The Fixed Trilogy: Forever With You(59)

Without looking back, I headed to the employee lounge behind the bar. Seeing Celia had thrown me, and in the shape I was in, that was enough to send me over the edge. I paced the room, trying to get a hold of the composure I’d had earlier in the evening.

Gwen and David followed.

I considered telling them I wanted to be alone. But I wasn’t sure I did.

“Are you okay, Laynie?” David’s voice was tentative and tender.

“No. Yes. I’m fine. I’m just…”I shook my head, unable to finish the thought. My chest was tight and my head felt like it was going to explode.

“Well, tell us something about her. Your stalker.” Gwen genuinely seemed like she wanted to be helpful. “A name. How you know her. Anything.”

“Her name’s Celia Werner.” I was surprised at my willingness to share, yet even more, I needed to talk.

“As in Werner Media?” David kept abreast of the who’s who in the business world. Of course he’d recognize her name.

“That’s the one,” I confirmed.

David stepped closer to me, concern on his face.

“It’s nothing to worry about, David. She’s just not happy about me being with Hudson.”

“Is she the ex?” Gwen asked.

“Yeah.” When I’d said that in therapy, it was because it was easier. Now after the video, it was what I truly believed. “She is.” For the millionth time, my mind went to thoughts of her kissing Hudson. What else had they done? How close had they been? Had he slept with her?

I swallowed the bile that threatened to come up. “So now she’s trying to scare me by showing up where I am. Sending me messages. Stuff like that.”

“Do you want us to kick her out? I can call Sorenson up from the door.” Unlike Hudson, David’s protective mode was subtle, but I recognized it in his face all the same.

“She’s not going to hurt me.”

“Are you sure?” David put a hand on my shoulder.

“No.” I stepped casually out of his grasp. Despite its innocence, his touch felt like a betrayal to Hudson. “But I don’t want her to win.”


“Fair enough.” His body language told me that my brush-off had stung. Another reason it was good he was leaving.

Gwen turned a plastic chair around and straddled it. “It’s creepy how she just stares at you like she does.”

“Isn’t it?” I was still trying to decide how I felt about Gwen knowing about my private life.

“We could spike her drink.”

Now this sounded interesting. “With what?”

“I don’t know. Spit.”

I didn’t laugh, but I managed a genuine smile. Okay, Gwen was officially cool. And maybe I needed more people involved in my life—more than just Hudson and his family. The phone call with Brian, the run with Jordan, the day with Liesl—all of it reminded me that there was a whole world outside the one I’d been living in. A world with friends and interests that I’d forgotten about recently.

Whether or not Hudson and I had a future together, I had a future of my own. I couldn’t ignore the people that belonged in that future anymore and just hope that they’d still be there when I needed them. And Gwen was now a part of The Sky Launch. That made her family. It was time to embrace her as such.

But just because they were family didn’t mean I had to talk about everything with them. And talking wasn’t calming me down anyway.

“You know what? I’m fine,” I lied. “Don’t worry about me. Let’s get back out there where we can at least keep an eye on her.”

With Gwen in the lead, we stepped back into the club, the flashing lights and thumping beat washing over me with a familiar comfort.

I ran into Gwen’s back when she stopped short. “Ah,” she said. “She knows we were talking about her. She’s calling in reinforcements.” She lifted her chin toward Celia. “See?”

I looked toward my stalker and saw she had her cell to her ear.

Just then Liesl walked over to me with the bar phone in her hand, the cord stretched almost to its max distance. “There you are, Laynie, phone call.”

“Oh, shit.” Gwen’s eyes were wide, and I imagined they mirrored my own.

Was Celia calling me?

“Let me take it,” David offered.

“And say what?” I shook my head decisively. “I’ve got it.” What was she going to say to me, anyway?

I took the receiver from Liesl’s hand, my own hand surprisingly steady. “Hello?”

“Alayna, where is your bodyguard?”

The voice on the line shocked me more than if it had been Celia. “Hudson.” I said his name out loud, looking around at my coworkers so they’d know who it was. “Hello to you, too.”

A mixture of disappointment and elation swept over me. I’d almost wanted the call to be from Celia—more and more, I was eager to confront her.

But on the other hand, it was Hudson on the phone. Hudson! I’d longed for his voice all day. I didn’t even care about the circumstances for his call—he’d called, that was the point.

“Ah, it’s not even her,” Gwen said. “That was some mind f*ck.”

David agreed. “I think she must have been checking messages. I never saw her mouth move.”