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"Wait. Slow down. What did you say?" Only after she'd spoken did she catch that she'd flipped back toEnglish.
Her father answered her in the same. "A package came for you this evening at the house. Your mother and I thought it strange since you have not called this your address for over sevenyears."
She had to agree, but that hardly warranted his panicked call. "I'll have my assistant contact you and arrange for you to forward it." Feeling snarky, she added, "I'm sorry it inconveniencedyou."
"Stop, Kalina. Listen to me. There was something odd about this package. It smelled funny and the address was filled out with words cut from magazines and newspapers. It was, oh how you say in English...tykanie."
Her brain translated the word, taking a few seconds to understand its true meaning. "Ticking? The package is ticking?" Awareness of the danger must have shown on her face because Ryder grabbed the phone from her hand and then blew heraway.
"Nie otwieraj opakowania. Natychmiast wezwijpolicje."
Had Ryder Helms just spoken in fluent Polish? She translated in her head. Yes. He'd said, "Don't open the package. Call the policeimmediately."
The conversation went on, her gleaning what was happening by Ryder's side of the exchange. She sighed with relief when she heard they had opened the box already and the ticking had been an old-fashioned wind-up alarm clock. An odd thing to mail a celebrity, until you factored in the threatening letter that accompanied it, warning that the next one would be a real bomb if Khloe didn't get rid of her newest bodyguard, effectiveimmediately.
Ryder and her father's dialogue continued as she tried to make sense of the threat. Feeling left out, Trevor was standing, pressing her for details of what was being said in Polish. She couldn't talk, listen, and translate at the same time so she shushed him, listening to Ryder directing her father to call 911 immediately and report the delivery. He explained that Khloe had a stalker and that they needed to record the threat so when Ryder caught the culprit––and he would catch them––they had the evidence they'd need to put them away for a longtime.
It was only when Ryder started lecturing her father that she wondered if her Polish was getting rusty from lack of use. Was he really telling her father to “get his head out of his ass and support his wonderful and talented daughter?” She had to have the translation wrong for his, “Khloe is so special. She deserves your love. She deserves theworld.”
Ryder's gaze was so intense. So protective. Sopossessive. It scared her. It wasn't what he was saying that frightened her. It was that despite his passionate defense of her, she could feel him pulling away. She felt it in her bones. He was constructing a wall around himself, treading careful not to let her get too close. Little did he know, he was already too late. She'd known in February that what they had was extraordinary. She'd let him walk outonce.
She wouldn't make that mistakeagain.
Trevor finally insisted on an update so she filled him in while Ryder got additional details about the package. When had it been sent? What did the return address look like? Had it been delivered by ground or air? By an express shipper or the USPS? The interrogation went on in Polish, telling her Ryder did not just speak some of the language. He was completely fluent, his accentperfect.
The call lasted until the police arrived at her parents' small bungalow in the Bronx. Ryder switched to English, barking orders to the responding officers as if he were the Chief of Police. Despite being thousands of miles away, chilling pictures arrived on her phone, making the threat morereal.
By the time they hung up, the delicious food Ryder had prepared sat stone cold on their plates. The trio sat silently, each taking in all that had happened in the bizarre turn ofevents.
Trevor spoke first. "I'm trying to interpret this clue. On the one hand, everyone in Khloe's inner circle knows she is estranged from her parents. At first I thought the stalker had tipped his hand that he didn't know her as well as we'd thought he did. But I'm not so sure. My gut tells me it's theopposite."
Ryder pressed him. "Why'sthat?"
"They mention you for one thing. That means it's someone who has been close enough to her physically in the last few days to know you're not only here, but they're afraid of you. They want you to back off. For Khloe to fire you. With that in mind, I think whoever it is was afraid to send the package to anywhere you might intercept it and have a higher probability of tracking them down. I think they purposefully sent this message to her parents knowing we wouldn't be monitoring theirhouse."
She hated that Trevor's explanation made sense to her because that meant that it really was someone in her inner circle responsible for terrorizingher.
Ryder didn't comment, instead pulling apart the crusty bread and dipping a bite in the olive oil before holding it to her lips. "Open up,baby."
"I'mnot..."
Like at breakfast, he shoved the food in when she opened her mouth to protest. And so the game went on, this time lasting longer than the standoff that morning. When she zipped her lips closed and pushed to her feet about halfway through the entree, Ryder was ready for her. He hugged her to him, pulling her to sit in his lap as she wiggled to be free. She didn't fight hard. She was a realist. If he wanted to subdue her, hewould.
"There's no use in fighting me on this. You're gonna eat the whole portion.Period."
She choked down a few more bites, but by the time she got to the last quarter of the pasta, the food threatened to come back up even without her finger's help. She tried to tell him, but every time she opened her mouth to speak, he'd shovel another bite onto hertongue.
Her panic spiked until she was cursing him and fighting like a madwoman to be free from him. His hand cracked her ass through the thin robe, surprising her more thananything.
Trevor intervened, coming around to their side of the island. Tears of gratitude for his help, turned to sobs of frustration when her long time guard and friend picked up her fork and held the food against her lips, helpingRyder.
She was furious. How dare they gang up on her? How dare they force her to do something she clearly did not want to do? How darethey...
Gone was his dominant demand. Ryder's soothing voice cut through the loud hum of dread in her head, calming her. "Shhh, it's gonna be okay. Every bite you take, tell yourself it's going to keep you healthy. Every bite you eat makes you stronger. To hell with Hollywood rules. You're Khloe Fucking Monroe. It's time you make your ownrules."
And so it went, for what seemed like forever. Ryder holding her, rocking her, soothing her with his smooth words while Trevor fed her, slowly... with small bites... like he knew she needed, until the miraculoushappened.
Her plate wasclean.
