The Enchanted: Council of Seven Shifter Romance Collection

by Juniper Hart

  I’m pissed at Hudson, she thought. He should have called me off the set for this. There would be time enough to ream him out later, she figured. In the meantime, she had to focus on her assistant.

  Nervously, she looked at her new PA and sighed. She’d held off so long waiting to bring someone else on to help with her correspondences and emails, but finally, she’d caved on Alex’s offer and accepted his assistant to help with the overflow. She was going to need to hire someone full-time when she got back to the States.

  Or will I? Audrey wondered. Maybe Carrie will be okay enough to work. Hope flooded her, and she noted with relief that the Martin Luther Hospital was in view.

  “Drop me off at the entrance and find parking,” Audrey told Hudson, skirting from the car almost before it stopped. Elisha tried to follow, but she shook her head. “No,” she said shortly. “Stay with Hudson.” She didn’t give either of them a chance to argue as she raced toward the ICU ward she had come to know too well.

  Detektiv Schultz stood in the hall, and Audrey gasped, freezing in place.

  It’s a trap to catch Hudson! She turned to run before she was seen, but the detective called out to her.

  “Fräulein Crane!” There was no note of hostility in his voice, and Audrey wondered if maybe she’d read the situation wrong. The police would want to question Carrie when she woke up, of course. There was nothing strange about him being there. Moreover, they had no reason to know that Audrey and Hudson were together.

  She thought about how brazen she’d been, kissing Hudson on the set. Anyone could have seen them, and Hudson was still wanted by the police, even if he didn’t think it was a big deal.

  But it is a big deal, even bigger than I realized, Audrey realized. If they find out what he is, what we are, we’re all dead! It was an irrational fear, but one that sprouted nonetheless.

  “Hello, Detektiv,” she said, her voice dry. “I didn’t expect to see you here.” She pulled her cell out of her purse and quickly texted Hudson.

  Don’t come. The police are here.

  She hoped he would read the text in time.

  “We asked to be notified first when Fräulein Cruthers woke from her long sleep,” Schultz said. “She is eager to speak with you first, however. She is quite upset.”

  “I want to see her, too,” Audrey replied, looking over her shoulder to see if Hudson was coming. “Will you escort me in?”

  “I cannot,” the detective chuckled. “I must go and arrest the man responsible for this horrible crime.” He wandered off, leaving Audrey to stare after him in confusion.

  “Who?” she called out. “Who is it?” But Schultz was already gone, and there was nothing left for Audrey to do but approach her friend.

  Carrie’s eyes were half-closed when she popped her head inside the room, her lips white and cracked. She was alone, and Audrey rushed to her side.

  “You’re awake!” she whispered, perching gently on the side of the bed. “I’ve been so worried about you.” Carrie turned her head and glanced at Audrey with dull eyes.

  “Audrey,” she rasped, jutting her tongue out to wet her lips. “Hey…” Her voice was slow, like she had forgotten how to speak, and it broke Audrey’s heart into a million pieces.

  “Are you okay? Let me get you some water.” The redhead jumped from the bed to busy herself, unsure of what to do with her hands.

  “You look different,” Carried mumbled. “Brighter.”

  “Like, smarter?” Audrey teased. “Because I doubt that’s true.”

  “Like happier.” Audrey frowned, thinking about how mad she was at Hudson at that moment. “I’m glad you’re okay,” Carrie continued. “I think I was caught up in the same nightmare the entire time I was asleep, that he’d come back to finish you. That’s why I called for you first when I woke up.”

  “Who, Carrie? Do you remember what happened that night?” Audrey handed the brunette a plastic cup and pressed the straw to Carrie’s lips.

  “I remember that we were having a fight over the emails again,” Carrie recalled when she’d finished her sip. “And I remember I was going to ask you if you wanted me to stay with you because you’ve been so scared lately.”

  “I have not!”

  “You have been,” Carrie said, and Audrey wondered if she’d acquired some sage wisdom while she was in her coma. “I should have stayed. That’s what my gut told me to do, but if I had, we’d both be dead. Or, maybe he wouldn’t have come at all. Who knows? You can’t change the past, they say.”

  “Carrie, are you high?” Audrey asked, suddenly realizing why she sounded so dreamy.

  “Of course I am. I’ve been on a morphine drip since I woke up.”

  “Okay, go on. What happened?”

  “I just remember pausing in the dark and turning to stare at the trailer. A part of me still wanted to go back, but I thought about what you said, about having to be up in the morning. I was going to go to the police the next day, even though you weren’t on board with it, you know.”

  “I’m so sorry!” Audrey sobbed, dropping a hand over her mouth. “I should have listened to you. If I had thought for one second that you were in any danger, I would have, I swear.”

  “Can’t change the past, remember?” Carrie chortled. The laugh became a dry cough, and she looked pained as Audrey tried to comfort her.

  “It’s okay,” she said gently. “Shh, just relax.” Carrie shook her head and struggled to sit up, reaching for another sip of water.

  “No, you need to know what happened,” she insisted. “Before you go back there.”

  Audrey waited, compassion flooding her face as she stared at her weakened friend.

  “I turned back toward my trailer,” Carrie began, exhaling in a sharp breath. “And I saw something in the woods—something shiny. It kind of caught my attention, you know, like when you see something but you think your mind is playing tricks on you?”

  Audrey swallowed the lump in her throat. “Yeah.”

  “I was kind of in a trance, and I moved toward the treeline. That’s when I saw him. He was waiting for me to leave your trailer, Audrey. I wasn’t supposed to have seen him.”

  Audrey felt the blood drain from her face, and she stared at her worriedly.

  “I asked him what he was doing, still fascinated by the shiny thing in his hand,” Carrie went on excitedly. “I just didn’t understand what was happening, not until it was far too late.”

  “Oh, God, Carrie. What did he say?”

  “He told me to mind my business and get out of there, but I understood then. It just slapped me in the face. He was holding a gun, and he was coming to your trailer. He wanted you, Audrey.” She shuddered, and Audrey’s body was covered in goosebumps. “I opened my mouth to scream,” Carrie rushed. “But he must have foreseen that I would warn you. I saw the flash of the gun’s muzzle, and I felt the bullet but didn’t at the same time.”

  She sighed, and Audrey didn’t say a word, her mouth twisted in the agony that Carrie must have been feeling.

  “He stood there for what felt like forever, staring at me like he couldn’t believe what he’d done. My eyes got heavy, Audrey, and I knew I was going to die. I asked him why, and he muttered something I couldn’t hear, but he did say something.”

  “He’s insane!” Audrey cried. “How could he just shoot you?”

  “He didn’t want me to tell you,” Carrie replied. “But I didn’t want to know why he shot me. I wanted to know why he was coming for you.”

  “You saw the emails, Carrie. He’s not right in the head. I always had my suspicions about him, but…” Audrey wanted to hate her co-star for all the damage he’d caused, but a part of her could feel nothing except pity for the guy. Dammit, Alex! After all the times I defended you!

  “You did?” Carrie asked in surprise. “I mean, I considered some of the cast and crew, but I never entertained the idea that it could have been him. Moreover, I’m not sure it was.”

  “What do you mean?” Audrey demanded. �
�You don’t think that he shot you?”

  “No, I don’t think he was the one sending the emails. I don’t know. It’s all so weird, but you have to admit, he doesn’t even like you, Audrey. Some of those emails were filled with lust and emotion. That night, there was no love. He was going there with the intention of killing you, I’m sure.”

  Audrey eyed her in disbelief. Was this some kind of brain damage, or was she being serious? “He always follows me around like a puppy, Carrie. You’ve commented on it many times yourself.”

  Carrie stared at her blankly. “What?”

  “What?”

  “Audrey, no disrespect, but you are a thorn in that man’s side.”

  “You should rest,” Audrey said firmly. “Schultz has gone to the set, presumably to arrest Alex.”

  “What?”

  “What?” Audrey asked, stifling a sigh. “You told him who was responsible, right?”

  “Oh…” Understanding flooded Carrie’s face, and she shook her head. “No, Audrey, you’ve got it all wrong.”

  “Okay…?”

  “It wasn’t Alex who shot me that night,” she said. “It was Mike. Mike Atkins.”

  12

  The longer that Audrey was silent, the harder it was to gauge her mood, and the plane ride back to Los Angeles in Hudson’s private jet was almost unbearable. The movie had wrapped, unfinished for the time being, until the studio could catch another director up to speed to finish the filming.

  “You mean you’re going to have to come back to finish?” Hudson had demanded dubiously. “You have got to be kidding me!”

  “We’ll see,” was all Audrey had said, her voice shockingly flat. Since Carrie’s accusation against Mike, Audrey almost seemed like a different person, quiet, subdued. It was nearly impossible to get a smile on her face. Hudson could only imagine what was going through her mind, and no matter how he tried, there was nothing he could say to bring her out of the shell enveloping her.

  “He’s a sick man, Audrey. You can’t try to get into his mind.”

  “I guess.”

  “On the bright side, he couldn’t have killed you if he had succeeded in shooting you.”

  “But he didn’t shoot me, Hudson. He shot Carrie, and now she’s going to be in recovery for months, if not years.”

  “None of this is your fault, darling. You can’t play the ‘what if’ game.”

  “None of this is a game,” she retorted. “I was being hunted, and I didn’t realize my predator was underneath my nose.”

  Hudson had a lot of questions of his own, but they were ones he kept to himself.

  Why did he go after her? Mike seemed to hate Alex more than Audrey. If he was going to kill anyone, I would have put my money on Alex. It was a dismal thought from any angle, only to be made worse when Mike’s true motives had come to light.

  “Do you know how much money she would be worth dead?” the director was quoted to have said. “I had a twenty-million-dollar life insurance policy out on her. If she died on set, I’d get fifty!”

  And thus ended the mystery of the shooting, but only brought up more questions than before. Obviously, Mike had nothing to gain by writing those emails, which meant that there was still another psychopath with Audrey in his sights, one who had been suspiciously quiet in the aftermath of Mike’s arrest. Was the stalker using the scandal as a scapegoat?

  Now Hudson was surer than before that Gabriel was the one sending the bizarre emails. McAvoy’s search had given him no other leads, only a confirmation that the highest technology available had been used to shield the user.

  So this is no teenage kid going through his emo phase, Hudson thought. This is real. The only consolation had been that wherever Gabriel was, he hadn’t shown himself in Germany at any point, which meant he was probably waiting for Audrey to return home. And if he makes his move, I’ll be waiting for him.

  If only he could get Audrey to see the upside of things. Instead, she was curled up on one of the over-sized leather chairs, staring blankly out the window as if she were trying to make sense of all that had happened in the past weeks.

  “Darling, do you want something to drink?” Hudson asked her, eyeing the flight attendant who hovered nearby. Audrey shook her head without turning and continued her steadfast stare out the window. “I’ll have a scotch,” Hudson mumbled. It wouldn’t be long before they landed, he knew, but at that point, even an hour seemed insurmountable.

  Petra, the flight attendant, hurried to oblige him. She seemed relieved to have something to do, not that Hudson could blame her—the air in the cabin was becoming unbearably heavy with Audrey’s mood.

  “Audrey,” he sighed. “Will you please talk to me? I know you’ve got a lot on your mind, but shutting me out isn’t going to help anything.”

  Slowly, she turned to look at him like he was insane. “What do you want me to say, Hudson?”

  Petra returned with his glass and rushed away, sensing that she wasn’t supposed to overhear their conversation.

  “Anything!” Hudson exploded. “Say anything! Don’t just sit there sulking!” Audrey looked at him, anger erupting from her crystalline eyes.

  “Sulking?” she echoed. “Is that what you think I’m doing?”

  Hudson regretted his poor word choice, though it was too late to recant now. He was simply so frustrated with the way things were going, he needed to evoke some reaction from her, and anger was a reaction.

  “Audrey,” he tried again, using a more reasonable tone. “I’m worried about you.”

  “Are you? Or do you think I’ve become a burden now that I have a target on my back?”

  He blinked and laughed shortly. “In case you’ve forgotten, I’ve always known you had a target on your back.”

  Confusion lit her eyes, and her lips pursed. “You know what I mean.”

  “No, I don’t. Nothing has changed. In fact, now that Mike is out of the way, we’re in better shape than we were before.”

  “How can you say that? There’s still Gabriel! There’s still the stalker!”

  “They might not be mutually exclusive,” Hudson added dryly. “I know it’s been rough on you these past few weeks, but you have to keep plugging through—and you need to talk to me. You can’t just curl into yourself.”

  Audrey met his eyes with doubt, but whatever she saw there seemed to dissipate some of her defensiveness. Hudson set his drink on the center table between the pod chairs and extended his arms for her to come.

  “We’re a team now,” he reminded her, in case he hadn’t drilled it into her head enough. “There’s nothing we can’t overcome together.” Audrey scoffed but rose from her own spot to perch upon his lap.

  “How can you be so flippant when all of this is going on?” she asked quietly. “Isn’t this fazing you in the least?” Hudson smiled at her, sliding his long fingers through her hair to slip the stray strands behind her ear.

  “I think you forget how old I am sometimes,” he murmured so that Petra wouldn’t overhear. “You are talking to someone who has been through countless wars, both literal and metaphorical, and yet I’m still standing, aren’t I?”

  Audrey sighed deeply. “I’m not accustomed to this level of chaos. I just want it to end so I can go back to my regular life.”

  “First of all,” Hudson chuckled, “your life has never been regular. Secondly, maybe it is over, and you just can’t see it yet. For all we know, Gabriel backed off in all this excitement. He doesn’t want to be caught, and being in the public eye isn’t something he would willingly put himself into.”

  Audrey seemed unconvinced, even if she didn’t argue. She wanted to believe what Hudson was saying. She was just too used to doing everything alone.

  “Have you given any more thought to the night you were turned?” he asked, vaguely changing the subject. She lifted her head in alarm and looked around the cabin.

  “Should we be talking about this here?” she mumbled. Hudson grinned.

  “We’re on my turf now
,” he assured her. “You don’t need to look over your shoulder. Mind your Ps and Qs in public, around the mortals, but when we’re in my territory, you’re always safe.”

  The words seemed to give Audrey some comfort, and she exhaled, falling into him to snuggle against his chest.

  “I’m not sure,” she confessed. “I mean, I think I know the night it happened, and sometimes, I have weird dreams, but there’s nothing definitive.”

  “It’s okay,” Hudson said confidently. “It will probably come back to you when you least expect it.” Audrey scowled and pulled away slightly.

  “How is that reassuring?” she demanded. “If what you say is true, it’s been eight years. You would think that I would have remembered something by now. All I need is to be in the middle of a scene and have some wild flashback about what happened!”

  Hudson tensed. “Audrey, are you thinking about going back to work soon?”

  She jerked back fully and gaped at him.

  “I thought we talked about this,” she snapped. “Of course I’m going back to work!” Hudson steeled his temper, used to her heated flares of passion.

  “I know we discussed you going back to work,” he said evenly. “I’m just thinking it might be a good idea to take a break and collect yourself before everything goes to hell.”

  Audrey stared at him, her luminous eyes full. “Hudson, I need to work. It’s the only consistent thing I have.”

  “I can be consistent if you let me,” he told her. “You can’t push me away and go at this alone.”

  Her rosebud mouth parted. “I’m in over my head, aren’t I?” she murmured.

  “No,” he said. “You’re not. You just need to stop fighting me at every turn.”

  “I have contracts, Hudson,” Audrey protested, wariness flooding her eyes. “I can’t just bail on my contracts. I’ll be—”

  “Blacklisted, yes, I know. You keep saying, but I’ll wager that Hollywood will cut you some slack after all you’ve been through.” She snorted.

  “You clearly know nothing about the business,” she said haughtily.