Acting Happy (Texas Desires #2) (34 page)

The ringing of that phone had him running toward the bedroom door. He busted in to hear the last ring coming from the nightstand she used. He jerked the drawer open to see her phone, chargers, and nothing else. That couldn’t be good. With his heart racing in his chest, he went for her closet. Everything he gave her was there, but once he started digging, he couldn’t find the clothes she’d brought with her.

The pounding in his brain made it hard to think, but this was undeniably clear. Oh God, she had left him. No. Surely not. She loved him. Kenzie loved him. She’d said those words. If she were leaving, she would have said goodbye.

Palming his phone again, he searched out her old cell phone number and dialed. The fact it didn’t go straight to voice mail, instead ringing four times, signaled it had charge. Why would she keep it charged? Once voicemail answered, he forced himself to calm and leave a message. “Kenzie-babe, where are you? Call me and let me know you’re safe or if you need me.”

He hung up and called her immediately back. She again didn’t answer. The exhaustion of an hour ago was completely forgotten; adrenaline and anxiety fueled him now. Ty forced himself to think past the pain of the fact that the love of his life had so clearly left him.

He dialed Lara and got voicemail there too. Desperation had him dialing Reed’s private cell. “What?”

“Where’s your woman?”

“Why?” Reed answered defensively.

He stood there, breathing heavily in the silence. He could feel his shoulders slumping. Kenzie had in fact left him.

“Okay, again I ask why?” Reed asked, sounding like he normally did when he didn’t have time.

Ty finally manned up and said the words out loud.

“Kenzie’s…missing.” His face crinkled as he changed the last word at the last second. He didn’t want her to go. His voice was raw with despair as he forced himself to continue. “I’m wondering if Lara’s heard from her.”

“What does that mean? Missing?” Reed asked.

“Like gone with no knowledge of where she went,” he barked out.

“Hang on.” A minute or two passed until he heard Reed at a distance, asking, “Have you talked to Kenzie?”

“Why?” Lara asked defensively, and Ty had to stick a finger in his ear to hear her better.

“Ty’s looking for her.”

“It’s about time.”

His brows pulled together. What the hell did that mean? If he wasn’t working, he’d been right here with her. What the hell was with all that attitude?

“I’m busy, Lara. Just tell me. He’s worried,” Reed said irritably.

“I’ve been sworn to secrecy even from you, and I intend to keep that promise,” she said defiantly.

“She works for me. I have a right to know,” Reed argued.

“No, you don’t.”

“Bateman, she knows something, but she’s not talking. I can try and track her,” Reed said back into the phone. “I’m supposing she’s okay, though.”

“Reed Prescott, you’ll stay out of this!” Lara’s voice grew louder. She must have been coming closer to the phone.

“Will I now?” Reed asked like he had zero intentions of doing that.

“Yes, you will. When she wants Ty to know where she is, she’ll tell him. Until then, he can sit over there with all his bad attitude and wait to hear from her.” Lara’s voice came through loud and clear, and he didn’t like a single word of her answer at all.

“You hear all that?” Reed asked.

“Yeah. If you get anything out of her, will you call me?” he said, his heart dropping. There was no denying that she had in fact left him. His eyes closed slowly as his body absorbed that blow. It was remarkable he could remain standing.

“Yeah. Sorry.”

Ty hung up and stood there, not exactly sure what to do. He had nowhere to go. After a solid minute, he went to the edge of the bed, dropping down on top of it, anchoring his elbows on his knees and hanging his head between his shoulders. Why had she left him?

Navigating the downtown Dallas streets was a complicated affair, especially with the rattling of her cell phone in the cup holder of the console. She could take an educated guess that it was either Ty or her mother, both had called over and over—Ty for the last twenty-four hours and her mom started this morning when Ty must have broken down and called her parents’ house, wondering if she had gone home.

To say her mom was worried was a massive understatement. Luckily, she hadn’t seen the tabloid pictures of her naked or heard any of the intense gossip. In a hundred million years, Kenzie never thought she’d ever tell her mom any of those things. None of those things ever needed to be spoken out loud, but when her mother was adamant that she call Ty, she dropped all those small bombs of information along with the new knowledge of the, now two, intimate dinners he had shared with Julia since she’d left.

Funny, when she was there in California with him, they weren’t allowed to go out in public, but now that she was gone, Ty had become a man about town. The tremendous ache in her heart kicked up, validating her newest, latest resolve. She’d never allow herself to be in a relationship again. She was terrible at picking men.

When she came to a stoplight, she reached for the phone and looked at the missed calls. Apparently her mom had time to justify Ty’s behavior because she’d called as many times as Ty. How could her mother not see how hard this was on her? She had to stay strong. Self-preservation was all she had left to hang on to.

“On the right, you’ve reached your destination,” the GPS voice sounded off. Kenzie forced her thoughts on the here and now and began counting off addresses until she found the underground garage entrance Lara had told her about. Driving down two rows, she parked in the reserved numbered space next to what she assumed was Kade’s truck.

Kenzie grabbed her bags, walked through the parking garage to the elevator, and followed the directions until she was finally in front of Kade’s front door. Lara answered the door after the first quick knock.

“You’re here! I’ve been worried,” Lara said, drawing her in, giving her a tight hug. Her friend was different this morning. She wore blue jeans, a T-shirt, and tennis shoes, her long her pulled into a half bun on top of her head.

“I drove all night, but the traffic got terrible right about Fort Worth and never eased,” she explained since she was a bit late. The apartment was small, but warm and inviting. She could feel the love and that homey quality seemed to calm her anxiety a little.

“Traffic’s always bad,” Lara said, moving back a step or two, tucking her arms tightly together across her chest.

“Is it okay I’m here? Would it be better that I go?” she asked, seeing the worry on Lara’s face.

“Of course you can be here. Kade’s sleeping. He works nights, but he’s good with it,” Lara answered.

“And Reed still doesn’t know?” she asked.

“No, but I think he suspects.”

“I’m sorry to put you in this position.”

“You’re fine. I want to help. Let me show you around and then you can get some rest if you want. It’s small, but we were so excited to live here. You should have seen us when we first moved in. So, this is the living room, the kitchen, a little sitting area, and this is the bathroom,” Lara said, moving just a handful of steps toward the doors at the end of the small hall. “This is my room. I haven’t fully moved out. We have a couple of months left on the lease so I’m just procrastinating.”

Kenzie got why Lara and Kade would have loved this place. If walls could talk, this one spoke volumes. The apartment was an eclectic blend of mismatched furnishings that reeked of both love and fun at the same time. As she placed her things on the bed, she heard a door open, and a few seconds later, Kade was standing in the doorway bare-chested, bedhead, wearing cutoff athletic warmup pants. It was hard not to stare. He was tall, built like a brick house, and so freaking good-looking he gave Ty a run for his money.

“You should call him,” Kade said, his voice thick from sleep.

“Kade, stay out of it. She’s been through a lot.” He just looked at Lara and then his eyes went back to Kenzie. “I don’t know everything that happened, and you can stay, but his life sucks. I’d hate not being able to piss without someone taking my picture. It was obvious that guy’s crazy about you. I could see it in everything he did while you were here. You need to call him,” Kade said again and then left the door as Lara started for him.

Kenzie dropped down to the foot of the bed and stared at the empty doorway. Those were the same messages her mom had left over and over again. She shook her head. They just didn’t see how angry he’d gotten. She’d justified all that with Jason, but nothing had ever changed, things had actually gotten worse as her self-esteem plunged, and she didn’t feel even an inkling for Jason what she did for Ty.

Ty Bateman held the power to destroy her.

“I’m sorry, Kenzie. He promises not to say that again. He just needed to get it off his chest,” Lara said, coming back inside the room. “I have some food in the kitchen, but you have to be exhausted.”

“I am. Thank you for all this, Lara,” she said, sadder now than she was even when she’d left Ty’s house.

“Stop saying that. We’re friends. Go to sleep. Call me when you get up, and we’ll figure out the rest.” Lara came toward her, and she rose, taking the hug offered, before Lara left the room, shutting the door behind her. That was one thing Lara hit spot on. She was exhausted. Moving her bags to the floor, she kicked off her shoes and took off her jeans before climbing into bed. It took some time, but she slept better than she had all week.

~~~

With little sleep, Ty listened to the entertainment attorney in Bray’s firm explain the amendments he’d made to the contract he had with
Titan’s Fall
. He’d been a monster of a man to deal with over the last week, ever since the pool photos had been exposed. Clearly the show had tired of the halts in production and his terrible attitude upsetting the set because he’d gotten even more than he asked for. They’d agreed to write him out of the script. He would appear six times over the next year until his contract ended. The only downside was that he’d be doing that for virtually no money, but he wouldn’t have to pay to break the contract, so he’d take it.

“Next, you have the four contractual obligations from assorted films. That’s at the most thirty weeks of filming over the next four years. Surely that isn’t a problem,” the attorney said. Ty looked up to see Anthony writing feverishly on a tablet at his desk. His manager Rocco sat directly across from Ty, growing eerily quiet, probably because ninety percent of the conversations he’d had with his team over the last few days had ended in screaming matches as they’d insisted he was throwing everything away.

“I want out of any film that begins filming in the next twelve months. I’ve said it over and over, like it or not, I don’t give a shit what you think I’m doing to my career,” Ty said, staring at Rocco who hadn’t even been the one to ask the question.

“It looks like that’s just one,” the attorney said over the speakerphone.

“That’s fine then. Do what it takes to get me out of that one. From this point forward, I also want final approval on any role I take. No more booking me before talking to me, got it,” he said into the speaker, talking directly to the attorney because he knew his staff would try to work around him.

“Ty, Reed’s on the phone,” Anthony said. He’d given his assistant the task of monitoring his cell phone during the meeting. Thank God he did because he hadn’t even registered the ringing with all the disgruntled attitude being thrown around.

Ty immediately rose, reaching for the phone Anthony held in his direction. He left the office, leaving them all sitting there as he walked toward the bedroom for some privacy. “What’ve you heard?”

“I’m pretty sure she’s here. Lara’s being a pain-in-the-ass and tight-lipped, but she left early this morning to go across the street. Her old room’s empty, so it makes sense that Lara would put Kenzie up there,” Reed said.

“With her old roommate?” Ty asked, defensive as hell.

“Gay. He’s gay, buddy, remember? Completely, totally gay.” Even remembering that little tidbit of information, it still took several long moments to process the jealousy of Kenzie staying with another man.

“Should I let her go?” he finally asked, switching gears in a moment of rare insecurity. “I’ve destroyed her life. She can’t even walk outside without being attacked. I just want her to be happy.”

“Look, Bateman, Jerry Bryant said something to me when I found out Lara was pregnant and freaked the fuck out. He said, when you have a shot at happiness, you take it and hang on. What’re you doing in California? You hate it there. There’s nothing worth the lack of privacy you have to deal with, and you love that woman.”

“Bray’s team is working on getting me out right now. Kenzie wants babies,” he said, knowing those two thoughts didn’t really go together. His heart was just too desperate to allow him to think straight.

“Then give them to her. Quit putting on a brave front and acting happy all the damn time.” Reed let that stand between them before he continued. “Jerry told me someone put an offer in on the land butting up against his property. The gossip is that it’s someone big that wants to close right away. Know anything about that?”

“Even if I let Kenzie go, I can’t take it here another day. But it’s gotta stay quiet or they’ll jack up the price I’m having to pay to get out of these contracts,” Ty explained.

“For what it’s worth, I think it’s a good decision. Now, come get this woman, buddy. Give her those babies. I saw for myself how happy she makes you.”

“All right, I’ll be there by the end of the day. Can you text me the address? And if she doesn’t want anything to do with me, at least I tried,” he said aloud more for himself than anything else.

“I gotta roll. Good luck.” Reed disconnected the call, and Ty lowered the phone, staring at the device. His heart was already pounding in his chest, and he hadn’t even confronted Kenzie yet. Taking a deep breath, he pivoted on his heel, going back to the office. He needed a flight out as soon as possible.