29. Calla
TWENTY-NINE
CALLA
It’s been three days since I’ve seen anyone besides the woman who brings me food. I’ve tried to press her for details about what’s going on downstairs and who is here, but she shakes her head and quickly drops the tray before running out.
I haven’t heard from Thompson. My head is telling me not to count on him, but I really have no other choice. He’s the only hope I have at this point.
I wonder if my parents have realized I’ve been moving a lot of money out of our joint account. Maybe my new lawyer tried to contact them when he didn’t hear from me and that’s why they’re keeping me here with nothing.
I try not to think too much about Luke because it makes my heart hurt. I hope he’s ok. I wonder if he knows where I am or if they made him go back to New York. I wonder if he’s with Cody, trying to figure out a way back to me. I don’t believe he would give up on finding me. I can’t let myself believe that because then I would really and truly be broken.
It’s between meal times when my bedroom door finally opens one day. I’ve moved to sitting on the floor by one of the windows so that I can at least see some sunlight. It’s almost winter, but that doesn’t mean much in L.A. At least I can still see the flowers in my garden out back.
Once I see that it’s Brayden who has walked in, I focus my gaze back out the window. I’d rather pretend he’s not here.
“Got a little treat for you today if you promise to behave,” he says, like I’m a dog getting a reward. I’m not promising him shit. Although being locked in a room for five days has taken a little bit of the fight out of me.
When I don’t say anything, he tosses something on the bed behind me. “Here. You’re going out to an early dinner with Thompson.”
Thompson. Hearing his name makes my heart race. Is this his plan to get me out, or has he given up on that? I don’t know who to trust or what to believe.
“We need the two of you to be seen out together again, so he’s going to take you out. There will be cameras, too, so you need to look your best.”
He comes a few steps closer and crouches down. “Look at me, Calla.” I slowly turn my head toward him. He no longer looks like the man I once knew. I always thought of Brayden as a friend. Someone who was on my side. Now he looks evil, and I’m starting to wonder if he’s always looked like this and I just didn’t see it.
“If you do anything to fuck this up, there will be hell to pay,” he threatens. “You go to this dinner. You smile. Hold hands. Make the world believe the two of you are still together. Do you understand?”
When I only continue to stare blankly at him, he repeats louder, “Do you understand?”
I blink at the loud sound of his voice, and I force myself to nod slowly. “Good. That’s good. If you do a good job tonight, we might let you out of this room for a bit. Maybe let you go to the gym downstairs once a day.”
I don’t say anything. I don’t want to go to the gym. I don’t want to see anyone in this house if they’ve been sitting around, knowing what this man is doing to me and letting it happen.
He pats my head like I’m an animal before standing. As he leaves, he says over his shoulder, “And take a shower. It smells terrible in here.”
I don’t move for a long time. But eventually, the prospect of getting out of this house makes me crawl to my bathroom. I take a shower and do my hair and my makeup, although there’s not much I can do to cover up the black circles under my eyes. I put on the dress that Brayden left for me, sit on the bed, and wait.
Ashley is the one who comes to get me. She smiles like we’re friends, but I don’t smile back. As usual, she doesn’t seem to care.
It hits me, not for the first time, that it would be nice to have an actual friend.
She escorts me down the stairs, where Brayden is standing next to Thompson by the front door. They’re talking and laughing like everything is normal, and it grates on my nerves.
Thompson sees me first, and his smile falters, but he recovers quickly. He always was a good actor.
“You two have fun. Remember what I said, Calla,” Brayden warns before Thompson ushers me out of the house and into the car waiting for us.
“You look nice tonight,” Thompson says after we’re out of the driveway.
“I look like a corpse in sparkly fabric.”
“Well, you look like a nice corpse in sparkly fabric.”
I attempt to laugh, but it comes out as more of a grunt. It takes too much energy to laugh these days.
We don’t talk much on the way to the restaurant. Well, let me rephrase: I don’t talk much. Thompson has never been good with silence, so he fills it by telling me all about what he’s been up to. What movie he’s working on. Who he’s been hanging out with. What party he went to last week.
I want to ask him about how he plans to get me away from these people, but we’re not alone. While I’ve never seen this driver before, I don’t trust that he’s not being paid extra to report any conversations he overhears back to Brayden.
We stop in front of a sushi restaurant. I hate sushi but now doesn’t seem like the time to remind Thompson about that.
My stomach tightens when I see the cameramen lining the sidewalks.
Thompson leans in. “Just make it look like you’re happy, ok? Brayden has his security guys behind us. We have to be careful.”
I nod, and then my door is opened, and I’m helped out of the car. I force a smile on my face, something I’ve done hundreds of times in my life, but it feels extra difficult today. I wave and take Thompson’s hand when he extends it to me. It feels like I’m having deja vu. How many times in my life have I faked being happy for the cameras? Too many to count.
My smile drops as soon as we’re inside. I tense when two of the men who kidnapped me from the venue slide inside the restaurant. One of them remains by the front door while the other one casually walks toward the back of the restaurant.
We’re seated in the middle of the restaurant, which I’m sure is by design. Brayden likely called ahead to make sure we were seen.
“When was the last time you had sushi?” Thompson asks while looking over the menu.
“I actually hate sushi,” I finally say.
He stares at me like he’s never seen me before. “What? We’ve eaten here so many times.”
“I came here because you wanted to. I’m a people pleaser. Which is exactly how I ended up in this situation.”
“If I would’ve known…” He wouldn’t have done anything differently, and I know that.
“It’s fine.” It’s truly my own fault. I had so many chances to speak up and never did it. Now, it seems it’s too late.
He leans in and whispers, “I’d take you somewhere else, but there’s a specific reason we need to be here.”
He winks, and my heart stops for a brief second. Is this it? Is he actually getting me out? I force a smile and nod.
While we eat, I try to act like I used to back when we were together. I smile at his stories. I even try to laugh, though I wasn’t fully listening to the story. I laugh because Thompson laughs, so I figure it’s an appropriate response.
After dinner, I’m starting to get anxious. I’m not sure what his plan is, which is killing me a little.
Finally, Thompson leans in toward me. “In a few minutes, you’re going to excuse yourself to go to the restroom. Leave your phone on the table. Go to the last stall. It’s got everything you need to get out the bathroom window. Run and don’t look back, ok? You have to be quick.”
I smile and nod like he’s whispering something sweet to me.
“Don’t kick me in the balls for what I’m about to do. We’ve got to make this look believable.”
I giggle, which I hope he understands as my acceptance. He pulls back a little and kisses me. I cringe but don’t pull away until he does.
He smiles at me and winks.
With a pounding heart, I stand from the table. “I have to use the restroom before we leave.”
“Alright, babe.”
He’s so calm and acting like everything is normal. I hope at least my face looks neutral.
I walk back to the restroom and hope it’s empty.
There are four stalls in the bathroom, and I make my way to the one furthest from the door, assuming this is what he meant by the last one. I push gently on the door, but it doesn’t budge. I look down under the door but don’t see any feet.
Does he mean for me to crawl under the door? That’s not going to look suspicious if someone walks in.
“Shit,” I mumble to myself.
Then I hear the door unlatch, and I’m suddenly pulled inside, directly into a hard chest.
I gasp. “Luke!”
“Shh. We don’t have much time.”
He starts pulling things out of a backpack. Sweatpants and a T-shirt. A beanie. Tennis shoes.
“Change. Quick. We gotta go.”
With shaking hands, I throw the shirt over my dress and pull the pants up underneath. I look insane, but now is not the time to worry about that.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” I whisper as I pull the beanie down over my hair.
“I’d never leave you willingly, Calla. Ever.”
Once I’ve changed, he leaves the stall and opens the window in the bathroom. I didn’t even think this was a real window if I’m being honest. He hoists me up, and I climb out, jumping down to wait for him to join me.
Then we run, and I do my best to keep up with him.
He holds my hand and leads me down the street and over to another street, where he unlocks an SUV and practically shoves me inside. This car is familiar, and once we start driving, I realize it’s one of Thompson’s cars.
“How did you get Thompson’s car?” I ask, even though, in the grand scheme of things, I don’t really care.
“He’s letting us borrow it. Indefinitely. Said it was the least he could do. It would’ve been too risky to rent a car.”
My hands are shaking as we drive through the streets of L.A. I keep looking in the mirrors to make sure we aren’t being followed.
“How are you so calm?” I ask Luke.
“Part of my training, I guess? I have to stay calm in high-stakes situations.”
“Are these high stakes?”
He glances at me quickly. “Yes. Getting you to safety is my highest priority.”
“How did this happen? How are you here?”
He focuses on making a right turn before answering. “Back at the venue, they knocked me out around the same time I assume they took you. When I came to in a broom closet, I freaked out. Called everyone, but no one answered. Cody helped me trace your phone so I knew you were back in L.A. Thompson was actually the one who contacted me, and we came up with this plan.”
“You and Thompson worked together?” I ask in disbelief.
He growls. “It wasn’t ideal, but I knew he was my best chance at getting you back. At least he was allowed in your house. He called me, so I figured I could trust the guy. He also sounded really worried.”
“I hope he doesn’t get in trouble for this.”
“Nah, he won’t. He’s going to play the victim. Say he has no idea where you went. He thought you went to the bathroom. He’ll be fine. And if he’s not, well, he’s a big boy. He decided to help get you out. He’ll have to face the consequences. He owes you anyway.”
“I—I just can’t believe this is happening. This entire week has been absolutely insane.”
He reaches over and puts his hand on top of mine. I’ve missed his hands so much. “I know, baby. We’re going to get you far away from here, ok?”
I nod and stare out the window for the rest of the drive. We pull into a seedy motel an hour later that, on a normal occasion, I would never be caught dead in. But today, I have no problem following Luke into the room that looks like it’s seen better days.
Luke dumps out the contents of his backpack on the bed. There are two duffle bags in the room, meaning that he’s been here before.
“I hate to do this to you, Calla, but we need to dye your hair again. We don’t want anyone to recognize you, and unfortunately, the pink stands out.”
I’m flooded with disappointment because I love my pink hair, but it’s not the time for that. Luke hands me a box of dark brown hair dye, and I sigh.
“It’s not forever, baby. We just gotta keep you safe.”
“I know. Will you help me?”
“Of course.”
I drag the wobbly hotel room chair into the bathroom and wrap one of their scratchy towels around my shoulders. Luke puts on the plastic gloves from the hair dye box and gets to work. My knee bounces the entire time, and I’m constantly worried that someone is going to barge into our room and take me away again, but by the time we rinse out the hair dye, I start to relax. Maybe I’m just exhausted. This is the most activity I’ve done in over a week. I was high on adrenaline during our escape, and now I’m starting to crash.
Luke sits me in the chair while he dries my hair. He runs his hands through it as he goes, and it relaxes me even more.
He relaxes me. He’s my person. My home. And I’m so grateful that he didn’t give up on me.
My shoulders start to shake as I can’t hold back the tears anymore. Luke turns off the hair dryer and kneels in front of me.
“What’s going on?” he asks gently.
“I just can’t believe this is happening to me. I can’t believe my family and who I thought were my friends are trying to trap me and keep me away from you. I didn’t think I was surrounded by actual evil, but now that the truth is out, everything has changed.”
He tilts my chin up so I look at him. I don’t bother wiping my tears.
“No one could ever keep me away from you, Calla. It’s not fair that any of this is happening to you, but if anyone can get through this and come out on top, it’s you. You’re the strongest woman I know. You can do this. Just because a small group of people have fucked you over doesn’t mean everyone will. Your fans still love you. I still love you. That will never stop.”
His thumb swipes some tears away before he leans in and kisses me. This has been the worst week of my life. During the darkest times, I thought I’d never see Luke again. But here he is, kissing me, making me feel like I can do anything. He’s all I’ve ever wanted, and now he’s here with me and not leaving.
“Come on. Let’s get you to bed,” he says when he pulls away from my lips.
We climb into the bed together, and he holds me until I fall asleep to the beat of his heart.