Chapter 3
Chapter Three
D ella dangled her feet in her sister’s retro Hollywood pool and wished for what felt like the millionth time over the past week that she could be somewhere, anywhere , else.
This, Della decided, had to be one of the circles of hell.
A hell with old-style charm, a tumbling waterfall, and stone steps fit for lounging starlets. A hell that smelled like roses and lilacs.
A hell filled with so many trees and hedges surrounding the back yard that it was easy to forget there was a city out there filled with life.
There were people just on the other side of that green wall, but they might as well be on another planet.
It was Piper’s idea of paradise, but it was just another reminder that despite the many things she and her sister had in common, there were a lot of ways they were very, very different.
Piper’s need to get away from everyone had always struck Della as strange and slightly terrifying. What good was a place like this without any people to enjoy it with?
The stoic, judgmental security troll they’d installed into her life didn’t count.
She’d been stuck here with Warden and the Silent Statues for seven full days.
A week .
Might as well be a year.
She tried hard not to resent the way she’d been handled by everyone. They all had her “best interests” at heart. They’d all “discussed” the fact that Piper’s house was the only safe place to stash her away from her “stalker.”
Her sisters slapped smiles on their faces and dragged her along with promises like “It’ll be just like old times” and “We’ll have so much fun!” And “We’ll watch the tour highlights and do karaoke!”
They weren’t exactly wrong. It was fun at first. The four of them had stayed up all night just like when they were kids, giggling over mishaps on the tour and watching silly shows and playing around with a new song. It made her feel like everything was right in the world.
Then two days later, Lizzie left for an event at the inn, Mattie went back to her island to work on wedding stuff, and Piper moved in with Blake to get ready for the movie they were about to shoot somewhere exotic and fun.
Della went nowhere and did nothing.
She’d been given a list of rules she was supposed to follow: no internet, no phone, no leaving. Then, she’d been left to spend every day with only her thoughts for company.
She didn’t like her thoughts. At all. They spiraled into dark areas she’d never known existed, and one in particular reared up and smacked her over and over and over.
Everyone had things to do and places to go and people to spend time with.
Everyone but her.
Emptiness sat in her chest so heavily that it pushed out all the air and made her eyes burn.
She blinked and glared up at the bright blue sky. “I should have stayed in New York.”
It was getting harder to ignore the little voices in her head that she usually drowned out by constantly going and doing and singing and laughing.
What are you really doing with your life? All you do is prance around on stage. What good is that to anyone?
That asshole stalker’s words had stabbed a little deeper than they had any right to.
I see how alone you are. How sad. How desperately you long for something more.
He was wrong. She didn’t long for anything more. Her life was full up with good things. She had lots of friends and lots of fans, and she was never, ever alone.
Except…
“Oh, for crying out loud, this is ridiculous.” She kicked her feet in the water, stirring it up into a frothy boil. “I’m not lonely. I’m not sad, and I don ’ t need anything. I’m just…bored.”
“Is everything all right, Ms. Bellamy?” one of the security statues asked from near the hedge. He was one of the nicer ones. He always gave her a smile and a quick nod when he came on duty.
At least, whenever the warden wasn’t around to see him do it.
“It’s fine. I’m fine.” She took in a deep breath and let it out in a long, drawn-out sigh. “Everything’s fine.”
He nodded and vanished around the side of the house.
She was going to lose her mind if this quarantine didn’t end soon.
She glanced over her shoulder at the house. The reason for this week of torture was in there somewhere. Donovan Ward, killer of fun. Her warden.
His favorite word was no and his favorite color was notice-me-not navy. His goal in life was to blend in, which was odd for a man who could have been Mr. December on a brooding heroes calendar. He was designed to stick out. He was tall and broad, and he had an I-can-bench-press-your-car body. When he’d unfolded out of the car that first day like the underwear-model version of GI Joe, she’d thought things were about to get a lot more interesting.
Then he’d opened his mouth.
She’d promised her sisters that she’d be “sensible” and “safe” so they wouldn’t have to worry.
Someone should have told her that “sensible” and “safe” meant stay away from all human contact for weeks on end. She’d have refused on sheer principle.
It had been a week and nothing had happened. Nothing was going to happen either. The longer she stayed here, the clearer that was.
“Enough of this,” she told the pool.
She stood and stalked into the house.
She found her warden staring at his computer in what used to be the formal living room. Piper had converted it into her social media streaming room by enclosing the open space with walls and a door and filling it with enough equipment to run a TV studio.
Her sister was a tech geek at heart.
To the left, the desk was surrounded by monitors and cameras and lights. To the right, a wall of white shelves filled with books and awards and Bellamy Sisters memorabilia formed a backdrop, along with a cozy couch and Piper’s ever-present guitar.
“I want to go out,” Della announced in a loud voice designed to make him jump.
He didn’t even flinch. “You already did.”
He flicked a hand at the monitors. All six of them were filled with images of various sides of the house, including the pool area.
She’d been sulking like a teenager, and he’d been watching.
Her skin prickled with embarrassed annoyance.
“I don’t mean the backyard. I mean out, as in where people are.” She resisted the urge to start singing from The Little Mermaid . Barely. “It doesn’t have to be much. We could go for a walk around the neighborhood. Or a drive. Oh! Or we could go for ice cream. There’s a great place not far from here that makes it all fresh in house.”
“No.”
“No?” She stepped further into the room and put her hands on her hips. “I’m not actually a prisoner. Am I?”
His shoulders stiffened, but he didn’t look away from his laptop. “This is a sanctuary, Ms. Bellamy, not a prison. The sooner we find your stalker, the sooner you can go back to your…life.”
She didn’t miss the judgment he’d inflected into the word life . Her annoyance deepened to irritation. She was allowed to question her own life choices, but her warden wasn’t. “I said I’d be reasonable but this…this…sitting here all day, all night with nobody to talk to and nothing to do is not reasonable. I’m tired of being stuck here. Alone. With nothing to do but watch TV and be ignored.”
“If you’re so bored, you can read a book. You can swim laps, if that suit works for something other than decoration. Or you can write a song. Surely even pop stars have work to do?”
She ignored the derision in pop stars . “I spent the past year working and traveling nonstop and performing to hundreds of thousands of people who actually like me. It takes a lot of real effort from a lot of real people, including me and my sisters, to pull off a tour like that. This is supposed to be my break. You get that, right? This is my vacation. And instead of helping Lizzie get ready for a baby or hanging out with Mattie while she plans her wedding, I’m here. With you .”
She put as much contempt into that as he had into pop stars .
He looked as thrilled as she felt about that. “Your point?”
“I need people! I need to talk to someone. You know, interaction? Distraction? Connection?”
“I’m not your babysitter, Ms. Bellamy. I’m your protection. I’m here to keep you safe, not entertained.”
“Trust me, I’m not expecting anything even remotely resembling entertainment from you. And there’s nothing to keep me safe from . Come on, you know whoever wrote that letter has probably moved on to someone else by now. There’s no reason to stick me in a cage.”
Ward glanced pointedly at all of Piper’s equipment. “This is hardly a cage, Ms. Bellamy.”
It was really annoying to fight with someone who managed to get his nasty insults across without actually saying them out loud. “Why does he, whoever he is, get to live his life while I’m here not living mine?”
He leaned back and studied her. “You agreed to come here. You said?—”
“I know what I said,” she snapped. “You don’t have to keep reminding me. I don’t break my promises. That’s why I’m asking for permission to go out instead of just going. Behold, my cooperation.”
“Cooperation involves not putting yourself in unnecessary danger just so you can have a scoop of ice cream.”
She realized she’d crossed her arms at some point and willed a more persuasive tone into her voice. “I just want to live my life. Is that too much to ask?”
“ Living is the key.”
She drew in a deep stage breath to ease her temper. “Why did you take this job? You hate my life so much I’m surprised you find it worth protecting.”
His expression darkened. “No woman deserves to be stalked.”
She studied the deadly spark in his eyes. “I could almost believe you mean that.”
“Believe what you want.” He returned his attention to the laptop. “Stay on the property, Ms. Bellamy. Please.”
“Asshole.” She stormed out, but she doubted he even noticed. The anger-fueled adrenaline didn’t last long, either. It fizzled out, leaving her drained and hollow. She wound up wandering up and down the hall, in and out of every room, like a ghost too depressed to even wail.
Why couldn’t she enjoy being alone like her sisters?
She felt more like herself on stage than anywhere else, but she’d never noticed that until she’d had to sit here doing nothing for days on end.
“This sucks,” she told the empty living room.
Through the windows, the pool winked at her.
She didn’t feel like swimming. She didn’t feel like pacing or doing her nails or watching TV.
She gave up and took a long, overly hot shower. She went through the motions of putting on clothes and drying her hair, taking her time with every single step. It wasn’t like she had anything else to do.
Laughter greeted her when she emerged from the bedroom.
Actual laughter.
“What the hell?” She focused on the out-of-place noise. Two…no, three distinct voices. Two she didn’t know. One she knew too well.
Surely not.
She drifted toward the sound and found them in the kitchen, clustered around the island.
Her warden held a clear dish filled with vanilla ice cream. Like a normal person.
And was that…a smile?
She stared at him, trying to process the way the friendly tilt of his lips softened his face. Maybe he wasn’t some kind of mutant robot sent to torture her after all.
What had brought that out? It had to be the two visitors he’d allowed into her prison. She’d seen them before, briefly. He’d introduced them as his team that first day when all three of them had emerged from the black SUV favored by security people everywhere, but she hadn’t seen them since.
What were their names? Annette? No. Annie. Like Little Orphan Annie. The guy was…she wracked her brain…something with an S. Steve? No. Something more studious. Stuben? She almost giggled at that. Definitely not. She glanced at his long hair and pale skin and the name came to her. Spencer. Like a geekier, lankier Spencer Tracy.
Annie looked at Ward with bright amusement and easy confidence. She wore jeans and a plain T-shirt in a way that somehow screamed elegance.
Spencer chuckled from behind the kitchen island. He seemed a little awkward, like he felt out of place even while he joined in on whatever joke had them all laughing. She had a feeling he didn’t get out much.
It was obvious that they liked each other. It reminded her of breakfast in the kitchen at Lizzie’s inn. The cozy happiness beckoned.
Della took a step toward them without even meaning to.
The woman caught sight of her and her smile widened. “Della!”
“Hi Annie. Hey Spencer.” She gave them a little wave.
Ward turned his head toward her, and the warm expression on his face vanished, replaced with the same mask of indifference he’d worn all week.
He might as well have shut a door in her face. Well, this was her house, or at least it was her sister’s house, and she could go where she wanted without a sunny invitation from him. “Ice cream, Warden? Here I thought you were the fun police.”
Spencer snorted a laugh, but he hastily choked it off when Ward shot him a frown.
“Not the fun police, exactly.” Annie tilted her head as she considered Ward. “It’s more like he’s on a fun diet. It’s an occupational hazard.”
Her smile didn’t waver as Ward’s glower transferred to her. If anything, it grew even bigger.
The dark hole of misery in Della’s chest shrink. She glanced at the kitchen island. “Is that Lofty Pursuits?”
“I heard it was the best,” Annie said with a nod at Spencer.
“They have a 4.9-star rating,” Spencer said. “And your sister Piper raves about them on her feeds.”
“You brought ice cream?” Della looked back at her warden. “ You did this?”
“You said you wanted it.” Ward gave a little half shrug.
A flare of gratitude flashed through her. “You were listening.”
“One of the many differences between being in prison and being protected, Ms. Bellamy,” Ward said, “is the ability to have food delivered.”
The warmth she’d felt growing for him vanished. “I was actually giving you a compliment.”
“No need. It’s part of the job to keep our client happy. Another thing they don’t do in prison.” He met her gaze briefly before turning to Annie. “Check in before you head out.”
“Yep,” Annie said.
“See ya,” Spencer said without looking up from the tower of scoops he’d constructed.
Ward walked out without another glance at Della.
“You can’t fix everything with ice cream, you know!” Della shouted after him. When he didn’t answer, she turned to Annie. “Does he really think that?”
“His primary concern is your safety. Always,” Annie said. “But he doesn’t want you to be unhappy. We all want to make this as easy as it can be for you. I know how hard it is to have to wait while other people sort things out. Especially when you aren’t used to sitting still.”
She gave Della a significant look as she carried her treat to the table. “I once had to hide out in a closet backstage at Fashion Week because they were putting the finishing touches on the dress I was assigned for the runway show. I was the surprise ending, so to speak. It was only supposed to take an hour, tops. Three hours later, there was still no dress and it was thirty minutes to showtime. Nobody would tell me why it was taking so long. Drove me absolutely crazy.” Annie took a large bite and closed her eyes. “Oh, this is good.”
Della stared at her. “You sat in a closet for three hours?”
Annie’s eyes sparked with malicious amusement. “They thought I did.”
Della snorted a laugh. “I wouldn’t have lasted thirty minutes.”
“If there was Wi-Fi,” Spencer said, “I could have lasted three years.”
“Boy Genius here is lying,” Annie said. “His father founded M&C Pharmaceuticals. His trust fund would power an entire country, and his first apartment was filled with so much tech it was one step away from being sentient.”
Della laughed.
“It was not,” Spencer said. “The room was too small for more than six monitors and three hard drives. It takes a surprising amount of equipment to build anything more substantial like a frame that might mimic life. That’s why I had to rent the storage facility.”
Della stared at him. “You actually built a robot?”
“Oh yes. Several.” Spencer took another bite. “You know, the ratings on this place are completely accurate.”
“Ice cream isn’t an everyday treat for me, not with how it coats my vocal cords. So when I have it, I like to have the good stuff, and Lofty Pursuits is the best I’ve ever found. It’s basically childhood in a cup.” Della felt the tension she’d been carrying around for the past week melt away. She eyed the carton of Cherry Oblivion. “You brought my favorite flavor.”
Spencer handed her a sundae dish. “That, plus vanilla for Ward, Midnight Madness for me, brownies, bananas, and all of the toppings, including nuts, although I don’t think you like those. Actually, forty-one percent of people like nuts on their sundaes, but in your videos, I’ve never seen you add them. We brought them anyway, just in case.”
“Thanks. This all looks great.” Della’s lips twitched with amusement at the wave of awkward energy. She put two scoops into her dish, topped them with a little fudge sauce and a dozen maraschino cherries, then joined Annie at the table. “How long do you think I’ll be trapped here?”
“We can’t really answer that, which I know isn’t what you want to hear,” Annie said. “There’s a lot of moving parts to sift through. You’re a very busy girl, which makes figuring out who our letter writer is take longer than usual. That’s why we have Spencer.”
“I’m the king of data,” Spencer said. “I’ve already sifted through three point four million of your emails and eliminated two thousand five hundred and three potentials.”
“Two…thousand?” Surely he wasn’t serious. Except she could tell by the eager expression on his face that he was. “How many more are there?”
Spencer glanced at Annie as if asking for permission before answering, “Five thousand two hundred and forty-five.”
Della felt the rest of the year drifting away. “Five thousand… That’ll take forever! Lizzie’s baby will be here before you finish. Mattie will probably be married and pregnant by then. Piper will be working on a third movie or something.”
“Oh, it won’t take that long. It took a couple of days to write the program that’s doing the search.” Spencer shoved another spoonful into his mouth. “But it’s working great now, and my spiders are crawling through the social media feeds of all of the remaining names, twenty-four seven. It never stops.”
“How long will that take?” Tension tightened Della’s shoulders.
“How long is a piece of string?” Annie countered. “The point is, we’re working the problem as hard and fast as we can.”
“What happens if none of those five thousand is the one? What if you get to the end of the string and there’s just more string?”
Annie leaned forward, her gaze steady and confident. “Then we follow that string and the next until we find him.”
“But what if there is no him. ” Della slumped in her chair. “What if he’s dead already, or in jail, or if it was just some kid you can never find because his mom took his computer away, or…”
“Everyone leaves a digital trail,” Spencer said. “Especially obsessive people.”
“He’s already sent emails and a written letter. Trust me, this guy wants to be found.” Annie’s lips twitched. “I’m sure he’s counting on getting found by you , not us, but that’s his problem. The point is, we won’t stop until we find him and we know you’re safe.”
Della knew they were trying to soothe and comfort her, but how long did they expect her to stay cooped up here because someone somewhere might one day send her another creepy note?
They were never going to find the guy who sent that stupid letter because there was nothing to find, and while she waited for them to figure that out, she was stuck in a mostly empty house with a warden who didn’t like her, a silent army who wouldn’t talk to her, and leftover ice cream.
She wished like hell she hadn’t promised to stay.
She’d sworn to her sisters she’d do the responsible thing. She’d looked into Renic’s eyes and promised she would do what her new security team asked her to do. If her new warden decided she had to remain in her bedroom for a year, then she’d have to do that or break her promise, and she was not breaking that promise. She hadn’t spent the last years making up for her stupid mistake to screw up like that now.
They ’ d made a lot of progress for a week , Della reminded herself.
They’d eliminated over two thousand people so far. That was a lot of people for a week.
There were only five thousand to go.
She stifled a groan.
She could be patient for a little while longer. She could do this. It would be like a bus tour, or a long-haul flight. All she had to do was enjoy the ride.
In a determined effort to live in the moment, she savored a bite of her favorite ice cream. “So how did you guys end up working with my grump of a warden?”