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ChapterThirteen
Aknock on her door woke her the next morning and Blake’s voice was strained, instantly sending worry spearing through her. “Rose, you’re going to want to come and see this.”
She was up and out of bed a moment later, the floorboards cold against her toes. Bailey was whining as he bounced in front of Blake, desperate for his attention, but Blake was focused absolutely on her as he nodded down the stairs. She followed the sound of voices to the TV room where her mouth dropped open.
“Son of a bitch,” she breathed and felt, rather than saw, Blake stop and stand next to her. The large screen threw the reporter's face into relief, every hair magnified as she spoke to the camera while standing outside the large gates of Blake’s house.
“Whether the break-in resulted in any loss of life we cannot yet say for sure, but sources have confirmed that the walls of the Blake estate were in fact breached on Monday night. Our thoughts are with the DuLoe family at this difficult time.” The reporter's clear gaze was appropriately solemn, but Rose couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“Is… is she saying that I’mdead?” she shrieked, frantically patting down her hair and checking her reflection in her phone before seeing all the notifications continuing to blow it up. “Oh my god. I need to call my mom. Or, wait, are they still outside?”
“Rose, you can’t go out there.”
She blew out a long breath. “I can’t fucking believe this! Who let that information out about the potential security breach? And who told them Idied?”
Blake’s hands fell to her shoulders, halting her pacing as he looked down at her. “I don’t know, but we’ll find out and deal with it, okay? Right now you need to call your mom.”
Rose nodded, breathing out shakily. “I will in just a second.”
“What are you–”
Rose held her phone at arm’s length and beamed into the camera now live recording to her, approximately, four-hundred-thousand followers. “I know I’ve been a little quieter on here than usual lately, but if you’ve been keeping up with the news, then you know I’m in police-mandated seclusion with David Blake at his estate. However, this morning I woke up to the news that I’m apparently dead. I have a whole bunch of notifications that I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever get through, but I want to say thank you to those of you who have reached out or tagged me in posts. However, I’d like to assure everyone that I’m alive and well and that theCincinnati Timesbetter get themselves a damn good lawyer.” She ended the live, her hands trembling and a headache starting to pound beneath her left eye. “My life has become a media circus. Anddon’t thinkfor one second that I’ve forgotten about your role in it all, you ass.”
Blake raised his hands innocently but couldn’t help a small grin that said he had no regrets about driving the press rabid with supposed dating rumors. Her phone rang in her hand before she could call her mom, and she breathed a sigh of relief as she answered.
“Mom, I was just about to call. I have no idea why they said that–” It was then that she noticed that her mom wasn’t speaking over her. Alarm bells began to ring in her head and Blake stepped closer, face pinching with concern at whatever expression she was wearing. She turned away. “Mom? Are you there? Is everything okay?”
“I–” Every muscle in Rose’s body stiffened up. Her mom was never lost for words.
“Mom. Tell me what’s going on.” She used her calmest, most authoritative voice, and at last her mother choked out some words.
“I-it’s your dad. He just stopped moving. Rose, why isn’t he moving?”
Rose swallowed harshly, fear like she’d never felt before freezing her insides as she turned to Blake and said, “Call an ambulance. Tell them my dad collapsed and my mom is in shock.” Blake blinked at her dumbly for a second, mouth hanging open until she said, “Now,” voice breaking.
“Can you tell me what happened, Mom? It’s alright, someone is on their way.”
“We were watching the news. We were just watching and then he just made this sound, like he was choking, and then I just couldn’t get him to wake up.”
“Okay, it’s alright. He’s going to be okay. Mom?” The sound of voices came through the line, and she sagged back against Blake as he came up behind her and then the line cut-off. “I think the ambulance arrived. She said they were watching the news. I bet it was that damned reporter. Oh god, Blake, what if he’s dead? What if he died thinking I was dead? I need to get to the hospital. I need to see him. He needs to know I’m okay. What if he–”
Blake pressed his lips to hers quickly, hands on either side of her face, cutting off the words and forcing her to breathe even as the panic continued swirling inside her. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“But I–”
“No,” he said gently, but firmly, stopping her as she tried to walk towards the front door. “That’s what this guy has been waiting for, to get you alone, vulnerable. I will go and see your dad. I’ll take one of my security guys with me, okay? I’ll check things out and update you. If I think you need to come then… well, we’ll cross that bridge if we come to it. Alright? You stay here with Bailey where it's safe.”
“I can’t justsithere! Not while he’s off in some hospital, while he could be… he could be…”
“He’s going to be fine. And you’re not going to just sit here, okay? You’re going to call Jones and ream him the fuck out. Then you’re going to sit and watch the drama unfold on the TV until I call you with an update. Okay?”
“No,” she said sharply. “Notokay. How can you, of all people, not understand that I need to be there with my dad right now? My mom could barely talk to me through shock on the phone, Blake. I need to be there and I’m going.”
“It’s not safe–” he said, eyebrows pulled together and eyes pinched in concern when she threw her hands up in the air.
“I don’t care. So what if this guy finds me or chases me? If he wanted to kill me, he could have done it in the suite–”
“Maybe he would have and you didn’t give him the chance,” Blake said firmly, and she shook her head.
