I felt like I was walking through a fog as we walked into the hotel room.
“This is nice,” I said softly.
“It’s the nicest hotel room I’ve ever seen,” Roman said.
I’d been in hundreds of fancy hotel rooms, but right now, I felt like I actually agreed with Roman. The place had cost about three thousand bucks, but at least here, tonight, I could feel safe. The room was immaculately decorated. It was modern, but not as austere as my own house. The hotel room had its own full kitchen with gleaming white marble countertops, a crackling fireplace at the center of the room that was already burning as we walked in, and sweeping views of the city below in the spacious living room. We were on the twentieth floor, and the view of the palm trees and city lights below was incredible.
All I really cared about was the fact that I felt safe. The fact that Roman was here next to me, and at least for one night, I could ignore the absolute shitshow that my life had become.
“You want to know something weird?” I asked.
“Anything,” he said, setting down his bags.
“The only place I’d feel more safe right now would be back in Amberfield,” I told him. I puffed out a feeble laugh. “I thought my stalker had followed me there, but clearly, he’s still here.”
“I still don’t know who the hell was at your Kansas house before, though,” Roman said.
“The gossip blogs did report that Garett invited me to his birthday party,” I mused. “I guess if my stalker is crazy enough—and he definitely is—he could have flown back to LA this morning when we did.”
It made me sick to even imagine it. Someone was still following my every move. And I didn’t even know why.
There probably was no reason why. Whoever he was, he was clearly deranged and deeply mentally ill. He needed to be in a place where he could seek help, hopefully for the rest of his life.
Far the fuck away from me.
“This is going to sound impossible,” Roman said, “but I want you to try to get your mind off of him. Just for tonight. While we’re here. Okay? You’ve had a horrible night.”
“Sure was a fucking terrible idea to come back to LA, wasn’t it?” I said. “First Garett’s bullshit, now this. I’m sorry I dragged you here, Roman.”
“I’m glad I am with you,” he said. “So quit it.”
I walked over to the big, L-shaped white couch that flanked the fireplace at the center of the room. I collapsed back onto it, kicking off my leather shoes and splaying out backwards.
“You know, when I was a kid, I wasn’t afraid of a damned thing,” I said, staring up at the ceiling. I felt the couch gently sink down beside me as Roman came over and sat next to me. I turned my head and watched him take his shoes off in a much more careful, coordinated way. “My parents and my grandparents thought I was bound for trouble at all times. And back then, I kind of was. I was a little daredevil. But now I feel like I’m scared almost every day.”
“I can picture kid-Theo,” Roman said, settling onto the couch. “Based on the way you drive, I can see you as a little tornado of a child.”
I snorted. “Exactly. Once, when I was probably about twelve years old, I tried to jump off of a four-story building into a pool down below. Thank God my grandpa came out and stopped me before I actually did it.”
“You really did spend a lot of time with your grandfather, didn’t you?”
I let out a breath, turning onto my side on the couch, resting on my elbow. “As a kid, I did,” I said. “I knew I wanted to be an actor, and I knew that my grandpa was the reason the Castille family ended up in Los Angeles. He was kind of my hero. But once I got older, I got so busy, and… I just wish I could have spent more time with him. So much more time. Part of me thinks that if he were still around, I wouldn’t be so scared.”
“I wish I could have met him,” Roman said.
I pulled my lower lip into my mouth, watching him. Even after all of the bullshit we’d dealt with tonight, Roman looked fresh, alert, and ready for anything. It would never stop being amazing to me. For the first time since seeing the burglary, I remembered what we’d been doing before the shitshow had begun.
It had been very, very nice to be on top of Roman in the car. And he had been into it, too.
“What about you?” I asked him. “What were you like as a kid? Tall, I bet.”
The corner of his mouth quirked up in a smile. “Guilty as charged,” he said. “I was tall. But I definitely wasn’t anything like you. I was the opposite of a daredevil. I was quiet as hell, cautious, and observant. Sometimes I think those are the same things that make me so well-suited for security now. I got scared a lot as a kid, but honestly, these days I’m not afraid. Actually, the most afraid I’ve been in years was when we were at the farmer’s market. Seeing you get mobbed like that was terrifying.”