Facing a new day unfortunately meant facing Hendrix. When I came out of my room, freshly showered, he was standing on the balcony, his back to me. He had his phone to his ear and he looked tense.
“What do you mean? It said to check for a death certificate? What the hell is that supposed to mean?” His voice was tense, but there was also something else in it. Concern.
I slipped into the kitchen, not wanting to eavesdrop on him. I grabbed a bottle of water and rummaged through the pantry for a granola bar. I just wanted to get back to my room and get to work. I also wanted to keep away from Hendrix. I wasn’t ready for the faceoff I feared was coming with him.
Luck wasn’t on my side. When I came up from the back of the bottom shelf of the pantry, he was standing in the entryway to the kitchen. The usual ease of his face was gone. Mixed with the frustration from the night before was something sad, something that hit me in the gut.
“What’s wrong?”
He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. “Just got some weird news from my brother.”
I waved my granola bar at him. “You need to head home?”
Annoyance worked his face until the sadness was gone. His eyes were squinty as they looked at me and the blue was mostly gone, just a dark gray left to stare me down. “We have to talk.”
I attempted to scoot around him to get out of the kitchen, but he blocked me. I was too emotionally drained to fight with him, so I just stared up at him. “I have work to do, Hendrix.”
He nodded. “So do I. Neither of us are going to get anywhere if you don’t sit down and talk to me, though. So let’s go to the balcony and talk.”
I shrugged. “Why the hell not? What else could go wrong?”
I led the way and sat down, facing the ocean. The view did nothing to settle the storm raging inside of me, though.
Hendrix sat beside me and stared out at the water, too. “Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to help you. I’m your bodyguard and the way I see it, if there’s someone out there who wants to kill you, I should probably stop them. You need to do that shit at night, you go with me. We don’t walk into traps and you don’t get killed. I figure that’s about as good a plan as any.”
“You want to help?”
“Listening to that asshole last night… I wanted to rip his fucking head off. Tell me what you’re doing and I’ll help you.”
I shook my head before I could stop myself. “Is this some kind of trick?”
“Jesus, Darby. We watched as that asshole carried half a woman’s body out of that house last night. I can’t refuse to help. He needs to be stopped. Plus, if he’s gone, that just leaves the one threat on your life. Makes my job a lot easier.”
“There is just one threat. Ricky is the only thing I have to worry about. That other bullshit with Aaron Gadberry is just that, bullshit.”
“We can argue about that later. Just walk me through Ricky first.”
I stared at him and tried to decide if there was something I could see that told me whether or not he had an alternate agenda. When I didn’t see anything but impatience, I shrugged. “Fine. I’ll tell you about him.”
*
My laptop started ringing and I groaned. It was the third time Laster had called. I was still trying to get through everything with Hendrix. There was no reason he needed me so much. I was ready to throw my laptop over the balcony.
Instead, I answered the Skype call. Laster’s face appeared, full screen, and his eyes rolled back in his head as he took a deep breath in, flaring his nostrils and licking his lips.
I gasped and jerked back. “Laster?”
Hendrix leaned over to see what I was looking at and made a face. “What the fuck?”
Laster relaxed his face and smiled at me. “I’m practicing for the part when Aaron’s in the courtroom. What’d you think about it?”
I didn’t know what to say. It was the exact look that Aaron Gadberry had given me in the one and only interview I’d ever gotten with him, the one before he realized that I wasn’t going to make him look tough and badass.
Hendrix, noticing my discomfort, leaned into the frame and nodded at Laster. Before he could even say anything, Laster leaned in closer and his expression turned angry.
“Who the hell are you?”
“A friend. Darby is feeling kind of under the weather today.”
Laster suddenly ended the call and immediately sent me a message suggesting that I only take his calls while alone from then on out. I got my first glimpse of the anger that he was known for.
“Sorry if I pissed off the pretty boy. He’s getting to be a little fucking creepy, though.”
I couldn’t disagree. “He’s too good at looking like Aaron. It’s alarming at times.”
“I thought you weren’t afraid of Aaron?”
I leaned back in my seat and closed the laptop with my foot. “I’m not afraid of him. Thomas, his cousin, scares the living daylights out of me, but Aaron is just… I just don’t like him.”
Hendrix took a long drink from his water and then pulled a pack of cinnamon gum from his pocket. He opened a piece and shoved it into his mouth before offering me one. “Where is Thomas now? I read that there was an accident, but I didn’t see any follow up on it.”
“Yeah, he’s at an assisted living home in Kansas. He was driving to visit his mother when a big rig ran a light and slammed into him. He’s been a vegetable ever since, but his mom refuses to pull the plug. He’s just stuck in that same room in that hospital for the rest of his life. Until someone unplugs him, I guess.”
“Karma works in mysterious ways.”
I thought of all the women he’d killed. There were so many. “If karma had worked on him, he’d have faced something much worse.”
“Touché.” He nodded at my laptop. “You think Laster will become an issue?”
I shook my head. “He’s surrounded by some of the most beautiful women in the world. He’ll forget about whatever he wants from me soon enough.”
Hendrix sent me a grin and shrugged. “Don’t sell yourself short.”
My heart kicked up and I cursed it. “Anyways. I get to go back to the set tomorrow. I try to do whatever investigating I can during lunch and then after. I just don’t know where to start now. Tabatha was all I had. Even after all this time.”
“I’ll connect with a guy at our base in Texas. He may be able to dig into the paperwork behind Ricky more than even Harding can.”
I stood up and grabbed my laptop. “That sounds good.”
He stood and caught my arm. “No more running off. You have somewhere to go, you ask me to take you.”
I bit back the anger at being bossed around and nodded. “Okay.”
“It’s for your own good, Darby. I’m not taking any joy in telling you what to do. I can see the glint in your eyes every time I give you instructions, like you want to tell me to fuck off, but I’m only trying to keep you alive.”
I looked up, noticing that his eyes were back to blue. “Everyone thinks they know what’s good for me. I just want to be given the freedom to decide for myself.”
“Even when your life is at stake?”
I nodded without hesitation. “Yes. I’ve spent my whole life being babysat and hovered over. Listening to one brother or another boss me around all in the name of doing what was good for me. I came here for a chance at freedom. I’m a grown woman. I’m good at what I do, despite what the last few days would have it look like. I deserve to make my own choices. No matter what they are.”
His eyes flashed. “I’m sorry, Darby, but some things aren’t going to go your way over the next several days. I want to put Ricky away, but I’m still going to put my job first. Your safety first. Before any investigation.”
I pursed my lips and shook my head. “Sure. Whatever.”
“I didn’t tell you. I’m moving in.”
“No, you’re not.” I put my hands on my hips and then crossed them over my chest. “Why would you even say that?”
A satisfied smile lifted one corner of his mouth. “Because. You broke the first rule. You snuck out while I was leaving. That means I stop leaving. I’m going to be your roommate until this shit blows over.”
I swore and hurried to my room. I slammed the door shut, something I was doing more and more, and grabbed my phone from the drawer I’d stashed it in. I had several missed calls from my brothers, but I had to call Jennifer before I called them back.
She answered just before voicemail picked up the call. “Darby! How are you feeling?”
“Claustrophobic. Imprisoned. Stifled. Angry. Take your pick. Did you tell him that he could move in here?!”
“Well, I’m feeling great, thanks for asking.” She laughed. “I never figured you’d be such a baby about having a hot man near you.”
“I’m not being a baby, Jennifer!” I heard how whiny my voice sounded and groaned. “Dammit. I just can’t function with him so close. We fight, Jen. We’re not meshing. I want to kill him at times. I’m also pretty sure he hates me, too. He can’t stay here. Surely, there’s some kind of clause in the contract or something.”
“There’s nothing. He mentioned you tried sneaking out again and that he felt it necessary to keep a closer eye on you. I told him he could stay in the house. I don’t know what the hell you’re doing sneaking out after dark, but I had a bodyguard assigned to you for a reason. You’re stuck with him. It could be much worse, though. I remember when I had to have a bodyguard assigned to me when I was eighteen and just getting my start. The guy was older than dirt and about as handsome as a cactus.”
“So I should just accept this invasion of my privacy because he’s pretty?”
“Yes. Get over it, Darby. Now, if that’s all, I have to go console a crying intern because Laster screamed at her for a full ten minutes. Something set him off.”
I wasn’t touching that. “Good luck.”
She paused. “Did you do something to him?”
I scoffed. “Jeez, Jennifer. Your faith in me is remarkable.”
“Uh huh. I’ll see you tomorrow. Get ready for a big day. Samford showed me some changes he wants to run by you. You’re in for quite the treat.”
I hung up, feeling more stressed than when I’d called her. Some help she’d been.
Before I could even put my phone down, it was ringing again. I looked at the screen and sighed. Chip.
“Hello, Chip.”
“You were assigned a bodyguard and you didn’t tell us? What the fuck is going on out there?”
I screwed up my face and fell back on my bed. “How do you even know that?!”
“We have our ways. When were you going to mention that those Aaron Gadberry freaks were messing with you again?”
“I wasn’t. Jennifer is just overreacting. I don’t need the bodyguard.”
Chip went off on a tirade about not being kept in the loop and about coming out to LA to make sure I was safe. He didn’t trust me. He didn’t trust the bodyguard. He didn’t trust the LAPD. He wanted to get the brothers together to head my way.
As fun as that sounded, I chose the option of hanging up on Chip and putting my ringer on silent. I didn’t want the reason I have issues to meet my current issue.