“What do you mean?”
He was quiet for a moment, and then he shrugged. “Well, for starters, it explains some of the stuff I’ve been hearing lately.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
“James told me you showed up at his place a couple of weeks ago, trolled his date right out the door, and then punched him. After getting his address from me, no less, which took a fair amount of explaining,” he said, one eyebrow arched curiously. “I was wondering what that was about. Guess I know now.”
“Er….that whole thing was not what it sounds like. I mean, I didn’t show up there just to punch him. There were other reasons.”
“Right,” Chris said. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to be seeing this chick?”
I nodded. “Nora’s great. Perfect, in fact.” Chris was silent for a second, and I frowned. “I’m sorry, I’m not making things awkward for you at work, am I?” I added. “With you working so closely with her crazy ex and all.”
He nodded slowly. “A bit, but it’s fine. I’m more worried about…well, how well do you really know this woman? You only met her a month or so ago, and it’s not like you to suddenly drop off the radar and stop going out every night like you used to,” he said. “You know, you used to be out there picking up chicks left, right and center. Now it’s like you’ve suddenly changed. It’s kinda weird, man.”
“Nora isn’t manipulating me into changing myself, if that’s what you’re worried about,” I replied. “I’m fine. Sure, I’ve changed a bit, but that’s all on me. I wanted to.”
He looked slightly relieved at that. “Okay. But what about Ina? What do you think would happen if Nora found out about her?” he asked.
Chris was one of the only people in the world who knew about Ina, other than my staff, manager, and agent.
“She already knows.”
His eyebrows shot up. “She knows?”
“Yep. And she’s okay with it. I explained it all to her, and she understands.”
“Jesus. Okay. So you guys are pretty serious, then.”
I nodded. “Yep. Serious as a heart attack.”
“Wow. Didn’t see that coming.
I nodded and hesitated, trying to find the words to explain myself. “It’s like…when I met her, things became so clear. I didn’t want to keep fucking around and playing the field. I actually wanted to settle down. I can’t explain why or how. It just happened, and fuck, I’m glad it did.”
“I think pigs are flying outside,” Chris said, squinting and pretending to look out the window. I laughed, and he looked back at me. “So what…you think you might love her?”
I hesitated again as I thought about his question. I hadn’t said as much to Nora yet, but hell, why not? It was the truth. I’d never felt this way about anyone before.
I finally nodded and spoke up again. “Yeah, I do. I love her,” I told him.
Now I just needed to find the perfect way to tell her.
Chapter Twenty-One
Nora
“Nora Valencia?”
I looked up at the sound of my name across the medical center, and I saw my doctor beckoning me into her office. I smiled and headed in, eager for the appointment. After staying with Jacob for several weeks, we’d finally had the ‘talk’ about whether or not we wanted to take things to the next level and stop using condoms, and that meant two things: we both needed to make sure we were clean, and I wanted to go on the pill.
Jacob had already been tested and come back clean for everything, and I’d been to this very same medical center three days ago to give them a blood and urine sample. Today was the day my results were finally available, and luckily I had the day off work to get everything sorted.
“Okay, first things first,” Dr. Browning said as she gestured for me to sit. “Your test results are here, and let’s see…all clear. No sexually transmitted infections, and you aren’t pregnant, either. So we can definitely safely put you on the pill, if that’s still your intention.”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Okay. Let me just look at the other general tests we ordered.” Her eyes scanned her computer screen again. “Your iron levels are fine too. Very good, in fact. And I see you’re an O-negative. Are you a blood donor?”
I shook my head. “I always mean to go and do it, but then I forget.”
“No pressure, but it would definitely be a good thing for you to consider. Your blood type is the universal donor, so it’s always in high demand and short supply.”
“Oh. I didn’t know that. I’ll definitely try to remember to book an appointment for that soon, then,” I replied. “Do you have some sort of brochure for the donation center or something? If I have one in my purse, it might help me remember.”
She reached across her desk and grabbed some pamphlets. “Here you go,” she said. “Anyway, let’s talk about the pill. I’d recommend Levlen for now, and we’ll see how you go. Did you read up on the things we talked about last time?”
I nodded, and Dr. Browning continued explaining everything to me just in case. She went through the list of common side effects, explained exactly when I needed to start taking it, and when it would be in full effect. When she was finished, she wrote out my prescription and then handed it to me along with a little booklet.
“There’s more information in there about the possible side effects and what to do if you accidentally miss a pill one day,” she said. “So have a read-through of that when you can. Other than that, I’d say you’re ready to go. Any questions?”
I shook my head, and five minutes later, I was heading out into the parking lot. I still had a lot of stuff to get done today. I had a bunch of shopping to do and dry-cleaning to pick up—I didn’t want to take advantage of Jacob’s household staff, even though they’d offered to do all these kinds of things for me—and I also needed to drop by the police station and check up on the progress of my restraining order against James. When I’d first gone in a few weeks ago, I’d been given a ton of paperwork to fill out, and I’d also provided one of the officers with my social media login details. That way they could see the abusive messages I was still getting and monitor who and where they came from in order to try and prove that it was James who was responsible for the harassment.
Today was the day that I’d find out if my petition for a restraining order was accepted or not, and I was anxious to know. The officers who were helping me with my case had seemed quite certain that I’d get it, and I could only hope they’d proven it was James who broke into my place and trashed it, because that was the linchpin in the whole case.
Two hours later, once all my other errands were complete, I stepped into the precinct that was handling my case. “Hi, is Detective Sinclair available?” I asked at the front desk.
The officer manning the desk nodded and waved me through to the bullpen after calling out to Sinclair, and she met me a few seconds later and guided me to her desk.
“Please sit down, Nora,” she said. “I have some bad news for you, unfortunately.”
My heart sank. “Oh?”
“The judge has denied your request for a restraining order against James Owens. But this is just a temporary setback. We’ll keep looking into things and trying to help you.”
“I don’t understand,” I said, shaking my head. “He broke into my house and trashed it. He even wrote ‘die’ on the wall, for god’s sake! Not to mention all the threatening messages online. How could my request be denied?”
She sighed. “We actually haven’t been able to prove it was James who broke into your house, so no charges have been laid in that regard as of yet. He had a solid alibi at the time that the break-in occurred, and for several hours before and after, too.”
“What? How is that possible? There’s no one else it could be!” I said, my skin prickling with agitation. “What about the guard at the gate? Didn’t he see anything?”
“The usual guard, Clint Weston, was off sick when the break-in occurred. There was a temporary replacement workin
g at the time, but it seems he’d fallen asleep when the culprit slipped by the gate late in the evening. There’s surveillance footage, of course, but all we can see on that is a tall person in black pants and a black hoodie. Could be anyone.”
“It was James,” I said adamantly. “I don’t see how he can possibly have such a strong alibi. It had to be him!”
“He could’ve paid someone else to do it for him while he established a solid alibi for himself,” Sinclair said. “We’ve seen that happen before. So that’s what we’re looking into now. But it could take a while to prove, if we even can. I know this bureaucracy sucks, Nora. But we have to do it by the book. That’s how the system works.”
I sighed heavily. “Right. I understand. But what about the Facebook messages? I’m still getting them every couple of days, and in the last week they’ve been getting more and more threatening. That counts as harassment, surely.”
“We hit another roadblock there. Whoever is making the new profiles and messaging you is using a virtual private network to mask their IP address.”
“Uh…what?”
“When a VPN is used, we can’t tell where the messages are being sent from, essentially,” she explained. “But we have one of our best forensic computing guys on it. He’ll crack it eventually, and we should be able to get a location. Hopefully that’ll lead us to James so we can prove it was him once and for all.”
I sighed and rubbed my temples. “I can’t believe this. He’s being so careful, all so he can get away with harassing and terrorizing an ex-girlfriend. It’s insane.”
She gave me a sympathetic smile. “I know. I’m so sorry, Nora. I wish there was more we could do. But for the time being, we have to keep investigating and wait. Until then, I’d suggest you keep staying elsewhere. Can you do that?”
I nodded. “Yes, that’s not a problem. Will you call me as soon as your IT guy cracks this VPN thing?”
“Of course. The second we get a location or a name, we’ll let you know.”
“Thank you,” I said, giving her a tight smile.
She handed me a sheaf of papers—copies of my written statement and rejected restraining order application from a few weeks ago—and I stuffed it all in my handbag and left, feeling utterly dejected and miserable. I was so happy with my life in so many ways at the moment, but there was still this one dark stain on everything, messing it all up. James. That stupid freaking asshole. I had no idea why he couldn’t just let me go without a fight. After all, he’d made it pretty clear with all the cheating and lying that he didn’t love me or care about me. So why the hell was he still trying to make my life miserable?
I headed to Beverly Hills as fast as I could without breaking any speed limits, desperate to put my feet up and relax with Oscar after the shitty experience I’d just had at the police precinct. Despite having the day off from filming Fourth Down, Jacob was busy this afternoon with some sort of media event for the fifth season of Code Grey, which had just finished airing on TV, so he wouldn’t be home for a while yet.
It would just be me and the dog for a while.
The ongoing conflict with James ran through my mind over and over as I finally got home and trudged up the stairs, and I sighed and dumped my purse on the bed before slumping down. Unfortunately I’d forgotten to zip it up properly, and everything spilled out all over the freshly-laundered duvet, including all the pamphlets and paperwork I’d received over the course of the day.
“Dammit,” I said softly, scooping it all back up into one neat pile. Something slipped out of the pile, and I frowned as I picked it up and gazed at it, wondering why it was suddenly giving me such a weird vibe. There was something wrong with this picture, so to speak. It made me feel like I was missing something major, missing some piece of a puzzle that I wasn’t even aware of, and a moment later, every hair on the back of my neck stood up.
Holy shit.
I knew exactly what was wrong.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jacob
“So are you still out there playing the field, Jacob?”
A journalist called out to me from the audience, and I grinned. “Let’s just stick to questions about the show.”
She pouted, and the rest of the gathered journalists tittered. “C’mon, surely you can just put a few rumors to rest for us?”
I looked over at my Code Grey co-stars, who all simply shrugged and nodded. “All right, go on,” I said.
“Is the threesome rumor true?”
I let out an exasperated sigh. “Christ, is that one still doing the rounds? No, it’s not true. The ladies in question are very nice, and I have indeed met them before, but I definitely don’t recall any sort of ménage a trois arrangement.”
She looked satisfied and scribbled something down before looking back up at me. “What about these rumors going around about you being bisexual or gay?”
I grinned. I guess James’ date Kara had contacted the media about me after all. “That’s not true either,” I said.
She made another note and then looked up again. “And what about the rumor that you’re sleeping with a consultant on your new movie?”
Jesus…what?
Had Nora and I not been careful enough at work over the last few weeks? Surely we had. Aside from a few sneaky glances and comments here and there during filming, we’d saved our relationship for the confines of my house in order to escape any negative attention on Nora. But obviously someone had caught on to what we were doing. Either that or these were just typical rumors that got spread on every set, and they were based on nothing at all.
I kept a straight face. “No truth to that,” I said. “I try to stay professional on the set, believe it or not,” I added with a wink.
“Okay, enough about Jacob’s many alleged women,” the Code Grey creator said with a laugh, holding her hands up. “Back to the show. Next season we’re going to be focusing on an arc between Dr. West and the new nurse, Callie. We’re also going to explore the…”
I stopped paying attention as she spoke due to a buzzing in my pocket. After surreptitiously pulling my cell out and sitting it on my lap under the media conference table, I turned the screen on and frowned. I had five missed calls from Nora, three from Ina, and several texts from both of them.
Nora: I need you. Please call when you’re finished with your press conference thing.
Ina: You should get back here. I just got back from my trip; your girlfriend is here and she isn’t very happy. She told me the situation…it’s pretty messed up. Tried calling but you aren’t answering. Get home ASAP.
I made my apologies and left the media event; it was almost finished and I’d given the vulture journalists their pound of flesh anyway, so I didn’t feel too bad. After speeding home, I raced inside and found Nora sitting on the sofa in the main living room downstairs, sipping a cup of tea as Ina spoke to her in a soothing tone.
“What’s going on?” I asked, dropping my bag and hurrying over to them. “Did James do something else? I’ll kill the bastard, swear to fucking god…”
“I’ll leave you two to talk,” Ina said quickly, giving me a tight smile. “Good luck, Nora.”
She left the room, presumably to head back out to her guesthouse, and I sat down. “Baby, what happened? Did you get the restraining order?”
“No, it was denied.”
I clenched my fists. “What the fuck?”
She hurriedly explained the situation with that, and then she shook her head. “That’s not what this is about, anyway. It’s something else. Nothing to do with James.”
I frowned. “Oh. Well, what is it?” I asked, wondering what could possibly be more important than her situation with James’ ongoing harassment.
She looked at her feet for a long moment. “Remember how I had to go to the doctor today to get my STI test results and get the birth control sorted?”
I nodded. “Shit, is there something wrong?” I asked. “Because no matter what it is, you know I can deal with it. No judgment.”
She shook her head. “I’m fine. Very healthy. So healthy, in fact, that the doctor mentioned something about me being a good candidate for blood donation.”
My frown deepened with confusion. “And?”
“And that was all well and good. I’ve been meaning to donate for a while. She gave me some brochures to remind me. Anyway, she said I’m the universal donor type. O-negative.”
“That’s a good thing, right?”
“Yeah, for people who need blood. But not for me.”
“I don’t follow.”
“I saw the brochure again when I got home, and it reminded me of something.”
“What?”
“It made me remember what I saw when we went to visit my parents a few weeks ago. Remember how I was clearing the table, and I found those cards with my mom and dad’s blood types on them? And Mom said they’d just donated the day before, or something like that, and the doctor had given them those cards to remind them of their blood types. Mom stuffed the cards in a drawer and changed the subject right away after that.”
“Yeah, I vaguely remember that,” I replied. ”What about it?”
“The cards said A+ and AB+.”
“Oh, shit, that’s right,” I said, comprehension finally dawning on me. “I know I’m not a real doctor, but that seems… impossible. No child of theirs could be an O-negative, unless my recollection of high school biology fails me.”
“No, you’re right. Ina even looked it up for me to make sure, when she came in and found me practically hyperventilating. And the other day, you said my parents were talking about something in the kitchen when you walked in on them, right? Something about me almost seeing something and catching them out.”
“Yeah. Fuck. Maybe the blood type cards were the thing they were worried about you seeing, and that’s why they were freaking out when I heard them talking.”
“Exactly. That’s exactly what I thought.”
“Shit...”
She looked at me, her eyes wide. “This whole time, I could’ve been adopted or god knows what else, and they never told me. I just don’t know what the hell to say or even think.”
Daddy's Toy-Box (A Daddy's Best Friend Romance) Page 53