Malcolm nervously looked between the two of us and quickly made an excuse and walked out.
“Yeah, problem,” Sebastian said snidely. “You called Levi? You threatened to quit if I didn’t leave? Seriously? What is your fucking problem?”
“You!” I snapped as I stood up and kicked my chair out from behind me and came around the table at him. “You’re my problem! I thought that was obvious!”
“Why? I’m here and I’m trying to help! Why is that a bad thing all of a sudden?”
“If you wanted to handle the case, why didn’t you from the beginning? You gave me that whole line of bullshit that you were going away with Ali, it’s a conflict of interest, and now all of a sudden? You’re free as a bird! We’ve never worked as partners on any case before—none of us!—and suddenly here you are. Well I’m tired of it. Either take over the case or leave!”
He glared at me long and hard, and for a minute I thought he was going to rear back and punch me.
Then I remembered who I was dealing with. Pretty-boy Sebastian didn’t do that sort of thing. It’s wasn’t dignified. Only white-trash like me gets into fist fights I guess.
Sebastian sighed. “Can’t you understand where I’m coming from, Cole? We’re friends. Just like you and I are friends. If it was you who was in danger, I’d want to be there too.”
“You’re freaking full of it, Seb. You know that, right?”
He looked at me quizzically. “What are you talking about?”
“You weren’t concerned enough to be here until you thought I was sleeping with her. Then all of a sudden your schedule cleared up. Tell me, is Ali okay with you being here hovering around your movie star friend?”
“Please, don’t try and use that sort of nonsense on me. Ali knows exactly who Eva is and what she is to me. She’s even met her a couple of times. Don’t try and plant the jealousy seed because it’s an embarrassment to us both.” He raked a hand through his hair. “Just answer one question for me, and then I swear I’ll never bring it up again.”
I had a sinking feeling in my gut that I knew what he was going to ask, but I simply nodded and waited.
“Do you really have feelings for her, or are you just fucking around?”
Man, I hated to have to have this conversation with him. And I hated that I was going to have to admit out loud to him something that I was having trouble comprehending myself. I cleared my throat. “I’m not...I mean...she means something.”
Sebastian stared hard at me for a long time before giving me a curt nod.
I wasn’t sure what we were supposed to do just then—shake hands? Hug? I mean, it was only one question, and I gave a relatively short answer, but it felt like it all held a lot more weight than that.
“So,” he began, “are we good?”
Were we? I still didn’t want him here. I wanted him gone. I wanted to figure out who was stalking Evangeline, so I could stop being her bodyguard. I wanted...
Shit.
Her. I just wanted her.
He was still studying me—waiting for an answer. I was just about to reach out a hand to him when there was a scream and a loud crash from outside the trailer. We both cursed and bolted for the door. Malcolm went racing by and it hit me—who the hell had been watching Evangeline?
Malcolm got to her trailer first, and Sebastian beat me by a few seconds, but by the time I stepped in the door, I was ready to kill. I scanned the room and saw that Malcolm was looking at some photos that were positioned on the make-shift kitchen table.
“What happened?” I asked, my voice gruff.
I expected someone to answer me. No, that wasn’t right. I expected Evangeline to come to me and answer me. But she didn’t. She took one look at Sebastian and burst into tears and then threw herself into his arms.
For a brief moment, the case was all but forgotten because the shock and rage I felt at seeing Evangeline in Sebastian’s arms nearly blinded me. Never in my life had I felt this...this...jealous. I never get close to anyone—not even my friends—and yet somehow in a matter of weeks, Evangeline has become so important to me, so vital, that I was actually contemplating killing one of my best friends because he was comforting her.
Mentally I shook myself out of my stupor and walked over to Malcolm. “What have we got?” He motioned to the photos that were spread across the table. All of them were of Evangeline—all of them taken off the set. There were even a few taken at Sebastian’s family estate when we were coming and going. All taken with a high powered camera lens.
“This just got worse, didn’t it?” Malcolm asked, and I nodded. He lowered his voice as he pulled me further away from where Seb and Evangeline were still standing. “This means that all of our decoys and changing how and where we drive isn’t working, Cole. Whoever this is has got to be here on the set. Someone closer than we’ve thought.”
Suddenly I remember Evangeline mentioning how she thought Malcolm had been acting odd. I studied him hard for a long moment—until he visibly started to squirm under my scrutiny.
“What? What are you thinking?”
My emotions were too close to the surface, and so I said exactly what I was thinking. “I think it’s you.”
“What?” he hissed. “Are you fucking kidding me? Why? Why would you even think that?”
“What do you expect me to think?” I backed him into a corner but get my voice low. “You and I are the only ones that have constant access to her. Hell, we don’t even tell most of your team what we have planned. So since it’s not me—because this shit started long before I ever got here—that only leaves you, Malcolm.”
His eyes grew wide for a second before he shoved me—hard—and came at me. “You arrogant son of a bitch. Do you even hear yourself?”
I wanted to fight. Hell, nothing would give me more pleasure than to unleash all of the rage I had in me on Malcolm right here, right now. I looked over my shoulder toward Sebastian. “Get her out of here. Now.” My tone left no room for argument, and I was glad that he simply complied and led her out of the trailer.
Then I turned my attention back to Malcolm. “Yeah. I hear myself and I can’t believe that we’re even going to have this conversation. And yet...here we are.”
“Cole, I’m telling you...it’s not me. I swear,” Malcolm said, his voice earnest and sincere. “I don’t care if you believe me or not but I’m telling you, it’s not me!”
“Then explain this! Explain how it’s possible that you’re the only one who could have known where we were in all these pictures!”
He looked like he was about to argue but then his posture relaxed, became defeated. “I...I can’t. I wish to hell that I could, Cole. I’ve been with Evangeline for so long...why would you think I’d want to scare her? I spend my life trying to protect her!”
“Maybe you’re trying to prove that you’re actually needed. Maybe guarding a former teen-idol was getting boring for you. You’ve gotten lazy. Maybe you heard a rumor that you were going to be replaced and you needed to do something to show that you could still do something around here.”
His eyes narrowed at me. “You know, I’m getting a little tired of you putting me down all the damn time. I have done everything you’ve asked me to do—even more—and yet you still talk to me like I’m some sort of rent-a-cop!”
“Prove me wrong,” I snapped. “Seriously, dude, fucking prove me wrong! If you didn’t take these pictures, then who did?”
“Isn’t that your job?” he asked snidely.
I saw red. I was trembling from head to toe with the need to just pound him into the pavement so I took my shot. I reached out and swung and my fist hit what felt like concrete in his jaw. He immediately swung back and before I knew it, furniture was flying and we were on the ground.
“What the fuck!” Sebastian yelled as he came back into the room. He ran over and pulled Malcolm and I apart. “That’s enough! This is not helping anything!” He shoved Malcolm in one direction, and me in another.
“Where�
�s Evangeline?” I demanded.
“She’s in Pete’s office with Cali. I’ve got a guard stationed right outside the door. No one is allowed in or out unless I tell him.”
Fucking great. Now Sebastian was in control.
My jaw and my ribs hurt like hell, and I could feel some swelling near my eye. Great. Just what I needed on top of everything else.
“What were you two thinking?” Sebastian asked, looking between us.
“I think Malcolm is our stalker,” I said.
“What?” Sebastian looked at me like I was crazy. “Why?”
I gave him my theory and for a minute there, I thought he was going to back me up. Then he turned to Malcolm. “Did you do this?”
“No.”
“Then prove it,” Seb said.
“How? How the hell am I supposed to do that?”
“You’re suspended. You and you’re entire team. I want you all off the set until this case is solved. As soon as it is, you’ll be back as Evangeline’s bodyguard—if she wants you to—but until then, you and your guys collect your things, get off the set and stay away from it until either Cole or I call you. If I see even one of your guys snooping around, I’ll have all of you arrested for harassment. Do I make myself clear?”
I wanted to throw my two cents in but basically, Seb had nailed it. It was exactly what I would do—had I been thinking clearly. I looked over at Malcolm, expecting some kind of argument from him, but he simply nodded and began collecting his things. He pulled a business card out of his wallet and handed it to Sebastian.
And then he was gone.
When the door closed, and it was just the two of us, Sebastian studied me. Hard. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah.” I rubbed a jaw a little. “I really...I thought it was him. Evangeline mentioned how weird he’d been acting and...”
“I know. She mentioned that once I got her out of here.”
“Is she all right?”
He shook his head. “No. She’s asking for you.”
I froze. “Why?”
He chuckled softly. “Hell if I know. Look, I want you to go and be with her. I’m going to work on getting a new team out here ASAP. Once they’re all in place, I’ll meet up with you back at the house. I’ll also make sure to beef up security there too.”
“I can do something, you know,” I said defensively. “This doesn’t mean that I have to be relegated to babysitter again.”
“You’re not,” Seb said wearily. “I think that you’re wound up right now and maybe you need a little time to cool off.”
“Whatever,” I muttered.
“Now what? What the hell have I done now?”
I turned to leave but then, without looking over my shoulder, I said, “She went to you first.”
“What?”
“You. When we all came in here to see what happened, she went to you.”
“So?”
I paused and felt more than a little deflated. “Never mind.”
I walked out of the trailer and made my way to where Evangeline was. But the scene continued to play out in my head. There were three of us there with her, and she chose to go to Sebastian. Didn’t that really say it all? Here I was tormenting myself and agonizing over the fact that I wanted her—needed her—so damn much, but at the end of the day, she was no different than anyone else. I was beneath her. I was always going to be beneath her.
I wasn’t good enough.
Not as a lover.
Not as a bodyguard.
I arrived at the trailer and saw the guard on his phone. “Yes, Sir. He just got here,” he said. “Okay. Thanks.” He placed his phone back in his pocket. “Mr. Maxwell said you can go it.”
Like the cherry on a fucking sundae. Yippy for me. Seb said I can do my job.
Rather than be a dick to the guard, I nodded and walked up the steps and let myself in. Evangeline and Cali were sitting on the sofa, Evangeline’s head was on Cali’s shoulder. I knew instantly that she was still shaking.
Lifting her head, Evangeline looked at me and gasped. “Oh my God! What happened? Did you...did you catch him? The person who took the pictures?”
I shook my head and looked at Cali. “You can go. I’m going to take her back to the house.”
“Are you sure?” Cali asked. “Isn’t there someplace else you can go?”
“It’s still the safest place for now,” I said, my voice flat and emotionless. She finally stood and wished us both a goodnight before leaving.
“I don’t know if I can go back there,” Evangeline said quietly. “I mean, whoever this is, they know where I am.”
I nodded. “But they won’t get in. Sebastian is bringing in more security, and Malcolm’s entire team is being replaced.”
“What? But why?”
“It’s none of your concern,” I said firmly. “Let’s go.”
“But—”
“Now, Clementine,” I added snarkily.
Her eyes narrowed at me as she stood up. “We’re back to that?”
“We never should have left it.” Then I called Seb to find out where the car was and had the guard walk with us to escort her there.
The drive back was spent in silence. Well, she was silent. I was on the phone with Sebastian and then Levi and Declan to go over who the new team was that was coming in and what high-tech devices we were finally going to bring in to plant around the set. The movie studio and the director were not on board with us putting up surveillance equipment in the beginning. They thought it would somehow leak to the media, and they didn’t want any scenes getting out.
They were singing a different tune now.
By the time we arrived back at the house, I was pretty sure that Evangeline was a little more relaxed, but I was still on edge. We went inside, and I secured every room and made sure that every window was covered.
“We’re clear,” I said to her when I was done.
“Cole...I...I wanted to...I need...”
“Go to bed, Angelina,” I murmured. “Just...go.”
“Can’t we at least talk? I mean, this is my life we’re dealing with. I have the right to know what’s going on!”
She had a point, but at the moment, I was all talked out. “You heard me on the phone while we were driving here. What more do you want?”
“How about a little kindness? A little sympathy?”
“Sorry, Princess, I’m fresh out of that crap.” I stalked to the kitchen and began to make myself a sandwich. I knew she had followed me in, but I was serious. I didn’t want to talk, and sympathy was the last thing on my mind.
I didn’t offer to make her something to eat. I didn’t pour her a drink when I got one for myself. I acted as if I was in the room completely by myself.
Yeah, I was a piece of crap. What else is new?
“Why are you being like this?” she finally asked, her voice cracking with emotion.
“Just here to do my job, Your Highness. That’s all.” I put all the food away and turned and gave her a mock salute. “Sebastian will be here later. I’m sure you’ll wait up for him.” I grabbed my plate and glass and left the room.
It was too much to hope that she’d just let me go. I was halfway to my room when she called my name. I stopped, but I didn’t turn around.
“What am I supposed to do?” she asked quietly.
“Go to your room. Grab a sandwich. Hell, watch some TV. You’re safe in here. No one’s getting in. Just don’t open the curtains or the blinds.” And then I continued to walk away.
“Aren’t you supposed to stay with me?”
“I’m entitled to a fucking break,” I snapped. And then I was done listening. I was done talking.
I was done caring.
As soon as I got to my room, I stepped in and slammed the door.
And cursed Evangeline to hell for making me feel like this.
Eleven
Evangeline
I really wished Sebastian was staying with me tonight, instead of Cole.
&n
bsp; I didn’t feel safer with him—nothing felt as safe to me as Cole’s rough, hard presence—but things were easier with Sebastian.
He felt familiar, calm, easy. He didn’t stir up all these feelings and emotions like Cole did.
Right now, anger was the primary emotion that had been stirred up toward Cole.
He’d always been unpredictable, swinging from cold rudeness to hot tenderness with the turn of a moment. But he seemed to have suddenly jumped back in time to the beginning of our relationship, when he didn’t know or like me at all.
He did know me. He did like me. I was absolutely sure of it. Which made his behavior this afternoon all the more maddening.
I was scared enough after seeing those photos. I didn’t need to deal with this too.
Thick-skulled, insensitive ass.
I’d been soaking in a bubble bath for twenty minutes, sipping a glass of red wine and thinking angsty thoughts. About the stalker, who seemed to be getting closer to me by the day.
And about Cole.
Finally, when my attempt to relax and clear my head was obviously a failed effort, I stepped out of the tub, drained the water, and toweled off.
If Cole hadn’t crawled out of his hole when I came out of my bedroom, I was going to call up Sebastian and demand I get a bodyguard who was willing to do his job.
I could be getting killed in here, for all Cole knew or cared.
Simmering with righteous resentment, I threw on a little satin robe and walked out of my bedroom to the sitting room outside my door where Cole was normally stationed.
He was there. Staring out the window into the night. Brooding.
“If I’d known I was getting Heathcliff as a bodyguard,” I snapped, “I would have reconsidered.”
He turned slowly, unsurprised. He’d obviously known I was standing behind him. It was really hard to catch a man like Cole unaware. “And I guess you think I don’t even know who fucking Heathcliff is.”
He sounded so bitter it stung, and I took a step backward. “I don’t care if you know who Heathcliff is. I’m saying you’re acting like him—that kind of selfish, vindictive, irrational brooding that accomplishes nothing. So tell me what the hell is wrong with you! What happened today?”
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