She was surprised he hadn’t tossed them out on the side of the road. He was certainly angry enough, and she could tell from the set of his jaw and the way his brows were scrunched together. His eyes were hidden behind sunglasses, but the hands on the steering wheel clenched and unclenched, often turning his knuckles white. He hadn’t said a single word to them after he’d walked away from them in the grocery store.
When she’d expected him to snarl and refuse to drive them back home, he’d surprised them by putting her things—okay, slamming her things—into his car’s trunk. She hoped that her eggs hadn’t broken, but, under the circumstances, she didn’t think it was something she should really worry about.
Liz sat next to her in the backseat and kept shooting Nick’s face worried glances. The mascara that had run off with her initial tears had dried on her cheeks. Autumn vaguely mused that Liz looked a little like Morticia Adams, but she thought it best to keep that thought to herself for the moment. She should focus on the important things. Like how all the nightmares of her past were now in the public eye. How her life had turned upside down overnight. How nothing was going to be quite so simple anymore.
Right.
When Liz’s cell phone beeped, all three of them jolted because the terse silence in the car had been finally broken.
Watching Nick’s face carefully, Liz picked up. “Hello?” Then, after a brief silence, “Oh, God. How bad is it?” Her hand reached for Autumn’s and clung tightly as she squeezed her eyes shut.
Autumn figured it had to be one of her publicists and wondered how bad things would be for the next long while. How had the papers found out about Lily, Summer, and Kyle? Who had that exclusive interviewee been? And, please God, what was going to happen to her and Lily?
“Hey.”
Her eyes shot up to meet Nick’s in the rearview mirror. “Yeah?” she asked tentatively.
“Do you have a back way onto your street? Some way that we could reach your house?”
Her eyes shifted to stare at the crowd gathered at the corner of her block and gasped. “No.” The word was a horrified whisper as she stared at the camera crews, reporters, photographers, and anyone else who had wanted to catch a glimpse of the famous—rather, infamous—Autumn Evans.
“This is why you need to get yourself into a gated community,” Nick said quietly and turned left just before her block. “Where to, Rags?”
“Keep going this way and turn onto the first street on your right,” she replied, her voice shaking a little. “Rags?” she asked after a moment.
His eyes flicked to hers in the rearview mirror again. “Rags to riches to rags again. I bet that’s how you’re feeling.”
“Tell them ‘no comment,’” Liz’s voice interrupted them as she snapped into the phone before biting her lip. “Sorry, Sherrie. It’s just that there’s a ton of paparazzi outside on her street. I don’t know how we’re going to get her into her house safely. On top of that, Lily’s at a neighbor’s house. We need to get her back to Autumn’s safely, too. I don’t think the cops are going to do anything unless it turns into a fire hazard.”
Nick tried not to listen, really, he did. He didn’t want to care anymore. He was tired of being lied to and kept in the dark. Just when he thought he’d found people that he could care about, who wouldn’t lie to him, they’d done just that. What the hell was he supposed to do now? he wondered. His usual MO at this point would be to turn away, tune them out, leave them alone. Never speak to them again.
He looked at Liz then met Autumn’s quietly shattered eyes again. No, he couldn’t just turn away. But he wouldn’t let them off that easily either.
“You can park here.” Autumn pointed to the empty driveway on their right. “No one’s living in this house at the moment, and the backyard connects to mine. I have the key to the gate.” She laid a hand on his shoulder lightly. “Thank you.”
Nick shrugged it off. “Don’t mention it. Seriously.” He turned off the engine and slammed out of the car.
Autumn followed him to the trunk, leaving Liz to finish up the phone call. “Nick, don’t be mad at her. Please don’t be mad at Liz. She didn’t tell you because I’d asked her not to tell anyone.”
He said nothing and continued to unload her groceries. It was understandable for him to be mad, she told herself. Hell, she was surprised he’d actually bothered to unload her stuff from the car. When he picked up several of her bags and began to walk towards the back of the house, she was stunned for a moment. Then, she grabbed the rest of her bags and rushed after him.
“What are you doing?” She caught up to him as he stood in front of the locked gate and stared.
He spared her a glance before turning back to the gate. “It’s locked. Where’s the key?”
“Oh.” Balancing her things, she dug out her key ring and riffled through it before shoving one of the keys into the lock. “Here we go.”
They stepped into her postage stamp backyard, which was currently home to a kiddie wading pool and a porch swing. That wasn’t new, Autumn thought. What was new was the sounds of people coming from the front of her house. She could hear her doorbell ringing incessantly and stopped where she was.
Nick kept trudging towards her back door but stopped when he noticed she wasn’t with him. “Well, for Christ’s sake,” he muttered and turned to see what she was doing.
He decided a guy would have to have a stone as a heart if he could ignore the way she stood, staring at her home, tears slipping and sliding down her cheeks. Nick Carter did not, contrary to popular belief, have a stone heart nor was it a selfish one.
Setting what he carried by the back door, he moved back to her and sliding one arm around her shoulders, tucked the other under her knees and swept her up in one fluid motion. She blinked in surprise before her arms came around him, tight, and she buried her face against his neck. As he carried her towards the house, he could feel her hot tears against his skin and tried to steel himself against it. Really, he did try.
“Where are your keys?” he asked when they stood in front of the locked back door.
Lifting her face, she sniffled. “It’s always unlocked. Nick, I-”
He pushed open the door, cutting off her words. Walking straight to the couch in the den, he deposited her on it and, grabbing the throw from the back of the sofa, he tucked it around her.
“Just stay.”
And he whirled around and disappeared out the door. He was back seconds later, carrying her bags, and Liz followed him in with the rest. She gave Autumn a questioning look before she went to put the groceries in the kitchen. Not knowing what to do and feeling the beginning of a headache forming from the incessant ringing of the doorbell, Autumn pulled the throw over her head and curled into a ball.
In the kitchen, Liz wrung her hands, mentally, and wondered what to say to Nick. Should she apologize, should she yell at how stubborn he was being, or…what? She couldn’t blame him for being cold and stiff around them. After all, they’d taken great pains to keep him from finding out about Lily. But that wasn’t her fault, was it? Autumn had insisted on it because she wanted to protect her daughter. Not that Nick was a great danger to the baby…Then again, from the look on his face, maybe he was.
“Nick, you’ve got to understand why we didn’t tell you,” she began, but whatever she’d been about to say fell away as he glared at her and went back into the den. Nervous about what he’d do, she hurried after him.
Nick stood in front of the couch and studied the way Autumn had curled herself into the fetal position, and part of him felt sorry for her. He’d been through the media wringer more times than he could count, and now it was her turn. But, somehow, the anger still hadn’t burned out of him yet.
“Do you have a screwdriver and pliers?” he asked and nearly tapped his foot waiting for the answer.
She pulled the covers down enough to look at him with wide, wet, questioning eyes. “I-uh. Yeah. Laundry room, top shelf on the left. Why?”
He didn’t answer, but, when he came back with the tools and went out to the foyer, she scrambled off the couch and followed him. She slid to a stop next to Liz, and they watched as he unscrewed the lid to the mechanism that worked the doorbell.
“What are you doing?” Autumn asked quietly, sneaking glances at the windows in the living room and next to the door. Thank God, she thought. At least she hadn’t pulled the drapes open yet.
Nick didn’t spare them a glance as he focused on the task at hand. “Taking the doorbell off its hinges. It’s killing my brain cells.”
“H-how did you learn to do that?” Liz wondered.
“Experience.”
Autumn found Liz’s hand and squeezed it as they watched him take the pliers and snip wires. Immediately, the ringing stopped, though loud voices could still be heard from the other side of the door.
“They’re not going to break the door down, are they?” Autumn asked in a tiny voice.
Nick screwed the lid back on and turned to her. “No. Not unless they feel like spending time in jail for trespassing.” He set the pliers and screwdriver to the side. “Now. Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?”
Author's Chapter Notes:
Whoo! Well, the site let me log in momentarily, so I'll post the chapter I JUST finished. I've gotta tell ya, I'm hitting major writer's block on this tale. But it's coming, bit by bit...Don't worry! Enjoy!
