Page 46 of Act Like You Don't Care
I didn’t reply, mostly because I couldn’t think of anything to say.
Miles squeezed me again, then let go. “We need to get you out of here. There’s already press out front.”
“Fuck.” I ran my hands through my hair and then gave up—I was sure I looked like crap. I didn’t want any pictures right now anyway. “What are we doing?”
“Employee entrance. The room here will stay in your name, we’ll have someone who looks like you stay here in case he tries to get access. You and I are getting out of the city for a few days.”
“The studio…?”
“Already okayed. They’ll work with Mike’s scenes and other stuff they don’t need you for.”
I turned and walked away to stare at the wall. “My career’s dead now, isn’t it? No one’s going to hire me after this.”
Miles tugged on my shoulder until I turned to face him. “I don’t believe that. I don’t think you do either. But if you want, we can find out. Plenty of friends in Hollywood.”
For a moment, I was tempted, but then I shook my head. “No, I’m okay.” It was done. We couldn’t change this now. I didn’t really want to know, if I was honest. “We should probably go.”
“You sure you’re okay?”
What could I say? The damage was already done. “I’m fine.” I blew out a short breath and straightened my scrubs, then followed him to the door.
Miles
By the time we left the hospital, the sun was dipping down below the horizon and the sky had turned a luminous blue. We covered Tam’s hair with a surgical cap and threw a cheap, borrowed jacket over his scrubs—just another nurse or doctor heading home at the end of their shift. After a quick discussion, a bullet-proof vest went under the scrub top, just in case. There’d been no bullets yet, but the threat level had just gone up another notch.
Three SUVs and two cars rolled out of the receiving area to disappear in five different directions, while a couple more pulled in to flank Tam and I as we negotiated the streets north and west, heading for the house out in the country.
As soon as we were out of LA, I gave Tam my phone so he could call his mother and fill her in on what had been happening before the news outlets got their teeth into the story. I’d already had one text about a few quick blurbs that were out on the websites and blogs—it wouldn’t be long before the major entertainment shows were carrying it too. Maybe even the actual news.
Tam sure as hell didn’t need to be worrying about that.
Once Tam had talked to his mother, he seemed to calm down a bit. Grow more thoughtful. Before I’d given him the phone I’d made sure he knew not to tell her where we were going, or too many details. He’d nodded with a solemn expression and followed my instructions to the letter, which was more worrying maybe than it should have been.
After he handed back the phone, he asked if it was okay if he napped in the back seat. I pulled over wordlessly and let him crawl into the back and found my emergency blanket for him in case he wanted something to cover up with. He fell asleep almost immediately or at least did a pretty good simulation of it. Couldn’t blame the guy for needing a bit of time to process right now.
I kept the music low anyway, just in case.
The GPS was taking us the long way up to the vacation house. It was a nice drive, scenic, passing through a lot of smaller towns. Lots of places I could pull off and hide the two of us if I needed to. More chances for me to pick out someone following the SUV as well. It was a shame we weren't making the drive in the daylight—I bet Tam would have appreciated the view of the ocean you got sometimes when the road swung close enough to the coastline.
Better to let the man sleep, though, at least until we got to the last largish town before the turn-off to the house. There was a small grocery store where I could pick up perishables and anything else we would need for a short stay. Even clothes for Tam, since his go-bag had been in the apartment.
The gas attack had been unexpected, in that there were at least a half-dozen other things I would have expected the stalker to try first. None of which were gassing Tam to unconsciousness and kidnapping him. Something to talk about with my old boss, to see where I'd gone wrong. I glanced in the rearview mirror again, hoping for a glimpse of Tam as I automatically checked the headlights following us for any that looked too familiar. Maybe I'd stop at a gas station, see if any of the unknown cars pulled in too. Up until now, Tam's stalker hadn't come off as practiced, just determined. The gas was weird and didn’t fit the rest of the profile.
What if it really was as simple as him working someplace he could get hold of a couple of bottles of anesthetic?
I decided not to risk it. We had a planned stop and I wasn’t going to deviate from that plan. My job was to get Tam to safety and keep him there, not to play G-Man and try to take down the perpetrator myself.
Round headlights, square ones, one set of those bright blue ones. I made a note of where they were in the row of traffic and sped up a little. One set of headlights kept pace with us, but they had the same shape as the follow-car with the extra security. The rest of the headlights jigged around in the mirror but didn't do anything that caught my attention. When the turn-off for the town got close, I signaled to the follow-car that I was turning off and headed straight for the grocery store.
The follow-car pulled up in the row beside us. I rolled down my window as Jim rolled down his. “How’s he doing?” Jim asked with a jerk of his head toward the back seat of the car.
“Asleep.”
Jim nodded. “We’ll keep an eye out here then.” His gaze flickered over my SUV. “On second thought, I might go sit in the car with him, just in case.”
I nodded and stepped out of the vehicle.
Tam was still asleep. Jim gave him a cursory look and got into the driver’s seat, locking all the doors as soon as his was closed. “Don’t be long,” he told me.
