Page 68 of His Girl Hollywood

He wrestled with his bonds, seemingly forgetting for a moment that his hands were tied as he tried to reach for Arlene. “Are you hurt? Frankie’s men, they’re everywhere.”

“I had help. Eleanor, Joan, and Dash.”

Dash leapt down from the ladder and dusted off his jeans, coming to stand next to Arlene in front of Don. “At your service.” He placed his hand to his head and mimed tipping an invisible hat.

Arlene continued to wrestle with the rope at Don’s feet, while Dash undid the rope around Don’s hands in record time. “Used to use that one with the horses,” Dash said by way of explanation.

His hands freed, Don reached for Lena, pausing her frantic attempts to free him. She’d only made the knot tighter as she’d pulled at it. Don grabbed her shoulders. “Why did you come for me?”

The question pierced her heart. Did Don truly think himself so alone? “You think I’d leave you to that—that bully?”

Dash tapped Arlene on the shoulder, nudging her over. “Let me get it.” He undid the rope at Don’s feet with a few swift movements.

“Let me ask you something, Don Lamont,” Arlene queried. “If the tables were turned and I was tied up in a godforsaken warehouse that reeks of fish, would you leave me here?”

“Of course not, but—”

“Much as I hate to interrupt this touching reunion, we should get going,” Dash interjected.

“Right, of course,” answered Arlene. She put her arm under Don’s and helped him stand. “Can you walk?”

He tested his weight on both feet. “I think so. I’m sore, but they stayed away from my legs. Frankie was waiting to be sure I wouldn’t change my mind after I said I wouldn’t dance for him again before permanently debilitating his personal piggy bank.”

He took a step forward and stumbled. Arlene caught him and kept her arms steady around him. “I’ve got you,” she said. He nodded, closing his eyes, and Arlene yearned to know what was going through his head.

They followed Dash to a heavy warehouse door that opened when it was time to pack the boxes of canned tuna into delivery trucks. It had been locked from the outside, but Dash undid the interior pin lock, pulling it open wide enough for them all to squeeze through. But once Dash slipped through the door into the rising sunlight, he called back, “We’ve got company!”

Arlene looked out long enough to see Dash deliver a solid right hook to one of the waterlogged goons that had tried to “help” Joan. Another one was coming at Dash with a piece of wood he’d undoubtedly pulled from the wreckage of the explosion. Dash called over his shoulder, “Take Don and go! Surely, there’s a backdoor. We can handle this.”

Arlene didn’t wait to see what happened next, pulling more of Don’s weight across her shoulders. “Do you think you can run?”

Don started to nod, but his head lolled precipitously to the side. “I’m sorry,” he moaned.

Arlene thought about it for a moment. Even with his lithe dancer’s body, he was so much bigger than she was. She looked frantically around the warehouse for a loading cart or something else she could use to carry him. She couldn’t drag him across the warehouse.

A flash of a dance she’d seen him and Rita rehearsing sprang to mind. He’d leapfrogged onto Rita’s back, his hands and feet extended, while Rita did a jokey dance step toward the camera. If she could get him on her back, she could make it. At least to the other side of the warehouse.

“Don, you remember the gag number with Rita? The one where you’re both pretending to be vaudeville stars?”

His eyes sparked, and he seemed to come back to himself for a moment. “Turn around,” he murmured. She did as she was told and crouched, making sure to displace her weight evenly. “You sure about this?”

She wasn’t at all. But they had to get out of here quick or she’d be a sitting duck and so would Don. “It’ll be like when we were kids in the backyard,” she assured him.

He inhaled, bit his lip, and braced himself before springing onto her back. He groaned as he wrapped his legs around her waist and leaned forward into her back, gripping at her shoulders. “Sunnabitch,” he muttered.

Arlene was nearly doubled over now, the weight of Don on her back pushing her down toward the floor. But she grabbed at his knees with her hands and readjusted herself until he felt steady perched atop her. Then, she ran for the other side of the warehouse and the small door marked “Employees Only.”

Chapter 27

Arlene extended her foot to push open the door, while Don clung helplessly to her neck. He was groggy and in pain, but he couldn’t suppress the relief that surged through him at the thought that she had come for him. Though the joy was quickly superseded by dread. Because now she knew the truth about Frankie. Or at least some of it. How else would Eleanor have explained why their manager had kidnapped him? He’d wanted to protect her. To keep her far from anything to do with Frankie. He’d spent ten years away from her, keeping his heart under lock and key to prevent anyone from getting too close. Lest Frankie use it against him. And now, his worst fears had come true. The person he cared for most in this world had become mixed up in this mess of his own making.

But he still couldn’t help but feel grateful that Arlene was here. She’d understood his clues and figured out where he was. The stray thought that maybe her penny was lucky after all crossed his mind. Whatever had brought her here, it meant more than he could put into words. Considering the fuzzy state of his brain, that was probably for the best.

As the door gave way under pressure from Arlene, they emerged into a dark and narrow passageway. “Any idea where this goes?” he mumbled.

She hitched up his legs, resettled him on her back, and startedto walk down the hallway. “I have an idea, and you’re not gonna like it. But forward is better than backwards.”

The passage was much shorter than expected, barely ten feet from one end to the other, with another door on the opposite side. She pushed at it with her foot once more, but it wouldn’t give way. “I can’t get it.” She grimaced, leaning into the door with her hands and her foot.

---