And I’d never had a man to lose—Chasin and the weekend I’d spent with him was the closest I’d allowed myself. Now I knew I never wanted to take that chance again. I also remembered why I’d never taken one in the past.
But it’s not me.
Those words staining my skin would remind me if I ever got another wild hair and decided to try again.
The conversation went on around me while I’d gotten lost in my head. I wasn’t listening until Nixon called my name.
“Sorry, what?”
“Since you’ve been here, have you received any packages, calls, visitors, anything like that?”
“No.”
“No one?” Nixon pushed.
“Chasin—”
“Besides him?”
“Well, the cleaning service came. And I heard the gardener. But I haven’t had visitors. And no calls. And groceries were delivered.”
“Those are visitors, Genevieve,” Chasin fumed, and my gaze sliced back to him.
I knew I was glaring. It was rude, but I didn’t give a shit. I was tired of him snapping at me.
“Well, excuse me, Chasin. I thought he meant personal visitors. Someone coming to see me.”
“Did any of these people talk to you?” Nixon inquired.
“A woman named Lori poked her head into the room I was in, introduced herself, and told me she was there to clean and they’d be out of the house in a few hours.”
“They?” Alec cut in.
“I guess her cleaning crew. I didn’t actually see them. And she didn’t say goodbye when she left.”
“And the groceries?”
“I didn’t see who delivered them.”
Alec frowned and stared at me disbelievingly. “Where were you when all of this was going on?”
“On the second floor. I was writing.”
“This happens,” Bobby sighed. “When Vivi gets lost in her music she’s totally out of it. Life goes on around her and she’s oblivious. I bet she didn’t even hear the vacuum running and that could’ve been happening right next to her.”
All of that was true but Bobby made it sound like I was a total nitwit.
“I had the door closed.” I tried to lamely defend myself.
“We need the name of the cleaning service, lawn care, and delivery service,” Alec told me.
“I’ll get you the names from her uncle,” Bobby answered for me.
When had this become my life? When had I lost control over the simplest of tasks like answering for myself?
“I’ll call my uncle this afternoon and get you the names,” I rejoined the conversation. “But just so you know, I’ll be telling him to cancel the food delivery. I can do my own grocery shopping. And while I’m staying there, he doesn’t need the cleaning service to come in. Though I can’t do the yard work, so I’ll ask him to keep the gardener.”
“Vivi, I leave to go back to Oak Hill in two days,” Bobby reminded me of something I knew.
“So?”
“That means I won’t be here to go shopping for you.”
Pain I knew my friend didn’t mean to inflict crawled down my throat and settled in my stomach. Embarrassment bloomed and a bitter chill washed over me.
Alec, Nixon, and Chasin must’ve thought I was a spoiled bitch who made her assistant get groceries for her.
That wasn’t me. Though it seemed that was who I’d turned into.
“I can get my own groceries, Bobby,” I muttered.
“I know you can. God, Vivi, why do you sound like I kicked your puppy? What I’m saying is, I won’t be here to go out and stock the fridge so you can stay safely inside away from people recognizing you. It’s not like you can just waltz around, perusing the cracker aisle. That shit will be on the internet in two-point-five seconds and your secret hideaway will quickly become not-so-secret.”
Damn. She was right.
“Fine, I’ll keep the deliveries,” I gave in.
“Cancel the delivery service,” Chasin instructed. “We’ll deliver what you need.”
“That’s not necessary,” I rushed out.
“Actually, it is. The fewer people who have access to you, the better. Anything you need, I’ll bring over. We’ll also need a list of people who will have contact with Genevieve. People from the label, managers, friends, anyone like that. Once they’re cleared, we’ll give you word and they can resume business. Until that happens, no one is to have direct contact with her.”
Bobby was nodding like she was fully on board with this craziness.
“Don’t you think that’s overkill? No one on my team would hurt me.”
“They wouldn’t?” Chasin grunted. “And you know this how?”
“Because they’re good people. I’ve worked with them a long time. They like me. And seriously, they’re being cautious, that’s why they want to hire you. So it doesn’t make any sense that one of them would want to hurt me.”
“Vivi, he’s right. Everyone should be vetted.”
“Why, Bobby? Why now is everyone in such an uproar? The presents and letters have been coming for a long time. We all know this person knows where I live. It’s creepy, it sucks, but damn, they’re letters and trinkets. I would like for them to stop. I don’t like knowing something new is gonna show up and creep me out, but, Jesus, this is totally crazy.”
Bobby’s face paled. She looked at Nixon, then back to me and I knew, fucking knew, she was holding something back. Something that was going to freak me out and piss me off.
“Just tell me, Bobby. What happened?”
Then it dawned on me. When I’d told Bobby I was going to go to my uncle’s to get away from the distractions of letters I’d long ago stopped reading, and the packages that had started coming more frequently, she’d agreed—immediately. Then my manager, agent, and label all thought it was a terrific idea. Even the woman in charge of publicity, Colleen, thought it was good, and she was never happy when I locked myself away. She liked me front and center and in the headlines. Yet, she’d spun a story and hadn’t argued.
And they were the ones who had strongly suggested it was time for me to get a bodyguard, to which I begrudgingly agreed just so they’d leave me alone and I could work.
A bodyguard—not a full-on private team of investigators.
The police were already involved; every new item was turned over to the detective working the case.
“Bobby,” I prompted.
“Okay, okay, don’t be mad.”
That was never a good way to start any conversation, so I braced. Unfortunately, in the end, I shouldn’t have braced—I should’ve battened down the hatches and moved to my make-believe island where I was going to live alone and be a hermit. Because never in my life had I ever been so scared.
“We found stuff in your dressing rooms. And, um, in your bedroom.”
“My bedroom?” I croaked. “That’s why you changed the locks and the alarm code?”
“Yeah,” she whispered.
“What’d you find?”
“Vivi—”
“What the fuck did you find?” I shouted.
“A picture of you. From a concert. It…um…the angle looked like it was taken from the front row. And there was other…stuff. Vivi, please, trust me this is necessary. We need Gemini Group—”