by Val Tobin
She shook her head. “No. I’m quite happy to let you go over budget.”
Both smiled at that.
“Then, what is it?” His expression showed so much concern she had a moment of guilt for causing it.
“Rhonda and Max.” She sighed. “I’m sorry. I can’t help feeling sad at how their relationship ended.” She brightened at a sudden thought. “I know exactly what to do.”
Gabriel frowned. When he spoke, his tone was emphatic. “You’re not interfering in someone’s love life.”
“No, I’m going to get her a gift.” She turned her gaze on the saleswoman. “Do you have any rose quartz jewellery?”
“Sure,” the woman replied and strode to another counter. “I’ll bring you a few to look at.”
Ellen lifted her chin so she could gaze into Gabriel’s eyes. “Rose quartz attracts love. Rhonda gave one to me for my birthday. I’m returning the favour.” No strings attached. No expectation of reciprocation. She could get used to this gift-giving thing.
“It’s a nice gesture.” He tilted his face down and brushed his lips against hers. “She’ll love it, although I’m dubious that the crystal will have any effect on her love life.”
“Trust me, this will draw love into her life,” Ellen replied. “Who knows? Maybe she and Max will find their way back to each other. I found you again, didn’t I?”
The sales clerk had arranged three necklaces on the counter, each with a silver chain and a polished quartz pendant. Ellen selected the one with the pink stone entangled in a love knot. “This one,” she said emphatically. She smiled to herself, and when she spoke, excitement coloured her voice. “Rhonda will meet the love of her life.”
“I’m sure she will,” Gabriel replied. “You make a gorgeous cupid.” He scooped her to him again for one more kiss.
When they stepped onto the sidewalk outside the store fifteen minutes later, Ellen had a receipt for the engagement ring tucked in her wallet. The jeweller would resize it, and they’d pick it up in a week or so. The necklace for Rhonda she’d tucked into her purse. She couldn’t wait to give her friend the gift. Even if the crystal didn’t bring Rhonda her true love, it would show her she had a true friend.
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Sample Chapter: Injury
Eyes closed, sheet covering her face, Daniella Grayson groped for the phone and dragged the receiver to her ear. “Hello?”
“This is Tobey Ames from TNN, Miss Grayson. Do you have any comment on last night’s arrest of your mother?”
Were she not so hung over, Dani would’ve bolted up. Instead, she drew her legs to her chest, assuming the fetal position. “No comment.” The hand that held the phone dropped to the bed. Thumb probing for the “End” button, she found it and disconnected the call.
The phone rang again as she contemplated whom to call first. This time, she let it go to voice-mail. The machine in the living room clicked on after the third ring. The message and beep played, and John Madden, her manager, came on, sounding intense. “Dani. Are you screening? Pick up. I’ve been getting calls about your mother …”
Dani sat this time, resting her aching head on bent knees, and answered. “What’s going on, John? Tobey Ames just called, asking about my mother’s arrest.”
“I don’t know the details yet. They’re accusing your mother of killing your father twenty years ago. You would have been what, then? Five?”
Silence. Dani tried to understand what John was telling her. “My father left us when I was five.” Dani’s mouth went dry, and her hands and feet grew cold. “Lilli was a bitch from hell.” Nausea threatened and her spine prickled as she processed the awful news. Could it be possible? Oh, God. “She’s capable of it. If they’ve arrested her for killing Daddy, she probably did it.” An edge of hysteria had crept into her voice.
“Listen,” John said. “Don’t answer the phone or open the door until I get there. I’ll call the lawyer on my way over, and we’ll figure this thing out. There must be a mistake.”
Dani said goodbye to John and hung up the phone. She shivered as she slipped out from under the covers and got out of bed. A glance at the clock on her nightstand showed seven-twenty in the morning. No wonder she felt like shit—she’d just gotten into bed at four-thirty, helped up to her apartment once again by her trusty chauffeur, what’s his name? She always had trouble remembering. Oh, yeah, Cope.
Good looking as hell, but too young for Dani’s tastes, and her employee, so she barely gave him a second glance. But he was kind and helpful and made sure she got home safely no matter how drunk she was.
Dani grabbed her bathrobe and snuggled her naked body into the warm terry cloth. As she slid her feet into a pair of slippers, the phone rang again. She returned to her nightstand and disconnected the phone. It continued to ring in the living room until the machine kicked in.
She listened for the caller’s voice.
“Hello, Miss Grayson. It’s Mark Rutherford of ASN. John Madden suggested you give me an exclusive interview. I’d love to hear your side of the story. Please call me back at ...”
Dani shook her head in disgust while Rutherford recited his phone number. She pulled the plug on the living room phone as well. Anyone she’d want to talk to could call her cell.
She sank onto the couch, switched on the TV, and clicked over to the news channel. An eternity seemed to pass before the stories cycled to the one about her mother. Finally, the newscaster returned to the headline news.
A somber Toby Ames faced the camera, eyes filled with compassion. “Ms. Lillian Capshaw, mother of Oscar-nominated actress Daniella Grayson, was arrested last night in her apartment in Toronto on charges of first degree murder in the death of her husband Paul Grayson. Grayson’s skeletal remains were discovered yesterday morning in a capped well at a Sharon, Ontario residence once rented by the family. Ms. Capshaw was taken into custody late last night.”
Dani’s childhood home flashed on the screen behind the reporter. Plywood covered the windows, and two police cars sat in the driveway. Video footage of Dani appeared on the screen next, showing her exiting a limousine.
The newscaster continued in voiceover. “Miss Grayson, seen here arriving at the premiere of her movie, the Academy Award-winning best picture Injury, lives in Los Angeles and has not commented on last night’s events. We will update you as the story progresses.”
Dani flicked to a channel that focused more on entertainment news. After a few minutes, her photo appeared behind the news anchor, and he gave the same spiel as Ames had though without the premiere clip.
The footage then switched to a taped interview with Gregory Henderson, caught leaving a restaurant with a date. Dani swallowed past a lump in her throat and hugged herself, terrified of what Henderson might say.
Always an attention hog, Henderson leaned toward the female reporter and into the microphone. “No, I haven’t talked to Dani. She’s not speaking to me these days.”
Dani noted the slight slur in his speech. Henderson’s arm rested around the shoulders of a gorgeous blonde, who looked delighted to be with him, getting her fifteen minutes of fame.
“Did you meet Lilli Capshaw when you were dating Miss Grayson?”
“No ma’am.” Henderson swayed and steadied himself by leaning on his date. “Dani kept me all to herself.” He looked into the camera. “Call me, sweetheart. I’m here for you, baby.”
The date lost her look of delight.
After a few more inane questions from the reporter and more slurred responses from Henderson, the interview wrapped up.
What an ass. Dani switched off the television, recalling the premiere. She’d stepped out of the limousine and had smiled for the cameras while voices of people she didn’t know had cried out for her to look their way.
She hooked her arm through Greg Henderson’s and hoped her four-inch heels wouldn’t catch on the red carpet. “Greg,” she
whispered, “don’t let go of my arm.”
He smiled at her. “Relax, baby. I’ve got you covered.”
Dani loved tall men. At five-foot-ten, she usually looked most men in the eyes—looked down on them, let’s be honest—especially in four-inch heels. Henderson was the perfect height for her, and their chemistry on screen and high-profile romance off screen had helped make Injury the hit of the season.
She tried to get in front of the cameras as much as possible and had worked hard at looking particularly stunning for that premiere. Her body-hugging gown had shown off her slender figure. She’d let her long, dark hair hang loose in a wild and carefree way that took hours with a curling iron to achieve.
Maybe my father is watching this, she’d thought, as she always did when she put herself on display in public. It’s why she put herself on display in public.
Daddy’s never seen me. All those times, I thought he’d see me and feel sorry he left us, and he wasn’t even alive.
The doorbell rang. John.
She unfurled from the couch and waited for him to enter. When the door didn’t open, she walked over, reached for the deadbolt, and then remembered John’s warning to not open the door. She checked the peephole. Nothing there. If that was John, he wouldn’t be hiding. She waited. The doorbell rang again, but whoever was there took pains not to be seen.
Dani left the door, went to her room, and opened her closet. There’ll be a media feeding frenzy. What am I going to wear?
Did it matter? Yes, she supposed it did, but it felt strange to know that her father wasn’t out there somewhere perhaps noticing her and thinking about contacting her.
At eighteen, she’d tried to find him, to ask him why he’d turned his back on her. She could understand that he’d want to escape controlling, abusive, obsessive Lilli. Dani herself had moved out of her mother’s home at sixteen. But Dani was a child when her dad had disappeared, and she’d taken the rejection and ensuing lack of contact personally.
The knocking on the door penetrated her thoughts. How’d that asshole get into the building? Multiple fists pounded the door, she realized. More than one asshole was out there in the hall stalking her. Then she heard voices arguing, demanding. She hopped back into bed, pulled the covers under her chin, and waited.
A key rattling in the door told her John had arrived. Dani sighed and slid out of bed. Peering out of her bedroom, she waited for him to step inside. John, handsome, rugged, older. But assertive, protective, kind. She itched to touch him.
Would he sleep with her now she was over twenty-one? It’d been five years since she’d tested those waters. When she’d first hired him to be her manager, she’d thrown herself at him.
She’d almost fired him when he’d rejected her, then had decided she didn’t give a shit after all. One by one, she’d seduced his associates, until she’d gotten it out of her system. The older men had been eager to accept the offer of her young body.
When John had complained, like he had any right to say anything about whom she fucked, she’d told him to butt out. He’d almost quit on her then, and she’d had to beg and plead and promise the moon to keep him as her manager. Fear of him abandoning her reined in her reckless, wanton behavior, and she’d battled to keep him in her life.
They’d had a holy alliance since then, focusing on her career, which had skyrocketed. She’d kept her attraction to him locked away, taking it out only in the darkest of nights when she took comfort from and pleasured herself on thoughts of him.
But now that ache for him was back, fierce, hot. Dani slid a hand down her robe and loosened the knot on the belt at her waist. The robe parted slightly, exposing her body in a thin, vertical line of curves and shadows. Her nipples hardened, and she parted her lips.
She tilted her head to the side and watched John struggle to shut the door as hands holding microphones jammed themselves into the opening, and voices shouted her name. John pushed against the door, and a man cried out in pain. The arms disappeared, and the door slammed shut.
“Don’t worry, Dani. I’ve alerted security. They’ll be gone soon,” John said, his back to her.
The normality of seeing him there shook her back to reality, and she closed the robe. When he turned to her, she faced him head on. “John.” Her voice caught in her throat, and his name came out low and throaty, but it was grief, not lust that did it. “What happened to my father?”
About the Author
Val Tobin lives in Newmarket, Ontario with her husband, Bob, and Scully, their cat. She spends her days writing, reading, and searching for the perfect butter tart. Her educational background includes a diploma in Computer Information Systems from DeVry Toronto, a B.Sc. in Parapsychic Science from the American Institute of Holistic Theology, a M.Sc. in Parapsychology from AIHT, Reiki Master/Teacher certifications, and Angel Therapy Practitioner® certifications.
Other books by Val Tobin
Non-Fiction
Angel Words by Doreen Virtue and Grant Virtue
Val contributed a story to Doreen and Grant Virtue’s Hay House book Angel Words: Visual Evidence of How Words Can Be Angels in Your Life
Fiction
The Valiant Chronicles Series
Prequel: Earthbound
A spirit becomes earthbound after refusing to cross over in order to solve her murder and prevent more deaths, some of which might be predestined.
Book One: The Experiencers
A black-ops assassin atones for his brutal past by trying to help an alien abductee escape her fate.
Book Two: A Ring of Truth
A rogue assassin returns from the dead to rescue alien abductees and triggers Armageddon.
The Valiant Chronicles are also available as a box set.
Injury
A young actress at the height of her career has her personal life turned upside down when a horrifying family secret makes front-page news.
Gillian’s Island
A socially anxious divorcée confronts her greatest fears when she’s forced to sell her island home and falls for the dashing new owner.
Walk-In
A young psychic woman fights an attraction to a handsome but skeptical novelist while she battles a power-hungry sorcerer determined to make her his next conquest.
About Three Authors: Poison Pen
Three wannabe authors suffering from various mental disorders find love in unexpected places when they interfere in the investigation of a colleague’s murder.
The Hunted
A monster hunter revisits her terrifying past while helping a reporter uncover the origins of Storm Lake’s creatures. A sequel to the short story Storm Lake, The Hunted takes place twelve years later and is a stand-alone novel.
You Again
Complications arise when an accounting tech is assigned her former lover as a client and his company’s previous financial controller is found dead.
Coming Soon
Non-Fiction
Changed for Life: The After-Effects of Near-Death Experience
The life-altering after-effects of near-death experiences and how even those who haven’t had one can benefit.
Fiction
Tales from the Unmasqued World series
Book 1:
The Fool: New Beginnings
A newly divorced woman suffering a midlife crisis gets involved in the search for a missing half-vampire teen.
Book 2:
The Magician: Infinity’s End
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