“Are you sure? You don’t think people will talk? If I take a junior executive position at Durand and move in with the CEO?”
“Oh, they’ll talk, all right,” he assured bluntly. “That’s a guarantee. Rumors are going to be off the charts, so if that’s going to bother you, then we’ll have to come up with another arrangement. I think we both have to be prepared for some major gossip and backlash when it comes to us. We can’t let it pull us apart.”
“That would never keep me from something that’s so important to me,” she insisted fiercely.
He touched her cheek again. “This is your home. It has been from the beginning.”
She squeezed his hand. “You’re right,” she said feelingly.
He looked mildly surprised at her easy acquiescence, and then very pleased.
“But not because it was Alan and Lynn’s house,” she added softly. She went up on her toes and brushed her mouth against his. “Because you’re here.”
THE first flickering of panic occurred as they drove to the press conference, and Alice no
ticed news vans parked on either side of the road a good half a mile from the hotel entrance. She heard a muted, familiar noise and peered upward through the windshield to see one hovering helicopter, then another.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
Dylan gave her a quick, flickering glance, and suddenly he was putting on the brakes and sliding the sedan behind a white van. He put the car in park and turned toward her.
“The story itself actually broke this morning. The Durand public relations staff drafted a statement and sent it out to the major press outlets. It’ll have circulated by now. The statement basically said that Alan Durand’s kidnapped daughter is alive and has returned, and that the details relate to the recent attack of a woman named Alice Reed by Durand Vice President Sebastian Kehoe.”
“Oh,” she said numbly. “I thought that was what was going to be released at the press conference.”
“More details will be addressed there, but the staff thought it would be helpful in distributing the story if the media was informed of at least the basic facts before it began.” Alice nodded, the muted rat-a-tat-tat noise of the helicopters making it difficult for her to focus. “The press has been given strict guidelines that they can’t bombard you with questions,” he said firmly. “You can make a general statement, if you like, but you don’t have to. Then someone from Durand media relations will call on three or four reporters to ask you questions. Answer as briefly or as fully as you want. If you don’t know the answer, just say so. There’s no crime in that. This is all brand new to you, and if the press doesn’t get that, screw them. Sound okay?” he asked, cupping her shoulder.
“I just didn’t expect there to be so many,” she said, staring out the window as a news crew bustled past them on the side of the road.
Dylan grimaced. “Yeah, well . . . as much as I hate to admit it, it’s a sexy story. Young, beautiful heiress returned to her legacy after being kidnapped as a child of four.”
“They don’t know who I am. And how is any of this sexy?” Alice asked, frowning in disbelief out the window.
“I know. Being kidnapped, told you were another person for twenty years and attacked isn’t sexy, but for the media, this is a gold mine. I’m sorry, honey, I didn’t write the rules,” he added when she rolled her eyes. He quirked a brow and stared out the window as a woman and a man holding a camera passed. “Look at it from their perspective. For one thing, you’re one of the wealthiest women in the world and they’re about to get an eyeful of you. They might not know what you look like yet, but once they do.” He gave her a droll glance. “Welcome to the circus.”
“I’m reconsidering accepting the invitation.”
His fingers inched to the back of her neck. He stroked her nape softly. Despite her rush of anxiety, her nerves tingled in awareness. “Do you want me to take you back to the castle?”
“What?” she asked, eyes going wide. She hadn’t expected him to say that.
He shrugged. “It’s fine with me if you don’t want to do this. It’s not going to change the basic facts.”
She stared at him for a moment, seriously considering taking the out he’d generously given her. After a moment, she slumped back in her seat.
“No. I might as well get this over with,” she said resignedly. “I’m Alan and Lynn’s daughter. This is all part of their world, and I guess I have to get used to dealing with it. Besides, I’d just be postponing the inevitable.” She looked over at him. “Thanks for saying you’d take me back, though.”
He smiled and reached into his pocket. He reached for her hand, and she felt the cool metal against her skin. A moment later, she held up her wrist to examine Lynn’s bracelet sparkling in the sunlight. The vision heartened her. It would be the first time she’d wear it in public. There were some advantages to not keeping her identity secret anymore. She gave him a grateful glance.
“For courage,” Dylan said, putting the car into drive.
SHE could hear the manic-like chatter emanating through the door even before Rick Preston from Durand’s public relations department opened it for Alice, Dylan, a Special Agent Lee, Guy Morales, and Darla Sparrow, the region’s U.S. attorney. Alice felt a little numb as they walked toward the head table. The ballroom had gone hushed at their entrance, the exception being the repeated clicks of hundreds of cameras. Dylan pulled her chair out for her, then sat directly next to her. As he seated her, his fingertips skimmed against her back. His touch helped to clear the hazy, surreal feeling that pervaded her as she looked out at the crowd of people.
Rick Preston made a brief statement, and then introduced Dylan.
Listening to Dylan speak, Alice was slowly able to filter out a good portion of her surroundings and anxiety. With a strange sense of nostalgia, she recalled how last year, she’d spent so much time researching Durand Enterprises and its CEO for her graduate research project with Maggie. She’d become a little obsessed with Dylan Fall, even then, looking at photographs of him, watching news footage of him speaking. She was reminded acutely of how commanding a speaker he was, how confident and firm, brilliant and sharp without ever seeming cocky or domineering. Kehoe’s crowd—if, indeed, Kehoe had ever really had any following at Durand—could rumor-monger, insinuate, and scoff all they wanted. Alan Durand had known exactly what he was doing in designating Dylan as his company’s leader.
Dylan spoke in his straightforward, succinct yet eloquent manner, never hesitating as he related more personal details than he ever had before in public—to Alice’s knowledge—about his relationship with Alan, Lynn, and Addie Durand and about his presence at Addie’s kidnapping. He didn’t elaborate on his lifetime pursuit to find that little girl, saying he would leave those details up to the U.S. attorney. Alice found his sidestepping of the issue remarkably modest of him, since he was the sole reason she sat there at that moment. But that, too, was typical of Dylan.