Rose Red: Model 85001

Chapter Eleven

Gaddes had arranged for the crew to stay for three days and then leave on the fourth morning, but on the third morning, Van got word that they needed to take a break. The revised plan was to rest on the third day, work again on the fourth day – get the shot they needed – and then leave on the fifth morning.

Van gave Hitomi a little grin when he told her the new arrangement.

"Why are you so happy?" Hitomi asked suspiciously. "I didn't think you liked sleeping out in the hanger."

"I don't," Van explained. He was leaning against the kitchen counter as Hitomi prepared breakfast. "But they can't change their booking without a penalty and Gaddes knows how inconvenient their visit is. He's willing to pay the extra charges and he gave me an extremely large tip in cash to help ease the pain of their continued stay."

"It must have been a pretty big tip to make you smile like that."

"It was." He smiled again. "So, here's what I was thinking. You deserve a day off and one of us needs to drive into town to pick up another load of supplies, so why don't you take the pickup truck and go?"

Hitomi hesitated. Van had never offered her the vehicle before. "Uh," she stuttered. "You'll have to do a slight modification on my wrist band. I can't go as far away from you as town without changing the settings."

"I know," Van said, taking her arm in his and slipping a new information pack into her bracelet. The information pack was tiny, smaller than a memory card, but Van wasn't clumsy and got in it the right slot on his first try. When he was done, he let go of her hand and looked at the floor rather than at her face. Hitomi knew that look. It was the I-didn't-do-anything-inappropriate-to-you look.

She wanted to smack him up the backside of the head and rampage, 'I know you didn't do anything weird to me! Stop being so paranoid!' Instead she cooled her jets and said, "Thanks, but I don't understand why you want me to go. Wouldn't you rather I was here to see to our guests' needs?"

"They don't have any needs," Van said simply. "I'll make lunch for them and besides, you shouldn't take all day. Just drive out, pick up the stuff and come back. Oh, but be sure to stop by the café and have a snack. The drive is unbearable if there isn't something fun to do at the other end."

"This is really nice of you, Van."

"It's not as nice as I could be," he said – suddenly grouchy.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I should be offering you a portion of the tip I got from Gaddes, but…"

Hitomi knew what he was talking about. He was still worried about that twenty-thousand dollar debt. Hitomi smiled and got back to work. "Don't think about it. I already sold myself to you, so you don't have to pay me. You've already paid for all the work I have done and will ever do. The money is going to my debt anyway, so don't worry about giving me anything extra."

Van shrugged his shoulders and gave her the passkey to the truck. "I've already called in the order, so they should have it all packed for you when you get there. Go after you eat your breakfast and I'll stay here and keep the hooligans at bay."

Hitomi opened the door to the truck and got in at the exact same time Allen got in on the other side.

Hitomi stared at his blond hair, tied neatly into a navy and white scarf. Her eyes moved to his strange blue tinted circular sunglasses and down his designer clad body. For a second she honestly couldn't process that he had got in the truck with her. There was a wobbliness in her legs that equaled the feeling she got when she stood face to face with a cow for the first time. She couldn't move.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked, her voice little more than a whisper.

"Wherever you're going," he answered smoothly. "I have nothing to do today. I hoped you'd let me tag along."

"I think you should get out," she mumbled.

"I think you should let me stay," he said as he reached into the front pocket of his shirt and pulled out a money dispenser. "It's not like I expect you to take me for free. I'd be paying you."

When Hitomi was a teenager, she always thought Allen was the coolest when he flipped open his money dispenser. Back then, it seemed like a show of power. Now Hitomi felt the same way everyone he'd ever paid-off felt – disadvantaged. Hitomi hated him. He always made people do what he wanted.

She had a strong desire to throw him out of the vehicle. Van had already made it quite clear that even though the two of them were in business to do business, that didn't mean that they had to bend over every single time something was asked of them. Some requests were too much, and Hitomi knew that Van would consider this request way too much. Van would want her to get out of the truck and come get him. If that was what Van wanted her to do then why was she stalling?

There were two reasons. The first one was that there was a part of her that wanted to question Allen about her missing years and the second one was the money. The money they were trying to pay off was her money – not Van's. She wanted to do more to help pay it off.

Finally, she found her voice and asked quietly, "How much?"

"How much do you need?" Allen countered, amusement lingering in his tone.

"Twenty thousand dollars."

Allen whistled. "That's more than Van is charging for this whole trip and you want me to pay that much for a simple trip to town?"

"I thought you didn't know where I was going?"

"Gaddes told me. I wanted to get out of that stuffy house," he whined.

His calling the house she had slaved over and loved 'stuffy' was going too far. "You think town is any better? This place is a palace compared to anything there."

"Anyway, twenty thousand is too much. How about a hundred?"

"How about you get out of the truck and find your own way," Hitomi said stiffly. "You'd pay a shuttle in the city more than a hundred for the distance we've got to travel."

Frustrated, Allen scanned the dirt road in front of them. "Well, I don't see why I've got to pay you anything if I just refuse to get out of the truck."

Hitomi reached for her door handle. "Then I'll just get Van."

Allen grabbed her arm before she could get any further.

Hitomi's whole body convulsed with fear.

"Say, what's your relationship with that guy?"

"None of your business," she breathed and tried to push him off.

But he grabbed her other wrist and pulled her towards him. Hitomi could feel his breath on her from her ear to her collarbone, when suddenly Allen's door was opened. Van stood on the other side looking disgusted.

"I didn't know you wanted a trip to town, Allen," he said drolly, but from the deep red of his face, Hitomi could tell he was furious. "What are you doing?"

Allen took his hands off her and stepped out of the truck. "Nothing."

Hitomi looked at her bracelet. A light pink warning light was going off and on.

"Come here, Hitomi, and I'll turn it off for you," Van said kindly as he beckoned her towards him. She obediently went and with his thumb print on one of the links, the alarm stopped. "Allen, you shouldn't touch other people's property. I'll have to talk to Gaddes about your misconduct, since it seems you'd rather leave today than finish shooting your pictures tomorrow."

Allen tilted his head to the side, still trying to look cool as he was reprimanded by Van. "Obviously I shouldn't have touched her," he said condescendingly. Was that his version of an apology?

Van didn't say one word back to him; he simply took Hitomi by the wrist and led her back to the house. Hitomi's face was aflame as he neigh-on dragged her through the kitchen to the dining room. It was obvious from the way Van's hawk-like head scanned the west wing that he was looking for Gaddes, but since the room was empty except for the assistant and stylists, Hitomi had to be turned around and lugged back down the hall and into the south wing. She saw the stylists' little knowing smiles and wanted to die, but there was no point struggling against Van, so instead of digging in her heals, she flapped around behind him like a kite on a string.

The door to Gaddes' room, which was actually Van's room, was wide open. Van knocked twice on the door frame, but there was no answer.

Van groaned something inaudible that sounded like a plea for patience. Then he seemed to lose his temporary control and he practically spat, "Why did you let him touch you?"

Hitomi gasped in unbelief. "You think I let him touch me! Of all the …"

"What's going on out here?" Gaddes asked, suddenly emerging from the bathroom.

Van turned to him, and started talking all the while holding a death grip onto Hitomi's wrist. "We need to talk!"

Gaddes' head lolled back. "This is about Allen, I suppose. What has he done now?"

Two days later, Van stood on the helicopter pad back in town. He'd had to take his guests into town in two shifts and he was low on fuel, so he sent Gaddes and Allen into the town to see the sights until he was finished. Not that it took forever to refuel, but when Gaddes questioned Allen about his misbehavior towards Hitomi, the bastard wouldn't stop whining about how he truly wanted to see what the rural community was like and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and so as a consequence Van was forced to make a stop there.

When he wasn't even half finished filling the tank, Van saw Dilandau strut up to the side of the chopper.

Van took a deep breath and braced himself for whatever the old man would say. Inside, he was totally peeved. What was this, sleaze ball week?

Dilandau's white hair fell on his grey face as he stopped in front of Van and wheezed his breath. He didn't say 'hello' or anything like that and just launched into what he had to say. "Celly told me about your situation with your woman."

Van just looked at him like he was neither surprised nor interested in anything Dilandau might have to say. But a part of his brain flickered. He'd never heard Dilandau refer to Celena as Celly. It seemed too affectionate for the old coot and hearing it made Van feel weird. He should be angry or annoyed, because he liked Celena himself, but instead he felt … nothing.

"All I have to say is that a purchased woman who has a past before you is a tricky thing, but it's even worse if you don't know what kind of past it was. I know this guy," Dilandau started to say as he began rooting around in his grubby plaid shirt pockets. "He's a private investigator or something like that. He's resourceful. Last time I saw him he said something about memory recovery. Maybe you might want to get in touch with him." He finally found what he was looking for in his back butt pocket. It was a card that he handed over to Van.

Van took it and looked at it, but before he could read it, Dilandau was already half-limping away. "Hey!" Van shouted.

Dilandau turned.

"Thanks!" Van called, and maybe for one second he was grateful to Dilandau.

All Dilandau did was smile, but it was a twisted smile that seemed to say, "You should thank me! You have no idea the trouble you're getting yourself into." But he didn't say anything and just kept on his way to his truck.

After that it was just the wind and the sun until Van finished filling up the tank. When he was done, he decided he'd go to the café, have a sandwich and ask Celena what she knew about this P.I. Dilandau was recommending. Then he'd go find Gaddes and Allen.

As Van approached the café, he saw Allen sitting on one of the bar stools in front of the counter and did a double take. Celena was standing over him. It looked like he was the only customer.

Immediately, Van changed his mind about going in the front door and instead circled around the building and went for the back door. It was locked, but he knew the key code from the days when he was dating Merle. After punching the numbers in, the door came loose and he went in. The kitchen was empty as he snuck around to the door that led into the dining room and stuck out his ear to hear what was said.

He didn't know why he was so suspicious of Allen. He just was. And well, maybe he didn't want him putting the moves on Celena. Maybe.

Then he heard Celena's voice – kind of tired sounding like always. She said, "I was thinking about you the other day on your birthday. Fessed up to being forty-six yet?"

"Shhh," Allen hissed.

There was a pause while Celena chuckled. "I'm not going to tell on you. Besides, it looks like your surgeries are going well. You look scarcely a day over thirty. You were always fearless that way. No knife could ever scare you."

"Well, aunt," Allen said like he had something stuck up his nose.

"Well nothing," she said, cutting him off. "I never thought I'd ever see you or any of your kind again as long as I lived, but since we have met again, I want to ask you one thing."

"What?"

"Did my husband really die when you all told me he did? I always thought it was the final ruse meant to get rid of me for good without killing me. Tell me, was he really dead?"

The air in the dining room seemed to weigh thousands of tons while Van waited for Allen to answer.

Finally, just when Van thought he wasn't going to, he said, "No. He wasn't, but it wasn't because he wanted to get rid of you."

"Oh, really?"

"He'd lost all his money again and he had like twenty loan sharks coming for his skin. He asked my father to put you to sleep so that you would be safe. He died nine years later. That was how long it took him to pay off the money. He wasn't quite back on top when he really did die." Here Allen paused. Then he continued talking like he hadn't. "Of a heart attack."

"Then you darlings sold my contract to Sleeping Beauty Inc.?" She clicked her tongue. "How much was I worth?"

Allen's voice became suave. "Who can judge a woman's worth?"

"I'm sure you can," Celena said heartlessly.

"Well, enough about all that. You must know that none of that was up to me. Tell me about the man you're with now. Is he good to you?"

"And if he's not? Would you come help me out of it?"

"Certainly!"

Then Van heard the sound of a drink being poured. "Well," she said icily, "I won't hold my breath."

After that Van heard some insincere pandering to Celena, but he blocked it out and pulled out the business card Dilandau had given him. Dryden Fassa was the name on the card. Van decided then and there – he'd give the guy a call.

Author's Notes: Thanks to everyone who reviews. I love reviews. They're like Christmas presents - so send me one (a review that is). Anywoo - I won't be uploading next Thursday. I'm a busy woman and I've got WORK to do. But I'll upload the week after that. It's a promise.