Keep Her Safe, page 27
Nothing fucking matters but getting to him.
“Damian Hunt, please,” I say immediately to the woman sitting at the front desk who looks barely a few years older than me. Her eyes look up and when they widen, I briefly see the stars in them before they flit to Veronica and widen further. I take it to mean she knows who we are. I’m still wearing the hat and sunglasses but Veronica isn’t wearing any kind of disguise which makes it pretty obvious who I am.
“Uh uh,” Veronica says as if to say now is really not the time.
“V,” I warn. “We’ll give you pictures, autographs, whatever you want. Just please tell me where I can find him.”
She nods and looks to her computer remembering herself. “Sorry, I…just a little starstruck.” She blushes. “He’s still in surgery but he’ll be in the intensive care unit. Room 400.”
I rub my chest, trying my best to keep the cracks I feel re-forming in my heart from growing. He’s fine. He’s fine. He’s fine.
I run up four flights of stairs, not having the patience to wait for the elevator and when I get there, Cooper is already standing in the ICU waiting area. “What—”
He tears his eyes away from his phone and gives me a disgruntled look. “Didn’t I tell you to wait at home?” he asks and I glare at him.
“Cooper, lay off,” Veronica says.
“Do we know anything?” I ask, ignoring the look he’s still giving me.
“Doctors won’t disclose anything to me. Since you’re his emergency contact, they’ll probably share more with you. I’ve talked to the police officer that was on the scene though; he went downstairs but he’ll be back.” I put my hand over my mouth to quiet the sobs threatening to break through. “He was conscious on the scene, adrenaline, he thinks that he was able to get himself out of the car. He told the officer he thinks it was a hit-and-run. Someone had been tailing him and then when he thought he lost him, they plowed into his side of the car at an intersection. But Damian was able to get himself out before it caught fire.” He clears his throat. “The officer did say he was pretty banged up and shocked he was able to move.”
Veronica turns her eyes to me. “This is good. He’s okay. He’s alive.”
Guilt washes over me slowly until I’m sure of it. “They were probably trying to get me or to me. What if they were trying to abduct me or…who would want to hurt Damian?”
Veronica’s phone begins to ring. “It’s Derek, one sec. I told him I would keep him updated.” She walks away leaving Cooper and me alone.
“He has to be okay.” I don’t say it to anyone in particular, just to the atmosphere in hopes it gets to the right deity that controls this kind of thing. “We just…” I look at Cooper, realizing that he’s going to figure it out sooner rather than later the second I’m allowed to see him. “I love him.”
Cooper’s eyes widen in realization. “You’re…together?”
“For a couple weeks now.” I nod. “But the feelings have been there for a really long time if I’m being honest. I don’t care what you or my PR team think by the way. Everyone is just going to have to figure it out.”
A knowing look crosses Cooper’s face and he smiles. “Well, it’s about time he told you how he felt.”
My mouth drops open and I momentarily forget about the situation as it sets in that Cooper knew Damian had feelings for me. “Excuse me? You knew?”
“Anyone with eyes could see he had it bad for you.”
“Oh my god. Cooper! What?!”
“I mean anyone that spent a lot of time with you had to know. Everything he did for you after your parents passed? He went way beyond the call of duty of a bodyguard. He slept outside your bedroom door for weeks when you were having nightmares.”
My mind is spinning with all of this information as I try to think about the past five years through a new different lens. I finally register what Cooper just said and pull my eyes from the ground where I was staring. “What?”
“He’d sleep outside your door so he could hear you and get to you faster. Usually only on the nights that Veronica didn’t stay over.”
“How do you know that?” There’s no way Damian would have told anyone that.
“I came over early in the morning one day and found him there.” He gives me a smile. “I knew then.”
“Did you say anything? Warn him to stay away from me?” I narrow my eyes at him, daring him to tell me something like that.
“No.” He shakes his head. “I always thought if you two ended up together, it would be the real deal and your PR team would have a field day selling your love story.”
“It would have been nice if you had shared this theory then.”
“ME? Didn’t Veronica have the same theory? You ignored her. You definitely would have ignored me.”
“Yes, but Veronica thinks everyone is in love with each other. She was convinced you were having an affair with my mother at one point.” Cooper’s eyes widen and he gives me a guilty look. “ARE YOU KIDDING? Now we are adding childhood trauma to the list right now?”
He shakes his head and puts his hands up. “I’m kidding. I’M KIDDING. I was trying to lighten the mood.”
I give him both my middle fingers. “NOT HELPING.”
Not long after my conversation with Cooper, Officer Ferguson approaches me. Veronica went to get me some water, Cooper is on a call, and I’m immediately off the uncomfortably hard waiting room couch.
“I’m Shay. I’m Damian’s girlfriend.” I say before he has a chance to ask who I am.
“I thought he was your bodyguard?”
“Off the record, he’s my bodyguard and we are romantically involved.”
“Makes sense now. Heard him tell the paramedic to tell you he loved you before…”
My heart thumps painfully in my chest. “Before what?”
“He did lose consciousness on the scene. He was crashing but they got him back in the ambulance.”
I nod, knowing most of this information but it still feels like knives to my heart. “Mr. Hunt is a fighter. He was able to give me a few characters of the license plate and the color and the model. We are in the process of running a trace on all of them.”
“Did he say who he thought it was?”
“No. He did say you’ve been getting some letters though. Threatening ones, obsessive ones. It sounds like you may have a stalker,” he says. “And if that’s the case, they more than likely knew you weren’t in the car and that he is your boyfriend.”
“You think…they were targeting him specifically?”
He shrugs. “This is just my initial thought with a bird’s eye view of the situation. I would need to dig deeper. I know you just broke up with someone. Was that amicable?”
“Well…no, but Paxton wouldn’t do this.”
He pulls out a notepad and looks up at me. “You sure? Does he know about your relationship with Hunt?”
“Yeah, he found out.”
He narrows his eyes. “And how did he take it?” I give him a look and he jots some notes down on his pad. “Right. Not well, I assume.”
“He thinks I was cheating on him and I wasn’t.”
“Okay,” he says without looking up and I’m sure he’s thinking not my business.
“Just clarifying.”
“Anyone else?
You know you’re thinking it, I hear Damian’s voice in my ear. Tell him. “I—I don’t know.”
“Don’t know…?”
“My co-star on the show. He’s been…different lately. He told me he had feelings for me and I don’t feel the same. But it’s been weird. He’s been off, kind of.” Though shooting has gone as best as it could go with things being in a weird limbo between us, when the cameras stop rolling it’s like he’s a totally different person. He’s withdrawn and barely talks to me anymore. I thought maybe he was just embarrassed for how he acted or the fact that I don’t reciprocate his feelings but now I’m wondering if there’s more to it.
“Okay, name?”
“Jeremy Gardner. I’m not saying he did and I don’t want to get anyone in trouble…” I stammer.
“If he didn’t do anything he has nothing to be in trouble for. I’m not in the business of throwing A-list celebrities into jail, Miss Eastwood, but this is a serious offense. Attempted murder, stalking, harassment, and vehicular assault are all felonies we take very seriously.
“Okay…”
“Now, I didn’t get to talk to Damian long at the scene, but when he’s out of surgery, I’d like to talk to him again.”
“Yes, of course.”
He nods before handing me his card. “This has my direct number. You call me if you think of anything else, alright?”
It’s been almost four hours since we got to the hospital and he’s finally out of surgery and recovering in the ICU. I haven’t been able to see him and I’m fucking over it. My lawyer and Gabe from my PR team have long since shown up and Derek got here a few minutes ago. Even Paxton called to make sure I was okay and to see if Damian was okay. He offered to have food sent to the hospital but I was in no mood to eat anything.
Surprisingly nothing from Jeremy.
Or maybe not surprisingly.
I open my messages with Damian, sniffling as I scroll through our messages of the past three weeks. I scroll through dirty texts, sweet ones, and questions about what we’re having for our late-night dinner and I just want to fast forward a few weeks where he’s asking me what color my panties are and how he can’t wait to take them off with his teeth.
The doctor, who’s been very kind, has come out several times to keep me informed and I’m grateful for the updates, but I wanted to see Damian. Hold him. Touch him.
Does he know I’m here? Can he feel me?
After what feels like an eternity, the doctor motions for me to follow him and Kent is right behind me much to the doctor’s annoyance.
“He stays outside of the room,” he says referring to Kent as we follow him back through two sets of double doors. “Now, he’s not awake yet but he should wake up within the next few hours. The surgery went well and his vitals are all good. He’ll definitely be weak for a little while. He has quite a few broken bones, some swelling in the brain, and a punctured lung. Overall, he was banged up. But we’re optimistic that he’ll make a full recovery. I just want to warn you because of how he looks.”
“Okay.” I nod.
He’s going to live. He’s going to live. It doesn’t matter how he looks. He’s going to live. Not dying.
He lets me into his room and immediately I just want to crawl onto the bed with him. “Damian,” I whisper. I rush to his bedside and press a kiss on his lips before the doctor tells me I can’t touch him. “I love you. I love you so much.” I press another kiss to his swollen cheek and his forehead. He has a few cuts on his face and a black eye but for the most part, his face is unscathed. I reach for his hand and gently squeeze it. “It’s Shay. Can you hear me? If you can, please wake up and talk to me. I’m so scared.” I sniffle. “You make all my fears go away.” I push his hair back and drag my knuckles down his cheek slowly. “I need you to tell me everything is going to be okay. That you’re going to be okay.” A tear rolls down my cheek and I feel that familiar pain clawing up my spine and taking hold of my brain.
They said he’ll be fine. He’s going to live.
Doctors can be wrong, my mind argues.
I don’t know how long I sit in silence begging him to wake up with my mind when he makes a noise. They brought in a chair so that I could sit and I’d dragged it next to his bed. I’m holding his hand as best as I can while I rest my head on the bed. My head shoots up when I hear it again, a groan from deep within his chest. “Damian? Baby? Can you hear me?” I can see his eyes moving behind his lids and the tears form in mine at the thought of getting to see his blue eyes. “Can you open your eyes?” His eyes slowly open and the wind is knocked out of me as ours connect for the first time all day. “Damian.” I bite my bottom lip before I lightly press my lips to his.
“Mmmm.” His eyes which must have been shut while I kissed him open slowly and a ghost of a smile finds his lips. “Shay,” he whispers and I feel like my heart could burst just hearing my name fall from his lips. “Are you okay?”
“Dandy,” I say sarcastically. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Is Kent here with you?”
“I’m fine. Kent is here. Can we focus on you, please? I’m not the one in the hospital in the ICU. Are you in any pain? Do you want me to get the doctor?”
“No,” he says and I’m not sure which question he’s answering or if it’s a general no to all of them. “I want to be alone with my girl for as long as possible.”
“You’re not in any pain?”
“Nothing your lips on me can’t fix.” He whispers, his voice getting quieter and I wonder if it hurts to talk.
I kiss his lips again and then his cheek. “I love you. This really scared me.” I let out a breath. “I’m glad you had me listed as your emergency contact. I was worried at first that they wouldn’t let me see you.”
“It’ll be easier when we’re married,” he says and I don’t even hide the smile pulling at my lips in response to the butterflies flapping their wings through me.
“Married?”
“For our hypothetical children.” He winks, referencing our conversation we had a few days ago. Despite the lightness of this conversation, his eyes immediately go dark like he’s remembering something. “Do they know who it was?”
“I don’t think so? Do you?”
“No one I recognized. That motherfucker came out of nowhere. I’m trained for driving in all kinds of situations but that was something different. It was intentional.” He closes his eyes slowly and when he opens them, he looks furious. “What if you had been in the car with me?”
“Then you would have saved us both,” I tell him with a kiss to his lips. “You’re going to be okay.”
“Did they think you were with me? I just…” He lets out a deep sigh and winces immediately. “I don’t want you out of my sight.”
“Good. I don’t want you out of mine either.”
“I assume you’re staying the night?” he asks and I nod knowing there’s no way I’m leaving him overnight.
They will have to remove me by force.
“If you’re staying, I want someone at the house and Kent here with you. Do you have my phone?”
I shake my head. “You’re not doing any work.”
“I’m not. I’m making sure the love of my life is being taken care of while I can’t do it myself. This is not work, Shay.”
It’s been a week since Damian was released from the hospital with strict instructions not to overdo it while he recovers. They want him off of his feet for most of the day and Damian is not happy about it.
Luckily, the production team of LA Dreams is allowing me a brief hiatus and is shooting some of the scenes I’m not in for a few episodes to give me some time because neither I nor Damian feels comfortable being away from the other. We’re both a little paranoid about something happening to the other. However, it seems my grace period is over and Damian is having an entire fit.
“Baby, I have to,” I tell him as I pull on a short blue sundress. We’d been having this discussion all the way through doing my hair and makeup and now I’m ready to leave and Damian is still adamant that I shouldn’t go to set without him.
“No. I don’t know where that maniac is. He’s probably spooked that I actually lived and I know too much. It’s like he vanished. They can’t find the car and I don’t want you out there unprotected. I don’t know what he wants and I can’t risk it. I can’t risk you. This is the only place I know I can keep you safe.” He’s sitting upright in my bed. He’s not technically on bed rest and can get up and move around but he’s not very mobile and has to move slowly.
“I have a job though and people are depending on me. I was given way more grace than most people get and I have to finish shooting.”
“I’m still not convinced Jeremy isn’t behind all of this.”
“I feel like that’s just a very big accusation. It’s one thing to be in love with me but to try and kill you out of jealousy?” I wince. I have yet to tell Veronica that he told me he’s in love with me because I don’t want things to be even more weird on set. Veronica has a terrible poker face.
“What if you guys just did the table reads here?” he offers.
I shake my head in disappointment. “Table reads? No babe, that ship has sailed. They had someone fill in for me while they ran lines. The table reads are done. I have to go do these scenes cold now and pray to God I do them right.”
“I can come,” he tells me as he tries to get up and I’m immediately next to him putting my hands on his chest.
“No,” I tell him. “You absolutely cannot come. I need you to rest and get better.” I lean forward and drag my lips across his. “I miss you.” I bite my bottom lip and he raises an eyebrow at me before dragging his tongue across his bottom lip.
“I’ve been trying to put my mouth on your cunt for days, but you won’t let me.” He leans back and crosses his arms. “I told you to sit on my face and ride it, but you didn’t want to.”
“It’s not that I didn’t want to, I just…I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I told you I’d keep my hands down. My tongue isn’t hurt, Shay.” He winks and my skin heats under his gaze. “I’m coming,” he tells me as he gets up with a wince. “I’ll wait in the car, but at least I’ll be close. You’re going to be gone ten hours and I will go crazy thinking about you being out there that long without me.”
“But you’re going to wait in the car for that long? Usually, you’re walking around and certainly not in pain.”
“Either I’m coming or you’re not going.”
“Damian, you’re not being reasonable. The doctors said you need to be lying down, not in a car for most of the day.” I don’t even want to tell him about the appearance I have at a premiere for my friend’s movie at the end of the week. It’s not a huge red-carpet event, but I did say I would be there and they’ve already announced my attendance so I have to show up.
