by Lisa Childs
Manny shoved his palm against the reporter’s chest and flattened him against the wall of the building. “I did not give anyone an interview,” he said.
“The pictures—”
“Nor did I give any pictures.”
He turned back toward the crush of reporters and noticed someone slinking away from the group. And he headed after him. Bernard Setters tried to run. But he wasn’t fast enough to escape Manny. He grabbed the back of his collar and drew him up short, his feet almost dangling above the sidewalk.
“Why the hell did you do that?” Manny demanded to know.
The guy gasped and sputtered and wriggled until his collar tore and he dropped to the concrete. “This—this is assault.”
“And what you’ve done is slander,” Manny said. At least he thought that was what it was. “And lies. I never gave you any photos. I never talked to you about Teddie.”
Bernard shrugged. “I was given the photos and the story. Whoever gave it to me said they were you. Why would I doubt them?”
Why had Teddie doubted him?
He cursed. The damn stalker. He’d set up Manny. It was a brilliant plan, the perfect way to get Teddie to fire him. She denied it, but the stalker had to be someone who knew her well, who knew her even better than Manny did.
“I need everything you got,” Manny told him.
“You didn’t keep copies?” Bernard scoffed.
Manny reached for the guy again. But before his fist could connect, someone grabbed his arm and pulled him back. This person was big, even bigger than Manny. And strong, so strong that he held tightly to his fist and dragged him back.
“Settle down,” Lars told him. “You’re only making this worse.”
The cameras hadn’t stopped flashing, so Lars was right. Teddie would probably think Manny wanted this attention, wanted the limelight she’d claimed she’d wanted to escape.
Lars led him toward a rental car parked at the curb. Manny hopped into the passenger’s seat, but when Lars slid behind the wheel, he caught his arm to stop him from turning the key in the ignition. “I don’t think we should leave her alone.”
He knew now—no matter what Nikki discovered—that there was another stalker out there.
“She fired Payne Protection,” Lars said. “Cooper called from the plane. He wants to talk to you.”
Manny groaned. “Does he think I sold out our client, too?”
Lars stared at him over the console, his pale blue eyes intense. “You are known for your big mouth.”
Manny cursed. “Yeah, I talk too much—sometimes,” he said. “But I would never sell any secrets.”
Lars’s head bobbed in a quick nod.
And Manny breathed a sigh of relief. “You know me.” Thank God someone believed him. “Cooper must know...”
Or was he going to fire him? Was that why he wanted to talk to him?
If Manny lost his job, he would have to reenlist with the Corps. Being a bodyguard or a Marine was the only thing he knew.
“Cooper knows,” Lars assured him. “He knows it wasn’t you who talked.”
“The stalker,” Manny said. “That crazy fan isn’t the real guy, not the one who hit Dane over the head and set the cabin on fire.”
“No, it’s not,” Lars agreed. “Nikki had to dig a little but she found proof of that. She also talked to the guy. He claimed to get that ski mask in the mail along with a note telling him where he would be able to catch Teddie.”
Manny swore a streak. “This guy is diabolical. He thinks of everything.”
“He?” Lars asked.
“Of course,” Manny said. “You think a woman would have been able to hit Dane that hard with a rock?” He grimaced as he thought of Lars’s fiancée. Nikki hated being underestimated. And she was freakishly strong. “I’m sorry. I know Nikki can take out every one of us. But—”
“It wasn’t Nikki,” Lars said, his lips curving into a slight smile.
“I know that—”
“Cooper thinks Teddie set this whole thing up as a PR stunt.”
Manny shook his head. “No...” He’d seen genuine fear on her face, in her voice. And when she’d pointed at that news story, she had looked hurt. Betrayed. Devastated.
“That’s not possible,” he said.
“Think about it,” Lars said. “She probably hired someone to act like a stalker up at the cabin. And when she realized we weren’t going to play along with her game forever, she set up a scapegoat in that fan.”
“No...”
“She’s the one who brought up those old letters,” Lars reminded him. “She didn’t want us thinking it was any of the suspects Nikki had developed. She didn’t want anyone she knew getting in trouble for her stunt.”
“So she’d send an innocent man to prison?”
Lars snorted. “You saw the guy’s record. There’s nothing innocent about him. And he didn’t have to take that mask. He didn’t have to show up at the park. While someone else had put the plan in motion, it was his choice to attack her.”
Just like Manny’s brother had chosen to rob that gas station and his father had chosen to hurt people he’d claimed to love.
But it had all begun with women, with falling for the wrong women...
Had Manny fallen for the wrong woman? Did he have the notorious Mannes poor judgment? “Why?”
Even though he asked himself the question, Lars answered, “For publicity. She’s getting older. There are younger models popping up every day. This whole stalked-supermodel stunt puts her face on every television and subsequently every magazine and billboard.”
She’d admitted she wanted her life back. Was this the one she’d wanted? The fame and fortune?
Was it all a ploy? Or was she really in danger?
* * *
Until she had fallen for Lars, Nikki had had some serious trust issues. After she had learned—in the proof of her illegitimate brother—that her father, the man she’d admired and idolized, had betrayed her mother, Nikki had lost all faith in men. In happily-ever-after.
Lars had restored her faith with his love. But sometimes she still struggled to trust. Like right now, she wasn’t certain if Cooper was right and Teddie Plummer had used the Payne Protection Agency for publicity or if she and the stalker were for real.
But it didn’t matter which was true. Either reason would have brought Nikki to the penthouse. She didn’t care so much that Payne Protection had been used. She cared that Manny had. And she cared that Teddie might still be in danger if the stalker was real.
“I fired all of you,” Teddie said as she opened the door. But she stepped back to let Nikki inside the penthouse.
Nikki nearly tripped over a bunch of bags sitting next to the door. “You’re leaving?”
Teddie nodded and quickly closed the door behind her. “I need to get away.”
“But isn’t this what you wanted?” Nikki asked. And she pointed to the television set with Teddie’s face running across it.
“What?” The supermodel shuddered. “I didn’t want any of this. I can’t believe Manny...”
“You shouldn’t,” Nikki said. “I can’t believe that you actually do think he had anything to do with it.”
“Bernard Setters—”
“—reported what he was told,” Nikki said. “Printed what he was given. He doesn’t know who really gave him those photos or that story.”
Teddie shook her head. She was either unwilling or afraid to listen—to realize that she’d been wrong. “It could have only been Manny.”
Nikki arched a brow. She had learned that from her mother. Sometimes it was all Penny Payne had needed to do to get people talking.
“What?” Teddie asked.
“You,” Nikki said. “It could have been you.”
Teddie’s mouth dropped open in shock. “That�
��that’s crazy.”
“Other celebrities have pulled stunts like this, tried to extend their fifteen minutes of fame or resuscitate a dying career.”
Teddie shook her head. “That’s—”
“Insulting?” Nikki asked. But she felt no sympathy. Only anger for how this woman had treated her friend. “How the hell do you think Manny felt when you accused him of selling you out?”
“He did.”
Nikki shook her head. “He did not.”
“Even you told me he has a big mouth,” Teddie reminded her.
“I said he talks a lot,” Nikki said. “But he’s always kept the secrets he’s supposed to keep. And he would never betray someone he cares about.”
Teddie blinked as if tears were threatening. From the dark circles and puffiness around her eyes, it looked as though she had been crying. She drew in a breath before replying, “Then I guess that proves he never cared about me.”
“Bull.” Nikki called her on it. “Even after how you’ve treated him, he asked me to come here.”
“Of course he did,” Teddie said. “To plead his case.”
Nikki shook her head. “He doesn’t give a damn what you think of him anymore.” That was a lie. But she was still mad that this woman had hurt her friend. The fact that she was hurting, too, didn’t change that. “He just wanted you to know that the guy in custody—the fan—he couldn’t have been the guy up north.”
Teddie shook her head. “What’s with all of you?” she asked. “Are you so desperate for business that you don’t want this assignment to end? Don’t you have any other clients?”
Now Nikki was insulted. She lifted her chin. “What’s with all of us?” she repeated. “We take our jobs seriously. We care about people and protecting them—whether they deserve our protection or not.”
She turned toward the door. “Cooper’s probably right about you. He has Mom’s instincts, so I shouldn’t have doubted him. You scammed us all. I hope the attention you wanted is worth what you lost.”
But if Teddie really wanted attention, why was she leaving? Of course, Nikki didn’t know where she was headed. She could have been off to Paris or LA. But the bags by the door looked more like what one would pack to go camping, not to go to a fashion show or movie premiere.
“What did I lose?” Teddie asked.
Nikki glanced back at her. “A great guy. Someone you can trust. You broke his heart.”
Teddie shook her head.
Was it that she couldn’t accept Manny had loved her? Or that she couldn’t accept she was wrong?
“It wasn’t Manny,” Nikki said. “I think he was right all along.” And Cooper—despite his instincts—was wrong. “Whoever this stalker is, it’s someone you know. Someone who knows you. That’s who gave Setters the story.”
“And the photos?” Teddie asked, and she sounded almost hopeful that Nikki had an explanation.
But she could only shrug. “I don’t know. Manny said the door was unlocked when he first showed up at the cabin. The stalker had been inside. Maybe he hid a camera in there.” Nikki kicked herself now that she hadn’t looked for one when she’d arrived at the cabin.
That could have been how the stalker had known she wasn’t Teddie when she’d left. Maybe he’d had a live feed somewhere inside the cabin. Nikki shivered as it all began to make sense.
“I know you don’t trust us,” Nikki said.
“You don’t trust me, either,” Teddie said. “You think I would do this—put so many people in danger—just for publicity? Hell, I could have dated one of those rock stars or movie stars if that was all I wanted. I didn’t need to burn down the cabin I loved. I didn’t need to...”
“To what?” Nikki asked.
Teddie only shook her head, unwilling to admit what else had happened.
Nikki suspected parts of the news story had been true. Teddie and Manny had crossed the line from protection to passion.
“We were wrong,” Nikki admitted. Mostly Cooper. And she couldn’t wait to tell him. “But so were you.”
Teddie wasn’t just wrong, though. She was still in danger.
Chapter 24
She was wrong.
Teddie had made a horrible mistake.
Feeling sick, she stared down at the bits of metal and melted plastic and glass that a fire inspector had sealed into an evidence bag. She was staring at her phone, though, and the photo she’d taken of it. The fire inspector had kept the evidence.
“Looks like a camera,” he’d told her. “Not sure where it was.”
She knew where it had been and what photos it had taken—the ones she had accused Manny of selling to Bernard Setters. She flinched as she remembered all the horrible accusations she’d hurled at him, all the insulting things she’d said to the man she loved and should have trusted.
He would never forgive her.
And she would never forgive herself. How could she have said those things? How could she have been so mean?
Tears stung her eyes, and she blinked furiously to keep them back. She had already cried so many tears over Manny. But then she’d been crying because she had thought he had betrayed her. Now she realized she was the one who had betrayed him.
She picked up the phone with which she’d taken the picture of that evidence bag.
Evidence of her stupidity...
She flipped the screen to her call log. She wanted to call Manny. She wanted to apologize. But she didn’t even have his number. The only Payne Protection Agency number that came up as she scrolled was for Cooper Payne.
But if she called Cooper, he might just think she was pulling another stunt for publicity. He doubted her now, like she’d doubted Manny.
And he had every right. How could she have been so stupid? She’d fallen right in with her stalker’s plan, just like he had known she would.
Manny had been right about that, too. Whoever the stalker was, he was someone she knew.
Someone who knew her—very well.
She shivered.
Despite its small size, the log cabin was cold. But she was reluctant to start a fire in the hearth. It would remind her too much of the fire that could have claimed her life and Manny’s. But her bodyguard had saved them both.
She couldn’t count on him to save her again. Not only had she fired Payne Protection but she had also alienated Manny with her insults, with her accusations. The cell screen blurred before her eyes.
But she knew the number she needed to call, the one she always called whenever she needed to talk to someone. Her mother...
Mama would say she’d told her so because Mama hadn’t believed that the bodyguard would betray her.
“Stop judging every man by how your father treated me,” she’d told her. “Not every man is a dog. Your Manny sounds like a man of his word. A man of honor and integrity.”
He was—a man of honor and integrity. He wasn’t her Manny. And now he would never be. Her heart ached over all the things she’d said to him, how she’d accused him of being a criminal like his family.
But she’d done far worse than that. She’d lied to him. She’d told him that she’d only been using him when they’d had sex.
She remembered how he’d flinched when she’d said that. He’d looked like she’d hit him. She hated herself for how cruel she’d been.
She pressed the contact for her mother but nothing happened. She blinked the tears away and looked down at the screen. She had no signal. This cabin she’d found in the UP was even more remote than the one that had burned.
She had needed to get as far from the paparazzi as possible. And she hadn’t wanted to see anyone who might tip them off. So she had no neighbors. There wasn’t even a town anywhere in the vicinity.
She was as off the grid as she could get. Too far off, she realized now, because she couldn’t call for help. And she
suspected she would need it. No matter where she’d gone before, her stalker had always found her.
She suspected he had again, because when she shivered this time it had nothing to do with the cold. She had that feeling she’d lived with for so long—that sensation of being watched.
The stalker had found her.
* * *
This was ridiculous. He had put his career on hold for her. His life...
Did she not understand the sacrifices he’d made for her? For years Anthony Esch had been a sought-after fashion photographer. Despite his young age, he’d been working in the industry a long time and had gained a reputation for himself, not just as the son of two world-famous fashion designers.
Mother and Father had started him in his career. But he had earned the respect of other designers, probably even more than he’d gained his parents’ respect. They’d always thought him a little inferior because they didn’t consider him as creative and artistic as they were.
He should have shown them the photos he’d taken of Teddie and the things he’d done to those photos after he’d taken them. But then they would have sent him back to that resort they’d sent him to when he was a teenager.
He snorted. There had been nothing resort-like about the rehab facility. He hadn’t been there for drugs or alcohol, though. He didn’t even like taking the drugs he’d been prescribed.
That was why he’d tossed them all out.
Why did she keep making everything so hard? She kept running off to these remote places. Or hiring bodyguards.
He smirked. The bodyguards were all gone now. His plan had worked brilliantly.
But his smirk slid away as he remembered the photos he’d seen—the way she’d been with Jordan Mannes. She had never been that way with him. She’d never initiated a kiss. And when he’d kissed her...
There had been no passion. How could she find that uncouth ex-Marine more attractive than him?
Was she blind?
He knew for certain she was stupid. She’d fallen so easily for all his lines. And for his plan.
He’d been outside her building when the bodyguard had stumbled out. The tough guy had looked beaten. She’d beaten him far more easily than Anthony ever could have. That bodyguard wasn’t going to rush to her rescue again.