She nodded. “I tried to help her, but it was too late. We walked out of the restaurant and it was like a swarm.” Her eyes took on a haunted, distant look and Wade knew she was seeing the events unfold in her memory. “Or an uncontrollable tornado that ripped through to leave devastation in its wake.” She shook her head. “It was senseless. A tragic, completely preventable incident. If she’d had a bodyguard—”
“Why didn’t she?”
“She didn’t want one. She loved her fans and never minded the constant interruptions. She said if she wanted to be alone, she simply stayed home. And going out in public became a game for her too. To see how well she could disguise herself. Sometimes it worked—” She spread her hands.
“And that day it didn’t,” he finished.
“Yeah.” She blinked. “One of Shana’s goals in life was to help as many people as she could. She did benefit concerts, visited sick fans in the hospital, raised money for missions, everything you could think of. She gave so much.”
“She gave it all.”
Olivia nodded. “She wrote something in her will that eventually changed my life.”
“What?”
“She left me some money and said her wish was for me to help others. She’d written the will two weeks before she died. At the time, I was too mad to do anything more than throw myself into my job, figuring I was helping the people I was keeping safe by getting the bad guys off the street.”
“But?”
“But after about a year, I decided to honor her wishes in a different way. I wanted to help people by keeping them safe, just not as an officer. You see, as a police officer, the job is more about reaction rather than prevention. I mean, there’s some of that, but being a bodyguard allows me to ward off the threat of harm before it actually happens.”
“It was what she wanted.”
“Yes.”
“How did you meet her?”
She paused. “She was the daughter of the last foster family I lived with.”
“The one you were with for six years? So she was your sister.”
“Yes.” She swallowed hard. “Yes, she was.”
“You were also a good friend to her.”
She stood and ran a hand down her sleek, straight blonde hair. “Not good enough.”
“Get some sleep.” He backed out of the door and shut it behind him.
A wave of exhaustion pulled at Olivia. She glanced at the bed, the adjoining bathroom, and the door Wade had just shut behind him.
The bed beckoned. She’d get her bag later.
[14]
When she awoke, it was with a start, the nightmare still clinging to the edges of her consciousness. Only this time Shana hadn’t been dropped onto the fence, she’d been blown up. But then it hadn’t been Shana, it had been Wade and she’d been kneeling beside what remained of him, wailing. She shuddered. “For crying out loud.” Olivia flopped over onto her side and rubbed her eyes. “Stupid nightmare.”
She saw her bag on the chair near the bed and figured Katie or Haley had brought it in to her. She must have been sleeping soundly. She glanced at the clock, but didn’t need to. Her stomach rumbled that it was time to eat. Way past time. She hadn’t eaten breakfast and now it was one o’clock in the afternoon.
She checked her phone and saw nothing urgent in her messages that needed her attention. She lay still, staring at the ceiling, taking a few moments to gather her thoughts and let her pulse slow down.
She couldn’t believe she’d told Wade as much as she had. She didn’t spill her story to clients. She didn’t get emotionally involved with her clients. And yet she found herself doing exactly that with Wade and his family.
She cared.
And she didn’t want to in spite of the fact that’s exactly what her now dead friend, Shana, had requested—no, expected—from her. Shana had died almost ten years ago and still her memory continued to plague Olivia, her friend’s last words echoing through her mind as she bled to death in Olivia’s arms.
“Don’t die, Shana, don’t die,” twenty-one-year-old Olivia had pleaded as she’d done her best to hold her friend still. She’d stared in horror at the spike from the fence protruding from Shana’s chest. “Don’t die.”
Shana gasped and grasped her arm. “You were right. I should have listened to you.” Blood dribbled from her mouth and Olivia wept and screamed for help. Sirens blared, help was on the way. “Shana—”
“Look for God, Liv. He’s . . . there. He . . . loves you. Let him help you. Tell my family I love . . .” Another gasp, a wince. Shana’s grip slackened, but she kept her eyes on Olivia’s. “Carrie—”
“I’ll take care of Carrie.” Carrie Blaine. Another performer like Shana but one who’d been receiving threats. One who’d also refused a bodyguard.
Shouts reached Olivia’s ears. Help had arrived.
But she knew. She knew and didn’t want to know. She let the tears flow freely down her cheeks.
Olivia cried out and sat straight up, her heart pounding in her throat. The dream. Again. This time the way it had originally happened.
She must have dozed back off. She sat still, gasping for breath, and let the images fade. Only they didn’t fade fast enough. She got up and padded barefoot into the bathroom, splashed water on her face, brushed her teeth, and turned on the shower.
Fifteen minutes later, she towel dried her hair and still couldn’t shake the dream. It had been even more vivid than usual. She stared into the mirror, but all she saw were Shana’s pretty features standing out in detail. Memories of that day surged to the forefront. Was it because she’d allowed herself to talk about Shana last night?
The screams of the crowd still echoed and she pressed her hands against her ears. Even ten years later, standing in the steamy bathroom, she could almost feel the press of the hot, sweaty bodies. Feel the ache in her lungs as the crowd crushed tighter, stealing her breath and keeping her helpless, unable to get to her friend—or her weapon. Other bystanders had been horrified and tried to help. To get the rabid ones to release Shana. Only it had backfired. They’d not released her, they’d dropped her. Right onto the fence. Shana’s agonizing cry played over and over in her mind.
Olivia shuddered. “Stop,” she whispered. “Stop, stop.” She pushed away from the sink and blinked, trying to dispel the images, the memories.
The horror.
She quickly changed into the clean clothes from her bag and headed downstairs to find Wade and Amy in the den, playing a game of Jenga. Stacy sat in the recliner reading a book. Wade was intently placing his block on the top of the stack when he looked up to see her. The stack crashed to the coffee table and Amy jumped up with a shriek. “I won! I won!”
Wade shot Olivia a rueful look.
“Sorry,” she murmured but couldn’t hide the smile curling her lips.
He shrugged. “It’s okay. I just have to make her bed for her for the next week.”
Amy did a little dance and poked her finger at her dad while she mocked him. He grabbed her with a growl and tackled her to the floor, gently, taking care not to hurt her, then tickled her until she begged for mercy. He let her go and the preteen lay on the floor laughing in between her gasps.
Olivia watched their interaction and had a brief flash of her own father pushing her on a swing in a park on a clear summer day. She blinked. Where had that come from? She shut the memory down. Even now, all these years later, it hurt to think about what could have been, had her parents not been killed, how different her life would be. But what was the point in dwelling on it? It did no good and just brought up feelings better left unfelt.
“You hungry?” Wade asked Olivia.
“Starving.” She looked around. “Where’s Katie?”
“She’s patrolling the grounds every so often. She left just a minute before you came down.”
Olivia nodded. That was standard operating procedure. She watched the workers installing the alarm system. She’d gotten a list of names from the person she�
�d hired and had a background check done on each one. Nothing suspicious had popped up on the three men and one woman, and she felt confident the finished product would meet her specifications. She knew Wade resented the need for the improvements, but she appreciated him holding his tongue.
Wade clasped his hands in front of him. “Haley left and said she was going to the hospital to check on Maddy, get some rest, and would be back at midnight tonight.”
Olivia nodded. “Good.”
Wade stood. “Follow me and I’ll feed you.”
“Can me and Stacy have some ice cream?” Amy asked.
“May Stacy and I. And sure.”
Amy and Stacy trailed them to the kitchen where Wade opened the refrigerator and pulled out a plate of sub sandwiches. He handed them to Olivia. “Will this work?”
“Like a charm. Thanks.”
“Martha made them before she left to run some errands. I usually hang out with Amy on Saturdays, and Martha does whatever she wants to do without worrying about us. Chips are next to the coffeemaker.”
She set the tray on the counter and took one of the sandwiches, placed it on a paper plate, and grabbed a bag of Doritos. She seated herself at the table while Wade scooped a generous helping of ice cream for Amy and Stacy.
Olivia glanced at Wade. “Did you get some sleep?”
“A little. I don’t seem to need much anyway.”
Olivia nodded and watched the girls devouring their ice cream. “So what are your plans for the rest of the day?”
Wade shrugged. “Just hanging out here. Thought we’d take a swim in the pool.”
Olivia tensed. Swimming was outside. But it was behind the house and surrounded by a fence. She nodded. “Sounds like a good plan. We can work with that.”
“Would you like to join us?”
Olivia hoped she hid her shudder. “No thanks. I’ll stick to watching the area, but you three have fun.”
He studied her for a moment, then nodded. “All right then.”
Amy finished the last bite of her ice cream and stood. “Come on, Stacy, let’s go get our bathing suits on.” The girls raced out of the kitchen and Olivia finished her sandwich while Wade sat silent.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked.
His eyes flicked up to hers. “Who this person is.”
Of course. “I have a recommendation.”
“What?”
“Enjoy the time with the girls, don’t think about Thursday night or last night. Just leave the worrying to me and my team, and live your life.”
He pursed his lips and gave a slow nod. “Easier said than done, I think.” The girls bounded into the kitchen, dressed in swimsuits, towels slung around their necks. Wade smiled at their exuberance, then swung his gaze back to hers. “But I think it’s good advice for now.”
He rose. “Give me a few minutes to change. I’ll be back in just a sec.” He left and Olivia let a slow breath escape her lips even as her stomach churned. She’d rather face a ticking bomb than a swimming pool. “You guys better know how to swim really well,” she muttered. Because there was no way she was jumping in the water.
[15]
SUNDAY MORNING
Olivia rolled over in the bed and stared at the clock. Everyone had survived the swim in the pool, including a nervous Olivia. The girls swam better than fish, and Olivia never had to contemplate whether she’d actually be able to jump in if someone required it. She’d walked the edges of the pool and the perimeter of the grounds several times. Thank goodness, all had been quiet.
Katie had taken over guard duty at midnight and Olivia had come home to get some rest. Seven whole hours felt like a vacation. There’d been no nightmares and no one had called with any emergencies during the night. Maybe Wade’s stalker needed some sleep too, she thought with no little sarcasm.
Her phone rang and she rolled over to snag it from the bedside table. “Hello?”
“This is Quinn. Just wanted to let you know that we’re still trying to track down that particular caller who seems to like the DJ so much.”
“His name is Wade.”
“Yeah. I know. Anyway, we finally managed to get her address from the trace on her number. Her name is Valerie Mathis. She’s one of the few remaining people with a landline. She used that number to call Wade at the station numerous times. When we got to her house around 8:00 this morning, the place was empty.”
“You went in?”
“Nope. No reason to. But her car was gone and the neighbors say they haven’t seen her since early yesterday morning.”
“Convenient.”
“Seems like it, but apparently she was talking about visiting a sister out of town, so they think that’s where she went. We’ll check again later this afternoon. She works as a waitress at that little restaurant on Coffee Street downtown.”
“Thanks for the update. I appreciate it.”
“I know you do. That’s why I don’t begrudge sharing with you. I’ll be in touch.”
And then he hung up just as her phone beeped another incoming call. She tapped the screen. “Hi.”
“Just checking in,” Katie said.
“I’m getting ready to get up and get dressed. How did last night go?”
“Quiet. Eerily quiet.”
Olivia nodded, even though her friend couldn’t see her. “Good. Let’s hope it stays that way.”
“Hmm. We can hope.”
“Right.” She caught the nuance behind Katie’s words and agreed. “The eye of the storm?”
“Oh yeah.”
“All right. I’ll be on my way shortly. What’s on his agenda for today?”
“Church.”
Was it Sunday already? Ugh. “Don’t you want to cover this morning? Church is more your speed than mine.”
The silence echoed back at her and Olivia closed her eyes. Where was her professionalism? Why had working with the Savage family sent her spiraling into emotions and uncharacteristic actions? She cleared her throat. “Sorry. I must not be fully awake yet. It’s my shift. I’ll be there shortly.”
“Are you all right?”
The soft question vibrated within her. “Of course, I’m fine. I’ll see you in about fifteen minutes.”
“I’ll do the church duty if you want, you know that.”
“You need your rest too. Haley and I are up for this one.”
“Oh, by the way, Charlie and Lizzie both answered the text Haley sent them. They’re ready to work whenever you need them. Haley said she really stressed the urgency of the situation, and after today, their schedules are cleared for however long you need them.”
“Great.” Olivia breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ll email them everything we have so they can play catch-up on the Savage family. I’ll see you soon.” Olivia hung up. She rolled out of bed, walked to the mirror, and stared at her reflection. “Get it together, girl. You have a job to do. Emotions don’t get to have a place in it.” She lifted her chin a notch, then turned and walked out of the bedroom door.
Wade straightened his shirt over the top band of his jeans and slipped on his brown loafers. Amy and Stacy were already in the kitchen devouring whatever had produced the mouthwatering smells that had him hurrying from his bedroom. He’d been unable to reach Stacy’s mother last night, which had him concerned. He’d called three more times and left messages reassuring her that Stacy was fine, but he really needed to talk to her.
He glanced at his phone. She still hadn’t returned his call.
He shoved his wallet in his back pocket and glanced at the clock. They needed to leave in about thirty minutes. The service started at ten sharp. He entered the kitchen.
Martha looked up from the stove. “Grab a plate. I’ve got pancakes and bacon and a side of eggs if you want it.”
His stomach rumbled. “I want it all.” He ruffled Amy’s hair, then Stacy’s, eliciting giggles and protests all at the same time.
Amy finally huffed. “Now I have to brush my hair again. You really have to
stop doing that, Dad.”
He gave her a mock frown. “I’m so sorry, I forget you’re almost grown.”
He saw Martha hide a grin while he loaded his plate. “What made you go all out like this?”
“The girls asked me yesterday.” She shrugged. “And I know you like a big breakfast on Sunday morning.”
Katie stepped into the room and her gaze landed on the two girls. “Good morning,” she said.
“Morning.” He nodded to the food. “There’s plenty if you’re hungry.”
“I’m fine. I’ll grab something on the way home. It looks delicious, but if I eat all that, I’ll fall asleep at the wheel.” She looked at her phone. “Olivia will be here any moment.”
Wade’s pulse accelerated at the mention of her name and he drew in a steadying breath. His reaction to the woman had taken him by surprise at their initial meeting. The fact that he was still reacting said it wasn’t due to sleepless nights or someone trying to kill him. He wanted to get to know her. But why? Why her and why now? How could he even consider that while he was trying to evade a stalker? It didn’t make sense, but berating himself for bad timing wasn’t going to do any good.
Martha finished a quick clean-up and headed for the guest house to get ready for church. A few minutes later, a knock on the door sent the girls into a flurry of activity. Katie placed a hand over her weapon and moved to peer out the window. She relaxed and opened the door. Olivia stepped inside. Wade could see she’d rested after she left last night. While her eyes looked a bit shadowed, the fatigue had faded.
She nodded. “Good morning.”
“Good morning.”
Katie gave them all a short salute. “I’ll see you all later.”
Katie left and Wade gestured to the food. “Would you care for any?”
Always Watching Page 9