Page 20 of Call Sign: King
“Exactly. This is ten times more serious than that.”
“Don’t let Ryder freak you out. You know him. He’s always overprotective when it comes to my safety. We’ve been together four years. If something bad was going to happen, it would have by now,” she said, trying to convince herself as much as Trevor.
“He’s right to be worried, Khloe. You need to take this seriously.”
“I am. I just refuse to hide. We’ve done nothing wrong.”
“Not in your eyes, but there are bad men in this world who would love nothing more than to hurt Ryder. If the world gets wind of just how important you are to him, you’ll be in real danger, and this time, from much more dangerous people than the Kaplans.”
Only when the car was safely in motion, headed for their destination, did Trevor make his first call. He didn’t need to tell Khloe who he was calling. She heard Ryder’s shout of “Put her on,” even without having the phone to her ear.
Taking the cell, she put on a brave face and went to work trying to calm her husband down.
“I’m perfectly fine. You don’t need to worry.”
“Fuck that. You need to turn around and come home. Immediately.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. The production crew has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars getting everything set up here. They’ve been filming sequences for days waiting for my arrival. Don’t forget, they already had to accommodate a break for me to attend the premier last week. I can’t ask them to delay again.”
“The hell you can’t.”
“Honey, I know this…”
“Stop. Don’t honey me, Khloe. This is serious.”
“I get that, but we can’t just go into hiding forever.”
“Not forever. Just until the dust settles and I can see just how much damage Rita Skeeter’s bullshit has done.”
“Wait… Kathleen O’Malley broke this story? That bitch. I’m positive Angie has language in all my contracts about my personal life being off-limits in contracted media junkets like last week.”
“Baby, don’t be naive. Breaking a story like this is lucrative enough that journalists will be willing to risk getting sued for the publicity this story will bring them.”
“You’re being silly. No one gives a shit about who I’m dating.”
It wasn’t a good sign that Ricky, Michael, and Trevor all started laughing at her.
“Fine, so maybe the paparazzi and gossip rags care, but it’s none of their damn business.”
“Khloe, stop. We’ve had this argument a hundred times. I’m not going to have it again. There are millions of people in this world who want to know what you ate for breakfast. Hell, they’d pay good money just to get the scoop on if you prefer paper or plastic.”
“Paper or plastic what?” she asked, suddenly lost.
“I rest my case. You haven’t been in a grocery store in so long you haven’t a clue. And the reason you don’t do your own shopping is because every single solitary place you go on this planet you’re recognized.”
“None of my fans care that much.”
“It’s not your fans I’m worried about, and you know it. I never should have gone on Thursday.”
The regret in her husband’s voice hurt. She’d been so happy to have him finally there to share her success with her.
“I’m sorry I’m such a burden,” she said fighting back the urge to cry.
“Stop it. I’m not going to let you pick a fight with me. You know I would give anything to be able to go with you everywhere. That we’ve been able to make things work as long as we have while keeping our relationship under wraps is nothing short of a small miracle.”
Something in the way he answered gave her her first real panic. “You aren’t going to desert me now, are you?”
Ryder’s hearty laughter at the other end of the line calmed her nerves better than anything else in the world, other than maybe his hug. “Princess, you just try to get away from me now. I’m not leaving, but you need to prepare yourself for coming protocol changes with your security. We’ve been pretty lax, all things considered, but I’m moving us into Code Orange, at least until we know more about what we’re dealing with.”
