Fade to Black (40 page)

And as soon as he finishes guzzling this drink, he’s going to try calling Rae again.

He’d reached her about an hour ago. She’d sounded rushed. Breathless. Like she was on her way somewhere.

He had asked her if she’d heard from Mallory, and she had said she hadn’t.

But he wonders if she was lying.

If she was protecting Mallory, for some reason.

He has heard the rumors that Mallory left Rhode Island, that she was flying to Los Angeles.

Why wouldn’t she have gotten in touch with him first?

There’s only one reason that Flynn can think of.

Mallory doesn’t want to see him.

She doesn’t want him to be her agent anymore.

He takes another big swig, finishing what’s left in his glass.

The gin burns going down, and when he’s swallowed it, he looks at the bottle again, contemplating another drink.

Just one more …

No, he decides grimly, standing and starting, on unsteady feet, for the house.

He has to go find Rae.

And Mallory.

“L
adies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Those of you seated by the windows will have a great view of the Grand Canyon in just a few minutes.”

Harper is in a window seat.

He stares absently out at the cloudless sky, not caring about seeing the Grand Canyon.

Not caring about anything but the fact that in just a few hours he’s going to be landing in Los Angeles.

The city he’d sworn he’d never return to.

The city he had left abruptly just a little over a year ago …

After the funeral.

Carolyn’s funeral.

Carolyn Rutherford.

The woman whose life had been entrusted into his hands.

He had failed her. Failed her miserably.

And all because he’d fallen in love with her.

As a security specialist, he had been well aware of how risky it could be for a bodyguard to become emotionally involved with the person he was assigned to watch over.

And he had known the moment he laid eyes on Carolyn, a slender blonde with a throaty laugh and a provocative gleam in her dark eyes, that he was hopelessly attracted to her.

She knew it too. She later told him that.

He, who had always been a ladies’ man, who had vowed never to settle down, had told himself that she was no big deal.

And Carolyn, who had always loved a challenge, had made it her mission to seduce him …

To prove that what sizzled between them was more than lust, and that maybe they should
both
consider settling down—together.

He should have refused the assignment.

Lord, why hadn’t he refused the assignment?

Because the beautiful heiress was in danger, and he had been cocky enough to need to be the one who kept her safe.

Her father, Cyrus Rutherford, a billionaire computer software wizard, had been the victim of a thwarted kidnapping attempt just weeks before hiring the security firm that employed Harper. Convinced that his entire family was at risk, Rutherford had been willing to pay any price to keep them safe.

Especially Carolyn.

The youngest of his four grown children. The free spirit who had insisted on moving from the family compound in Carmel to Los Angeles. Bent on “just having fun,” as she put it, she frequented seedy after-hours nightclubs, socialized with an eclectic crowd, lived alone in an isolated beach house.

Her father had believed that her imprudent behavior would get her killed, so he had hired a bodyguard.

Little had Cyrus known that it was her bodyguard who would get her killed.

Harper will never forget the grieving billionaire’s words to him when he had tried to attend Carolyn’s memorial service.

“How dare you try to set foot in this chapel,” he had said, meeting Harper at the door, glaring at him with tormented eyes. “You murdered my daughter as surely as if you’d fired that gun yourself.”

And he had been right.

Harper had been asleep in Carolyn’s bed the night the kidnappers had broken into her house. Asleep, after a steamy bout of lovemaking.

He’d never heard the two men who swept into the bedroom and brazenly grabbed Carolyn …

Never heard them—until it was too late.

Until her muffled scream woke him, sent him fumbling for his gun.

Only he couldn’t find it in the jumble of rumpled clothes beside the bed.

The two men had panicked; one of them had shot at him, but missed.

That was when Harper had tried to be a hero.

More gunfire had erupted, and Carolyn had been caught in the cross fire.

Harper, seeing that she’d been struck in the head, had screamed.

“Noooo …”

Sometimes that scream echoes back to him.

He had sunk to his knees in the pool of blood soaking the white bedroom carpet, had taken her into his arms, had moaned her name, told her not to leave him.

But she had died right there, as the retreating footsteps of the two kidnappers faded away to mingle with the pounding surf.

And so he had left L.A., left the profession that had once filled him with a sense of power—a sense that he was actually helping people, keeping them safe.

And he had struggled to create a new life in Windmere Cove, a life he had vowed would be lived in isolation.

He had hurt too many people.

His parents.

His sister.

And Carolyn.

Every meaningful relationship he’d ever had.

That’s why he should never have allowed himself to fall for Elizabeth. But the attraction had struck him like lightning this time too, sparked by the nagging idea that he had seen her someplace before …

Now he knows where.

At the Academy Awards ceremony the March before she’d disappeared.

She had been there with some big-name actor, and he had been on security detail at the Shrine Auditorium.

He had heard the crowd getting all worked up, had watched as the cause of their excitement stepped onto the red carpet.

Mallory Eden, the famed, beloved actress, had arrived.

And at that moment, as she stood there, poised and smiling for the zillions of screaming fans and cameras and reporters, gazing around at the throng, their eyes had collided.

It couldn’t have been for more than a second or two, but she had seen him.

And he had felt an electrifying surge of attraction.

It was easy enough to dismiss in the next moment as her eyes drifted past him and she moved away, down the red carpet on the arm of her date. What red-blooded man in the world could lock gazes with a screen goddess like Mallory Eden and not feel a stirring in his loins?

Still, the moment had never really left his consciousness. Not if the memory had been triggered the moment he heard her tortured voice saying her name to Frank Minelli in that darkened house on Friday night.

That long-ago, fleeting connection to her had come to him in a flash …

Along with the knowledge that she was in danger, and he had to save her.

He hadn’t stopped to think when he went hurtling into that shadowy room to grab her attacker.

Not about the wisdom of making his presence known to a man who might have a gun …

And not about what had happened to Carolyn.

All he knew was that she needed him; Mallory needed him.

Just as all he knows now is that he needs her.

There’s a click of the public address system, and then the captain’s voice is once again booming through the cabin. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, there’s that view of the Grand Canyon I promised you. Truly amazing, isn’t it?”

And Harper thinks that the only thing that’s truly amazing is that he let Mallory Eden leave town without telling her exactly how he feels about her.

But this time, for the first time in his life, it won’t be too late.

G
retchen stares out the window at the sprawling Grand Canyon below, but not because it’s “truly amazing,” as the pilot described it. She isn’t even seeing the scenery beyond the layers of glass.

She’s been staring absently out the window ever since the plane took off from T. F. Green airport.

Anything to shield her face from the curious, or pitying, or horrified stares from the other passengers.

The big, broad-brimmed hat and oversized sunglasses she wore in the car and in the airport hadn’t provided nearly enough camouflage. She had heard people gasping as she passed, and several small children started crying at the sight of her. Her rage had grown with every step she had taken toward the departure gate.

Damn Mallory Eden for not returning her call.

Damn her for leaving Rhode Island.

Damn her for forcing Gretchen to venture out in public for the first time in five years.

By now, her mother will have returned home from work. She’ll see that the Chevy is missing from the driveway, and when she goes inside, she’ll find the note Gretchen wrote her.

The note telling her not to worry; that Gretchen had some business to attend to, and that she’ll call or come home in a few days.

Of course, her mother will worry anyway. She’s been a nervous wreck ever since Gretchen’s father dropped dead of a heart attack ten years ago, a few days after Gretchen had moved to Los Angeles.

Sorry for putting you through this, Mom
, Gretchen says silently as the Grand Canyon fades into the distance.
But I have to take this chance
.

She closes her eyes and rests her forehead against the window, telling herself that Mallory Eden will agree to help her.

She has to.

She
has
to …

How many times had she said to Gretchen, “Remind me that I owe you a big favor”?

She’d said it when Gretchen had hunted all over Melrose Avenue to find the perfect shade of a chiffon floral scarf to match an outfit she was wearing to a charity luncheon.

She’d said it when Gretchen had driven Mallory’s dog, Gent, all the way up to that Big Sur resort that Mallory and her friend Rae were always going to, just because Mallory had decided she missed her pet.

She’d even said it whenever Gretchen drove the long way to work so she could stop at a Santa Monica bakery and pick up a couple of the low-fat chocolate muffins Mallory loved.

Remind me that I owe you a big favor, Gretchen
.

I will, Mallory
, Gretchen thinks grimly, digging her nails into the palm of her hand.
Believe me, I will....

“W
ell, you can’t have him!”

“The hell I can’t! He’s my kid!”

Manny winces at the shrill voice that belongs to his mother, and hugs his knees more tightly against his chest, listening to the argument. Though it’s taking place all the way downstairs, in the kitchen, every word is loud and clear.

“We’re going to talk to the police about you, so don’t you go thinking you can—”

“What do you mean, talk to the police about me?”

“We’re going to tell them to make sure you stay away from Manny.”

“You can’t do that. He’s my kid!”

“You just want him because you’re jealous that he was spending time with that movie-star lady,” Manny’s grandfather accuses. “Until he started hanging around her, you never cared what the hell he was up to.”

“Hell, I didn’t know she was a movie star until yesterday. But she had no business trying to take over my kid! If she wants him, she has to talk to me about it. She has to pay.”

“Pay?” Manny’s grandfather yells. “You want to sell her your own son? I knew you were rotten through the core, but—”

“Rafael, calm down,” Manny’s grandmother cuts in. “You’re getting all red in the face. Calm down. Your heart …”

“Do you hear what our daughter is saying? She wants to sell her own son!”

“Well, that woman can’t just have him! You can’t just take somebody’s kid away.”

“He’s not yours anymore. You signed your rights away to us a long time ago, remember? When he wasn’t more than a baby. You never wanted him.”

Manny’s stomach does a flip-flop at his grandfather’s words. So his mother signed her rights away. Why should that take him by surprise? Anyway, he should be happy to find out that she has no legal claim to him....

“And at least the movie star tried to help him! That’s more than you ever did.” That’s Manny’s grandmother talking, her voice shrill and her accent thicker than usual, the way it always gets when she’s angry.

“I don’t have to listen to this. I want my kid. Where is he? Manny!”

“Get back here! Get back here! You can’t take him!”

Tears fill Manny’s eyes at his grandfather’s fierce words. How had he ever doubted that Gramps and Grammy loved him enough to keep him? They won’t let her take him away. They won’t.