Idolized (Hollywood Stardust Book 3) (38 page)

ROXY

Maybe we need a different ending.

Chapter Eighteen

TICK TOCK, TICK TOCK. Don’t think memorabilia bought you all the time in the world.

Staring at his phone, Ryder wiped his forehead and leaned against one of the buildings on the studio lot made to look like a perfect little street in suburbia where William and Roxy resided. Thankfully, his main segment was coming to a close. Unfortunately, his time with the thugs wouldn’t be wrapped up quite as fast. Damn, he would finish
Working Title
, he would. Life continued to happen, he had debts and things spiraled out of control. But once
Stardom
wrapped, with Cora by his side he knew he could finish, then he would take her hand, and they’d walk off to do another project together. One with no strings to things he didn’t want her even guessing about him or his past.

Fine, yes, he thought about just sailing off with her. Doing more projects, being with her.

Before he turned his life into a romance movie, or heaven forbid, he burst into song and became a happy pappy musical, he needed to finish out his other commitments. First and foremost, he could never have Glen thinking he was ignoring them.

I have an alarm set on my phone. Trust me I’m on it.
Ryder hit send, his stomach sinking when he saw that Glen was instantly texting back.

We trusted you before, but maybe now that you are with such an established and gorgeous woman, you will turn your life around.

He balled his hand in a fist and ground his teeth together. Threats on him, his movie, his stuff he could handle. Comments, even seemingly innocent ones, about Cora lit every one of his fuses. She was clean, pure, and he wouldn’t have her tainted by these bastards.

Leave her out of this and everything will get done much faster.
He pushed the send button hard enough to almost break the damn phone.

If you didn’t care we wouldn’t either.

“Damn it!” He shoved his phone in his pocket and without even thinking, rammed his fist into the building. Unexpected shooting pain skyrocketed through his arm. These stupid buildings were supposed to be facades. “Shit!”

Cradling his throbbing hand, he doubled over and stumbled forward. His shoe caught in something, and he fell, twisting his leg and hitting the ground with a thud. His breath left him, and he gasped for air right as something hit him in the face and shattered around him.

“Ryder!” Someone yelled his name. “Keep your eyes closed!”

Though every fiber in his being longed to flinch, open his eyes, assess his own condition, he resisted. Years of training to control every movement came in handy at last.

The thump of footsteps coming toward him vibrated through the ground.

“What happened?” Logan’s voice rang through next. “Get a medic.”

Searing, burning pain, just about everywhere, he turned to his side and when he opened his mouth to try to tell them not to get Cora, something that felt like a shard of glass entered his mouth, propelling him straight into to a fit of coughing.

“Don’t move! A floodlight broke over you.” Logan grabbed his arm.

He let out a moan. Without opening his eyes, he heard people gather around. Almost as if he were in another world, things happened around him with him in the rare instance as spectator and not actor. The distinctive, distorted voices of people shouting commands over the radio echoed, followed by a siren.

“The medics are here.” Logan gave him a squeeze. “Everyone clear a path! Let’s sweep this glass away.”

“Halt!!” A voice he didn’t expect, but recognized, commanded attention.

Part of him wished he could open his eyes and see her coming toward him, the other part of him didn’t want her to see him like this.

“No one touch him,” Cora yelled out her decree, and her heels clip clopped toward him. “Ryder?” She took his hand.

Every muscle seemed wrenched in some sort of ache, or he was being a wimp. He wasn’t sure which.

“Excuse me, Miss.”

Someone, he could only assume the medic, came over.

“You are not touching him. I have my own medical staff.” Her tone came out the same as when she fired Edward. “Rodger!”

Rodger?

“Miss, only a medical professional is allowed to work on the patient.”

“Excuse me, but Rodger is an Emergency Medical Technician and my employee, and I am telling you to back away while he fixes this.” For the first time ever, her voice cracked.

“Mr. Scott, do you feel anything cutting into you?” Rodger leaned down to his ear and spoke low. “Your eyes?”

“No.” He had a feeling Rodger whispered to keep Cora from hearing.

“Do you trust me?” Rodger asked.

“Yeah.” The sick thing was he did trust this bizarre man.

In a move he never anticipated, Rodger lifted him. “Shake your head.”

Without question, he did as the man demanded.

Everyone around them started to clap.

No sooner did he finish, than he felt an oversized brush sweep over his face.

“Now don’t move while I take a look,” Rodger said. “He has a lesion here, but no glass is embedded.”

Ryder flinched when Rodger touched the cut on his cheek.

“Now, open your eyes.”

As if reentering the atmosphere, he did as Rodger requested. The sun blared down on him, making it hard to focus, and he blinked a few times until his eyes adjusted.

“He’s bleeding!” Cora skidded on her knees next to him.

“Watch it.” All he saw was glass and Cora, and he didn’t need her getting hurt.

“Cora, stay still,” Rodger ordered. “I don’t want to be doing this to you.” With a pair of tweezers in his hand, Rodger plucked away a few extra shards of glass then cleaned and dressed the wound with supplies the medics handed him. “Can you stand?”

Ryder nodded, and Rodger put his arm around him as he got on his feet. “I’m fine!”

Once more, everyone went into a round of applause.

“Does he need stitches, a hospital, do we need to go to the emergency room? I can call Cedars and have them reserve an OR.” Cora kept a death grip on his hand. “Rodger!”

“It’s a superficial wound. Nothing is broken.” Out of his pocket Rodger pulled out a lozenge, and held it to Cora’s lips. “Open.”

For the first time ever, Ryder watched Cora obey a command without question and open her mouth.

Rodger placed the little tablet on her tongue.

She chewed, swallowed and took a breath. “I want Dr. Duke and Dr. Morris brought to the apartment right now. Tell them to meet us there. Pay them whatever to drop what they are doing.” Her voice returned to the woman in charge.

“Are you all right to work?” Logan came over.

Before he had a chance to even open his mouth, Cora held her hand out, stopping Logan from getting any closer. “No, he’s not all right, a lighting unit fell on him, we should all be thankful he’s up and not hurt worse, and right now we’re going home and will resume production when Ryder is well, and not a moment before.”

As if everything in Cora’s life was planned for perfect timing, Viktor drove up to the scene of the crime, jumped out of the car, and opened the back door.

Rodger ushered Ryder into the back seat, and guided Cora next to him, then got in the driver’s seat. Viktor took his place in the passenger side, then, as if this whole thing was normal, they drove away.

“I have the doctors on the way.” Viktor typed something on his phone.

“Do you think we should have brought in Dr. Shapiro as well?” Cora asked.

“What else do we need?” Viktor asked.

Cora continued to look Ryder over, her fingertips lightly grazing anywhere she deemed might be hurt. “I need you to call that place Ryder likes and get that vegetable soup. Have them bring a gallon. Then I want those vegan pancakes for him. Ryder loves pancakes.” She pressed her palm to this side of his face. “Also, make sure he had his juice. Double this week’s order.”

Stunned from the accident, and even more stunned from Cora and her actions, Ryder remained quiet.

The rest of the ride she simply stared at his hand holding hers.

As they pulled up to the building, he gave her hand a squeeze. “Hey, are you okay?”

She jolted her head up as if he startled her. “I should be asking you that.”

“I’m asking you.” If he said he wasn’t enjoying the concern in her eyes, he would be lying.

“When I heard you were hurt, I thought my chest was going to explode. I haven’t run like that since elementary school.”

He stared into her eyes. What if it were she who was hurt? The glimmer of the thought made him shudder.

“Why are you shaking? Are you going into shock?” She dug her nails into his hand.

“Baby, I’m all right.” He forced a grin. “Seriously.”

“I’ll be the one to determine that.” At last, she gave him a little smile.

Viktor opened her side of the car, and Rodger opened his. She gave him a light kiss and got out.

Rodger stopped him before he excited. “When we get upstairs, let’s wash off your hand.” His gaze traveled down.

Ryder glanced at the side of his hand, all scratched up from when he hit it into the wall earlier. “Thanks.”

“Whatever it was, it must have been really frustrating.” Rodger raised his eyebrows and backed up to let him out.

The two of them locked eyes. “I must’ve fallen on it.”

Cora came around to his side of the car and held her hand out. “Are you all right?”

“I’m the same as I was before.” He put his good hand in hers and pulled her in tight. Maybe he wasn’t all right. He didn’t know.

* * * *

DOCTOR DUKE LEANED DOWN, adjusted the light, and moved closer. “It’s just as I suspected. Dr. Morris?” He motioned toward the patient.

Cora wrung her hands, waiting for the diagnosis on Ryder.

The second doctor went in for an inspection. He even took his penlight to illuminate the wound better. “I have to agree with you. I must say you all did an excellent job of getting rid of the glass.”

“What about Dr. Shapiro?” Cora gasped her question and everyone in the room turned toward the third doctor with Spike in his arms.

“Spike is in excellent health. He’s thriving, and I updated his vaccinations.” The good doctor put the dog down and approached their bed. “I may be a vet, but I have to say I concur with the best dermatologist and plastic surgeon in the country.”

Cora went to Ryder’s side and rubbed her hand over his shoulder only to be met by a rather painful scratch. “Look at this.” She held her hand out revealing the tiniest shard of glass in her palm. “He still has glass on him.”

“Those shards will sneak up on you.” Dr. Morris shook his head.

“What do you intend to do about it? Look at this gash on his face.” She motioned toward her injured actor. Maybe they didn’t think much about the accident, but was it an accident as Ryder claimed, or was he stargazing? A shiver ran through her.

Dr. Duke opened a bandage, and Dr. Morris took the it and without much pomp and or circumstance put it over Ryder’s cut. “He’ll be fine…” Dr. Morris looked at his watch. “…right about now.”

All the doctors shook Ryder’s hand, and he signed a few autographs.

“Does he need any prescription or anything?” She ground her teeth together. Maybe they needed some more doctors.

“If he’s in any pain, just have him take an aspirin.” The doctors made their way out.

She followed them. “When should I change his dressing?”

At the door, Dr. Duke turned toward her. “When you feel like it, you can take the bandage off.”

“What about sleeping?” Thinking she was done with these hacks, she opened the door.

“If he’s tired, he should sleep, if he’s hungry he should eat.” Dr. Morris stepped outside. “If he’s anything else he should do that.” He gave her a wink.

“Thank you.” She slammed the door and rushed to the kitchen to feed Ryder. Hungry or not, the man was eating. Apparently, these physicians never studied the Internet and therefore couldn’t possess her vast medical knowledge. They weren’t there to see Ryder lying on the ground basically lifeless, they hadn’t seen the blood trickling down the side of his face, they hadn’t picked out shards of glass from his hair in the shower.

After collecting their food, tray in hand, she returned to the bedroom to find Ryder in bed with a yellow pad and pen, scribbling something down. “You know, we have computers for that kind of thing.” She tried to joke, but nothing seemed funny.

“Oh, now I feel dirty.” He chuckled and put the paper aside.

“What were you writing?” She put the tray on the side table and joined him on the bed.

“Some last edits on
Working Title
.” He shrugged and put the paper aside.

“Then I may actually get to see it soon.” She got his bowl of vegetable soup then handed it to him, along with some hummus and gluten free pita bread. “How long did it take you to write it thus far?”

“I wrote it over the course of several years. I was always doing movies, so it took a long time.” He took a couple of bites of the food. “I’m really looking forward to working on it again, finally getting it done.”

It didn’t take a woman with three degrees to realize that was a hint. With everything going on, she put his movie on the backburner. Maybe she conveniently forgot, not because she didn’t want to help, but their arrangement had slipped her mind. Hell, with the way she reacted after his accident, she knew she wasn’t playing a role, everything came naturally.

All relationships were built on some sort of deal. He held up his part and then some. Life wasn’t a happy musical where people were smitten by a mere glance and a song. Still, she swallowed away the lump forming in her throat. “Where is the first area we need to start working on for your movie?” Not wanting to look at him, she turned and got her meal off the tray. Rodger got her favorite, filet with a black truffle sauce and a baked potato, definitely not Ryder approved.