Once again, Luke started fiddling with the bike but thirty minutes later, he finally gave up, put away his tools and called his friend and business partner, Cole Novak. “What are you and Jill doing tonight?” he asked when Cole picked up the phone.
“Jeez. Let me think. Maybe we’ll read the same book, and debate its themes,
lingering
over the best ones. We’ll
touch
on the main topics. Then who knows? Maybe
full penetration
of the subject matter will ultimately take place.”
Luke rolled his eyes. “You’re an idiot,” he said with a smile.
“I’m an idiot in love,” Cole said, voice full of conviction.
That he was, and Luke couldn’t be happier for him. His friend had been struggling for months ever since his mother had passed from cancer. Then he’d met Jill, a day care provider who’d lived next door to his mother in the rental house Cole inherited when his mother died. In just a short time, Jill had entranced the hard-core single biker. On the outside they were an unlikely couple, but once he’d met Jill, Luke had clearly seen they were made for each other.
“So, idiot,” Luke said. “Do you have plans or not?”
“Okay, okay. Shit, what’s your problem? We’ve got no plans. Why?”
“I need company. Bring Jill and a cooler of beer. I’ll throw some steaks on the grill and we can hang out.”
“Sounds good. See you around six?”
After Luke hung up, he put his running shoes on. He was lucky enough to live in the Hollywood Hills, far from the sprawling city below him. The views from his front yard were spectacular, and the area offered some of the best running and hiking trails that the greater Los Angeles area had to offer.
A cold shower and two hours later, Cole and Jill arrived. Cole’s arms were laden down with grocery bags. He handed one to Luke and gave him a chin tilt before heading for the kitchen. Luke kissed Jill on the cheek. “You didn’t have to bring groceries, Jill. I invited you, I’ll handle the cooking.”
She smiled. “No offense, but last time we came over for a barbecue you had meat and beer.”
Luke chuckled. “I
was
planning on buying some vegetables for Cole to chop but…” But he’d gotten distracted by his run. And his lingering thoughts about Bailey.
“I got you covered,” Jill said. She gave Luke a quick hug. “You handle the meat and Cole. I’ll do the rest.”
“So I get stuck babysitting, too?”
“Isn’t that what you do best?”
Luke looked over at Cole as he came out of the kitchen, twisting the top off a beer. Luke was a big guy, but Cole could dwarf a room full of defensive linemen. His massive biceps and shoulders were covered with tattoos and he was fond of wearing his dark hair on the long side. He was the kind of guy women dropped their panties for and men instinctively avoided. The sight of Cole and Jill together might give a person pause, with her small stature and delicate curves. Yet underneath all of that, she matched Cole in both the wildness of her personality and her emotional strength.
Luke tried to picture himself with a woman like Jill someday, building a life together. In his imagination, that woman was here in the backyard, barbecuing with him and laughing with his friends.
And for some reason she was wearing a fancy white jumper and a damned braid he wanted to unwind so fucking bad.
Jesus, he needed to get Kat Bailey
out of his head
.
He cleared his throat. What had he and Jill been talking about? Right. Babysitting, Cole specifically. “I can handle Cole, but I usually pick my clients more wisely,” Luke joked.
Cole brought the beer to his lips along with his middle finger. After he took a long swig from it he said, “Speaking of choosing clients, have you touched base with Guy Myers about whether Kat Bailey’s manager called him?”
“I have. He did. Myers has had a man on her for the past two weeks.”
Jill raised on her tippy-toes and kissed Cole’s cheek. “I’m going to start the potatoes while the two of you discuss the sex-pot,” she said.
Luke laughed and Cole reached out and smacked her butt as she went into the kitchen.
“Come on, let’s go out to the patio and check on the meat,” Luke said.
Cole followed him out. Luke’s patio was huge with a full bar on one side and a Jacuzzi on the other. An Olympic-sized salt-water pool sat in the center and was surrounded by lush green bushes and blossoming flowers. It was a tranquil setting, especially at night when the lights of the city glimmered off in the distance.
Luke pulled up the lid of the grill and poked at the meat. When he looked back up, Cole was staring at him.
“What happened?” Cole asked.
“Nothing happened.”
“Bullshit. You told me you didn’t want to accept the job with Bailey because she originally didn’t want protection and we agreed a reluctant client is a dangerous client, but I can tell there’s another reason you turned the job down. What’s wrong? She a little too gorgeous up close?”
When Luke just stared at Cole, not denying it, Cole grinned, then whistled. “You’re shitting me. You’re going to ask her out?”
“What? God, no.”
“But you want to?”
No, asking her out wasn’t what he wanted. He
wanted
to get her horizontal and naked. But again, not going to happen. Even if they’d actually met and she’d been attracted to him as much as he was to her, it still wouldn’t happen.
Luke flipped over the steaks.
Cole finished his beer, walked over to toss it in the trash, and then flipped on the sixty-inch television over the bar, choosing the Sports Channel before turning back to Luke. “Sooo…” he drawled.
“What?” Luke growled.
Cole cocked an eyebrow and smiled slightly. “You never answered me. You tempted to ask Bailey out? Because the fact you can’t even admit it tells me your feelings for her are pretty intense and you’re trying to wrangle them into submission.”
Luke narrowed his eyes. Sometimes he enjoyed that Cole knew him so well and sometimes he hated it. This time was one of the latter. “She’s gorgeous. Did she make me hard? Sure. But other than that, I have no
feelings
for her and I have no intention of seeing her again.”
Luke turned back to the steaks.
Cole smiled and shrugged. “Okay, fine. Moving on. I still haven’t heard from Eric. Have you?”
“No,” Luke said.
Eric Davenport was one of Cole and Luke’s best friends. Several weeks ago, they’d been groomsmen at his wedding. Only the wedding hadn’t happened. Eric had jilted the bride, Brianne Whitcomb, the sister of one of their good friends, at the altar with only a mysterious text for explanation. Then he’d vanished. He’d sent them all an email, saying he was okay and would be in touch, but that was it.
Cole started to say something else but Jill yelled from inside, “Luke, where is your garlic salt?”
“I’ll be right there,” he told her. He closed the lid on the grill. “I’ll be right back. Don’t touch my steaks.”
Cole mumbled, “yeah, sure,” and Luke knew Cole would have a chunk of meat in his mouth by the time he got back. Luke helped Jill find the spices and she whipped up a bowlful of garlic mashed potatoes and stir-fried about a dozen different vegetables. While they ate, Luke switched the television to the Entertainment Channel and turned down the sound. He would never admit it aloud, but he was hoping there’d be some mention of Kat.
“Mm, Luke, this steak is amazing,” Jill said.
“Thanks, so are your potatoes. If you cook like this all the time, you’re going to make my partner fat.”
Cole washed down a mouthful of potatoes with his beer. “I had to add an extra work-out to my routine. It was that or give up her cooking, which I couldn’t do. I’m addicted to it. Among other things.”
Jill smiled and gazed at Cole with such love that Luke felt a pang in his chest. He’d seen that expression before, when his mother had looked at his father. On the day of his father’s funeral, his mother seemed to have aged ten years. Losing his father when he was still a kid had been hard, of course, but watching his mother’s grief had been heartbreaking. Luke feared the possibility of leaving behind a woman who loved him that much. Even more, he feared loving a woman as much as his mother had loved his father, only to lose her and mourn her for the rest of
his
days.
He trusted Cole with his life, and they both made sure the men they hired were not only well-trained but decent human beings. It was doubtful he’d ever die like his father had—murdered by a suspect because his back-up failed to be there for him.
“Hey! There’s your sex-pot,” Jill said.
Luke looked up at the television and felt his heart kick into gear when he saw Kat Bailey. It was an old shot of her accepting an Emmy. Almost immediately, the screen switched to the image of an empty movie set. Luke reached for the remote and turned up the sound.
“…she’s cancelled interviews on both Ellen and The Tonight Show, and hasn’t made any public appearances in several days. While one source tells us she’s heading to Italy with a certain blue-eyed co-star, another says that between the scandal with former flame Ray Hamilton, contract disputes concerning salary, and Bailey’s major on-set tantrum about the size of her dressing room compared to her male co-star, Bailey’s decided to walk away from Hollywood for good. The actress has been unavailable for comment but her manager had this to say.”
The screen morphed into a picture of Bailey’s manager, Charlie, looking harried and tense. “Miss Bailey is simply taking some time to relax after a hectic filming schedule. We ask that you respect her privacy at this time.” The reporters shouted out questions. Most of them wanted to know if Bailey’s sudden disappearance had anything to do with her very public split from her ex, and new rumors that a sex tape featuring the two of them was going to be released imminently.
Luke was suddenly overcome by a very bad feeling, and it wasn’t because of the possibility of a sex tape, though the thought of her ex doing that to her was indeed infuriating. The thought of Bailey, the same woman he’d watched in front of Hang Tough Café playing with a dog, the talented actress he’d watched on the screen, and the consummate professional he’d read about, having a fit over something as silly as a dressing room just didn’t ring true. Neither did her cancelling interviews to grab some R&R. Not without a damn good reason.
“I guess it’s a good thing you turned that one down, after all,” Cole said. “And that you didn’t ask her out.”
“What?” Jill exclaimed, eyes wide. “You wanted to ask her out?”
“No. I mean, yes. Maybe.” Luke sighed. “Sorry, will you two excuse me for a second?” Cole looked confused, but Luke already had his phone out. He called Charlie.
“What do you need, Indigo?” Charlie’s voice was clipped.
“I just heard about Bailey cancelling her interviews. You said she’s taking some time off to rest. Is that true?”
“Like you care?”
Luke cocked a brow. Charlie sounded beyond short now. He sounded accusatory. “Charlie, I couldn’t take the case, but that doesn’t mean I’m not concerned for her safety. I referred you to another professional. I even checked in…”
“Yeah, okay. But damn, things have gone to shit.”
Luke’s feeling of trepidation intensified. “What the hell happened?”
“This hasn’t been made public knowledge, but two days ago Kat was almost run off the road by a speeding car on her way from an event. She was really close to being pushed over the side of a cliff.”
His gut twisted into knots at the mental image of a frightened and injured Kat, her beautiful face bruised and bloody. He felt sick to his stomach. His knees went weak. His reaction was completely over the top given he’d never even spoken to the damn woman. He ran a hand through his hair. “Jesus, was she hurt?”
“Not physically, but she’s really shaken.”
“Where the hell was her bodyguard?”
“He disappeared an hour before. She said she didn’t want to get him in trouble so she waited to tell anyone. We didn't find out about it until after the near-miss accident.”
Accident or attempted murder? “Shit! Have you found him?”
“No foul play. He fell off the wagon and went on a bender. That’s why Kat was driving alone that night.”
Luke pounded his fist against the table, making Jill jump. Cole frowned and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
“Where is she now?”
“I have no idea. Yesterday, she told me she needed to take some time off. That she needed to take care of herself because no one else was going to, and that meant re-evaluating her career.”
“And the dressing room incident?”
“Bullshit. Someone leaked a fake story.”
Just as Luke had figured.
“Kat’s been feeling out of control for a while now, and this just drove her over the edge so to speak.” Charlie hissed. “Shit. Poor choice of words.”
“No kidding,” Luke said flatly. “So you really don’t know where she is…or who she’s with?”
“No. My calls all go straight to voicemail.”
“Damn it!” Luke didn’t even have to think about what he was going to do. “I’m going to see what I can find out. Keep me posted if she shows up or you hear from her.”
“Will do.”
Luke hung up. “Fuck!” He looked at Cole, knowing his partner had gotten the gist of the conversation already.
“It’s not your fault,” Cole said.
“Like hell it isn’t. Her bodyguard disappeared then someone tried to run her off the road. Her manager doesn’t know where she is. I should never have passed her case over to someone else.”
“You couldn’t have known.”
“No. But I shouldn’t have left her protection to someone else. Not when—”
He pressed his lips together tightly.
“Not when what?” Cole asked. “This is nothing like your dad’s situation, Luke. Nothing. I know the anniversary of his death is in a few days, and he’s got to be on your mind, but tell me you know it’s not the same.”
When Luke didn’t answer, he whistled. “She really got to you, didn’t she?”
Automatically, he shook his head, more to clear it than to deny what Cole had said. “Doesn’t matter. All I need right now is to find her. Fast.”