“I need a picture of this! I don’t know when I’ll have so many of you together again, especially since you all insist on picking professions guaranteed to give your poor mother a heart attack. Jack, Zee, get over here.”
Rachel took a step back, then another. She’d never felt so out of place in her life. “I should go …” she said, but no one heard her in the cacophony surrounding Fred. Mrs. Breen had drafted a doctor to take the picture, and the bewildered-looking woman was being directed and repositioned and generally manhandled by the Breen clan.
No one noticed as she slipped out the door. Her last thought, before fleeing down the hospital corridor, was that if it weren’t for her, Fred wouldn’t even be in that hospital bed. If only she could make it up to him. But she had no idea how.
While he was recovering in the hospital, Fred once again became a sensation. The footage of him emerging from the Carter Street apartment, Kale the kidnapper draped over his back, was replayed over and over again on the national cable news networks. The fact that the kidnapper was a slightly unstable twentysomething who’d only recently become passionate about animal rights didn’t take away from the drama. The only other news story that got as much attention was the reappearance of Rachel Kessler.
Her interview was played over and over again. Fred, watching that night, after his mother and the doctor had insisted that he stay overnight in the hospital, noticed with fierce satisfaction that Rachel never mentioned BEAST. Kale and his cohorts hadn’t gotten what they really wanted.
But it hardly mattered. Rachel’s privacy was completely shattered, judging by the number of times her face appeared on the twenty-four-hour news channel piped into his hospital room.
What would she do now? Her life would never be the same, that was for sure. The news was already showing aerial shots of the Refuge and interviewing her coworkers there. She’d probably need a whole army of bodyguards now; or maybe she’d move somewhere else and adopt a new name and start over again.
The thought tore at his heart. The best thing she could do now was ride out the wave of media attention, then try to regain some sort of privacy. The worst thing for her to do would be to hang out with the so-called Bachelor Hero. Until some of that crap died down, he’d draw even more unwanted attention to her.
For the hundredth time, he relived those moments in Firefly’s parking lot. If he were a better bodyguard, maybe he would have noticed the three men before they attacked. Or maybe he should have been quicker to counterattack. He definitely shouldn’t have let himself get conked on the head. He’d been so focused on protecting Rachel that it had never occurred to him that he might be a potential target as well.
That oversight had caused this entire mess.
The next morning, he checked himself out of the hospital before any of his family members appeared. It had been great to see everyone yesterday, sort of like getting tossed into a mosh pit. Really fun, but crazy and overwhelming too. And poor Rachel, caught up in the midst of that chaos. As if exposing her identity wasn’t traumatic enough, Rachel had been hijacked by his family. It was sort of a one-two punch, and he really had to know if she’d survived.
The get-me-out-of-here look on her face as she’d fled his hospital room didn’t give him much hope.
He hailed a cab and gave the driver Rachel’s address. On the way, he left a message for his mother and Lizzie. When he pulled up outside the building, he was relieved to see no reporters outside. Either it was too early, or they hadn’t located her apartment yet. Something told him it would just be a matter of time.
Inside, he spoke for a few moments with Marsden, who surprised him with a big bear hug. Fred fought his way free.
“I wish people weren’t making such a big deal out of it,” he told Marsden. “The dude was a few sandwiches short of a picnic.”
“Sometimes it’s the crazy ones who are the most dangerous,” said the security guard gravely. “You can’t say he didn’t manage to hurt you.”
“Nothing to speak of,” grumbled Fred, rubbing his jaw, which still throbbed. “Do you have access to what the investigators are learning? Have they run up against anyone named Tree yet? He kept mentioning that name. I think Tree owned the place.”
“They all have code names like that, but I don’t know which one is Tree. It looks like BEAST recruited Kale about six months after he got the job at the Refuge, which explains how he got past our security check. The three goons they hired don’t know much. What are you thinking?”
Fred shrugged. “I don’t know. It occurred to me that the group might be a front for Rachel’s kidnapper. Tree could be his code name. Kale talked as if Tree was on a higher level than him, but for all I know, he’s an imaginary friend. Or his pet caterpillar.”
“Might be possible, but this group is pretty young. No one over thirty-five. But it’s worth checking out.” Marsden clapped him on the shoulder. “We’re just glad he didn’t do too much damage. And you kept him away from Rachel. You did your job, son.”