Inferno Anthology (88 page)

“I told you Miss Jacobs will not be answering any questions at this time,” Teddy repeated his mantra over and over as my vision blurred with rage.

“You lied to me!” I shouted, and Teddy quickly motioned to the nearest Secret Service agent.

The same handsome agent I had ogled on my visit to Baltimore with Chase now had both my arms in a vice grip as he shoved me toward the hotel entrance. My feet glided over the concrete as he practically carried me toward the doors.

“Where’s Chase?” I asked the agent, but he didn’t answer. “Drew, please, where is he?”

I never addressed the agents by their names. He probably thought I didn’t know his name because something changed in his face for just a brief moment. He shook his head as another agent grabbed my other arm and they both led me toward the elevator.

“How can you guys do this?” I whimpered, as the reality of how powerless I was at this moment finally hit me.

The tears rolled down my face in a never-ending stream of regret. I had trusted the wrong man. No, I had trusted the
most
wrong man. I had never screwed up this badly in my life and I had no safety net. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had already cleaned my bank accounts to erase all ties to me. They were going to erase me. Anything so Chase could become the next president. Because the numbers showed that he still had a chance, but, obviously, only if I no longer existed.

“Larissa?” Drew’s voice startled me as the elevator carried us upward. His young face was wrought with guilt.

“What?”

He opened his mouth to say something, but instead he shook his head. “Nothing.”

“How could he do this to me?” I whispered to myself.

The elevator stopped at the penthouse and, for a moment, I allowed myself to think that Chase would be waiting on the other side of the doors. The elevator doors slid open and the antechamber was empty. They led me into the sitting area and there he was, sitting on the bottom step of the staircase.

“How—”

“Wait,” he interrupted me, as he strolled across the black tile toward me. “Just be quiet for a moment.”

He knelt in front of me and grabbed my left hand. “Larissa Jacobs, I love you more than I ever believed I could love someone.”

My breath came in shallow gasps as the tears began to fall again.

“I know you must be very angry with me right now, but I’m asking you to trust that this is all going to work out. I’m asking you to trust me… for now and forever. Will you please marry me? Will you please let me love you for the rest of our lives?”

My stomach twisted inside me at the sight of him kneeling before me brandishing the ring I had picked out six weeks ago. Every piece of me wanted to scream
yes
, except for my shattered heart.

“You’re sending me away,” I said, gritting my teeth against this painful truth.

“I’ll be back for you very soon.”

“You said you wouldn’t let them hurt me. What happened? What changed in the last twenty minutes?”

He glanced at my feet for a moment before he slipped his phone out of his pocket. He played a video of the two of us together in the hotel room last night, which appeared to have been taken from the hotel across the street.

“Teddy got this earlier, when we were making love,” he said, the muscle in his jaw twitching as he stood.

“So this is plan B? Parade me in front of a horde of reporters then send me away to some remote cabin in Montana for six months. And I’m supposed to just wait for you?”

“Not six months.”

“Then how long?”

“Three or four months tops. We need to at least wait until a few weeks after the inauguration… for things to die down.”

Drew stepped forward. “Sir, the chopper’s here.”

I shook my head as I realized the chopper was there for me. “I can’t believe this.”

Chase squeezed my hand as he looked me in the eye. “Please let me put this ring on you.”

“Do I even have a choice or is this some kind of mandatory witness protection program?”

“Of course, you have a choice,” he replied with a glance at the ring.

I looked into his dark eyes, searching for a trace of deceit. Had I been wrong about him all along? Was this all a ploy to keep me loyal to him while I was in hiding?

No. He wasn’t lying. We were both being tossed by this violent ocean of lies—lies we had both told. Lies we had told ourselves.

Drew cleared his throat. “Sir?”

“Just a minute,” Chase replied, his eyes locked on mine as he awaited my answer.

I swallowed the fear lodged in my throat and nodded. “Yes. Yes, I’ll wait for you.”

He smiled like a boy with a new bicycle as he slipped the ring onto my finger. “You’ll hear from me tonight.” He kissed me, a deep, urgent kiss. “I love you,” he said, as he rested his forehead against mine. “I’m going to make this up to you.”

My chest ached as I tore myself away from him. “I know.”

I turned away before I could change my mind and chased Drew up the staircase. A private elevator on the second floor of the penthouse delivered us onto the roof where a helicopter waited for us. I raced toward the helicopter, pushing aside worries about how I was going to get all my stuff to this secret destination. I climbed into the cabin and Drew helped strap me into the seat.

“Where are we going?” I shouted at him over the roaring squeal of the engine and the thwack of the rotors.

He shook his head before he strapped himself into the seat next to me. I didn’t know if this meant he didn’t know where we were going or he couldn’t tell me, but I was starting to realize it didn’t matter. Even if he knew, he wouldn’t tell me.

The helicopter lifted off the roof and swept across the sky toward the west. I gazed at my ring and the way the light refracted off the stone and onto the ceiling of the chopper. Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe. I tucked my hand under my thigh and turned my attention to the window. As I gazed at the Vegas strip below, I thought of California and my ex-roommate Shane. He said I hit the jackpot when Chase picked me out of all the girls at the escort service. Suddenly, I was beginning to lose my taste for winning.

When life hands you a precious gift, wrapped in a flashy bow, sometimes it turns out to be a boxful of lemons. That’s how I felt about Chase’s proposal, which came minutes after having our affair broadcast to millions of people yesterday. My father used to say, “When life kicks you down, grab it by the balls and twist as hard as you can.” Right now, I didn’t have the energy to make lemonade or grab anyone’s balls. All I wanted at this moment was a comfortable bed and nine hours of sleep. The flight to Chase’s villa in Tuscany had me jet lagged and I had an interview with Diane Sawyer in ten hours.

I followed Secret Service agents Drew Hardwick and Michael Pham up the marble staircase to the second floor of the lavish villa where I would be spending the next three to four months as Chase attempted to glue his campaign and possible presidency back together. I resisted the urge to run my fingers along the polished mahogany banister as I went over the interview script in my head. Gideon Vernon, Chase’s public relations director, and Laura Greene, his speechwriter, had come up with a script for tomorrow’s interview. It wasn’t so much an interview as it was a chance for me to publicly deny my affair with Chase Underwood.

The whole thing reeked, but the campaign statician insisted it was the only option if they wanted any chance of salvaging Chase’s rapidly plummeting poll numbers. As my heels clicked against the wood floors in the corridor, I wondered if
I
was just a number. What if Chase had other mistresses in hiding?

That was way too much to fathom at this junction. I needed to rest up, do the interview, and try not to worry about what my parents would think when they saw me on ABC World News. This wasn’t exactly the big break I’d been hoping for when I left home for Hollywood two years ago. I hated the thought of my mother turning to my father after seeing my interview and saying, “I told you so.”

“This is your room, Miss Jacobs,” Drew said, as he opened a set of tall double-doors revealing an enormous master suite that could easily fit my entire L.A. loft—four times.

“You can call me Larissa, Drew. I won’t tell Diane Sawyer if you don’t,” I said, as I set my purse down on a chaise lounge and wandered across the sumptuous carpet. “This is huge. I don’t think I need all this space. Are there any smaller rooms?”

Drew set my luggage down next to a massive armoire and glanced around. “This is nothing compared to his palace in San Diego. You’ll be fine in here, but if you really need something smaller I can see if one of the servants will switch with you. Of course, Mike and I will have to bunk in the next room, wherever you decide to sleep.”

“Servants? No, no, that’s fine. I’ll stay here. Thanks for bringing up my stuff.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a nod of his head before he and Mike exited the room.

Ma’am? Miss Jacobs?
I would have to talk to Drew about that later. Since he and Mike were the only agents assigned to guard me, and the only other people in this house who spoke English, we needed to at least be on a first name basis or the next three to four months would be very depressing.

I unzipped my suitcase and pulled out a nightgown to change into. I peeled off my lilac silk dress, which was now a wrinkled mess after so many unsuccessful attempts to fall asleep on the plane. As I tossed the dress aside, the bedroom door swung open.

Drew took one look at me in my bra and panties and scurried out of the room, slamming the door behind him. “I’m so sorry, Miss Jacobs!” he shouted through the door. “I was just bringing your new Italian cell phone. I’m so sorry!”

I quickly slipped on my nightgown and opened the door. “It’s all right,” I said, as Drew stared at his feet. “It’s no big deal. I’m an actress, remember? I’m used to taking my clothes off in front of strangers in dressing rooms.”

He smiled, but he still refused to look at me as he held out a shiny silver iPhone. “Here you go, ma’am.”

I sighed as I took the phone from his hand. “Please call me Larissa. And please don’t let things get awkward. I’m already freaking out about all this as it is.”

He raised his head slowly and looked me in the eye. “Yes, m—I mean, Larissa. I guess I’ll see you in the morning. Good night.”

I laid the phone on the nightstand before I tucked myself in under the silky sheets and tried to shut off my mind, but images kept flashing behind my eyelids, clips of my relationship with Chase: the satisfied smile on Chase’s face as he made me come on our first “date” then dropped me off at my apartment without allowing me to return the favor; the first time I tasted him in my mouth; the day he brought a jeweler to my hotel room so I could pick out an engagement ring; then, of course, yesterday when he finally proposed. I wanted him here right now, inside me, putting his mouth on me.

I pulled up my nightgown and slipped my hand inside my panties. I writhed against the cool sheets as I imagined Chase’s tongue exploring me.

“Ah….” I flipped onto my belly as I massaged my clit slowly then rapidly as I remembered my last encounter with Chase in my hotel room. “Oh, my god!” I screamed, and a knock at the door startled me. “Who is it?” I shouted, as I turned onto my back and pulled the covers up to my chin.

The thick doors muffled the soft plea in Drew’s voice. I leaped out of bed and raced to the door, my crotch still throbbing with my fantasies of Chase.

I opened the door and Drew stood there, eyebrows raised in concern. “Is everything all right? I heard you scream.”

“I’m fine,” I whispered, as a maid walked past us toward the staircase.

“I’m sorry, but I was given strict orders to make sure you didn’t attempt to… leave. And it sounded like you were struggling with something in there.”

Yeah, struggling to stop thinking about Chase’s hands on me.

“You thought I was trying to escape? From where, the balcony?”

Drew took in my incredulous impression and smiled. “I know it sounds stupid, but I can’t take any chances.”

“Fine. You’re welcome to watch me from the chair if that will ease your paranoia. I’m going to sleep.”

I strode back to the bed and climbed inside as Drew took a seat on the chaise. “I’ll just sit over here,” he muttered awkwardly. “You just feel free… to go right to sleep.”

I pulled the fluffy down comforter up to my waist and leaned my head on my hand. “Do I make you nervous?”

He chuckled as he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “A little, yeah. Your fiancé practically threatened to kill me if I didn’t take good care of you.”

“Chase? He threatened you? What did he say?”

“He said if I didn’t keep you safe or if I lost you it would be more than just my job on the line.”

“Oh.”

“Not a big deal. I’m used to high stakes jobs. Go to sleep. Once you’re out, I’ll call Michael in here to watch over you so I can get some sleep, too.”

I turned over to face the window where the sun was just beginning to set. My first Italian sunset viewed from a cold bed with a Secret Service agent breathing down my neck. Not my idea of a romantic European getaway. I closed my eyes and tried not to obsess over the script running through my head. My eyeballs burned with exhaustion, but my mind refused to shut down. I nearly jumped for joy when my new Italian iPhone rang.