“But so are these kids,” she said softly. “And they belong here. I know I don’t. It was just nice being able to watch them, be with them for a little while. They’re so strong, much stronger than me.”
“No, they aren’t. Jessie keeps telling me what a tough cookie you can be.”
“That’s different.” She gave Kendra another quick hug. “Now stop looking at me like that. Everything’s okay. I understand.” Her hand tightened on the mic, and she jumped back on top of Big Rock. She shouted, “Hey, I’m jealous. Kendra was just a guest artist. Let me show you what I can do. You heard her tattle how bad I was about writing that song when I should have been at work? Well, it might have been a bad thing to do, but the song turned out pretty darn good. Who wants to hear the new song I just wrote?”
The audience erupted with a clamor of shouts and applause.
“Come on, you’re now ancient history.” Jessie was suddenly beside Kendra and leading her out of the crowd. “Though you did a damn good job. Dee was impressed with you.”
Kendra gazed over her shoulder at Dee Winter, glowing, intense, giving everything, who had started to sing again. “Then she wasn’t the only one. I was very impressed by her…”
* * *
“I was right, you know,” Allison Walker said as she came to stand beside Kendra at the front gates of the school. She watched Jessie drive Dee Winter past the crowd of paparazzi at the curb in her black Range Rover SUV. “She was disruptive. Look how those paparazzi are jumping into their cars to follow her.”
“Yes, she was disruptive,” Kendra agreed. “But those paparazzi are doing exactly what she wants them to do right now. Jessie is leading them away from here like a Pied Piper.” She added quietly, “And the kids had a wonderful, memorable experience.”
“I understand you had something to do with that,” Allison said dryly.
“A little. But that was Dee Winter, too.” She smiled. “And I can’t deny you were right. How could I?”
“You can’t.” She was silent a moment. “I…like her.”
“I know you do. She was just a problem you felt you had to solve.”
“She stopped by my office and thanked me for being so kind to her. She actually…hugged me. I was a little uncomfortable.”
“I’m sure she wasn’t. And I’m sure she meant everything she said to you.”
“I believe she did.” She was silent a moment. “Perhaps we’ll invite her again…in a year or so.” She shrugged. “At any rate, she’s on her way to where she belongs now. Thank heavens your friend Jessie brought a car and not her motorcycle this time. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for an accident happening to a guest at our academy.”
“I don’t think our ‘guest’ would mind. Dee would find riding on the back of Jessie’s motorcycle a blast. She’s probably done it many times before.” Kendra sighed as Jessie’s SUV disappeared around a corner, followed by a parade of screeching paparazzi vehicles. She wished she was with them. She was suddenly feeling very much alone after the excitement that had gone before.
She turned away and headed for her Toyota in the parking lot. “Now I’ve got to go back to my condo and have dinner with my friend Olivia. I had to cancel on her twice this week, and Olivia doesn’t tolerate that kind of discourtesy. She let me know it wasn’t to happen again. It seems as if I’m up here all the time these days.”
“I know you are,” Allison said. “And I’m grateful. Don’t think I’m not. You’ve practically saved the academy. It’s just that things are different now. It’s hard for me to get used to it.”
“Me too. And you’ve worked just as hard as I have, Allison. We’ve done it together.” She got into the Toyota. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Have a good dinner.” She paused. “I haven’t seen that extraordinary Lamborghini that belongs to Lynch up here for the last week.” She hesitated again. “Is there some problem?”
Allison was trying to be tactful, Kendra realized. Unusual for her these days. Bluntness ruled her life except when dealing with business associates or parents of students. But evidently, she didn’t want to come straight out and ask her if the man she assumed to be Kendra’s lover had left her and gone on the lam.
“No problem other than the usual one with Adam Lynch. The Justice Department wanted him to save the world and he was sent somewhere in Tibet to do it. I haven’t heard from him since he left last week.” She backed out of the parking space. “But I’m sure he’s missing the Lamborghini.”
* * *
Highway 5
Oceanside, California
“They’re gaining on us.” Dee’s voice was tense with excitement as she looked at the rearview mirror. “I think it’s that red Subaru who’s in the lead.” She tilted her head. “Though that Chrysler is pretty close.”
“You sound like you’re calling a horse race.” Jessie cast her an amused glance. “And enjoying every minute of it.”
“I always have fun with you.” Dee’s gaze was fixed on the vehicles careening around the curb behind them. “That green jeep took that turn on two wheels. He definitely has potential.”
“Potential to kill himself, maybe. Or someone else on the road.”
“Can you lose ’em before that happens?”
Jessie pulled the wheel hard right and spun onto Oceanside Boulevard. “We’ll see. By the way, are you going to tell me where you left your security detail this morning?”
“Not sure. They’re probably still at Thunder Road recording studios, wondering where in the hell I went.”
“You slipped out on them?”
“Maybe.” She looked away from Jessie. “They would have tried to stop me. The recording company pays them.”
“And you wonder why I quit as your security director.”
Dee grinned as she leaned back in her seat. “I wouldn’t have tried to slip out on you. Admit it, you’ve never had a more fun job.”
“I had more fun dodging gunfire in Afghanistan.”
“You miss me.”
“How can I miss you when you’re always hanging out at my office?”
“Not when I’m on tour. Are you sure you don’t want to come back?”
“Positive. Buckle your seat belt. It’s about to get hairy.”
Dee’s smile deepened as she pulled the belt across her chest. “Now that’s what I like to hear.”
Jessie punched the accelerator and sped toward the I-5 entrance ramp. As the paparazzi’s vehicles fell in line behind them, Jessie slowed to a crawl.
“What are you doing?” Dee asked.
“Waiting for that eighteen-wheeler to catch up to us.”
“Why?”
Jessie was still looking in her side-view mirror. “Gotta time it just right…”
The cargo truck pulled alongside them and most of the other photographers’ cars. Just as the lane turned right onto the I-5 northbound entrance ramp, Jessie gunned the engine, jumped the median, and swerved left in front of the truck. She sped down Oceanside Boulevard and checked the rearview. The paparazzi caravan, still blocked from the left by the eighteen-wheeler, could only continue onto the freeway.