Home Bound (16 page)

“Okay then. Good.” He paused. “And for the record, Cole? I get what you’re saying. Back when it was me and Harper? It was wrong for me to sleep with her while she was under my protection.” He gave a small chuckle. “The only problem was that it was completely out of my control. I couldn’t deny my feelings for her. And if you or Seb or Declan had stepped in and tried to interfere? Well, I probably would have put up one hell of a fight. Sort of like what you’re doing now.”

“Look, it’s not just about sleeping with Evangeline.”

Levi chuckled again. “You keep telling yourself that. Yeah, Seb’s there when he said he wouldn’t or couldn’t be, and he’s pretty much fucking with your head. But the reality is that he could be a real help to the case.”

“All he’s doing is standing guard. He’s not talking to anyone—except Evangeline—and he’s not helping me or Malcolm with squat.”

“Ah, so he really is just there to cock-block you,” he said and laughed again. “I’ll make the call, Cole. You’ve got my word on that. But do us both a favor?”

“What?”

“If you’re just looking to get laid to pass the time, find someone else to do it with and stop complicating this case.”

“I’m not—”

“But if you’re really into this girl,” Levi continued, ignoring my words, “then explain that to Sebastian so that he can leave with a clear conscience. Please. Can you do that?”

“Can you guarantee that he’s not going to come at me like I’m some low-life degenerate who isn’t good enough to lay a hand on his friend?”

Another laugh. “I’m not sure I can guarantee that, but I’ll see what I can do.”

He hung up before I could argue with him any further.

***

“D
ude! What the hell?”

I looked up from the notes I was making while Malcolm and I went over the events of the day to find Sebastian angrily staring down at me. “Problem?”

Malcolm nervously looked between the two of us and quickly made an excuse and walked out.

“Yeah, problem,” Sebastian said snidely. “You called Levi? You threatened to quit if I didn’t leave? Seriously? What is your fucking problem?”

“You!” I snapped as I stood up and kicked my chair out from behind me and came around the table at him. “You’re my problem! I thought that was obvious!”

“Why? I’m here and I’m trying to help! Why is that a bad thing all of a sudden?”

“If you wanted to handle the case, why didn’t you from the beginning? You gave me that whole line of bullshit that you were going away with Ali, it’s a conflict of interest, and now all of a sudden? You’re free as a bird! We’ve never worked as partners on any case before—none of us!—and suddenly here you are. Well I’m tired of it. Either take over the case or leave!”

He glared at me long and hard, and for a minute I thought he was going to rear back and punch me.

Then I remembered who I was dealing with. Pretty-boy Sebastian didn’t do that sort of thing. It’s wasn’t dignified. Only white-trash like me gets into fist fights I guess.

Sebastian sighed. “Can’t you understand where I’m coming from, Cole? We’re friends. Just like you and I are friends. If it was you who was in danger, I’d want to be there too.”

“You’re freaking full of it, Seb. You know that, right?”

He looked at me quizzically. “What are you talking about?”

“You weren’t concerned enough to be here until you thought I was sleeping with her. Then all of a sudden your schedule cleared up. Tell me, is Ali okay with you being here hovering around your movie star friend?”

“Please, don’t try and use that sort of nonsense on me. Ali knows exactly who Eva is and what she is to me. She’s even met her a couple of times. Don’t try and plant the jealousy seed because it’s an embarrassment to us both.” He raked a hand through his hair. “Just answer one question for me, and then I swear I’ll never bring it up again.”

I had a sinking feeling in my gut that I knew what he was going to ask, but I simply nodded and waited.

“Do you really have feelings for her, or are you just fucking around?”

Man, I hated to have to have this conversation with him. And I hated that I was going to have to admit out loud to him something that I was having trouble comprehending myself. I cleared my throat. “I’m not...I mean...she means something.”

Sebastian stared hard at me for a long time before giving me a curt nod.

I wasn’t sure what we were supposed to do just then—shake hands? Hug? I mean, it was only one question, and I gave a relatively short answer, but it felt like it all held a lot more weight than that.

“So,” he began, “are we good?”

Were we? I still didn’t want him here. I wanted him gone. I wanted to figure out who was stalking Evangeline, so I could stop being her bodyguard. I wanted...

Shit.

Her. I just wanted her.

He was still studying me—waiting for an answer. I was just about to reach out a hand to him when there was a scream and a loud crash from outside the trailer. We both cursed and bolted for the door. Malcolm went racing by and it hit me—who the hell had been watching Evangeline?

Malcolm got to her trailer first, and Sebastian beat me by a few seconds, but by the time I stepped in the door, I was ready to kill. I scanned the room and saw that Malcolm was looking at some photos that were positioned on the make-shift kitchen table.

“What happened?” I asked, my voice gruff.

I expected someone to answer me. No, that wasn’t right. I expected Evangeline to come to me and answer me. But she didn’t. She took one look at Sebastian and burst into tears and then threw herself into his arms.

For a brief moment, the case was all but forgotten because the shock and rage I felt at seeing Evangeline in Sebastian’s arms nearly blinded me. Never in my life had I felt this...this...jealous. I never get close to anyone—not even my friends—and yet somehow in a matter of weeks, Evangeline has become so important to me, so vital, that I was actually contemplating killing one of my best friends because he was comforting her.

Mentally I shook myself out of my stupor and walked over to Malcolm. “What have we got?” He motioned to the photos that were spread across the table. All of them were of Evangeline—all of them taken off the set. There were even a few taken at Sebastian’s family estate when we were coming and going. All taken with a high powered camera lens.

“This just got worse, didn’t it?” Malcolm asked, and I nodded. He lowered his voice as he pulled me further away from where Seb and Evangeline were still standing. “This means that all of our decoys and changing how and where we drive isn’t working, Cole. Whoever this is has got to be here on the set. Someone closer than we’ve thought.”

Suddenly I remember Evangeline mentioning how she thought Malcolm had been acting odd. I studied him hard for a long moment—until he visibly started to squirm under my scrutiny.

“What? What are you thinking?”

My emotions were too close to the surface, and so I said exactly what I was thinking. “I think it’s you.”

“What?” he hissed. “Are you fucking kidding me? Why? Why would you even think that?”

“What do you expect me to think?” I backed him into a corner but get my voice low. “You and I are the only ones that have constant access to her. Hell, we don’t even tell most of your team what we have planned. So since it’s not me—because this shit started long before I ever got here—that only leaves you, Malcolm.”

His eyes grew wide for a second before he shoved me—hard—and came at me. “You arrogant son of a bitch. Do you even hear yourself?”

I wanted to fight. Hell, nothing would give me more pleasure than to unleash all of the rage I had in me on Malcolm right here, right now. I looked over my shoulder toward Sebastian. “Get her out of here.
Now
.” My tone left no room for argument, and I was glad that he simply complied and led her out of the trailer.

Then I turned my attention back to Malcolm. “Yeah. I hear myself and I can’t believe that we’re even going to have this conversation. And yet...here we are.”

“Cole, I’m telling you...it’s not me. I swear,” Malcolm said, his voice earnest and sincere. “I don’t care if you believe me or not but I’m telling you, it’s not me!”

“Then explain this! Explain how it’s possible that you’re the only one who could have known where we were in all these pictures!”

He looked like he was about to argue but then his posture relaxed, became defeated. “I...I can’t. I wish to hell that I could, Cole. I’ve been with Evangeline for so long...why would you think I’d want to scare her? I spend my life trying to protect her!”

“Maybe you’re trying to prove that you’re actually needed. Maybe guarding a former teen-idol was getting boring for you. You’ve gotten lazy. Maybe you heard a rumor that you were going to be replaced and you needed to do something to show that you could still do something around here.”

His eyes narrowed at me. “You know, I’m getting a little tired of you putting me down all the damn time. I have done everything you’ve asked me to do—even more—and yet you still talk to me like I’m some sort of rent-a-cop!”

“Prove me wrong,” I snapped. “Seriously, dude, fucking prove me wrong! If you didn’t take these pictures, then who did?”

“Isn’t that your job?” he asked snidely.

I saw red. I was trembling from head to toe with the need to just pound him into the pavement so I took my shot. I reached out and swung and my fist hit what felt like concrete in his jaw. He immediately swung back and before I knew it, furniture was flying and we were on the ground.

“What the fuck!” Sebastian yelled as he came back into the room. He ran over and pulled Malcolm and I apart. “That’s enough! This is not helping anything!” He shoved Malcolm in one direction, and me in another.

“Where’s Evangeline?” I demanded.

“She’s in Pete’s office with Cali. I’ve got a guard stationed right outside the door. No one is allowed in or out unless I tell him.”

Fucking great. Now Sebastian was in control.

My jaw and my ribs hurt like hell, and I could feel some swelling near my eye. Great. Just what I needed on top of everything else.

“What were you two thinking?” Sebastian asked, looking between us.

“I think Malcolm is our stalker,” I said.

“
What?
” Sebastian looked at me like I was crazy. “Why?”

I gave him my theory and for a minute there, I thought he was going to back me up. Then he turned to Malcolm. “Did you do this?”

“No.”

“Then prove it,” Seb said.

“How? How the hell am I supposed to do that?”

“You’re suspended. You and you’re entire team. I want you all off the set until this case is solved. As soon as it is, you’ll be back as Evangeline’s bodyguard—if she wants you to—but until then, you and your guys collect your things, get off the set and stay away from it until either Cole or I call you. If I see even one of your guys snooping around, I’ll have all of you arrested for harassment. Do I make myself clear?”

I wanted to throw my two cents in but basically, Seb had nailed it. It was exactly what I would do—had I been thinking clearly. I looked over at Malcolm, expecting some kind of argument from him, but he simply nodded and began collecting his things. He pulled a business card out of his wallet and handed it to Sebastian.

And then he was gone.

When the door closed, and it was just the two of us, Sebastian studied me. Hard. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah.” I rubbed a jaw a little. “I really...I thought it was him. Evangeline mentioned how weird he’d been acting and...”

“I know. She mentioned that once I got her out of here.”

“Is she all right?”

He shook his head. “No. She’s asking for you.”

I froze. “Why?”

He chuckled softly. “Hell if I know. Look, I want you to go and be with her. I’m going to work on getting a new team out here ASAP. Once they’re all in place, I’ll meet up with you back at the house. I’ll also make sure to beef up security there too.”

“I can do something, you know,” I said defensively. “This doesn’t mean that I have to be relegated to babysitter again.”

“You’re not,” Seb said wearily. “I think that you’re wound up right now and maybe you need a little time to cool off.”

“Whatever,” I muttered.

“Now what? What the hell have I done now?”

I turned to leave but then, without looking over my shoulder, I said, “She went to you first.”

“What?”

“You. When we all came in here to see what happened, she went to you.”

“So?”

I paused and felt more than a little deflated. “Never mind.”

I walked out of the trailer and made my way to where Evangeline was. But the scene continued to play out in my head. There were three of us there with her, and she chose to go to Sebastian. Didn’t that really say it all? Here I was tormenting myself and agonizing over the fact that I wanted her—needed her—so damn much, but at the end of the day, she was no different than anyone else. I was beneath her. I was always going to be beneath her.

I wasn’t good enough.

Not as a lover.

Not as a bodyguard.

I arrived at the trailer and saw the guard on his phone. “Yes, Sir. He just got here,” he said. “Okay. Thanks.” He placed his phone back in his pocket. “Mr. Maxwell said you can go it.”

Like the cherry on a fucking sundae. Yippy for me. Seb said I can do my job.

Rather than be a dick to the guard, I nodded and walked up the steps and let myself in. Evangeline and Cali were sitting on the sofa, Evangeline’s head was on Cali’s shoulder. I knew instantly that she was still shaking.

Lifting her head, Evangeline looked at me and gasped. “Oh my God! What happened? Did you...did you catch him? The person who took the pictures?”

I shook my head and looked at Cali. “You can go. I’m going to take her back to the house.”

“Are you sure?” Cali asked. “Isn’t there someplace else you can go?”

“It’s still the safest place for now,” I said, my voice flat and emotionless. She finally stood and wished us both a goodnight before leaving.

“I don’t know if I can go back there,” Evangeline said quietly. “I mean, whoever this is, they know where I am.”

I nodded. “But they won’t get in. Sebastian is bringing in more security, and Malcolm’s entire team is being replaced.”