Page 33 of Threat of Danger
“He got you out of there.” Nothing but kindness in Pam’s tone.
“I know. He saved my life. But then sometimes I think, why couldn’t he have escaped his ropes sooner? And I know that’s stupid too. I do.” Jess gave a self-loathing groan. “It’s some mental hang-up, but I can’t shake it off.”
“Nothing you feel is stupid.” Pam’s tone turned fierce. “After what happened to you, you’re entitled to feel whatever you damn well want to feel.”
Jess smiled her appreciation for the unwavering, unquestioning support. She wrapped herself in Pam’s friendship. She was going to miss Pam.
The first time she’d left, she’d run from something terrible and had cut off all thoughts of home, so she hadn’t been homesick. But this time ... this time, leaving was going to hurt.
“And the boyfriend?” Pam went back to digging.
“Eliot. Not boyfriend yet. We work together.”
“Hot? On a scale of one to ten?”
“It’s wrong to objectify men.”
“So ... a total dog?”
Jess choked on her wine cooler, then coughed when some bubbles went up her nose. She laughed anyway. “No!”
“Good in bed?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yet.”
“Yet,” Jess agreed. She’d sent Eliot a bunch of pictures from her walk in the woods today, and they’d exchanged some texts, but they still hadn’t talked.
“Does he know?”
Pam didn’t have to spell out what.The attack.
“Nobody in LA knows. Aunt Linda did, but she passed away. I mean, Eliot knows that I was assaulted, but not the details. I’m only famous in Taylorville and true crime enthusiast circles. LA has plenty of its own crime to fill theLA Times. In Taylorville, people know my story because the town is so small, and the Taylors are pretty well known.”
“Didn’t he Google you?”
“If he did, he didn’t go past the first page of results. The first dozen hits are my IMDb page, professional LinkedIn page, and the home pages of movies I’ve been in. He’s not the type to dig for gossip. At the time when he took me on, he was interested in my professional skills. He wouldn’t look for anything else.”
They drank some more and talked some more—didn’t get to bed until well after midnight. Pam slept over.
They didn’t exactly have a hangover in the morning, but they weren’t hippity-hoppity either. They padded down to breakfast in socked feet and with fuzzy brains at nearly ten.
Zelda was in the kitchen, but she wasn’t alone. A man’s broad back greeted Jess as she walked in. The man turned.
“Eliot!”
Pam too snapped awake as Eliot stood, unfolding a lean body that showed what a brutal exercise regimen could make of a man. Exercise and truly superlative Italian genes. Jess could hear the catch in Pam’s breath next to her.
Jess wasn’t breathing all that easily either. She stepped forward, then stopped, needing to process the idea of Eliot in her mother’s kitchen. Her worlds were colliding. Was she ready for this? “What are you doing here?”
He moved in for a hug, then stepped back. “I thought I’d check on you.”
He really did have a beautiful smile, fit for the silver screen.Eliot. Oh God, in Taylorville!Jess shoved her hands in her pockets. Then pulled them out again. She didn’t do nervous gestures. She was a kick-ass stuntwoman.
It’s just Eliot.No matter what, Eliot wasn’t going to judge her for her past. Eliot was always on her side, one of the dozen things she loved about him.
“I see you met Zelda.” Jess relaxed into his warm brown gaze. “This is Pam, an old friend.”
