Chapter 6
Chapter Six
W ard stalked into his makeshift security room and paced like a caged lion.
He should have known better.
Most people understood the imperative of keeping their skin intact. Even celebrities.
Not Della Bellamy. Oh no. Self-preservation never entered her pretty head.
He stopped in front of the window and ripped open the curtains. Sunlight doused him and the steady stream of famous faces now piling into cars and heading for the exit. Hell, some of those people had their own stalkers and their own social media armies. It was a security leak of epic proportions, and she’d done it like a teenager holding a party the second her parents were gone for the weekend.
He couldn’t afford to let his principal get to him like this. He had a job to do and a future contract on the line, and at the bottom of the well of excuses and reasons was a woman’s life.
Ms. Bellamy faced a very real threat, even if she refused to see it.
He tried to focus his thoughts. Next steps. Get all of the extra bodies off the property. Sweep the location for stragglers. Check for signs of intrusion into areas that shouldn’t have been accessed. Don’t throttle the client.
He scowled at the laughing horde as they got into their cars and drove away. They’d all been drinking. They were all liabilities. They were all now potential suspects.
One of them might be the stalker.
He had to report this. He had to call in now, before Ms. Bellamy’s little afternoon delight broke all over social media.
It was probably too late for that.
He hadn’t recognized everyone in the backyard, but the people he did know were paving the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The others probably traveled in the same circles. They were all A-list media personalities and paparazzi magnets, which meant there was no way they wouldn’t talk, tweet, post, or brag. Maybe all at the same time.
How would he explain this to the man who’d hired him?
He’d been gone for less than twenty-four hours, and during that small amount of time, his protectee had managed to have an orgy.
He could already picture the look on Renic’s face. Disbelief. Disappointment. Disgust. Would it be for him or for Ms. Bellamy…or both?
When he started this business, he knew he’d have to make tough calls, but he’d never planned on having to make one quite like this. If Renic reacted the way he should, all of his future plans would be on indefinite hold.
He’d let his guard down. There was no excuse.
Might as well get it over with.
He put his phone on the holder Piper used for recording and dialed, then straightened to attention for the video call.
He would face this like a Marine, with his head held high.
Renic’s face popped on-screen on the second ring. He wore a casual polo shirt, and there was weekend stubble on his face. He sat in a leather executive chair at a large desk that shouted “CEO,” and there was a pile of paperwork in front of him. Soothing music played in the background.
The man was in his office on a Sunday. That didn’t surprise Ward at all.
Renic gave him a questioning glance. “Ward. How’s it going?”
“We have a situation.” Ward congratulated himself on how steady his voice sounded. None of the angry embarrassment he felt showed. Yet.
“The stalker?” Renic leaned forward, his expression morphing from casual to hard in a blink. “What happened? Is Della okay?”
“She’s secure.” Ward checked the security feed. His protectee was currently in the front driveway waving goodbye to her adoring fans. “For now.”
Renic leaned back with obvious relief. “What did she do?”
“She threw a party.” It sounded so innocent when he said it like that. Since that didn’t convey what he meant or what he felt, he tried again. “She invited half of Hollywood over for water volleyball. Her safe house location is compromised.”
Renic winced but didn’t look surprised. He’d obviously expected a call like this at some point.
Somehow, that made Ward feel less embarrassed. With that out of the way, frustration bubbled back to the top.
“What’s the status? Do we need to move to plan B?” Renic asked with the resigned tone of a man who earned his living surrounded by celebrities and their pool parties.
Ward relaxed. A man about to fire someone didn’t usually plan next steps with the person they were canning. “We’ll do a full sweep as soon as the last guest is off the property, but protocol dictates we shift to a new location at the very least.”
He filled the word guest with all the irritation he’d felt when he stepped onto the porch and saw his protectee riding a man like he was a prize stallion. “Not that it will do any good if she pulls a stunt like this every time I take a few hours off.”
He glanced at the monitor. Diggs stood near the front step watching the last car disappear down the drive. The man should have known better. He should have been the one to tell Ms. Bellamy no. He’d left Diggs in charge to do exactly that, and he’d failed.
The bitch of it was he’d seen on the man’s face that he knew he should have told her no. He just hadn’t done it.
He’d put his protectee at risk.
There was no greater sin as far as Ward was concerned.
Diggs had a glimmer of future potential, but he had a lot to learn, and his obvious inability to say anything but “Yes, ma’am” to Ms. Bellamy made him a liability.
He shouldn’t be standing on the front step like a lap dog watching the road. They had a whole team for that. They were in crisis mode. He should be directly watching Ms. Bellamy.
Ward scanned the feeds.
His principal was nowhere in sight on any camera.
Great.
Now neither one of them knew where she was.
“Something else going on?” Renic asked.
“It’s quiet. For now.” Ward stared at the pool on the screen. It looked serene and inviting and empty, but he could still see his protectee riding the shoulders of that…guy. He could still see her head thrown back and her arms outstretched as she reached for the ball. He could still hear her laughter when she missed.
She was the very definition of carefree. Life was one big party for Della Bellamy.
He ripped his gaze away from the empty pool and focused on Renic. “We’ll try to put names with faces, checking for anything or anyone that stands out, but we don’t have good visuals on everyone. There are areas in the house that aren’t on camera. We’ll try to focus on anybody who paid her a little too much attention, but I have to be honest, that includes pretty much everybody.”
“If you send me the photos, I’ll work with Morgan to see who we recognize,” Renic said. “We know the crew and a lot of the people who hang around Piper and Blake. It might make it go faster.”
“Done.” Ward fired off a quick email to Spencer. They’d follow the leads Ms. Bellamy had unwittingly dumped on them, but he didn’t think they would go anywhere. There were too many of them. “She made herself bait today, and I don’t think she’s even aware. She hasn’t shown even the slightest interest in her own well-being. I can’t protect someone who doesn’t want to be protected, Renic. I told you that at the start.”
“And I told you she might be a challenge,” Renic said in the same patient tone he’d used when he hired Ward. “You said you were up for it.”
“Challenge is one thing. Stupid is another.”
“I’m not stupid,” Ms. Bellamy snapped behind him.
Ward turned to face his problem, shifting to the side so that he didn’t block the video feed. She wore a flimsy transparent shirt over the red scraps of fabric that passed for a swimsuit, which did nothing to hide anything. It was distracting as hell, which only added to his frustration. “Your actions sure as hell were.”
He spoke over his shoulder to Renic. “It obviously never occurred to the noisemaker here that she might have invited her stalker into her safe house today.”
“I didn’t invite a stalker. I invited my friends.” Ms. Bellamy glared at him. “There’s no way anybody who came here today would hurt me.”
“Right.” Ward couldn’t have stopped the snort of derision even if he’d wanted to.
Her eyes narrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I bet you didn’t even know their names when they walked through the door.”
Her shoulder twitched as if she were shrugging off that accusation.
Satisfaction that he was right ramped up his irritation. For all she knew, the man she’d wrapped her legs around in the pool was the stalker. “Those weren’t friends. Those were party favors.”
“Excuse me?” Ms. Bellamy’s dumbfounded expression would have been comical if he wasn’t so pissed off.
“This little shindig of yours will be all over social media by now. Do you get what that means?”
“I—”
“He’s stalking you.” Ward bulldozed past whatever she’d been about to say in the low, tense tones of a barely controlled temper. “That means he watches everything you do. He scours the web for any sign of you, and now he knows where you are .”
He drifted closer to her as he spoke. His need to get his point across disengaged most of his filters. It wasn’t the first time he’d worked with a woman who couldn’t see how much danger she was in.
A lot of them lived in denial, and that always, always got them hurt.
Not this time.
“No he doesn’t,” Ms. Bellamy managed to say, but it came out breathy and unsure.
“It’s only a matter of time before your stalker shows up outside that gate, and from there all he has to do is figure out how to get in. What do you suppose he’ll do then? Think he’ll just leave a note? He’ll escalate. Maybe he’ll take something. Maybe he’ll take you. ”
He was close enough to smell the strawberry margarita she’d had for lunch. “You might as well go ahead and put up a giant neon sign that says ‘Victim here. Come on in.’”
“Jesus,” Renic muttered.
“That’s—” She swallowed hard. Her gaze flicked to the security feeds, then back. “That’s not going to happen. This place is secure. Romi set it up.”
“Romi can’t keep someone out if you give them permission to enter. The stalker might have already sauntered in while you were doing shots by the pool.”
“No.” She rubbed her arms as if she were suddenly chilled. “No way he was here. He would have said something. Wouldn’t he?”
“He might have. How would you know? It’s not like stalkers come with name tags. And here’s a fun fact for you. In most cases, a stalker is someone the victim knows. Someone they’ve met. It could have been that guy you rode in the pool this afternoon.”
“Della,” Renic said with all the disapproval of a dad to a teenager.
Ms. Bellamy dropped her defensive posture and looked past Ward to Renic. “Scott isn’t a stalker. He’s a Baldwin.”
“He could be both.” Ward waved that away. “Here’s another tip for you. While you were playing in the pool, your stalker could have scouted the entire place. He could have the security setup, he could have the codes, hell he could have stolen your underwear.”
He hoped like hell that was an exaggeration. If his team hadn’t been patrolling the house and grounds while the party was going on, he’d be shopping for a new team.
“First you think Scott is a stalker, and now you think it’s someone else? Which is it?” His principal crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her hip exactly like his sister did when she was pissed. “It’s been three weeks, Warden . Where’s the progress? You have a crack team on this, right? So why haven’t you found him already?”
“He’s covered his tracks. He’s good.” Didn’t that little nugget of truth sting. “So far, the field of potentials is too damn big to narrow down. I’m trying like hell to anticipate the man’s next move, but I can’t do that if you insist on offering yourself up as a nearly naked tribute.”
He spared a glance at her swimsuit.
Her stare turned cold, and the challenge in her eyes made him want to punch something.
Dammit, he’d almost had her. She’d almost seen reason. One wrong word and she was back behind the veil of denial.
“You realize if the guy gets in here it won’t just be you who pays the price,” Ward said. “It’ll be me. It’ll be the security team.” He gestured to the camera where Diggs now appeared to be cleaning up the back patio. “It’ll be Diggs. We’re the ones who step in front of the bullet while you dance around pretending it doesn’t matter. But I guess to you we’re all disposable. So long as you get to have a good time, who cares about us, right? We’re just the hired help.”
He let the innuendo hang in the air like the accusation it was and felt a tiny flare of satisfaction when she flinched.
Her gaze lowered to the floor. “That’s not fair,” she said in a shaky voice.
“No, it’s not,” Ward agreed. “It’s incredibly unfair that we risk our lives for someone who refuses to get out of her own way.”
She lifted her gaze to meet his. Her eyes told him he was the biggest asshole she’d ever met.
She might be right. He had to be if he was going to keep her safe. He was sure everyone else in her orbit bent to her will like it was a high-powered magnet. She’d knocked all sense out of Diggs’s head, at the very least.
“What do you want from me?” Della slapped a hand on her chest. “I’m not the bad guy here.”
“Neither am I,” Ward countered. “I’m the one trying to protect you. Remember?”
“Protect me from what? Living? Nothing has happened . Some wacko left a note, that’s it. He hasn’t attacked me. He hasn’t shot at me. Maybe he’ll leave another note.” She wiggled both hands in the air. “Oooo scary.”
Ms. Bellamy looked from him to Renic. “How much longer do you expect me to live like this? How much longer do I have to put my life on hold for a maybe?”
“Until the threat is gone,” Ward said.
She had the attitude of someone who’d never experienced anything truly terrifying. She had no idea how lucky she was.
Lucky, privileged, and naive.
“Okay,” Renic said loud enough to get their attention. He scrubbed his face with both hands before taking a drink from a glass that hadn’t been there when the call started. Ward suspected it held scotch. “Let’s get past this. What’s done is done. What’s our next move?”
Ms. Bellamy set her jaw but didn’t say anything. She could listen, it seemed, so long as the message came from Daddy Renic.
He put a pin in that line of thought. He couldn’t go running to Renic every time his principal misbehaved. Renic was looking to him for leadership. If he couldn’t handle Ms. Bellamy, he should turn down the contract and focus on business executives.
No, dammit. There was no way he’d let Sparkle Toes here get the best of him.
He tightened his stance and straightened his shoulders. This was his mission. His unit. His call. “We need to move.”
“Move?” Ms. Bellamy repeated an octave higher than normal.
“Yes. Move.” Ward pushed past the objection he saw on her face. “We need to get out of LA as soon as possible.”
Renic nodded, his face full of agreement and understanding. “Where to? She sold her penthouse in New York, and I assume the Belhurst would be a bad idea. It’s public and not easy to secure. How about Mattie and Adam’s island? That might be remote enough.”
“We can’t go anywhere connected to anyone in the family or her circle of…friends. We need to get off the grid completely. By tomorrow at the latest.”
“No,” Ms. Bellamy said, her tone firm.
Ward turned to face her. “Like it or not, this is what happens when you invite a bunch of strangers over for a splash in the pool during a hostile situation.”
She tossed her hair over her shoulder and put her hands on her hips just like he’d seen in the videos of her stage performances. If he remembered right, it was one she used while singing about personal power.
Gone was the bubbly persona. In its place was a force to be reckoned with.
“I’m not leaving LA.” His principal stared him down with the same entitled expectation he’d experienced from CEOs and politicians. “I have a VIP concert in two weeks. There’s no point in moving somewhere when I’d just have to come back. Plus, I have rehearsals.”
“We can probably reschedule that,” Renic said. He didn’t sound thrilled about the idea.
“No.” Ms. Bellamy’s chin lifted almost imperceptibly. This time, it wasn’t stubborn defiance. It was determination. “Piper never reschedules, and neither do I.”
“You can’t do a show right now.” Ward pictured that nightmare scenario, and his heart rate kicked up a notch. Thousands of people, multiple entrances and exits. Impossible to keep totally secure, no matter how big his team was. “He knows you’re going to be there. He’ll be ready for it. I can’t guarantee your safety in a situation like that.”
“Gee, Warden, I thought you were a specialist. An expert .” Ms. Bellamy drew the word out in a little singsong that made it very clear what she thought of his skills. “Surely, you can handle one small show at a tiny venue like The Rox. It’s not like it’s Madison Square Garden.”
Ward gritted his teeth. “I’m not a prison warden.” He would not rise to her bait. He would not give in to the temptation to let her have a dose of unvarnished opinion.
He knew The Rox. He’d examined it from top to bottom after Renic hired him because that was where the stalker had made first contact. “That place is a warren of easy access with a dose of open-air vulnerability. The stalker’s already been there and done that once. We’d be fools to let him have a repeat performance. It’s out.”
Her lips pressed together in a line of denial and disapproval.
He had to throw her some kind of bone or she’d never see reason. “Why don’t you do the show virtual?”
They could control a studio situation, and the stalker wouldn’t expect it.
Her brows furrowed like he’d just started speaking in a foreign language. “Virtual?”
“Yeah. Give the show in a studio and broadcast it.”
“Interesting,” Renic said.
“No,” she cut in. “Hell no. These people paid to see us live . In person. There’s no way I’m telling them they have to watch me from home. They can do that now for free.” She looked from Ward to Renic. “They’re coming for the shared experience. They’re expecting Piper and me to be there. I’m not canceling, and I’m not going virtual.”
“These people would rather miss a show if it meant you were alive at the end of the day,” Ward countered. “Wouldn’t they? Surely, they don’t want you to die for them.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she snapped. “Nobody’s dying.”
“Della…,” Renic said.
“No.” She shook her head hard enough to make her hair swing. “I agreed to let you lock me away, even though nothing actually happened, even though I think this is all one giant overreaction, because I saw how upset my sisters were. But this is where I draw the line.”
She turned to Ward with an accusing finger pointed at him. “You obviously think what I do is silly and pointless and…and…unimportant. But it isn’t unimportant to those people . I made a promise. I’m not going back on my word. Not for you. Not for some lame guy who left a stupid letter. Not for anybody.”
She paced toward the door but stopped when she reached it to look back over her shoulder. “I’m staying here until after the concert. Then maybe I’ll move to a new location.”
“Definitely,” Ward insisted.
“Maybe.” Her gaze challenged him. “And, Warden, if you try to get in my way on this, you’ll see just how uncooperative I can be.”
Her feet slapped against the tile floor of the hall as she stalked away.
Ward stared at the empty place where she’d stood. The room suddenly felt empty and far too quiet. How could one woman fill a space so completely that she left a vacuum in her wake?
Renic cleared his throat. “That…could have gone better.”
Ward closed his eyes and took in a steadying breath. The whole day could have gone better. He’d made a tactical error.
He’d trusted that Ms. Bellamy had an interest in her own safety.
He’d trusted that Diggs would have his back while he was gone.
He’d trusted that the security team would too.
Trust could really bite you in the ass sometimes.
He waited a few beats to make sure he had his temper control before he turned back to Renic. “I shouldn’t have left her alone.”
“She was hardly alone,” Renic said with a rueful twitch of his lips.
Ward thought of the scene he’d walked in on. A buffet of every name and face in Hollywood. He didn’t go to a lot of movies, but he recognized some of the stars casually lounging around the pool. “Nobody should have made it past the front gate. I’ll have a training session to correct that mistake. It won’t happen again.”
Renic covered his half cough with another sip of whatever he was drinking. “Yes, it will.”
Ward rubbed the back of his neck. It felt like he’d developed several knots there over the past couple of hours. “Not if I’m onsite it won’t.”
“You have to sleep some time. Besides, she’s right about one thing. She’s not a prisoner.”
“No. She’s not. But you know a concert is a really bad idea right now.”
“Yes, but we’re doing it anyway.” Renic raised a hand to stop Ward before he could object. “I’ve heard your take on this, but Della has a point here too. She has a job to do, just like you. More importantly she… we …made a promise to those people who bought tickets, and we have to honor our commitment, even if it means a little extra work behind the scenes.”
“A little?” Ward raised an eyebrow at that.
“I realize the venue isn’t ideal.” Renic tapped on his keyboard. “I’m sending a note to Morgan. She’ll have accounting arrange funds for you. Hire whoever you need.”
“Budget?”
Renic gave him a patient look. “Try not to bankrupt me. Point is, there’s no Bellamy Sisters without Piper and Della doing their jobs. We’ll talk Della around to the relocation after. Lizzie can chime in, get her to see reason. Can you keep the house secure until the concert?”
He thought about it. “It’s a good setup here. It’s at least familiar ground. We’ll lock it down tighter and bring on another team. Hopefully, that’ll be enough. But from now on, she’ll have to party alone.”