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“Do you know what time it is?” Veronica asks with a groan.
“Eight-thirty. Does Max ever not answer you?” I ask immediately.
“Huh?” she says and I know she’s still half asleep.
“When you call Max, does he ever not answer?”
“No, of course not. Why? Is Damian not answering?” She yawns. “Did you guys have a fight? Maybe he’s just not answering his girlfriend, not the woman he’s protecting.”
“Veronica…” I warn and I hear talking in the background, assumedly Derek.
“What? Where is he anyway? We have the morning off and we don’t have to be at the table read until five so I’m surprised you aren’t doing it all over your house.”
“He went to get me breakfast and now he’s not answering.” I take a deep breath realizing it’s been twenty minutes since I started calling him. “What if something happened to him?”
“Damian is indestructible. He’s fine,” she says over the sounds of running water.
“Then why isn’t he answering?” My heart is starting to accelerate, growing more aggressive with each passing minute. She doesn’t answer and I hate how loud the silence is. I’m trying my best to keep my mind from going there, but the tragedies I’ve endured make me assume the worst every time. It is fucking exhausting but unavoidable. “There’s no reason why he wouldn’t take my call, V. He’s my bodyguard. Even if he was pissed at me, he’d answer. And he’s not pissed at me! He went to get me breakfast!”
“Okay, I’m coming over.” Probably in response to the shrill tone of my voice.
That was the thing about Veronica. I never needed to call for her, she justcame.She knew if she asked me, I’d tell her no. I’d tell her I’d be fine and it’s early and I’m sorry for waking her up and she should go back to sleep and not worry about me. Instead, I hear her grabbing her keys. “Let me just get Max and I’ll be over in a few.” Veronica lives in a different community a few miles away. “Want me to stay on the phone?”
“No.” I shake my head. “I am being ridiculous. You don’t even need to come.” I put her on speaker and drop my phone to my bed as I start going through the list of scenarios that would explain why Damian hasn’t answered thatisn’thim lying in a ditch somewhere.
“Shut up, I’ll be there in ten minutes, but I swear to god if he shows up, right when I get there, he’s making me breakfast.”
A beep indicating a news alert about me breaks me from my thoughts and I open it and tears immediately rush to my eyes. “Oh my god. Oh my god.”
“What what,” Veronica says and I hear the slam of her car door. “Get there fast, I think something’s wrong,” she says to someone. “Shay, talk to me.”
“The…” I stammer, trying to get the words out. I’m suddenly freezing and when my teeth start to chatter I briefly wonder if I’m going into shock.
“Shit,” Veronica says and I take it to mean she’s seeing what I’m seeing which is a news alert reporting that both me and my bodyguard were in a car accident. There aren’t any pictures but it’s my Range Rover and there are ambulances and firetrucks and my truck is literally on fire.
“Oh…”
“Come open the door, Shay. I’ll be there in five.”
I don’t know how I move my feet but somehow, I get downstairs and open the door, leaving it wide open. I immediately sink to the floor in front of it and sure enough, Veronica and Max are coming through the door moments later.
“Hey,” she says kneeling down in front of me so we’re at eye level. “We don’t know anything.”
“False. We know I wasn’t in the car but HE WAS! That’s my car and he’s the only person that drives it.”
My phone starts ringing and I’m glad it’s Cooper so he can get a handle on this. “I wasn’t in the car,” I say instantly, tears forming in the back of my throat. “D—Damian went to get me breakfast.” I think I’m still in shock because my entire body feels numb and I’m not in full-blown hysterics like when I lost my parents.Maybe subconsciously, my body knows he’s still alive. Please, baby,my mind thinks.
“Okay,” he lets out a breath. “I’m glad you’re okay. You’re alone?”
“Veronica just got here.”
“Do not leave your house until I call you. Is there any security there?”
“I think Kent is still here. Damian had him stay in the guesthouse last night,” I say and I’m glad Cooper doesn’t question it because I really don’t have the energy for the conversation regarding where Damian slept if Kent was in the guesthouse.
“We’re releasing a statement that you’re safe and at home. Stay off the internet, Shay, I mean it.”
Veronica takes the phone from my hand and stands up. “Find out what is going on, Cooper.” she says and I can’t hear his response but she looks at me. “I will take her to the scene myself. Damian is…you know how important he is to her.” I’m still sitting on the ground and when I look up at her she’s looking at me the way a mother would look at their child in pain. She hangs up just as another call comes through.