Deadly Obsession (13 page)

Childish squeals filled the room as he flipped the startled boy over his shoulder and swung him around in circles. He loved children. Loved their innocence and craftiness. Loved their resilience and determination.

After agreeing to surprise Lauren with their disguises, Nic dashed off to his room to change into a pair of black jeans and a black long sleeved T-shirt. Black biker boots completed the outfit. He checked himself out in the full length mirror behind Lauren’s door and laughed out loud. Oh, man. Vivian would kill him if she ever found out about this. But Jason was right. People would stare but no one would recognize him. At least he hoped not. He really didn’t want any pictures of himself in this get-up hitting the front page.

Hearing a soft knock on the door, he turned the knob and peered down at the little boy. “All set?”

“Roger that.”

Nic flashed him a quick grin. “Let’s roll.”

With military precision, they marched to the front door. Seeing them, Lauren’s jaw dropped and her eyes darted between the two. “Wha…What?” she stuttered as they stopped abruptly in front of her, saluting with a smart snap of their right hands and a hard stomp of one foot.

Jason managed to hold onto his salute for all of five seconds before jumping up and down, clapping his hands. “Do you like our disguises?”

Biting her upper lip, she looked up at Nic. “Absolutely perfect.” Something in her eyes made him believe she wasn’t talking about their outfits.

They’d decided to take her car to the bowling alley because any determined paparazzi could trace the rented SUV to him, but he stopped short when Lauren unlocked the doors of a blue Mini Cooper convertible. How the hell would he fit into such a puny car?

Angling his head, he examined the vehicle from all directions, considering the possibilities. If he pushed the seat all the way back, and if he pulled his knees up to his chin, and if he hunched his back, and if he held his breath, he just might be able to squeeze in.

“Are you sure you don’t want to take the SUV?” she asked as he began easing into the passenger seat. When he bumped his head on the roof, Lauren smirked. “I’ll open the roof so you don’t get a cramp.”

“How kind.” Little Miss Lauren was definitely getting a kick out of this. Maybe they should have taken the SUV. If only to save his manly pride.

“You know, this could work for you,” she teased, eyeing him up and down, focusing first on his head, then on his knees tucked under his chin. “This car, with those goggles, everyone will think you’re Austin Powers. Except he’s really short and you’re, well, not.” She grinned.

Smartass
.

Nic grinned back. He was having a blast. Everything from the small apartment to the tiny car and his outrageous outfit was so different from his regular life. But the biggest difference was the laughter. Nic The Lover smiled a lot for the camera, even laughed on cue. But Nic the man? Until he’d met Lauren, he’d had too few reasons to laugh.

Letting go of the past, letting go of the mask he perpetually wore, at least for a few hours, felt so unbelievably good. And every time Lauren gazed into his eyes, the connection between them grew stronger, and he had to resist the urge to open the door wider and let her into his life.

For a moment, when his cell phone started blasting “She’s the Boss,” he considered not answering it; he’d told Vivian he’d be off the grid for the weekend. But she wasn’t the type to call simply to chat.

Lauren raised her eyebrows. “Aren’t you going to answer? It’s Vivian, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” He leaned to the side so he could inch the phone out of his pocket. “What’s up, Viv?”

“Hello, darling. I have some news. NicsBitch has been a busy bee. Another sighting on CelebrityStalker put you in San Francisco last night. Since you neglected to tell me where you’d be this weekend, I didn’t know if it was a real sighting or not. Should we be worried?”

“I’m not in San Francisco.” Nic tried to hide his concern but his adrenaline spiked and sweat broke out on his forehead. How did NicsBitch know he’d been in San Francisco?

“Good. I’d hate for the paparazzi to ruin your weekend. I know things have been difficult lately.”

Nic relaxed as best he could in the tight space, leaning against the headrest and letting the wind cool his heated skin. “Thanks Viv. You’re a good friend.”

“Anything for you, darling.”

Nic finished the call and looked over at Lauren. She was focused on the road, but her lips were stretched in a tight line.

“Is everything okay?” she asked. “You seem a little tense.”

“Someone posted a sighting of me in San Francisco last night.” He shrugged casually, hoping to keep things light. “It’s no big deal.”

“On the Internet? You mean on one of those websites that specialize in tracking celebrities?”

“CelebrityStalker.com in this case. Fans who spot a celebrity can go there and post the location of the sighting, the date, even a photo if they have one.”

“I’ve heard some of these sites even show maps of all the places where a particular celebrity was spotted.” She glanced at him furtively and nibbled her lips. “I’ve often wondered about people who do things like that. I’m sure some are random sightings by excited fans. But it wouldn’t surprise if some of these so-called fans are actually stalkers.”

Nic’s jaw clenched.
Stay calm
. She’d put into words everything he’d been thinking. Before telling her more, he checked the backseat to make sure Jason wasn’t listening. “One of them is a repeat poster. Vivian checks regularly and lets me know if she finds anything about me. There’ve been several in the last month.”

“That’s creepy. It’s good you have someone like Vivian watching your back. Has she been your agent a long time?”

“Since I first came to Hollywood. She and her husband signed me as a client, and within two months, I had my first movie contract. She’s a terrific agent.”

Lauren pulled the car into a spot in the bowling alley parking lot and cut off the engine. Turning in her seat, she snapped her fingers. “Hey! Didn’t I read something about you giving her husband a bone-marrow transplant when he got sick?”

It made Nic uncomfortable when people knew things he hadn’t shared with them. Unfortunately, that was life in Hollywood. The paparazzi made certain of it. Nic nodded. “David had leukemia. I got tested and found out I was a donor match.”

“So how is he now? It was several years ago, wasn’t it?”

“Two years. The transplant didn’t take and he died.”

“Oh, I hadn’t heard. Vivian must have been devastated.”

Nic closed his eyes for a moment. The last two years had been extremely hard for both of them. Vivian had lost David, and he’d lost his mother. “It’s been difficult. The agency lost most of David’s clients, so she’s had to deal both with losing her husband and struggling to keep the agency going.”

“But you stayed on,” she said softly.

He smiled. “She’s helped me with some personal issues as well as with my career. I owe her a lot.”

“Even so, don’t you think she can be a bit much sometimes?”

“Absolutely.” He grinned. No one knew that better than he did. “I think she’s just been really lonely since David died. And she’s immersed herself in her work. Her focus is one hundred percent on rebuilding the agency.”

“Hey, are we going in or what?” Nic looked behind them to see Jason, elbows hooked over the two front seats, his irritated gaze darting between him and Lauren.

“That depends. Are you ready to get your butt whipped?”

Jason grinned. “The question is, are you?”

Staying back to reassess her plan, she watched Nic go into the bowling alley and had to laugh at his ridiculous outfit. She jotted down one last note in her journal before stowing it in her purse.

The sight of her phone reminded her of her luck in finding Tony. Last year, while searching the Internet, she’d come across repeated sightings of Nic. Using some clues in the postings and some online messages, she tracked the postings to Tony Spagnoli, a stage hand during the filming of
Bad Days
. He had a huge crush on Nic, but when Nic told him he didn’t swing that way, Tony snuck into his dressing room and installed spy software on Nic’s phone. He didn’t want to hurt Nic, but he did want to rattle him and teach him a lesson. In turn, she’d decided to teach Tony a lesson.

When she revealed what she knew, Tony had explained where he’d gotten the tracking software, how he’d set up the account, and how he’d obtained a stolen credit card so he could remain anonymous. If he hadn’t been working on the set, she’d never have caught him.

Armed with that information, she let Tony go with the threat that if he ever posted about Nic again, or came anywhere near Nic, she’d turn all the information she had on him over to the police. Tony would be arrested for stalking, and given Nic’s status, Tony’s ass would be in prison until he could no longer even feel it. Someday, she grinned, she’d have to thank Tony for the education.

A few months ago, she’d used what she’d learned to buy a stolen credit card, which she’d used to pay for the tracking software, and she’d created NicsBitch. Even if someday Nic discovered the tracking app on his phone, no one would be able to trace it back to her.

When she’d seen the flashing light on her phone that indicated Nic’s GPS position moving from San Francisco International Airport to Seattle, she hadn’t known whether to wring Nic’s neck for being so foolhardy or be proud of his resourcefulness. And that was one of the things she loved best about him. He kept her on her toes, slightly off kilter, surprising her at every turn. He added spice and excitement to her life. And that, along with his smile, his caring words, and his innate tenderness had brought her out of the depression that had gripped her heart.

When her world had been torn to pieces, he’d stepped in and helped her. He’d saved her life. And you know what they say—when you save someone’s life, that person becomes your responsibility. Nic had saved her, and so now, she was his. Only, he didn’t know that yet. She was making arrangements so they could be together forever.

He had sexual needs she couldn’t take care of yet, and she understood that. She wouldn’t punish him if he satisfied those needs with women who only took his body, but she would be very angry if he let any woman take his heart.

His heart belonged to her, and only her.

Picking up her camera, she got out of the car and followed her heart into the bowling alley where she could keep a close eye on it.

CHAPTER 7

Three hours later, Lauren couldn’t keep the smile off her face as she, Jason, and Nic tramped back into her small apartment carrying a pizza box and a six-pack of Coke. Bowling had never been so much fun. She and Jason had neglected to inform Nic they were state champions in the parent-child bowling league. He’d been a really good sport about losing to an eight-year-old.

“That was the most unfair game in the history of bowling,” Nic grumbled as he ruffled Jason’s hair.

“We sure whipped your butt. No city champion can beat us.”

Lauren watched Jason trudge off to the bathroom to wash up for dinner. “I haven’t seen him so happy in years,”

“He’s a great kid.” Nic took off the knit cap but forgot the goggles.

Moving in close, she removed them, revealing his raccoon-ringed eyes. “Does this hurt?” she asked, rubbing the indents with her fingers. He caught her gaze. Her heart stuttered at the lust swirling in the blue depths of his eyes.

His arms snaked around her waist, and she couldn’t resist pulling his head down, bringing his mouth close to hers. Close but not touching. His warm breath feathered her lips, making her shiver. Was she imagining the heat in his eyes?

An emotion she couldn’t name crossed his face. He released her, as if he’d touched fire, and she stumbled.

“Sorry.” He caught her arm.

Jason ran into the room and took his place at the table. Nic sat in a chair next to him and handed Jason a slice of pizza. Taking his cue, she handed out the drinks.

While Nic and Jason discussed the finer points of hockey, Lauren’s mind wandered to what Nic had told her in the car. Todd had led a dangerous life, but it had been clear who the enemy was, and he’d felt safe on American soil. How awful it must feel to always have people digging into your life, tracking your every move. Having Googled Nic many times, she knew how much private information about him was out there. Later, she’d have to check out this CelebrityStalker site.

Refocusing on Nic and Jason, her chest tightened. Jason’s little face was flushed, his eyes bright with excitement. He was thoroughly caught up in a friendly argument about proper hand placement when executing a slap shot.

Todd had loved hockey, and except for the few photos scattered around the apartment, it was all Jason had left of his father. Blinking rapidly, she cleared the moisture from her eyes before either man or boy noticed. When Jason got up to put his dishes away, she smiled brightly at Nic and whispered, “Thank you for talking guy stuff with him.”

Nic frowned in mock astonishment. “What? You don’t talk guy stuff with him?”