by Krista Lakes
“What's up?” Ethan asked, not liking the way his head of security was reacting to whatever news he was getting through his headset.
“Someone just tried to break into your house,” Bruce stated.
Ethan felt his heart skip a beat. “What?”
“The alarm system was triggered when the fence was tampered with,” Bruce explained. “The police are there. It looks like the perimeter alert was triggered and there's some minor damage to the fence, but nothing else.”
“Cameras?” Ethan asked, not feeling particularly hopeful.
“Nothing,” Bruce confirmed. “The intruder was wearing reflective material to blind the cameras. All we can see is a person, but no details. They knew what kind of cameras you have.”
“And I'm guessing they are nowhere to be found?” Ethan asked, feeling annoyed that even with a million dollar security system this could still happen. What exactly was he paying all this money for?
Bruce shook his head. “He got away. But he left a picture of you with your eyes X-d out and your throat slit.”
“Awesome. Just like the car.” Ethan paced the hallway. This night had just gone from bad to worse.
“Can you think of anyone that would want to hurt you?” Bruce asked. “I'll go through the usual lists, but can you think of anyone recent?”
Ethan sighed and looked up at the ceiling, trying to think of someone who would hate him. “I don't know, Bruce. I piss off a lot of people.”
“I don't mean to be indelicate, but how are things between you and Laura?” Bruce asked. “Could she have something to do with this?”
“Laura?” Ethan barked a laugh. “That's not who did this. She wouldn't know the first thing about the cameras. She doesn't even like getting her picture taken.”
Something about that last sentence ticked Ethan's brain. Pictures. He sagged against the wall as he figured out someone who would hate him enough to destroy his car and want him dead.
“You think of someone?” Bruce asked, taking a step toward him.
Ethan nodded. “Janie. Janie must have seen the tabloid picture in the newspaper of Laura and me. Janie'd be furious.”
Bruce let out a long breath. “Jealous ex-secretary....” He shook his head, obviously remembering the trouble they'd had with her. There were restraining orders, police reports, and a slew of bad memories surrounding that woman and her insane idea that Ethan was supposed to love her.
“It has to be her,” Ethan said. He felt like he might throw up. Janie had ruined his first chance with Laura, and now Janie was ruining his life yet again.
“Has anything else strange happened recently?” Bruce asked. “Things going missing? Gifts you weren't expecting? That kind of thing.”
“Yeah. All of that,” he said. His pens going missing. The tie in the mail. Ethan didn't think his heart could sink any lower in his chest, but those questions pushed it down another three inches.
“Shit.” Bruce ran a hand over his bald head. “Janie would know our security protocols and where the cameras are.”
“She helped with the house security once,” Ethan remembered. “She came by and tripped one of the alarms. It was one of the perimeter ones along the fence.”
Bruce looked at him. “I think you have a stalker, Ethan.” The big man's face was grim. “I think Janie's pissed.”
Ethan thought of Janie. She was tiny. He had thought her harmless. Annoying and disruptive, but he'd never thought she'd resort to something like this.
“Do you think she really means to hurt me?” Ethan asked.
“She's a woman scorned,” Bruce replied. “She can do a lot of damage. Don't think of her size. Think of how angry she is. That's what we're up against.”
Ethan shuddered. Janie had known everything about him as his secretary. He'd changed the locks and files since she'd left, but she still had knowledge of his habits that she could use.
“What do I do?” Ethan asked.
“Let me handle it,” Bruce advised. “I'll get some guys to watch her. In the meantime, we're doubling your security detail, and you're changing your routines.”
Ethan nodded. He had thought Janie was in the past. So much for that.
“We'll get to the bottom of this,” Bruce assured him. “But until we do, you need to be cautious. You aren't safe. Has she tried to contact you?”
Ethan shook his head. “Not that I know of.”
Bruce nodded. “Okay. You call me immediately if she does.”
“What about Laura?” Ethan asked Bruce. “Do I need to be worried about her?”
Bruce paused and then nodded. “Yes. I'll tell the security team at the ranch to up their patrols and keep an eye on her.”
Ethan hated the way his stomach twisted at the thought of her being harmed. He would do anything to keep her safe from this. She was innocent and didn't deserve Janie's wrath. She had too much on her plate with the kids to have to deal with this. It wasn't fair to put this on her too.
“Let's go back up to your office,” Bruce said, putting a hand on Ethan's shoulder. “We need to come up with a plan.”
Ethan nodded and turned down the hallway toward the elevator back upstairs. His thoughts flew through his mind like dark clouds blown on the wind.
This wasn't the same as what happened to Carter, but the similarities were enough to make him nervous. He thought of Mia and how Carter's attacker had almost killed her and their unborn child. He couldn't let that happen to Laura. He couldn't let anything happen to Laura.
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. How was he going to keep her safe from a secretary that knew his habits?
Chapter 33
Laura
Laura closed her eyes and imagined herself at a mountain lake. There were horses, and the world smelled of pine and fresh rain. The lake sparkled in the sunlight and sunlight warmed her skin. It was peaceful and calm. Nothing could be wrong in this beautiful place.
And then a plane crashed into the lake, and everything was ruined.
Laura groaned and opened her eyes. Visualizing a calm space was not helping her anxiety. Ethan was getting on a plane again today, and all she could think about was his plane crashing and never seeing him again. It didn't matter that he'd survived the last flight just fine. It didn't matter than she knew it was irrational and stupid.
She was still anxious and upset about it.
She flopped onto the couch and checked her phone for the millionth time. No messages. The kids would be home soon, and she welcomed the distraction. The kitchen was scrubbed to shining, the bathrooms sparkled, and the laundry was folded and put away. She was running out of household chores to keep her busy while she worried.
She was considering pulling out a cookbook and baking something when the door opened and Ivy and Dallas walked in. They were all smiles and energy, which was exactly what she needed.
“Hi, guys!” she greeted them, jumping up from the couch and rushing to the door.
“Hey, Laura,” Dallas replied, dropping his backpack on the floor and kicking off his shoes. Ivy was slightly neater, placing her shoes by the door and hanging her backpack on the peg.
“How was school?” Laura asked, picking up Dallas' backpack and hanging it for him. She wasn't even going to bother him to pick it up she was so desperate to have something to do other than obsessively check her phone.
“It was field day today,” Dallas told her. “We played zombie tag in the field.”
“That sounds fun,” Laura replied. “What about you, Ivy?”
“I won the Frisbee throwing competition,” she said proudly. “We have a movie day tomorrow, and then Ms. Jackson says we will have a picnic for the last day of school.”
“A picnic?” Laura asked.
“Uh huh. You're supposed to bring watermelon,” Ivy informed her. She dug into her backpack and handed her a flier.
“Okay,” Laura said, reading it over. She apparently signed up to bring watermelon. She would have to go to the store tomorrow. Dallas proba
bly had something similar, so she opened his backpack and found that she was bringing popsicles for his class.
“I don't remember the last day having this much food,” she said to no one in particular. She remembered field day and parties, but not like this. She also didn't remember school getting out so early in the year.
She wished she could ask her parents about it.
“Do you guys want to go to a park or something?” Laura asked the kids, pushing away the sad memories. She'd been thinking about her parents and their accident too much today as it was.
“It's too hot,” Ivy complained. “Can we just watch a movie?”
Laura nearly said no, but both kids looked hot and tired. They had been outside all day for field day, she remembered. She smiled and nodded. Maybe a movie would help her take her mind off things. She could get lost in an animated world, and as long as the didn't want to watch the animated plane movie, she'd have a great distraction. “Sure.”
The two kids hopped up on the couch as Laura searched for the remote.
“I wanna watch the ocean movie again,” Ivy announced.
“I like that one,” Dallas agreed. Laura nearly fell over in surprise. They agreed on a movie? At the same time? The two kids just smiled at her.
“I liked the beach Ethan made for us,” Ivy said. “And he said it was like this movie. Can we go to a real beach sometime? I promise to try not to get scared.”
Laura gave her a big hug, tears in her eyes. She was so proud of her little sister for wanting to try again with the planes. She knew exactly how much courage it took.
“You got it,” Laura told her. She let go of her sister. “And you're sitting on the remote.”
Ivy laughed and pulled out the TV remote. Laura turned and flipped on the TV. She set the remote on the arm of the couch and picked up the DVD case to take out the movie. The TV flickered to life and turned onto the last channel they had watched.
“... For those of you just tuning in, there is a luxury private jet that is missing over the skies of the western United States,” the news anchor announced. Laura's head jerked up to see a reporter in a blue dress looking concerned at her through the screen. “We're keeping a live update going as we get more details.”
“PRIVATE JET MISSING” read across the bottom of the screen in big bold letters that took Laura's breath away. The world dropped out from underneath her, and her heart forgot how to beat. Shivers of ghosts ran across her skin, and the roar of airplane engines filled her ears.
It was happening again.
She remembered seeing her parents' crash on the news. It had been the same reporter, but a different dress. The headline was different, but the feeling was the same. Images of the wrecked plane with smoke rising to the sky on the screen filled her mind.
“Laura?” Dallas called to her. She turned to see him staring at the TV in fear. Beside him, Ivy sat looking like she might throw up. They'd seen that news episode, too. They'd seen the fiery remains of what happened to their parents on the TV screen just like this.
She knew she needed to change the channel, but she couldn't move. She needed them to say whose plane was missing. She needed to find out more.
The reporter sounded like she was underwater to Laura's ears as she struggled to get past the sounds of the past in her head.
“A plane headed for Denver was rerouted through Las Vegas,” the reporter announced. “It has failed to touch down and is no longer appearing on radar.”
Laura's stomach heaved, and there was no stopping it. She ran to the bathroom and barely made it before her lunch came up. Breathing hard, she wiped her face and quickly washed her hands before coming back out.
Ivy was hugging Dallas as the two of them stared at the screen. Ivy was crying. Laura mentally berated herself for having left the TV on at all. The two kids had no idea that Ethan was on an airplane right now, but any news story about a plane was a bad idea for them to watch. The images of planes and the tone of the reporters brought back too many memories.
She quickly grabbed the remote and hit the auxiliary button. The blue DVD load screen took over the TV and Laura let out a small sigh of relief. She had forgotten to breathe while the reporter was on the screen. She put the DVD in the player.
“Laura, what happened to the plane? Why is there a plane missing?” Ivy asked, panic rising in her small voice. She held onto her brother like he might disappear at any moment. “Is it gonna crash?”
Laura quickly moved to the couch and took the two of them into her arms. “No, no, it's not going to crash,” she promised. “I'm sure the plane is just fine. You know the news reporters always make it sound worse than it is.”
Ivy sniffled but calmed down. She believed Laura's words. Laura just wished she could believe them herself. Ethan's plane was supposed to land in Denver. Just thinking about him on that plane made her want to throw up again. She wanted to scream, but she needed to stay calm for the kids.
“Don't worry, you guys,” Laura said as the two kids snuggled into her. She clung to them as much as they did to her. “We don't leave each other. That's what we promised. We're okay.”
“We don't leave each other,” Ivy and Dallas both repeated solemnly. They nodded to each other, each affirming the promise.
“Okay, don't worry about it anymore. We're just going to watch our movie,” Laura said, hitting the play button. The movie started with a flurry of color, and the two kids focused on the screen.
With them occupied, Laura pulled up her phone and quickly pulled up her news app. Her finger hovered over the icon. Did she really want to look this up? What if it was him? Did she really want to know? The idea that it was Ethan's jet missing terrified her. But, if she didn't look it up, she could pretend it wasn't him. It was someone else. He was safe until she knew for certain that he wasn't. It wasn't real until she read about it.
She pulled up her text messaging app instead.
Please call me.
She hit send to Ethan and chewed on her bottom lip. She made it thirty seconds before opening up her news app and searching for the story on the missing plane.
The story was just coming out, so there weren't very many details yet. The owner of the plane and those on board hadn't been released yet. All that she could find out was that it was a private airplane leaving from Los Angeles to arrive in Denver. There was an engine issue, and the plane had rerouted through Las Vegas, but it hadn't shown up yet.
She peered at the picture, trying not to make it too obvious to Ivy and Dallas what she was looking at. The plane in the picture looked smaller than the one she'd seen Ethan get on. And Ethan wasn't technically flying into Denver, he was flying into the local Silver Springs Airport, but that wouldn't make as good a news story.
She sighed and put her phone away. She couldn't say that it was or wasn't his plane for sure. She wouldn't know until he texted her he was fine or the news announced the owner of the airplane. She was going to have just to wait.
She tried to focus on the movie, but she couldn't. All she could think about was how she was going to tell Ivy and Dallas that Ethan's plane was gone. That someone else they loved had gotten on an airplane and never come back. It didn't seem fair. She wasn't sure she was strong enough to go through it all again.
Her parents' death still made her wake up gasping in the night from nightmares of smoke-filled planes and looming mountain crashes. More than once, she'd dissolved into tears because someone would walk past her wearing her mother's favorite perfume. She couldn't drive past their old home without breaking her heart. How was she going to do this again?
She thought she felt the phone vibrate and quickly checked it, hoping for a message from Ethan. But it was just a notification that she had been invited to another game on Facebook. She nearly threw the phone across the room.
She needed to know if he was okay. She needed to know he hadn't left her. Her heart struggled in her chest and her filled with tears. She needed him. She depended on him.
She loved h
im.
And he was going to leave her just like her parents did. He was going to disappear in a puff of smoke and leave her hurting and alone again. She wasn't going to have any say in her future yet again.
She should never have let herself get attached to him. She'd fallen in love, and he was gone. There was no happy ending for her because even if this wasn't his plane, even if he was fine, this was going to happen every time he flew
She would be a worried mess every time he left her to get on that stupid plane. She wasn't ready. Someday, she knew she would be able to handle it, but that wasn't today. Today, the wound her parents' death had left on her heart was still too fresh. She couldn't do this.
She needed to step away from him. She needed to put in some distance so that it wouldn't hurt so much if anything did happen to him. She wasn't ready to let someone into her life who could leave again.
She sniffled and wiped her cheek. She wasn't in a good place for a relationship. It wasn't fair to Ethan. He deserved someone who could love him without freaking out every time he got on an airplane. He deserved someone who didn't have abandonment issues.
She needed to end things, or it would only end up hurting them both. It was better if she just cut it off between them now while things were still forming. It would hurt less than if they waited.
She nodded to herself. It was the right decision. It was for the best.
The phone rang in her hand, startling her from her thoughts. She quickly read the caller ID and let out the biggest sigh of relief. It was him.
“Hey,” she said, answering the phone. She slid out from under the kids and went into her bedroom.
“Laura, you seriously don't need to message me fifty times during the flight,” he told her, his voice frustrated. “My phone is off. I will call you when I get off the plane. My phone didn't stop chirping for thirty seconds the moment I turned it on. I was afraid something serious had happened to you.”