Love Her Like I Do

Chapter 3

The room phone was ringing. Weird. People call my cell not the room. I almost didn't answer it but something told me to do it this time.
"Hello."
"Mr. Leto?"
"Yes."
"I have a message for you from a Julie Winters."
"Go ahead."
"It says she will be here by noon. Scared but willing to try. That's all it says Sir."
"Thank you." I hung up. Yes she's coming!
I was all smiles as I went into Jared's suite for brunch.
"Well you must have had fun last night. Your grinning from ear to ear." Tomo said to me.

I looked at Shannon and saw how happy he was. It must have something to do with that woman. It's not that didn't like her, she seemed nice enough, but I hadn't had a conversation with her. I just had a gut feeling that something was off about her. She was hiding something. Shannon was acting out of character with her. I wasn't going to say he was falling for her yet but he was close. The last thing I wanted was for him to get hurt and start back down the road he and all of us had worked so hard to get him off of. I finally had my real brother back and I didn't want to let him go.

"I did until Jared ruined it by busting into my room." I gave Jared the evil eye. "But Julie left a message and she's going to come to LA with us."
"What?!" Jared yelled. "Have you lost your mind! It's bad enough you took a chance being in the crowd and then going out in public after the concert with her. Now your going to take her to your house. She's going to know where you live Shannon."

I was walking down the hallway when I heard the yelling. I recognized Shannon's voice and went to that door. I was about to knock when I heard Jared yell back at him.
"You know nothing about her Shannon, she could be a stalker. She could be using you to get your money or even to get to me. You just don't know."

"See! I knew it! It always comes back to you Jared! Julie can't like me, no it has to be she's trying to get to you. Julie's not like that. I may not know everything about her but I know she couldn't give a shit about Jared fucking Leto!" Shannon grabbed the door and almost ran me over. "Oh my God Julie you scared me."

"Sorry I was about to knock." I said softly looking down. I didn't want him to see my eyes. They were still watery from starting to fill with tears.
"Come on in and get something to eat. We are leaving soon." Shannon grabbed my bags off the floor and started to bring them inside the suite.
"No thats ok. I don't want to be a bother. In fact Shannon I don't think I should go after all." I was nervous to begin with and from the yelling I heard I was causing an issue with Jared.
"Don't go." He grabbed my hand. "You heard all that didn't you?"
"Just the last of it. I don't want to cause problems Shannon and if my going is a problem then..."
"Don't worry about Jared he's being an ass. He thinks too highly of himself sometimes." He held my face in his hands as he talked to me. "I'm the one that matters. I want you to come home with me." He kissed me gently. "Now come on in." I followed him in and introduced me to Tomo and Emma.
I ate a small amount of fruit all while feeling Jared's eyes on me. I was about to try to talk to him when Emma came back into the room.
"Ok everyone. The cars are here to take us to the airport, so are about 200 fans and paparazzi. So I have asked for decoys. Everyone grab your stuff and let's go."
"Decoys?" I looked at Shannon questionably.
"Yeah Emma sent some people out to get in the vehicle. They will drive around the block and go to the back entrance and switch with us."
"Oh." Who was Shannon to these people? Why couldn't we just walk out the front door? I understood about Jared, but Shannon? Did I want to know?

It didn't wake long to get to LA, but then again I fell asleep as soon as the plane took off. When we landed we were whisked through the airport into SUVs. We all went in different ones because everyone was going to different places.
I didn't pay much attention to the scenery as we drove to Shannon's house. I was to busy texting Scott and Scotty letting them know I had made it safely and asking them how Scott was doing. They said everything was fine and not to worry. Scott told me not to text him until I was on the way home. He didn't want me to even think about him until them. How was I supposed to do that?
We pulled into a driveway. This must be his house. It was gorgeous not to big and not to small. There were trees up and down the street making it seem like an old neighborhood.
He took me inside and showed me around. Telling me about how he had to remodel a lot of it and that he did most of it himself. "It's beautiful Shannon. You really did a great job with it. It's so big and yet cozy and comfortable."
"Thank you. That's what I was going for. I wanted something nice that could be showed off when I had to but comfortable so I could lounge around in my underware." We both laughed.
"Would you like some coffee? I made the blend myself."
"Sure." I sat down at the counter and watched him. "Blackfuel. I've never heard of that brand."
"No I don't expect you would have." He smiled. "It's only just come on the market." He handed me a steaming mug. "It's only available in a few places. I hope to have the website up and running by the end of the week.  We had a glitch on launch day and my IT guy has been working on it."
"You said I and We as in Blackfuel is your company?"
"Yeah it's mine. Along with some others. Some on my own, some with my brother. But those are all my side jobs." He came over to me and took my hand and led me outside to the patio by the pool.
"Shannon do I want to know what else you do?" I looked down at my hands. "I mean secret agents don't have to go out back entrances and run through airports with security." I laughed and so did he.