by K. M. Scott
The words barely made it out of Hunter’s mouth before the bodyguard’s entire body language morphed into the definition of defensiveness. He grimaced and puffed out his chest like some gym rat preparing for a fight.
“What are you saying? You don’t know what you’re talking about, dude. Stick around a while and you’ll see what’s what.”
Hunter took a step toward Kyle, decreasing the space between them until he almost bumped into his bulging pecs. Whatever this guy was feeling, he was reacting way out of the ordinary to something so insignificant.
And Hunter planned to find out why.
Leveling his gaze on the man’s face, he said flatly, “I’m saying that you don’t have to get out of bed early every day because Alexis doesn’t need you to go to the gym. Nothing more. You’re not being fired or even demoted. You’re just being given a break every day. Is there a reason this means so much to you?”
Kyle stared back at him for a long moment before he shook his head. “What are you implying?”
“I’m not implying anything. I’m asking straight out. Why is being relieved of having to go to the gym every day with Alexis a problem for you?”
While he waited for Kyle to answer, Hunter wondered if the man standing in front of him could be the stalker. He clearly felt upset about something regarding Alexis, and he had a feeling the man harbored far more feelings about that single night he spent with her than she did. Had he been the one terrorizing her so she would turn to him for protection?
“It’s not a problem for me. I just don’t like being treated like some second-class citizen just because some new guy shows up on the scene.”
“You’re not. Nobody is saying you’re not a valuable member of Alexis’s security team. You’re just not needed to accompany her to the gym. Nothing else has changed.”
Hunter stopped for a moment and then added, “Is there anything I should know, Kyle?”
Still unhappy, the bodyguard stepped back and shook his head. “Nope.”
“Good.”
But Hunter made a note of how upset he’d been about something so incidental. Whatever his problem was, Kyle had jumped to the head of the line of possible suspects in Hunter’s mind.
Chapter Thirteen
The first gym on Lauren’s list was located about eight blocks away. Alexis started running as soon as they walked outside the building’s lobby, thankful to see no photographers milling about and desperate to put some distance between her and that apartment. She’d only been there a little more than a week, but every moment she spent inside felt like the walls were beginning to close in on her. She feared when the construction crews began taking down some of them and opening up the space like the designer suggested it still wouldn’t make the place anywhere she wanted to live.
Half a block away from the building, she looked to her left and saw Hunter there beside her. Kyle always ran behind her. For a moment, she didn’t know how she felt about this change.
Curious to know why he thought he should be there next to her, she said, “I’m used to Kyle staying behind me on my runs.”
Hunter turned to look at her and then looked away at the sidewalk in front of them. “I guess he and I have different styles. I can protect you better being at your side instead of trailing behind you.”
Everything about this man said control, something Alexis had never liked much. Paul continually tried to exert control over her, whether it was what parts she chose or what events she attended. Her ex-husband had been a big fan of control, deciding on everything from what clothes she would wear to how long she should keep her hair.
And with both of them, she rebelled every chance she got.
Now that she had yet another man in her world who seemed so determined to have control, she wondered if maybe she had been wrong about that touchy subject. Maybe that’s why Jackson had left her for an even younger woman after just a few years of marriage. Maybe if she’d been more amenable to taking direction from him off the set as much as on the set, he wouldn’t have cheated on her.
Oh no. To hell with that.
Nobody—not Paul, not Jackson, and not Hunter—was going to control her ever again, and she’d never torture herself with the idea that if only she let them have what they wanted that maybe she could make them happy. Now, she wanted to be happy.
Just before she took off into a sprint across the intersection, she glanced over at Hunter and smiled. “Well, let’s see if you can keep up then.”
Long legs and a lean body that had always lent itself to running had made Alexis a natural sprinter, so within a block, she’d left Hunter and Lauren behind her. She knew this technically broke her promise not to leave without having him right there with her, but she didn’t care. For the first time since she moved to New York, she felt independent. Even the trip to Atlantic City hadn’t given her that.
She reveled in how great she felt running in the nearly sixty degree temperatures while the light breeze hit her face and the sun warmed her cheeks. As she rushed by the trees planted along the sidewalk, she saw the leaves had changed to show their vibrant reds and oranges for autumn, something she hadn’t gotten to enjoy in years. For a moment, Alexis wondered if New York wouldn’t be that terrible after all.
Just then, she heard Lauren cry out behind her, “I’ve got a Charlie horse! Cramp! Cramp!”
Alexis stopped and turned around to see her assistant about a block away hopping around on one foot in front of a brownstone and nearly falling into the shrubbery that lined the sidewalk. Hunter waved her back to help poor Lauren, who looked like she was in agony.
She ran up to her and put her arms around her shoulders to hold her up. “What happened? Are you okay?”
Wincing in pain, she kept her right foot suspended in the air and groaned, “I think I overdosed on fudge and my body’s rebelling. I don’t think I can run any further. I’m sorry.”
She suspected Lauren’s cramp, while it may have existed, likely didn’t rate all this trouble. She’d never liked running, but since she’d already gotten in trouble for helping with the jailbreak earlier that morning, Alexis felt like she deserved sympathy.
They could walk the rest of the way.
“It’s okay. We’ll get there. We can walk instead.”
Lauren stood up straight and shook her head. “No, you don’t have to stop on my account. You two go on ahead. You guys love running, and you aren’t injured, so you should. Get your run in. I’ll get there. Just a little slower.”
Alexis looked over at Hunter and saw he was waiting for her to make a decision. But she couldn’t just leave Lauren there to walk the rest of the way alone, no matter how much she wanted to challenge Hunter to another sprint race.
“I’m not going to abandon you. We’ll stay with you.”
As they made their way toward the first gym, she said to Hunter, “I guess we should have brought Kyle after all.”
He grimaced at her comment and nodded. “I guess.”
“Well, all the better for you since I was going to challenge you to a race. You should be happy Kyle isn’t here,” she teased.
Hunter flashed her that sexy grin she’d seen a few times that day already. “You’d probably win. Even though I’m at least four inches taller than you, I think you have the longest legs I’ve ever seen on a woman. That gives you an advantage. Plus, my friend likes to tease me that I don’t do enough to stay healthy, so that’s another thing you have going for you.”
His use of the word friend made her curious, and even though she didn’t understand why, it bothered her. Was this friend a male or female? It had never occurred to her that Hunter could be with someone. Who was she? How did she feel about him staying at her apartment while he worked to solve who was stalking her?
Even more, Alexis wondered why she suddenly cared if Hunter was single or not.
Lost in thought, she tripped over her own feet and careened into him. He caught her as she fell, his muscular arms steadying her, and she had to admit she
liked how they felt against her body.
But she didn’t know if she should let herself think about him in that way. If he was taken, she had no business being anything other than respectful. Stepping away from him, she smiled politely.
“Thanks. I guess I need to pay more attention to where I’m going.”
He smiled like he wanted to say something, but Alexis quickly looked away to focus on Lauren. “Let’s keep going. At this rate, we’ll be lucky if we get to any gyms at all today.”
Grabbing her assistant’s arm, she hurried her down the sidewalk, leaving Hunter behind. When they got far enough away that she didn’t think he could hear her voice, she whispered to Lauren, “Pretend like we’re talking about something funny.”
Confused, she looked around like she’d missed some part of the conversation. “Why?”
“Don’t look back at him. Just act like we’re having fun.”
Hunter kept his distance behind them, not too far so he couldn’t protect her but far enough that she could speak with some privacy. For her part, Lauren seemed genuinely unhappy and hurt.
“I’m nursing a Charlie horse and I think all that fudge I ate today feels like it’s going to come up at any minute. If this is fun, I really don’t want to experience misery.”
“I know. I know. Just laugh like we’re having a good time and I promise you won’t have to go running unless you want to ever again.”
“Trust me. I don’t want to ever again. Okay, here goes.” Throwing her head back, Lauren laughed loudly. “That’s hysterical!”
Alexis nudged her in the arm as she looked back to see what Hunter was doing. “Go easy. I said good time, not you after three shots of tequila.”
They stopped at an intersection, and she glanced back again as Lauren asked, “Why are we pretending to have the time of our lives walking to the gym?”
The light turned green, and they started walking again. Leaning in, Alexis said, “Because I want to.”
She couldn’t explain why she wanted Hunter to think she didn’t need to have him around to be happy. It was stupid and probably meant nothing to him anyway, but she’d rather pretend not to think about him at all than give him any hint of the truth.
A truth she couldn’t really believe herself.
Twenty-five minutes later, the three of them reached the first gym on Lauren’s list, a place called Dynamics. Looking through the windows that made up the front of the building, Alexis joked, “This gym sounds like something L. Ron Hubbard would be part of.”
The manager, a man named Ricardo, rushed over to greet them as they walked through the door, instantly fawning over her and praising her for her acting work on his favorite film of hers. She smiled and dutifully nodded as she watched where Hunter walked away to.
“Miss Marchand, it is such an honor to have you here at Dynamics. When your assistant called earlier, I must say a chill ran up and down my spine at the thought that one of my favorite actresses would choose our gym to workout in,” the man said, smiling broadly like he’d just won the lottery.
“I’m sure you get many famous people in here,” Alexis said politely as she looked around to find Hunter.
“Well, if you come this way, I can show you the machines, the sauna, and all we have to offer.”
She followed him but continued to look for where Hunter could have gone off to. The place wasn’t that big that he needed to leave her side. What could he be doing?
Then she spied him talking to a female worker over near the tanning rooms. She couldn’t hear what he or she was saying, but the brunette with the perfect gym body and big boobs seemed to be having an awfully good time chatting with Hunter.
Jealous, even though she couldn’t put her finger on why, she cut off the manager of the gym in the middle of his pitch and said, “My assistant will contact you. Thank you.”
Turning on her heels, she walked outside without saying a word to Lauren or Hunter. Her stomach had twisted itself into a tight knot, and standing on the sidewalk, she tried to get a deep breath of fresh air into her lungs, hoping it would make her feel better.
She’d sworn she would never again feel jealous over a man after what Jackson had done to her. Never again would she let herself think she was less, but as she stared at Hunter talking to that woman and watched her touching his arm in that way flirtatious women did when they wanted to let a man know they wanted him, that old familiar jolt of pain from being jealous shot through her chest.
It embarrassed her to feel that way. He hadn’t given her any indication he thought of her as anything but the spoiled pain in the ass he’d been assigned to help. Yes, he’d treated her like an adult, but now as she thought about how he’d looked talking to that woman in there, she realized that he hadn’t looked that comfortable and happy at any time he’d spoken to her. It felt like when he treated her like a grown woman, he’d been patronizing her instead of respecting her. That brunette had gotten his respect even as a complete stranger to him, but as she replayed his defending her earlier, she knew he hadn’t given that same respect to her.
He’d handled her, just like everyone else in her world except Lauren did so she’d do exactly what they all wanted her to do, when they wanted her to do it.
While she stood there on the sidewalk punishing herself, a man approached her and excitedly said, “You’re Alexis Marchand! I’m a huge fan! Oh my God! You’re Alexis! Can I have your autograph?”
Caught off guard, she stammered out, “I…I don’t have a pen. I’m sorry.”
His face grew dark and he glowered at her. “Oh, come on. I’ll just ask someone for a pen and then you can sign my shirt. It will just take a minute.”
Unnerved at how close he was to her, she turned to walk back into the gym, but the man grabbed her arm and clamped his hand down on her wrist to stop her. Alexis looked down in horror at the man’s fingers pressing into her skin. Who was he? Was he her stalker? Why was he holding her arm so tightly?
“Let me go!” she cried as she tried to pull away from him. “Get off me!”
He began to say something about her not caring about her fans, but everything around her began to spin and she fell back toward the glass windows behind her. She didn’t know when Hunter appeared and got in between her and the man, but she heard him begin to yell at him.
“Hey, buddy! Let her go. She’s just stopping by the gym. Back away, man.”
The man released his hold on her arm and held up his hands in front of him. “I just wanted an autograph. Nothing else. I wasn’t trying to do anything to her. She should be used to fans wanting autographs by now. What’s the big deal?”
Lauren took hold of Alexis as she began to shake, and Hunter pushed the guy away so he fell down on the sidewalk. Raising his voice, he barked, “Get the fuck away from her! She doesn’t owe you a damn thing, and that includes an autograph!”
The guy ran off as Lauren hugged her close. “It’s okay. Forget him. Let’s go home.”
Hunter turned back toward her, and with concern in his eyes, he looked at her like he was examining her for damage. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
Alexis shook her head but couldn’t get the words out to tell him she wasn’t hurt. Behind her, Lauren said, “We need to go home now. Can you get us a cab?”
Hunter nodded. “Yeah. I got it.”
He hailed them a ride a few seconds later, and when they were safely inside the backseat of the car, Alexis closed her eyes. She didn’t want to cry. Not even when she began to realize that she would be trapped in that apartment forever.
God, she missed LA. She missed the sun and the beach. She missed home.
She missed being normal.
No one said a word as they rode up in the elevator to the penthouse. Lauren held Alexis tightly in her arms, her left hand gently stroking her hair to calm her. It didn’t work, but she couldn’t blame her friend for trying.
Once again, Hunter didn’t chastise her for running off or blame her for putting herself in the situa
tion where someone could get to her. She didn’t know if she deserved either. Before this whole stalker thing started happening, she could walk out in public like a normal person, even though Paul always told her that the day would come when she couldn’t.
But it never did. Never once did anyone accost her. Not until the stalker started terrorizing her.
Alexis knew she bore some of the responsibility for what happened with that man back there at the gym. Before she grew fearful of everyone and everything, she would have joked with him about not having anything to write with and he would have seen she was a good person he just caught at a bad time. She might have even walked with him to a local store to borrow a pen from the clerk behind the counter, even signing something for that second person, if they asked.
That’s who she used to be. That’s the woman these people wanted an autograph from. Not the terrified mess she’d become after only a few months of her stalker sending those damn letters.
She didn’t want to be this way. Each day that passed without anyone stopping him, she retreated a little more into the safety of her own world. Sure, she broke out from time to time, but each time she did, she was shown exactly why she couldn’t trust people.
Everything Paul had always warned her about was coming true. She’d moved from a home she loved to a city she knew nothing about and still she couldn’t walk freely down the sidewalk. But it wasn’t the place.
It was her.
The stalker had succeeded in trapping her not only in her home but inside herself.
The elevator doors opened, and Alexis walked directly toward her room. She didn’t want to be around anyone now. Neither Lauren nor Hunter could help her. That had been proven back there on the sidewalk outside the gym.
No assistant or bodyguard could protect her from the danger outside or the fear that grew by the moment inside her.
They followed her down the hallway, but she waved them off. “I want to be alone.”