was close enough to hand her the glass of water and over-the-counter pain medicine of which she took both gratefully. “Are you ready?”
“I’m having my assistant bring everything from my publicist’s office that Noel Cassi sent through the mail, as well as copying the emails onto a USB so the police can see how this has escalated.” Camryn tossed the two little tablets into her mouth before chasing them down with half the glass of water. She continued to look up at Sawyer, whose dimple was nowhere in sight. “You and I both know that it won’t be enough to keep this guy off the streets for long.”
“The man you met last night, Nathan Chadwick, works for the police here in New Orleans. He put in a call to a Detective Decote, who has already requested a subpoena for the video footage of Royal Street across from the courthouse and the surrounding area at or about the time you were pushed off the curb. He’ll find Noel Cassi as being the responsible party. That’s enough to arrest him for assault, though I’m not sure he’ll serve any amount of time. I have a friend who is a federal prosecutor and can weigh in from the federal side, considering this case crosses several state lines and involves the United States Postal System. I’ll see if she can put in a call to someone here who can at least request that the judge deny bail until we see how far you can take this case in the state courts.”
It was true that the justice system had started to treat stalkers with stricter penalties, but Camryn wasn’t sure that would be enough in this particular case. She couldn’t explain it, but the way Noel Cassi had hunted her in the street with his camera to capture every moment was beyond disturbing. The fact that he’d viciously pushed her into the street, possibly hoping for her to be run over, took this to an entirely different level.
“Sawyer, I—”
“Don’t, Camryn,” Sawyer warned her with a small shake of his head. He’d let it be known to her loud and clear that he wasn’t backing down on his stance to call Brody sooner or later. “You’ve put me in a difficult situation, and you don’t seem to care that it goes against my very nature to withhold information from a man whom I respect. He currently has my back in what could be a very dangerous case. I already gave you the timetable. You’ll need to meet it, or I will.”
*
Where was she?
She should have returned to her hotel room by now.
He’d even hung around outside the hospital, thinking that maybe the doctors had kept her overnight. He’d seen the way she’d hit her head, the impact giving him enough satisfaction to get him through the next two weeks.
Two weeks savoring what was to be his prize.
It wouldn’t be long now until he had her all to himself.
He’d finally learned how to impart his wisdom on others, and Camryn Novak would be his first student.