Fiancé by Friday

by Catherine Bybee

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “I have my reasons,” he said. “Millions of them. My publicist won’t even be privy to what I’m doing. Only you and your client will know the truth.”

  Gwen sat forward and picked at some of the food. She took the time to explain the contract he’d have to sign, and the payment schedule they would set up. “I have papers I need you to fill out. I will probe into your life, Mike. And I will find out things about you you’ll probably not wish me to know.” Gwen thought of Samantha, of how easily she told prospective clients that their lives were a book for her to read and she never skimmed the pages.

  “You’ll only find what I wish you to find,” he told her, his smile cocky.

  It was her turn to lower her sunglasses and force his gaze to hers. “By the time I’m done, I’ll learn the name of your first lover. Some of our clients have bigger secrets than yours to keep. If you’re willing to open wide, I’m happy to help.”

  “The media can’t find out that information. What makes you think you will?”

  “The media wants a story. I want to protect my clients and make certain I’m not setting someone up for abuse. My goals are more personal, Mike.” She pushed her glasses back up and let him ponder her words.

  “I like you, Gwen. Are you married?”

  Gwen tilted her head back and laughed. “No, and no thank you.” Samantha had met her brother when she was hired to set him up with another woman to marry. But Blake had never met any other woman, and the two of them were nearing their third anniversary. She was not Samantha and nothing like her brother.

  “Go ahead and look,” he told her. “It will be refreshing to have someone to talk to who knows all my secrets.”

  “Your wife will know them, too.”

  “I would assume so. How soon will I be hearing from you?” he asked.

  “I already have a woman in mind.”

  “Trustworthy?”

  “All of our clients are that. This one in particular might be the only one who wouldn’t be…what do you call it, starstruck? With you. Your celebrity status might be news to me but not with any others in our database.”

  “I understand that.”

  “If the woman I have in mind agrees to meet with you, how soon can we set that up? And how quickly do you want to marry?”

  “This is Hollywood. Everything, and I do mean everything, is carefully choreographed. I’d want a ‘chance’ meeting, a slow burn of a courtship, and then an undeniable attraction and undying love.” As Michael explained his needs, his voice lowered an octave and the charm Hollywood paid dearly for swept up her spine.

  Too bad he’s gay.

  “So one month…tops?” she asked with a grin.

  “Yeah, that should work. I’ll time it as I’m finishing filming in New York. Do you think we can work within that time frame?”

  As long as Karen agreed.

  “Not a problem.”

  Chapter Three

  The sound of the shutter clicked as the camera captured image after image of the two leaving the restaurant. The man kissed the woman on the cheek and they went their separate ways.

  From where he sat, he saw the make and model of the man’s car, snapped a picture of the license plate, and swung his lens to the woman. She removed her sunglasses while searching in her purse. She glanced around, as if aware someone watched.

  “I’m watching,” he whispered to himself. “Get used to me.”

  He lowered his camera as the man sped by, oblivious.

  And when the woman pulled away…he popped a piece of candy into his mouth and followed.

  Gwen dialed into the long distance call and waited through the double rings. After a quick cordial conversation with Tamara, the housekeeper at her brother’s estate, Gwen was put on hold while she went to find Samantha.

  “Hello?”

  “Oh, it’s so good to hear your voice. How is Albany?”

  “Wet,” Samantha said, laughing. “How is Tarzana?”

  “Hot and dry.”

  “How is everything there? How’s Karen?”

  “She’s great. In fact, she’s part of the reason I called. I need a background check on a prospective husband for her. Have you heard of a Michael Wolfe?”

  “The actor?”

  Why was it everyone knew the man but her? “Oh, good, you do know him.”

  Samantha no longer took care of the daily activities of Alliance since her marriage, but she knew the people to contact for background checks. The higher the profile, the harder it was to find anything of substance. If there was any dirt to find, she’d find it.

  “Everyone knows him, Gwen.”

  “So Karen has told me. Do you have time to look?”

  Samantha laughed. “You’ve lived here, you know I have nothing but time. There’s more staff on this estate than there are people on your block. If I leave a towel on the bathroom floor it’s picked up before I get out of the shower.”

  Gwen remembered. Domestic help filled the halls of the home of a rich duke. And although she wasn’t much of a cook, she wouldn’t take three decent meals a day in return for privacy again anytime soon. Gwen glanced up at the camera she knew was hidden in the corner of the room.

  Almost private.

  “So what does this have to do with Karen?”

  “She’s a suitable match. He needs someone attractive enough to convince his fans that he’s found the right match. If he’s as sought after as everyone tells me, he could have anyone.”

  “He could,” Samantha told her.

  “Karen’s beautiful. They’ll make a very handsome couple. Karen isn’t rattled by his celebrity status. I doubt there are many women in our database we can say the same about.”

  “I agree.”

  Gwen kept listing Karen’s attributes. “Her closest friends are you, Eliza, and myself. If she needs to bend our ear about her marriage we can be there for her without her slipping to someone talking with the media. She understands the stakes better than most. She only has to convince the kids at the Boys and Girls Club that she’s helplessly in love.”

  “She might be the perfect match,” Samantha agreed. “That is, if everything checks out.”

  “Oh, I think so. They’d get along very well.”

  “She hasn’t met him yet?”

  “No. I’ll wait until you’re done before introducing them. How long do you think you’ll be?”

  “Give me forty-eight hours. Michael Wolfe. How exciting. You know what that means if this all works out, right?”

  Gwen blew out a breath, anticipating Samantha’s reference to what was coming next. “It means I’ll finally get some privacy around here.” Gwen loved sharing the home with another woman her age, but the last thing she wanted was for anyone in the family to feel sorry for her. They all knew she’d never lived alone.

  “You don’t fool me, Gwen.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Oh, would you look at the time? I have a few more phone calls to make. Do be a dear and give my brother a kiss from me, will you?”

  “Leave the acting to Michael. You suck at it.”

  Gwen chuckled, sent her love, and hung up.

  “Hey, Gwen?” Karen called from the back of the house.

  Gwen followed Karen’s voice and found her staring out the kitchen window.

  “What do you make of that?” Karen pointed in the backyard, beyond their fence. A crane on the street behind them was hoisting a large wooden box over the edge of the house.

  “I’ve no idea.”

  “I know the old owners were foreclosed on. The ‘for sale’ sign went down a couple of weeks ago. I wonder what the new owners are doing.”

  Gwen opened the back door. The sound of a dozen male voices speaking in a minimum of two languages filled the kitchen. Gwen walked through the back door and peered over the fence to the neighbors’ house. The wooden box hung on a large cable that tilted close to the eaves of the house. She held her breath when someone fr
om the other side of the fence shouted for whoever operated the crane to stop. Karen moved to Gwen’s side and stepped up onto a lawn chair to get a better look.

  “Do you see anything?”

  Their small backyard was fenced with a combination of cinder blocks and wood. The fence that separated the two properties stood no more than five feet tall. A few trees helped separate the space, but no matter how you looked at it, the backyard privacy was nonexistent.

  “I think it’s a hot tub.”

  The wooden box swung in midair, the hydraulic hum of the machine holding it hiccupped, and the tub jolted about an inch closer to the house.

  “I hope it doesn’t fall into the roof,” Karen said.

  “I’m guessing that’s what everyone over there is worried about, too.”

  Neither of them could stop watching the swinging box until the crane set it safely on the ground.

  “What are we doing down here? Your room is the perfect place to watch,” Karen said.

  Gwen moved back into the house. “Suit yourself.” Watching the neighbors, especially colorful ones, was a nice source of entertainment, but Gwen hadn’t seen any men in their neighbors’ yard worth gawking over.

  After a short time spying, Karen returned to their joint office and sat at her desk. “You know what this means, don’t you?”

  Gwen was scanning the entertainment section of an online magazine, searching for information on her newest client. “No, what’s that?”

  “Mrs. Sweeny is going to smell up the block.”

  Gwen pinched her eyes shut. Their neighbor, Mrs. Sweeny, greeted all neighbors and newlyweds with a batch of her completely unpalatable pasta and clam sauce. The smell alone would make the hungriest dog sprint in the opposite direction. Even the cats.

  “We’ll be sure and close the house up tight and keep the air running as soon as we scent the first boiling noodle.”

  “If all she did was boil noodles, no one would complain.”

  “True.” Gwen noticed a picture of Michael on the arm of another actress. Each time she found him he was with someone new. “I spoke with Samantha. She’s checking out Michael’s background.”

  Karen swiveled in her chair, giving Gwen her full attention.

  “I somehow doubt she’d find much of anything we don’t already know about the man.”

  “Or what we assume about him,” Gwen added.

  “Do you know where he lives?”

  “Moved to Beverly Hills about a year ago. Before that he had a home in Hollywood Hills.” All of that was on public record.

  “Secluded?”

  “You know how most of those homes are in Beverly Hills…completely unseen from the street. Unless the owner wants to flash and flaunt.”

  “My guess is Michael wouldn’t want his home life flashed.” Karen shrugged. “I can live with that.”

  Gwen regarded her friend. “I’d think you’d enjoy some privacy. Between the cameras and noisy neighbors, we don’t have much here.”

  “I like being around people.”

  Karen volunteered at a local Boys and Girls Club and probably spent half her income on disadvantaged kids. Although Samantha had done a complete background check on Karen long before Gwen started working at Alliance, Gwen didn’t feel it was her place to dig into Karen’s past. If Michael had specific questions about Karen, Gwen would have Samantha call him with the details. As Gwen’s co-worker and roommate, she thought that eventually the other woman would open up to her. If she didn’t, then that was her business.

  “What will you do with the money…if in fact you and Michael marry?” Their female clients who were willing to marry rich men did so for a very steep price. A minimum two million dollars with a twenty percent commission to Alliance was in the contract. The groom agreed to take care of every expense his new bride needed, including everything from a new wardrobe to a new car. Living arrangements were determined early in the negotiating phase. Some husbands lived with the wives, though never in the same bedroom. If the couple became attracted to each other, it was understood that Alliance would have nothing to do with any resulting paternity suits. If the couple stayed married after the agreed upon time, Alliance was paid as per the agreement and it was up to the couple to dissolve the prenuptial contracts.

  There were a few clients, very few, who were actually looking for love. In those cases, couples were matched based on their profiles and desires for a romantic interest. Both parties agreed to pay Alliance for their background checks and all expenses associated with the match…and a finder’s fee.

  Samantha had started Alliance over five years ago. Several couples had met, married, and divorced their spouse, leaving as friends. So far, eighty percent of the couples they matched for love were still married. Only about twenty percent of the couples who married for money had endured past their contracts and had children, or were otherwise wed for life. The rest divorced as planned.

  Samantha and Blake being among the twenty percent.

  “I’ll invest half of it. Make sure I’m set later in life.”

  “And the other half?”

  “I’ve been thinking of opening a house for runaways. A place where every child can escape to and feel safe. A place for kids to go when they have nowhere else.”

  If there was ever a time Gwen wanted to probe it was now. “That sounds like a lot of work.”

  “Anything worthwhile usually is. There are a lot of homeless teens out there getting into all kinds of trouble just to keep food in their mouths.” Karen turned away, which signaled to Gwen that “sharing time” was over. “Besides, an ex-wife of a celebrity might be able to convince others to make donations to help with the kids. It’s worth a shot.”

  Karen had a huge heart. “Let’s hope Michael’s background checks out then.”

  Gwen’s phone rang, saving Karen from more questions.

  “Hello?”

  “What’s going on in the backyard?” Leave it to Neil to skip any “how do you do’s” and get right at the meat of things.

  “I’m sorry?”

  “Your backyard? The motion detectors are off the charts but nothing is coming up on the video feed.” Neil’s short tone and quick questions made it difficult to respond in a warm or friendly manner.

  “We have new neighbors. They’ve craned in a Jacuzzi.”

  “The people directly behind you?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  The line was silent for a few seconds. “Neil? You still there?”

  “I need you to step outside.”

  “Why?” she asked as she left her chair and started walking toward the back door.

  “I need to run a test.”

  Gwen opened the back door and walked into the yard. “Has anyone ever told you you’re paranoid?”

  “Most people avoid saying things to me that piss me off.”

  She smiled. “I like annoying you.”

  Neil laughed…well, more snort than laugh.

  “Was that a laugh, Neil?”

  The man rarely smiled, but when he did, her body went numb and she lost herself in his gaze. Too bad he wasn’t standing with her so she could see him instead of imagine him.

  “There you are,” he said, not answering her question.

  Gwen waved, knowing the camera had found her.

  “Walk to the back fence.”

  Gwen tiptoed and avoided sinking her heels into the soft grass.

  “Are you there?”

  “I am. Can’t you see me?”

  “I need to readjust the equipment. Get a better angle.”

  “I’m going back inside now.” The men in the yard behind them were starting to peer over her way. She waved, smiled, and returned to the house. “If you’re done…I need to get back to work.”

  “I’m…I’m…How’s your leg?”

  Gwen paused inside the kitchen and glanced at her foot. “It’s fine. Thank you for asking.”

  “Good. Uhm, I’ll be there in an hour to check the cameras.”
>
  She’d look forward to it. “Paranoid,” she told him again.

  He snorted a second time and hung up the phone.

  Chapter Four

  I shouldn’t be here.

  But damn he couldn’t stay away. He knew the static on the motion detector was most likely due to normal neighbor behavior, a passing cat, or even the wind.

  Gwen was right. He was paranoid.

  He couldn’t stop his paranoia any more than he could stop thinking about her, about the terror in her eyes as he pulled his gun and pointed it at her.

  Getting close to an assignment, which is how he needed to look at Gwen…at all the Harrisons, made him weak. Distance…he needed to find it and keep it.

  So what the hell was he doing driving to Tarzana to check on a woman who didn’t want or need his help?

  Ignoring his own internal warning bells, Neil pulled into Gwen’s driveway alongside her car and frowned. Why did she insist on parking outside the garage?

  Purposeful strides took him to the front door. He knocked twice and stepped back so Gwen or Karen could see him clearly on the monitor by the door.

  Neither woman answered. He knocked again, this time louder and longer.

  “Coming…”

  Gwen opened the door a little too quickly and without enough effort to assure him it had been locked. “Oh, hi.”

  She stood back, letting him in.

  “Did you even look to see who was here?”

  “You told me you were coming.”

  “But did you look?” He moved past her, ignoring the floral scent of her skin that reminded him of spring.

  She disregarded his question, confirming that she hadn’t checked. When she closed the door, she didn’t lock it.

  I’m going to need a dentist if I keep grinding my teeth together.

  As Gwen moved to leave the foyer, Neil stepped into her path and grasped her hand. Like a child, he moved her hand to the lock on the door and held it there. “Forgetting something?”

  She smiled up at him and moved even closer. “I doubt anyone would attempt anything with you here, big guy.” Her pale blue eyes sparkled as she taunted him.