‘It’ll be a slumber party.’ Dee squeezed Kendra’s shoulder in an obvious effort to cheer her up.
But both Harris and Stacie shook their heads.
‘I have a very early meeting down on the Malheur Reserve tomorrow,’ Harris said. ‘We’re planning some migratory shoots. But if you need me, Ken –’ he took his friend’s hand ‘– I’ll cancel.’
‘I have a feeling she doesn’t need either one of us,’ Stacie said, lightly touching Harris’s arm. ‘But I echo Harris’s sentiments.’
Kendra shook her head. ‘No. Do what you both have to do. I’ll be fine. I still think it’s all just idle threats. Every celebrity gets them.’ She forced a smile that didn’t look too convincing.
Stacie nodded. ‘I have meetings with my lawyer and the realtors to finalize the papers on the gallery,’ she said. ‘I can stay in the house if you want me to, Garrett. That way it won’t be empty.’
‘Don’t be stupid,’ Garrett said. ‘This asshole clearly doesn’t like you very much either. There’s no way you’re staying here alone.’
‘Garrett’s right,’ Dee said.
Stacie nodded. ‘Well, I haven’t stayed at the Heathman in a while. I think I’d quite like a few days of being spoiled. And Dee, Garrett, Ellis, you all have my number if you need me.’
Harris went to the living room and peeked out the drapes at the front yard to where they could still hear the reporters shuffling and mumbling. ‘Ken –’ he called back over his shoulder ‘– why don’t you and Garrett get what you need and get all set to go.’ He turned his attention to Stacie. ‘Is your rental car still out front?’
She nodded. ‘Might be covered with eggs, though.’
‘We can handle eggs, I think.’ He said. ‘How about if we draw the press’s attention while you all make a fast getaway?’
Stacie nodded agreement.
‘I’ll keep the security here,’ Garrett said. I’ll phone and see if a couple of them can just hang out in the house so it feels like we’re still inside, what do you think?’ He slipped his arm protectively around Kendra. ‘That way maybe they won’t go looking for us.’
It had taken Carla ages to stop shaking. She sat in the motorhome with the doors locked, trembling like a leaf, with the final text from the stalker wavering in and out of focus in front of her eyes. She wanted to look away. She wanted to run away actually. She wanted never to hear from this sicko again, but where could she go?
She needed to tell her father about this. He would know what to do. Daddy’s little girl. She stared down at the email and shivered. He had researched her, then. If he knew her father, he had researched her. He hadn’t just picked some random reporter from the crowd. He had chosen her specifically. Her hand was shaking so bad that she dropped her iPhone, and it skittered across the floor of the motorhome. ‘Bastard,’ she said beneath her breath. Daddy’s little soldier. They’d called her that in school, teased her mercilessly. He couldn’t have actually known about that. How could he have reduced her to this in just one short text?
She scrambled to pick up the phone. When she could get her fingers to stop shaking enough to cooperate, she texted.
Where are you?
The response was almost instant.
Never far, Carla. Never far. Didn’t you think I’d check up on you to see how you were doing?
‘Jesus!’ She caught her breath with a little sob, and looked frantically out the windows of the motorhome, but there was a jumble of people. Lots of them now leaving after Tess’s little appeal to the mob. He could be anywhere. He could be anyone. He could be a she, though she was pretty sure he wasn’t.
Why are you doing this? She forced her fingers to type.
Because Tess is a lie. Tess isn’t who you think, Carla. Tess isn’t who anyone thinks, and she should pay for her slutty ways.
She gulped the dregs of a cup of instant coffee she’d made just before Tess and friends had spoken to the press then she texted again.
Tell me. Tell me who Tess is, then, and how do you know?
This time there was no response. She waited for what felt like an eternity, and when she was pretty sure he was done playing with her, she stood on legs now a little bit more steady and shoved the door to the motorhome open. She could see Mike Pittman standing on the sidewalk in front of Thorne’s house, typing frantically onto his iPhone. He gave her an absent nod when she came to stand by him.
‘Did you see anyone suspicious?’ she asked.
He offered a bored grunt. ‘You’ve been standing here in the same crowd of loony-tunes I have, Flannery. If I’d seen anyone suspicious, how the hell would I have known?’
The man was right there, she thought. She stood staring at the front door of the house, and for a second she was tempted just to march right up there, knock on the door and force the issue. For a second.
Thirty minutes later, they were all four tucked neatly into the back of the Pneuma Inc. limo with Garrett and Kendra facing Dee and Ellis.
Kendra had been the ice queen since Don’s phone call with the news of more emails from Razor Sharp. Frankly, under the circumstances that worried Garrett a lot more than her hyperventilating or losing her breakfast. He knew she couldn’t have completely shaken off all of those feelings, all those memories every email from that bastard must bring back to her, and yet she seemed to have shut it all away. How could anyone have gone through what she had and not taken it all badly? And yet she was cool, distant.
Across the seat from him, Garrett could feel his brother studying him over the top of his glasses like he always did when he was about to ask a question Garrett was sure he didn’t want to be asked. ‘What?’ he said.
Ellis smiled his slow, lazy smile, the one that seemed much more freely given since Dee came into his life. ‘Just worried about you, bro. That’s all,’ he said. ‘They were pretty rough on you out there.’
Garrett shrugged. ‘I’m fine. That was nothing I haven’t had to handle before.’
‘And you handled it well,’ Kendra said. ‘I didn’t get the chance to tell you that after we talked to the press.’
‘I have no doubt he did,’ Ellis said. ‘Like he always does. Needlessly.’
Garrett bristled. ‘I really do appreciate your concern, but I don’t really need this lecture again, Ellis. Not right now.’
‘He’s right, though,’ Kendra said.
Across the seat, Dee still held Kendra’s hand in a grip that could have never been misconstrued for anything other than fiercely protective. Garrett was amazed there wasn’t a broken finger or two. And he felt a huge sense of relief when the look Dee offered him was warm and empathetic, so much more than he deserved, but then Dee had always given him so much more than he deserved. God, he could understand why his brother loved the woman. She was so good for him. What the two of them shared was the very essence of what he tried to capture in Tess’s novels, what he was certain every person longed for down deep. He did. He longed for it so badly that at times the ache felt as though it would rip him apart – to have come so close so often, to have almost been there. He studied Kendra out of the corner of his eye. What had happened that she had so shut out even that longing, something that seemed so basic to the human psyche?
Kendra’s iPhone buzzed a text, and she pulled it out of her bag. ‘It’s Harris,’ she said. ‘Looks like our little performance dispersed the angry mob, but the reporters haven’t budged.’ She nodded to herself. ‘They still think Tess’s life is under threat, no doubt.’
‘Reporters aren’t stupid,’ Dee said. She raised a hand before Kendra could speak. ‘I don’t give a damn what you think, Ken, what K. Ryde thinks. To me those emails constitute a threat. And even if they are nothing more than some neurotic fan, I know how you respond to those emails no matter. And that’s not something I can let pass, you know that.’
Garrett bundled Kendra close to him and smiled at Dee. He wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of either of Kendra’s friends. He was pretty sure it would be fa
tal. At the moment, he still wasn’t sure Harris wouldn’t happily yank his heart from his chest and make him eat it if he got half a chance. But all of that fierce loyalty, all of that deep love was for Kendra, just because she was Kendra, just because she was amazing and they knew her better than anyone. That made him feel better somehow, lest he forget it was his fault she was in this mess to begin with. And he really wasn’t likely to forget that, was he?
There wasn’t much traffic late on Sunday afternoon in Portland, so the drive to the Pneuma Building didn’t take long. Kendra wasn’t sure why Ellis and Dee – and Garrett too, for that matter, were so keen on her seeing Wade Crittenden, like he was some god or something. OK, she knew the man was a genius, and she owed him big time for unleashing evil Kendra on Garrett in his office several weeks ago. Though it hadn’t seemed to bother him too terribly much, as she recalled. She admired that about him from the start.
They parked in the underground garage, away from prying eyes, and took the elevator down to Wade’s dungeon. Kendra had laughed when she’d first heard the man’s nerd king laboratory referred to as such. Harris had elbowed her into silence, and it was clear that Wade was completely oblivious to the double meaning. Either that or he just didn’t care. With Wade it was never easy to tell. And in truth, she had only seen the lounge of Wade’s domain. Who knew, maybe he did dabble in BDSM somewhere down in the bowels of the Pneuma Building. She couldn’t help but smile at the thought.
They found the man in the inner sanctum, also known as his boudoir. God, surely the man couldn’t miss out on all of the double entendres, even in his insulated little world. He was hunched over the keyboard of a computer with a very large monitor.
‘I’ve got Flannery and his men on it, but I think the stalker’s a journalist,’ Wade said, without looking up from what he was doing, without offering a greeting.
‘Flannery?’ Kendra said. ‘Any relation to the Carla Flannery who’s been grilling us over at Garrett’s place?’
‘He’s her father,’ Wade replied, still tapping away on the keyboard. ‘Ex-military, and a kick-ass detective and security man. He’s worked for Pneuma for years. I’ve heard his daughter is a real pit bull. Ellis certainly has a lot of respect for her.’
‘So why do you think that Razor Sharp is a journalist?’ Garrett asked.
‘Because of the timing,’ Wade said, shoving the sleeve of his sweatshirt up to reveal a well-muscled forearm that surprised Kendra. She wondered if he actually worked out, perhaps in the dungeon she’d imagined, the one with whips and cuffs. She could picture him wielding a whip across the bared bottom of an adoring groupie, or a willing secretary. And frankly, it wasn’t that hard to picture. Kendra knew that still waters often ran very deep and very kinky. Every time she’d seen Wade Crittenden, he’d been swaddled in sweatshirts and hoodies. Even at Harris’s party he wore a shapeless hoodie. But if that bulging forearm were any indication, she figured the man wouldn’t look half bad in leather or tight jeans.
She forced herself away from the welcome distraction of speculating about Wade Crittenden’s secret life and back to what the man was actually saying. ‘If you look at the dates of the last few emails, including the first one you received after Tess Delaney made her first public appearance, they all happened very soon after situations involving the press.’ He scrolled up to the first one. ‘Look at the time.’ He said. ‘You didn’t see this email until the next day, is that right?’ He glanced up at Garrett.
‘That’s right,’ Garrett said.
‘Granted, the Golden Kiss Awards were on television live, but even with your early departure you wouldn’t have been home when this email was written. It was written while the event was still going on. Could have been a fan who was very angry at your absconding with his idol before he could fully indulge in the experience.
‘And this one.’ He scrolled down to the next email. ‘What time did the two of you confront the press?’ he asked.
‘It was afternoon,’ Kendra said. ‘Somewhere around three, I think.’
‘Was any of your talk with the press carried live?’ Wade asked.
Kendra shook her head. ‘Not that I know of. Though it was broadcast very shortly after.’
Ellis chimed in, ‘It probably would have been blogged about and certainly tweeted.’
‘I’ve considered that,’ Wade said. ‘But nonetheless, the bloggers and tweeters at this stage would have been people at your impromptu press conference, so still a journalist. Certainly the email came almost immediately after you two first spoke to the press, possibly even simultaneously.
‘And again.’ He pulled up the last two emails, the one Don had received and the one Garrett had gotten a scant two minutes later. ‘There’s no way this man could have known all of these things unless he was right there, either in the mob or the press, and the mob wasn’t there when the earlier emails came through.’
‘Christ,’ Garrett whispered. ‘Then there’s a good chance this man is there with the press at my house and has been the whole time.’
Kendra’s legs gave and she dropped into the chair next to Wade’s desk. ‘You’re sure, Wade?’
‘I can’t be sure, but it makes more sense than anything else at this point.’
She blinked away spots from behind her eyes and forced back the fear and the panic. ‘There’s a way we could be sure,’ she said. ‘We could have another press conference. We could make up something that will give it away. I don’t know; it would be easy enough to come up with something. Then we could have someone inside the house on the computer checking when the email comes in.’
‘No! Not gonna happen. I don’t want you exposed anymore,’ Garrett said, grabbing her hand.
She ignored him and kept talking. ‘Maybe we’ve been going about this wrong. Maybe we need to give Tess more exposure, you know, draw him out.’ Before Garrett or anyone else could protest, she stood and began to pace. ‘Look the worst thing that could ultimately happen is that the world finds out Tess Delaney has hired someone to play Tess Delaney to keep her identity secret.’
‘We’re not having this discussion, and that’s final,’ Garrett said.
‘But –’
‘I agree with Garrett,’ Ellis said, and Dee and Wade both nodded. ‘The less risk, the better.’
Wade handed Kendra a BlackBerry. ‘This is for you.’
‘Thanks, but I already have a phone,’ she said.
‘Not one like this one, you don’t,’ Garrett said.
‘It’s a Pneuma Inc. special,’ Dee added. ‘Ellis has one, Wade has one, I have one, the executive secretaries have one. Garrett has one too.’
Kendra picked it up and turned it over in her hand. ‘Looks like an ordinary BlackBerry to me.’
‘Looks can be deceiving,’ Garrett said.
Wade typed in something on his computer and pulled up a satellite map of the whole Western Seaboard. Then he typed in Sandra Blain, Dee’s secretary. And the view of the map zoomed in until it was focused on a small logging road off US-26 on the flank of the Cascades opposite Mount Hood. It focused right down to an older Dodge Ram parked at a pull-out in a heavily forested area. ‘Ah yes,’ Dee said. ‘Sandra told me she and her husband were checking out the huckleberries today.’
‘The woman makes the best huckleberry muffins in the whole world,’ Ellis added.
‘She’s been told a dozen times not to leave her device in the car. Can you talk to her again, Dee?’ Wade said.
Kendra looked down at the Blackberry in her hand. ‘Wow!’
‘Exactly, wow,’ Garrett said. ‘Even when the device is off, it’s not really off. Wade knows all, sees all.’
‘Sounds very entertaining for Wade,’ Kendra said, and she thought she saw a blush crawl up the neck of his sweatshirt followed by a twitch of a smile.
‘I’m not that hard up for entertainment,’ Wade said. ‘It’s just a safety precaution. You can’t do what we do here at Pneuma Inc. and not have a few enemies. Besides, both Ellis and De
e are all over the globe. This helps me keep track of them if I need to get in touch with them. Especially if they’re in someplace questionable. Now, give me your iPhone,’ he said.
Kendra balked ‘But I like my iPhone.’
‘And you can have it back when you’re Kendra Davis again,’ Wade said. ‘Give me a minute to transfer all the data and you’ll be set.’
Kendra handed over her phone. She had the very distinct impression that arguing with seemingly mild-mannered Wade Crittenden might not be a good idea. And in all honesty, after everything that had happened, even though she still believed that the emails were not a danger to her, she still felt better knowing Wade and everyone else in the room could keep an eye on her.
Chapter Twenty-two
‘Galina’s a fabulous cook.’ Garrett leaned against the stone wall of the patio drinking Mirror Pond ale and watching the stars come out over the open field behind Ellis’s house.
‘She’s the best,’ Dee replied. ‘Without her, I think Ellis would be reduced to take-outs and peanut butter sandwiches. Afraid I’m not much help either in the cooking department. If I can slap it on the grill I can cook it, otherwise I can’t be bothered.’
‘Besides, when do either of you have time?’ Garrett asked.
Galina had laid on a fabulous spread of Mexican food New Mexican style because she knew that was Garrett’s favorite. And nobody in the whole world made tres leches cake better than Galina. The meal had been served on Ellis’s fabulous patio with the view of Mount Hood fading beneath a fiery sunset, making it easy to believe that the mountain, like all of the Cascade Range, was once, and could very easily be again, an active volcano.
The conversation had been light and easy, and there was not the usual rush Garrett so often had felt with his brother in the past. This was a leisurely meal, something Garrett was sure, until Dee came along, his brother had not experienced in a lot of years.
Now Ellis was in his study finishing up last-minute details for a meeting in Denver tomorrow, and Kendra was settled in the atrium working on PR in K. Ryde mode. He figured a lot of that involved calming Don down. K. Ryde Agency still existed and was now owned by several of Kendra’s former employees who were very talented. Kendra still had plenty of connections and she knew how to use them. Garrett could see her profile at the table amid the ferns and vines that filled the sunroom. She was still convinced there needed to be another press conference to see if they could flush Razor Sharp. Garrett would be happy if they never had to have anything to do with the press again.
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