by Deanna Chase
Disgusted with himself, he turned the television off, poured the rest of his drink down the drain, and then changed into running gear, determined to run until the ache in his heart faded.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“I can’t believe I’m back here,” Shannon said, gripping the wheel of the rental car so tightly her hands were starting to cramp. She stared at the closed gates of her parents’ Hollywood Hills home and wondered if her credit card company would up her limit so that she could charge a hotel room instead. The debt would be worth it to not have to sleep under their roof.
Silas slumped down in his seat, and despite the fact it was eighty degrees outside, he was wearing a sweatshirt and had the hoody pulled so far down that his eyes were obscured. “Don’t remind me. I was hoping this was all a nightmare and I’d wake up in Levi’s room wondering why I was the one on the air mattress and not you.”
“The answer is because I’m old and would be hunched over like a hag if I had to sleep on an air mattress,” she said for the third time that week. The nights they’d stayed with Hope and Chad, Levi slept on the couch, while Shannon and Silas shared Levi’s room. Shannon slept on his bed and Silas on an air mattress. It hadn’t been ideal, but it was better than being stalked by crazy people.
“Right. You’re so old,” he said. “Better stock up on the Depends.”
She felt a rumble of laughter rise up through her chest and was grateful for it. The day had been a pure nightmare. It started out normal enough. Shannon went to A Spoonful of Magic, boxed up some orders, did some administrative stuff, and then was at the Pelshes’ winery by noon as promised. She and Rex spent the next hour working on tacking up some new vines, and just when they were ready for a break, a group of fire witches showed up and started torching a section of the vineyard. They kept chanting whore, whore, whore over and over again while Shannon and Rex made a run for it.
By the time Yvette and the other volunteer fire witches arrived, the group was already gone. Since they were wearing face paint, no one had recognized them, and there were no leads. To top it off, she later learned that her grandmother’s house had been vandalized. Windows were broken and graffiti had been spray painted on the outside. That was the moment she knew she had to take Silas and get out of town. The irony was that he hadn’t been targeted; she had. But she would not leave town without her little brother.
Silas hadn’t been happy to leave Keating Hollow, or Levi for that matter. The two shared a long hug before Silas finally let go and scrambled into her car. Levi stood on the porch, leaning on his crutch, watching silently as they drove away. It was a bittersweet moment, and it made Shannon angry all over again that they were being forced to leave Keating Hollow.
The gates started to slide open, and Shannon groaned. They’d been idling in their spot for a few minutes, but Shannon hadn’t yet found the nerve to press the intercom button. As it turned out, announcing their arrival wasn’t necessary. “They’ve seen us.”
“Mom probably had the maid watching the security cams to let her know the minute we arrived,” Silas said.
Shannon glanced over at him. “Seriously? You have a full-time maid?”
He pushed the hoody back to look at her. “I find it disturbing that you’re more surprised that Mom would have a maid at all rather than one she made stalk the security cameras.”
Shannon cackled as she pulled forward into the Ansell compound. The property wasn’t huge, but it was spacious enough, with a pretty flower garden in front of the house and a parking area in front of the garage that would easily fit up to five cars. In the rearview mirror, Shannon noted the gates closing. The anxiousness she’d been carrying with her in the pit of her stomach since the incident at the Pelshes’ vineyard vanished. Breathing easier, she pulled the car into a spot that didn’t block the driveway and killed the engine. She turned to Silas. “Ready?”
“Nope.” But he climbed out of the car and was already retrieving their luggage by the time she joined him.
“Mr. Silas, please, I’ve got this,” an older woman wearing a black and white maid uniform said as she rushed over. Her gray hair was pulled up into a severe bun, but her face was made up with flawless makeup that must’ve taken at least ten years off her age. “Your mother is anxiously waiting for you.”
“Nah, Bett, I’ve got it. It’s better for me if I flex my muscles every once in a while, anyway,” he said, gently brushing her aside as he grabbed his and Shannon’s suitcases.
“Hi, Bett,” Shannon said, clutching her small carryon bag and holding her hand out to the woman. “I’m Shannon, Gigi’s daughter.”
“Oh, Ms. Shannon. It’s lovely to meet you.” Bett pumped Shannon’s hand while grabbing the carryon from her. “I’ll carry this. Ms. Gigi won’t like it if I let you both carry everything.”
Shannon let go because she had no doubt that was true. “Thank you. That’s very kind.”
“Silas?” Gigi called the moment they walked through the door. “Is that you? I have news.”
Silas rolled his eyes and whispered, “Of course she does.”
Shannon glanced around at the house. It wasn’t the same one they’d lived in while she was going to school at UCLA. It was bigger, in a nicer zip code, and had been decorated like something out of Better Homes and Gardens. There was white everywhere, with touches of turquoise and pale pink.
“This way.” Silas jerked his head toward the sweeping staircase to the left and headed up to the second floor while Gigi continued to call for him from somewhere in the back of the house.
“Ms. Gigi is calling for you, Mr. Silas,” Bett said.
“Tell her I’ll be down in a few minutes, would you?” He gave her one of his dazzling smiles, and the maid blushed before she headed off to do his bidding.
“You have her wrapped around your finger,” Shannon said.
“It’s because I’m the only one who treats her like a person,” he grumbled and dropped his suitcase in a room that was all black and white and mostly void of any personal possessions.
“Is that your room?” Shannon poked her head in. “It looks more like an upscale Airbnb situation.”
He snorted. “That’s what it feels like, too.” Then he grinned and walked over to a door Shannon assumed was a closet. But when he opened it up, Shannon’s eyes nearly bugged out at the fancy movie screen, oversized leather chairs, and mountain of video games in the corner. There was also a wet bar that was stocked with sodas, water, and juices, along with various snack items. “Holy cow. That’s the nicest man cave I’ve ever seen.”
“Yeah. It’s not a bad place to hide out.”
Shannon frowned. There still wasn’t anything that was distinctly Silas about the space. There weren’t any pictures of him and his friends, or family photos, or childhood mementos. Why was that?
He closed the door, led her out of his room and across the hall to another beautifully decorated guest room, and placed her suitcase inside the door. “Drop your stuff here, and after we greet the parentals, let’s meet in my man cave. We can watch a movie and pretend we never left Keating Hollow.”
Shannon dropped her purse in the corner and said, “Works for me.”
After washing up, Shannon followed Silas downstairs and down a hallway that led to an oversized office where their mother sat behind a large banker’s desk.
“Silas. Finally,” she said, standing and coming around to wrap him in her embrace. “I missed you, darling.”
Her brother patted their mother’s back but didn’t respond.
Gigi, who was dressed in a white linen pantsuit and peach colored silk shirt, pulled back and scanned him, tsking and shaking her head as she muttered, “Gonna need to get the stylist in here first thing in the morning. Your hair needs highlights, brows need waxing, and we probably need a facial and a manicure. We need you looking your best for those meetings tomorrow afternoon.”
A muscle pulsed in Silas’s jaw. “What meetings?”
Shannon leaned against the d
oorframe of her mother’s office and wondered if the woman had even noticed her standing there.
Gigi let Silas go and returned to her desk chair, kicking back with her fingers laced behind her head. “With the network execs. If we’re going to get this project off the ground, we need to move it.”
Silas stared at her for a long moment. Then he shook his head and walked out of the room.
“Silas! Cut it out, already. I’ve had just about enough of your surly attitude!” she shouted after him, her lips twisting into a scowl. When he still didn’t answer, she turned her attention to the paperwork cluttering her desk.
Shannon watched her through narrowed eyes, and when the woman still didn’t acknowledge her presence, Shannon walked all the way in and closed the door behind her.
“I don’t want to hear it, Shannon,” Gigi said without looking up from what appeared to be an old-school appointment book.
“Oh, so you did notice I’m here,” Shannon said, taking a seat in a chair across the desk from her mother.
“Of course I did. You’ve been glaring at me this whole time. I’m not in the mood to argue with you, too. I shouldn’t need to explain that I’m doing everything in my power to help Silas, not annoy him.”
“It’s probably not helping him if your plans for his career make him want to leave Hollywood for good,” Shannon said calmly.
Her head snapped up. “He’s not you. There’s no way he’s quitting the business.”
“Maybe not,” Shannon said. “But he will leave you as soon as he gets the chance if you keep this up.”
Gigi rolled her eyes. “Why would he leave me? I’ve made him a very rich young man.”
“You mean he’s made himself a very rich young man,” Shannon corrected. “You just opened the doors for him.”
“I did more than just open doors,” Gigi hissed, her ire in full swing now as she stood and placed her palms flat on her desk. “You have no idea what I’ve had to do to find opportunities for that boy. And if he thinks he’s going to leave me for one of the other sharks in this town, then he needs to grow up. No one cares about him more than I do.”
“Really, Mom? I think you might be mistaken.” Shannon rose and moved toward the door.
“What are you talking about?” Gigi demanded.
Shannon shook her head and walked out. There was no reason to put a target on her own back this soon. If her mother knew Silas had already asked Shannon to be his manager once he was eighteen, she’d do everything in her power to undermine that decision for the next eight months. Shannon probably shouldn’t have said anything at all, but watching her mother try to walk all over Silas had put her in protective mode. She wanted nothing more than for her and Silas to get back on that plane for Keating Hollow and never look back. But they couldn’t, and they both knew it.
“Hey! There’s my girl,” a familiar male voice boomed from the kitchen as she walked by. “Come here and give your old man a hug.”
Shannon felt a smile tug at her lips, and she moved into her dad’s arms. “Dad! I didn’t even know you were home.”
“Just got back from a business meeting down in San Diego,” Nate Ansell said, hugging her tightly. “Looks like your old dad is going to invest in a microbrewery.”
“Really?” Still holding on to him, she glanced up into his kind face. “I had no idea you knew anything about microbreweries.”
“I don’t.” He chuckled. “But my business partners do. My job is to bring the investors.” He winked at her. “That means I plunk down cash and get my poker buddies to do the same.”
Shannon stepped back and laughed. “Well, as long as you’re happy and having fun, that’s all that matters, I guess.”
“That’s what I keep telling your mother.” He glanced around. “Did you bring your brother home with you?”
She nodded. “He’s upstairs fuming about some meetings he doesn’t want to take.”
“Did your mother already line those up?” His expression was stormy as he started to move toward the hallway.
“It appears so.”
He glanced back at her. “I told her to let you kids get your feet under you before she started in on that damned reality show again. After everything you went through…” He shook his head. “She’s more and more like a machine every day. Tell Silas not to worry about this. I’ll handle it.” He stalked down the hallway and a moment later, she heard her mother’s office door slam closed.
Shannon gaped after her father. Was this the same man she’d grown up with? He’d always let their mom call the shots and deferred to her on the management side of things. She was the force behind making their business successful, so he left her to it. It appeared times had changed. Finally, and for the better. He’d always had a good heart. Maybe he had finally opened up his eyes to see what damage Gigi was causing. She loved him for standing up for Silas.
When Shannon got back upstairs, she took a moment to try to call Brian again. Now that her mother and the press had stopped blowing her phone up every five minutes, she’d turned it back on and cleared out her voicemail. She’d found one text from Brian asking her to call him, and guilt had consumed her. She should have called him right after the incident at the Pelshes’ vineyard, but she’d been too busy making arrangements to leave town, including contacting Miss Maple, Rex, and Faith to let them all know she wouldn’t be coming to work for a week or so. By the time she and Silas were on their way to the airport, she’d passed out and fallen into a fitful sleep.
It had been one hell of a day.
Brian’s phone went straight to voicemail. She left him a message, letting him know where she was and why but that she’d be back for Faith and Hunter’s wedding, even if she came in for just the day. She wasn’t going to miss it for the world.
“Silas?” she called as she knocked on his bedroom door.
The door was flung open, and her brother strode back into his room, which looked like it had exploded. Clothes were everywhere, along with a pile of pictures and a few old stuffed animals she hadn’t seen since he was a little boy.
“What’s going on?” she asked hesitantly, wondering where he’d been keeping his childhood mementos. Under the bed?
“I’m getting out of here. She’s insane.” He hauled a second large suitcase out of his closet and started throwing random clothes inside.
“Okay. I agree. She’s nutso. But where are you going to go?”
He stopped suddenly and stared up at the ceiling as he ran both hands through his hair. “I have no idea, Shan. Just… anywhere but here.”
Tears stung the backs of her eyes as she watched her sweet brother have a complete meltdown. But she blinked them back and did what her mother should have been doing. She walked over to him and gave him a big hug. “It will get better, Si. I promise.”
“I don’t want this anymore. I can’t take it.” He pressed his face against her shoulder and held on.
“I know.” She ran her hand down his back, trying to comfort him. After a moment, she said, “I think Dad might be putting his foot down with her right now. When he learned she’d set up those meetings without your consent, he sort of lost it.”
Silas pulled out of her embrace and shoved his hands in his jean pockets. “What do you mean?”
“He strode in there, all angry, and slammed the door.” Shannon sat down on his bed. “I don’t know what will come of it, but I’ve never known him to do that before.”
Silas sat next to her, his brows drawn together in confusion. “That’s strange. He never questions her.”
Muffled footsteps sounded in the hall outside Silas’s door just before their father appeared. He walked in, his faced pinched in irritation, but when he saw his children, his expression softened. “It’s so good to see you two together.”
Shannon moved over, leaving room between her and Silas, and patted the bed. “Come take a seat.”
He smiled and sat between them, draping his arms over their shoulders and pulling them in for sideways h
ugs. “I’ve missed you both.”
“I haven’t been gone that long, Dad,” Silas said.
“Physically no, but mentally yes,” he said. “You’ve been withdrawn for a while now.”
Silas sighed. “Yeah, maybe.”
“He’s too stressed, Dad. Mom has—” Shannon started.
“Your mother and I had a talk just now, and we’ve come to an agreement,” Nate Ansell said.
“And what’s that?” Silas asked, not bothering to hide his skepticism.
“There will be no business talk for the next week. Since Shannon is here, we’re going to just be a family. No meetings, no negotiations, nothing business related unless it’s a true emergency.”
Silas scoffed. “No way, Dad. You know that’s never going to work. She’ll have producers and directors stopping by ‘unexpectedly’ for ‘social’ calls by tomorrow afternoon.”
“Well, if she does, the three of us will get into the car and hit Disneyland or something. She can deal with them.”
Shannon let out a bark of laughter. “You know what, old man?”
“What?” he asked, turning to her with amusement dancing in his eyes. Eyes that were so much like her own.
“You’re all right.” Shannon leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, suddenly feeling okay with the fact that she’d come home.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Brian sat in his SUV in front of the house Shannon had lived in up until a few days ago, lamenting the senseless vandalism he saw there and listening to her voicemail message for the fifth time. She’d called the night before to let him know she was in LA for the foreseeable future, but he hadn’t called her back. He couldn’t. Not now. Not after seeing her kissing Rex, not to mention the fact that he’d caused her far too many problems recently. What he needed to do was give them both some space for a while. And calling her, hearing her voice, would only make him want to get on a plane and head to LA as soon as possible to find out who she really wanted, him or Rex. But the media storm that would follow made him shudder in revulsion.