Driven By Love Read online

  “I can’t leave, Stan. I’ve been assigned to watch over Anne.”

  Stan looked at Anne. "I'm sorry to take him away, Anne, but this sounds really bad."

  "Don't apologize, just go. It's an emergency. I’ll be fine."

  The concern in Dean’s eyes wasn’t hard to miss. “Stay here until I get back. If you have to leave, ask one of the police officers to escort you home.”

  “I’ve dealt with crowds before. I’ll be fine.”

  “I mean it.”

  Anne felt the ice in his voice and knew not to push it, “Okay, fine. Go!”

  With that, he and Stan moved out the door, through the crowd and disappeared. She couldn't help but wonder if Missy was all right. She glanced at her phone again but no new texts came from her.

  Chapter 2

  Dean couldn’t help but replay the conversation between Anne and his sister in his head.

  Helen was a good family friend who helped Jerilind out a lot when he and his brother weren’t around and he wanted somehow to repay her any way he could. When the opportunity to become Anne’s bodyguard popped up, Helen begged him to take the job because she trusted him. At first, even though he wanted to help Helen, he’d hesitated. He couldn’t stand celebrities and the drama and flashiness around them. He actually loathed it.

  From what he read and what Helen told him, Anne divorced her first husband over a year ago when she found him cheating on her. Then, it was rumored that she started dating another actor but then soon broke it off. She was in Hollywood for a long enough time that Dean expected that she wouldn’t know what reality was really like and would act like a diva. But in the end, he couldn’t turn Helen down, not after everything she and her husband did for Jeri. He told himself that this was a job and a favor to her family and it would only be until the film was done.

  While he was on tour of duty, he was in all sorts of war zones, so he wasn't that shocked to see the accident site. There were twenty cars variously crushed into each other. All the airbags were deployed and fenders were crushed. Ambulances and the volunteer firefighters from neighboring towns started to come on the scene and a call was sent out to surrounding towns to send additional units.

  Dean and Stan zoomed on the shoulder and parked beside one of the crushed cars. Three state troopers were already there and another two units arrived soon after. A state trooper walked over to them.

  "Thanks for coming, Stan. We're doing a quick assessment right now. Critical patients get first priority. We got through the first five cars, and we need you to assess the others."

  "Right." He pointed to the green Ford. "Start there, Dean. I'll take the next car."

  "Got it."

  When he ran to the car he noticed that the window was open on the passenger side. Inside, the driver, a woman in her mid-twenties moaned, her eyes closed. She held her curly black hair in her hands. He leaned against the door. "Miss, I'm Dean Miller. Are you alright?"

  "My head hurts."

  "Don't move. I will take a look." The cars were crushed together in such a way that it reminded Dean of a centipede with each car being a section. He lifted himself and slid across the mountain terrain hood of the car. With a loud grunt he pried open the door and crouched down. A single trickle of blood oozed from her forehead where she’d hit the steering wheel. Since it was an older car, it had no airbags to deploy.

  "Is it just your head that hurts?" he asked.

  "And my neck."

  "Anywhere else?"

  "No."

  "I'm going to bring some paramedics to help you, okay?"

  "Yeah," she moaned as she rubbed her neck.

  Her car's front was completely crushed and neon liquid flowed from it. The rear actually looked in better shape with the bumper taking most of the hit.

  Another ambulance drove down the shoulder and parallel-parked next to them. Dean waved over to them. They ran over to him.

  "She's conscious and she's complaining about her head. Car has no airbags so she might have a concussion from the hit."

  The men acknowledged him and ran off to the direction of the car.

  Dean went to the next car and assessed them as well. More ambulances pulled in and paramedics spread out to each car.

  Stan ran over to him, as he let the paramedics treat the next person.

  "Dean." His face was pretty grim and he could see that something was terribly wrong. "Missy Stevens was in the accident."

  His face was stone cold. Helen would go ballistic if anything happened to Missy. "How bad?"

  "She and Evan were in the first car, the one that started this pile up. They're both unconscious and they are bringing them both to the hospital."

  "Does her family know?"

  Stan shook his head. "Not yet. I'm going to call them now."

  "Where's the hospital?"

  "It's about a twenty-minute drive from here." He stopped and looked at Dean. "I know it would mean a lot to Helen and Ken if you are with Missy. She’s in that ambulance there." He pointed to an apple red ambulance parked in front of the first car. The paramedics wheeled a patient to the open rear doors. "We’ve got enough first responders now here to handle to the rest of this.”

  "All right. Let me know later if you need me back here."

  "Will do."

  Dean jogged over to the paramedics as they lifted Missy inside. "I'm Dean Miller, a friend of the family of the patient. I'd like to ride with her to the hospital under Officer Whitman’s orders.”

  “Of course,” the paramedic responded and moved to the back. Dean positioned himself next to Missy.

  "How is she?"

  "Her vitals are stable, but she's not responsive and her pupils are uneven."

  Missy looked pretty similar to Anne and he could definitely see the family resemblance between the two. Her nose and cheek bones were identical and her mouth had the same shape. Blood oozed from a few small cuts on one side of her face and the other side had a large grotesque gash that bled. It looked as if something had hit her in the face. Cell phone? Tablet maybe?

  Dean's cell phone went off and he noticed it was Jeri.

  "Hey, Jeri."

  "Dean, what's going on? Stan called Helen and told her Missy was in the accident. He didn't give us details just told us to head to the hospital."

  "Does he know anything? Did he see her?" Helen's voice prompted her in the background.

  "Here, talk to Helen. I'm driving them to the hospital."

  Helen’s voice came on the line and demanded answers. "Dean? What's going on? Do you know anything about Missy?"

  "Helen, I'm with her in the ambulance. Right now, she's stable but unconscious so we're trying to get her to the hospital as soon as possible. I need you to go with Jeri and I will see you at the hospital, all right?"

  He could hear Helen stifle a sob. "Okay."

  With that, he hung up the phone and looked at Missy and sent up a silent prayer. You got to pull through. Your whole family's counting on it.

  The twenty-minute drive felt like an eternity. The paramedic checked her vitals constantly. Dean remembered her in a few ads and there was no way this woman was the same person. He kept his fingers crossed that she could make it but it didn’t look good.

  When they arrived at the hospital he jumped out of the way and let the paramedics work. As he walked into the emergency room he saw Helen, Jeri, and Anne. Elle, Anne’s cousin, and her father, Kenneth, stood close by, worry etched in their face.

  Helen's face was streaked with tears and Anne and Jeri held her hands.

  "Where is she?" Helen squeaked.

  "They just wheeled her into the ER. They'll let us know as soon as they know anything."

  "What happened?" Anne asked as she rubbed her mother’s back to try and keep her calm.

  For an actress, she didn’t exactly hide her fear and emotions. He saw that she was on the verge of tears herself, but somehow she kept it together in front of her family.

  "I don't know. I’m hoping that Stan will have m
ore information later. We were mainly concerned with getting everyone the medical attention that they needed."

  "What about Evan?" Anne's dad asked.

  "I don’t know. Stan had me ride with Missy, so I'm not sure."

  Anne held her mother tighter as she continued to cry. "It will be okay, Mom. I’ll get the best doctors flown here right away.”

  Jeri sat by Helen and rubbed her shoulders as she continued to cry. “Why did this happen? Why?"

  The anguish in her mother’s voice drove Anne over the edge. She got up and whipped out her phone and punched in some numbers.

  Dean leaned towards Helen and put his hand on her shoulder. "We'll find out, Helen. Right now, you have to stay strong for Missy. You're no good to her if you can't keep it together."

  “She’s my baby…” she sobbed. “I don’t know what I would do…”

  “I don’t care if Dr. Alan’s wife is due this week! I want him here!” Anne’s voice escalated over the phone. “My sister’s in really bad shape and I want the best doctor here!”

  The diva-ness of her tone hit a nerve with Dean. He walked over to Anne, grabbed her phone and hung it up.

  “What the hell are you doing!?” she screamed at him.

  “You need to calm down. The best doctors are helping your sister right now and you are not helping her by throwing a tantrum.”

  Dean could tell by the look on her face if Anne had any kind of sharp object close by she would have stabbed him. She stepped closer towards him and met his gaze. “Tantrums are what children do,” she said. “I was giving an order.”

  “No, that was a tantrum.” Anne’s father stepped as a deep fury burned in his eyes. “I should know because I’ve seen you have many when you were a little girl. Except my little girl listened to me so she wouldn’t put her family in danger!”

  “Dad, I…”

  “Don’t ‘Dad’ me, Anne. I told you not to go to that place! And you had to take Missy with you to that place, and bring her out into the public eye! You couldn’t just let her stay here and get married to Evan and be with her family. She wouldn’t have been driving down that highway with Evan and both of them wouldn’t have ended up here!”

  Her face paled, the criticism hitting home. “Dad, I love her just as much as you do and I am trying to get the best medical care for Missy.”

  “Right now, the best thing you can do is to be here with us, Anne. For once be here with your real family!”

  Anne looked as though he’d just slapped her in the face. “Dad, I’m always here for…”

  “Where were you these past Thanksgivings and Christmases?”

  Suddenly, Dean felt a pang of sympathy for Anne. He knew what it was like to have a job take you far from your family. Maybe she deserved the criticism, but maybe she didn’t. He knew military service couldn’t compare to being a film star, but in the end, he couldn’t say if what he’d done overseas was really it any better for the world.

  “I was busy working…” she began.

  “Bull-shit! With all the money you have you could have taken that time off and come and visit with us. Do you know how that affected your mother?” He ran his hand through his peppered hair and he looked at her again. “All those years she tried to make every holiday special to all of us and you repay her by sending a damn fruit basket instead of showing up!”

  “Ken, please…” Helen pleaded through her tears.

  “No, Helen. I’ve had enough of this Hollywood bullshit!”

  “But I can get the best doctors for Missy!”

  “I don’t want any of your types near Missy! I don’t trust any of them!” His eyes sparked fury as all the years of pent up frustration boiled over. “I raised you to make something of yourself that we can be proud of.”

  “I have, I’m a star!”

  “Do you think I like it when I see men ogling at your half naked rear end on every magazine cover? No, you’re no better than a paid whore!”

  Dean stiffened. He knew that wasn’t called for. He didn’t want to step in between a father and a daughter, but he would, if her father took one step closer to her. He slowly stepped behind Anne to give her some form of support.

  Anne’s bottom lip quivered.

  “You do what they tell you to do,” her father continued. “They tell you wear a see through dress, you wear it. They tell you to date a specific guy, you date him.” His nostrils flared. “You don’t have any power, they do, and they are making money off of you every way they can. I’m ashamed of you Anne. I taught you to be smarter than that.”

  “But Dad…”

  He cut her off by as he turned and walked back to his wife who was now bawling even more and wrapped his arms around her.

  Anne looked as if she’d been hit in the stomach as all the blood drained from her face.

  Dean turned, embarrassed suddenly to have seen the reprimand. He walked away to let Anne deal with her emotions. Her father gave her a hell of an argument and he knew that she needed some time to recover from that sting. He knew Kenneth was probably right, but he thought the father had been too harsh. He knew for a fact she had sent gifts: big expensive ones, if what Jeri had said about them was right. He supposed that wasn’t any replacement for visiting, but with Missy in such a critical state, it was clear that she cared for her family.

  What if it were Jeri in that situation? He probably would have lost it like Anne did. His training always took over in situations like these and he tried not to be insensitive but he just came across that way sometimes.

  He walked over to the nurses station and placed both hands on top of the desk. The nurse typed something on the computer, then stopped, looked up and smiled. "Can I help you?"

  "I'm Dean Miller and I'm with the family of Missy Stevens. Has there been any word yet on her condition?"

  "Hang on." She got up and went through a door behind the desk.

  Dean leaned against the counter and rubbed his chin. This was going to be a very long day. He looked back at the Stevens family as they all sat in the chairs in the waiting room. Anne paced back and forth, her long flowing dress entwined against her legs, and nibbled nervously on her nails. Jeri held Helen’s hand and spoke to her in hushed tones. Dean could see that they accepted his sister wholeheartedly as family and she in turn loved all of them. He would be eternally grateful for their kindness and support towards her when she first moved into town. There was not one email that he received from her that was negative about them.

  "Mr. Miller?"

  The nurse called out to him, "The doctor will be out in a few minutes to give you an update."

  "Thank you. Has her boyfriend come in? His name was Evan."

  "Let me check." She ducked back out the door and into the ER. Dean noticed more sirens were outside so he assumed that more accident victims were coming in. There were also a couple new people that just walked into the ER, most likely relatives of the others who were injured in the pile-up. One young couple in their teens whispered to each other and then pulled out their phone and pointed it at Anne's family. In an instant, he stood in front of their phone as they pressed the button to snap a picture. Instead of Anne's family, they got a picture of Dean's very expansive chest and scowl.

  "The family needs some privacy at the moment. I think you should put that away before you drop it and break it."

  "It's a free country, man. I can take pictures of anything I want," the young man snapped back at him.

  Dean crossed his arms and slowly leaned down to him. "Then you can take a picture of the inside of your ass because that's where that camera's going if you don't put it away."

  The man started to get up and Dean's muscular column of an arm pushed him right back down and squeezed.

  "Ow, man! You’re hurting me!" he whimpered.

  "Leave him alone, you bully!" the girl yelled at him and tried to slap him.

  Jeri caught her hand before it hit Dean. Her face was stone cold and her words even more so. "Give me both of your phones or both of yo
u will end up in that ER."

  Since no one else seemed to want to help them, they handed over the phones to her. "The nurse at the station will give them back to you after you leave. And don't even think of trying to convince someone else to take a picture."

  With that, Jeri and Dean walked back to the nurse’s station.

  "Nice," Dean muttered to her. "Don't ever want to be on your bad side."

  "Then don’t ever piss me off." With that she put the phones on the nurses’ station. Another nurse walked in and Jeri explained to her what had happened. The nurse nodded and agreed to keep the phones until both of those people left.

  "Also, the Stevens family needs a private waiting room," Dean told the nurse. He let his voice go mellow. "There are a lot of people who would want to disturb them. Those two bozos were only the beginning. Do you think you can do that for me..."He glanced at her name tag. "Katie?"

  Nurse Katie hesitantly smiled. Jeri rolled her eyes. "I'll go check on everyone, dear brother."

  "Oh, yes. I can find something for you!" Katie rushed off and Dean couldn't help but grin. He turned towards the ER and assessed the individuals who were there and tried to get a sense if they were a threat or not.

  "Sir?" He turned back to the nursing station and saw the first nurse. "Evan was brought in too. Sounds like the doctor is assessing his condition right now. We'll let you know more once we know anything."

  "Thank you." He walked back to the group,

  "They don't know anything, yet,” he told Helen. “But the doctor will be out as soon as possible to give us an update. Evan was brought in too."

  Ken sat next to his wife and looked up at Dean. "How is he?"

  "Same thing. They don't know anything, y2et. They’re also going to get you a private waiting room so nobody will bother you."

  "We appreciate that. Thank you." His eyes darted towards Anne. "We don't need this plastered on every magazine out there."

  If Anne heard the remark, she didn’t show it as she continued to pace back and forth in front of them.

  In a matter of moments, Nurse Katie trotted back to them. "You can come with me. We have a room for your family." They all followed her out of the ER and went down a hallway past some offices and into an elevator.