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I stop pacing, close my eyes and grip the bridge of my nose, mentally counting to ten to calm down. I did give Chase permission to post the video and publish any photos he has of them harassing her, hoping for public outrage but that doesn’t mean things are going to change necessarily. “Unfortunately, that’s not how it works in the paparazzi world. Last night just fueled their fire and they will be after you even more now.”
She walks toward me and stops inches from my chest, her face stoic and her eyes determined. “I don’t know the paparazzi world. I don’t know your world. What I do know is that I don’t want any part of their world. Just like I don’t want any part ofyourworld. You brought this into my life. You need to fix it by getting out of it.”
I know she’s mad at me, but her words stung and if she said them on purpose, then she hit her mark. I let her go, watching her turn on her heel, throw open her door and march straight across the living room to where Mason is standing at the front door. She says something to him as he opens the door for her. She walks past him, and he jerks his chin at me, following her lead and shutting the door behind him.
I slowly make my way out of her room and look at Robert, who’s giving me a sympathetic gaze. I let out a slow breath of tension. “Help me understand why she’s acting like I just ruined her life?”
“Well, let’s see here.” He taps his index finger against his lips and pretends to think. “You knocked her up and then your cunt of an ex-assistant pretended to be you and told her you wanted nothing to do with her or your baby, so she’s hated you since. You come back into her life, and she finds out everything was a lie. Her personal life is all over the news. She has strange people following her every move. Her boyfriend dumps her and now her career is starting to suffer. She has lost all control of her very own life. Does that sum it up for you?”
His sarcastic tone darkens my mood even more. “Robert, if I could change the past, I would do so in a heartbeat, but I can’t. I’m not the bad guy here and I’m trying my very best to fix things, but fuck if I don’t know what the hell to do to make her trust me.”
“Keeping secrets from her is not trying your best. You should have told her about the bodyguard the moment you were considering it.”
“You’re right, I should have, but I didn’t and what’s done is done.”
“So do better. Tell her about the threat when she calms down and is in a better headspace. I guarantee she will start to warm up to the idea of having Mason around once she knows Avery’s life has been threatened.”
I nod at him, praying that he’s right. He goes into Jenna’s office to work, and I sit down on the couch and open my laptop to resume answering emails, the tension starting to leave my body at knowing she’s safe with Mason.
Thirty minutes later, all that changes with a single phone call.
“I just fucking lost her! She ran right through oncoming traffic and caused a three-car accident! She purposely did this to try to get away from me. I need someone to come down here and take care of this situation so I can find her,” Mason screams through the phone and hangs up, not even telling me where he is.
“Fuck!” I scream as loud as I can, tilting my head up to the ceiling. My fury causes Robert to come running out of the office.
“What’s wrong?” Robert questions in a panic.
“Jenna ditched Mason and caused an accident. He’s stuck there while she gets further away from him.” I dial Jenna’s number and we both look up at each other as we hear her phone ring in her bedroom.Bloody hell, she didn’t take her phone!
“Let’s takeover for Mason at the accident scene so he can look for her.” Robert springs into action, grabbing his keys and running to the front door.
“Do you know her normal running route?” I inquire while following him out the front door and toward the elevator.
“She usually runs south along the Lake Front Trail to Grant Park.”
“Perfect, let me call Chase and have him follow that route to look for her.”
I call Chase as we take Jenna’s car to relieve Mason so he can continue on the path Jenna took before she disappeared. Because we aren’t too far from the condo, Robert urges me to leave him and go look for Jenna with her car.
“I’ll grab a taxi and start looking once I’m done.” I agree to his plan and start driving within a fifteen-mile radius of the condo. I continuously drive in a square for two and a half hours, my hope of finding her diminishing with every ticking minute that I don’t see her.
I call Avery’s school and they confirm she’s still there. Robert reported that both Layla and her parents have not heard from her. My anger starts to dissipate, and fear replaces it with the mental image of the death threat continuously flashing before my eyes.
I’ve never been a praying man, but I’ve prayed more in the last hour than I have my entire life.
Please God, let her be okay!
Mason, Chase, and Robert all have zero luck at finding her and Robert sends a group text that he’s going back to the condo to see if she’s there. I make one more final loop before pulling into her building and parking the car.
Once I get off the elevator, I run to her condo only to find Robert and Mason there, both shaking their heads in resignation.
“When do we call the police?” Robert asks, his voice shaking with worry.
“She’s not considered a missing person for twenty-four hours,” Mason responds, wiping the sweat off his face with a towel.
Robert pulls up a map on his laptop and we start going over the places we covered and the places we can go search when we receive a group text from Chase.
Chase: Found her crying on Oak Street Beach.
