Identity Crisis(99)

The back yard, Carla. Wait for them there. And don’t disappoint me again.

It took her a second to steady herself, a second to stop feeling like she might throw up the maple bars she’d just eaten. She was just beginning to get the shakes under control, when her editor called.

‘Thorne is about to make a press statement without Tess.’ He didn’t bother to say hello. ‘Strange, really. It was Tess’s publicist, Bachman, who called it in. I don’t know what the hell this is all about, Flannery, but it sounded pretty damned important. Get what you can and make it good.’

He cut the connection just as a red Ford Explorer pulled up in front of the house. It was a rental, Carla could tell, and the man who got out was Tess’s publicist, Donald Bachman. He was a tall California blond who looked as though he might have been a surfer in his younger days, but he cleaned up all nice and Wall Streety.

She grabbed her Dictaphone and a pad and pen and shoved her iPhone in her pocket. Then, as an afterthought, grabbed the big golf umbrella her father had also dropped off this morning and headed into the downpour. Reporters were already beginning to gather near the front porch of Garrett Thorne’s house.

‘Mr. Bachman.’ Mike Pittman stuck his Dictaphone in the man’s face. ‘Can you tell us what’s happening? Do you know why Thorne wants to speak to the press?’

Bachman offered only a hint of a smile. ‘Whatever Garrett Thorne has to say you’ll all hear shortly. Now, if you’ll excuse me.’ He shoved his way onto the front step and rang the bell.

As the door opened just enough for him to get inside, cameras flashed and, for a second, all eyes strained for a glimpse of the inner sanctum, the place that had gripped them all for the past three days. Carla wondered what the hell was going on.

Inside, Garrett paced the floor like a caged lion. For a long moment, Don stood dripping on the carpet and stared. ‘I don’t need your help.’ Garrett said.

‘Yes, you do,’ Don said. ‘Who the hell is going to believe that you’re Tess Delaney if I’m not there to back you up? They’ll laugh you off the porch, if they don’t crucify you first.’ He looked around. ‘Kay’s not here?’

Garrett shook his head. ‘After all that’s happened, what do you think? She’s with Ellis and Dee.’

Don slipped out of his wet jacket and hung it on the pegs by the door. ‘How did you manage that?’

‘I sneaked out before she woke up. How do you think I managed it? The woman’s exhausted even if she won’t admit it.’

Garrett ran a hand through his hair and returned to the living room without inviting Don, but Don followed.

‘Garrett, are you sure you want to do this?’ Don sat down next to him on the sofa. ‘I mean this will, no doubt, send book sales still higher than they already are, and it’ll be a media circus deluxe that we can make serious mileage off PR-wise, but I’m not stupid. I know this isn’t what you want. And I know why you’re doing it. I just don’t know that it’ll help.’

‘Goddamn it, Don, I have to do something!’ Garrett slammed his hand against the coffee table, causing the man to jump. ‘I got her into this mess. I have to get her out, so I’m coming clean, and I’m firing her. Then when the press is gone, I’m going to hogtie her and take her somewhere far away from here.’

‘You’re assuming she’ll go. And that without even talking to K. Ryde, and ultimately he is her boss.’

Garrett bit his tongue to keep from telling Don the truth, but it was Tess he was outing, not Kendra. ‘It’s still my choice to make. I let you bring the Ryde Agency into this, and I’m now terminating their services.’

For a second, Don studied him as though he might find something hidden in Garrett’s behavior, but Garrett had pretty much always been above board with his publicist. That’s why their relationship had worked. Then he spoke carefully. ‘Perhaps you should let me take Kay away from here. I’ve got lots of contacts and I’ll see that she’s kept safe.’

Garrett held his gaze. ‘Don, I’m sleeping with her.’ He rushed on before the man had a chance to respond. ‘It’s a complication neither of us needed, as she frequently reminds me, but you need to know that if anyone takes her anywhere it’ll be me.’

Don dropped his gaze to his hands folded in his lap and nodded slowly. ‘Not that I didn’t suspect.’ He looked back up at Garrett. ‘You love her, don’t you?’

The words hit Garrett like a sharp knife in the middle of his chest and suddenly he missed Kendra Davis with every fiber of his being, suddenly he wished desperately that he had told her just that last night when he made love to her, when things were raw and open and she was vulnerable like he’d never seen her before. ‘Yes,’ he replied, feeling his heart hammering its way through the word. ‘Yes, I love her, Don.’