Chapter 95: Do Not Move

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"This girl has a good look," the long-haired man said, turning his attention fully to Charlize. "Can she shoot? Who represents her?"

"Sure," Charlize said at once, still too new to Hollywood to know which doors led where. "When?"

Nolan caught her wrist before she could step forward and murmured two sentences into her ear.

Charlize’s expression changed.

"Oh."

The short-haired woman smiled. "She is an actress?"

"You are the actress," Charlize snapped, still embarrassed. "Your whole family is acting."

The woman’s smile sharpened. "Actually, yes. My family is in the business."

Nolan stepped between them before Charlize could dig the hole deeper.

"She is a legitimate actress," he said. "Film and television. Not your side of the industry."

The man lifted both hands. "No offense."

"None taken," Nolan said, taking all of it.

’I am not letting a future Oscar winner debut in the adult industry.’

After the neighbors left, Nolan and Charlize walked inside, looked at each other, and both laughed.

The house was real. The neighborhood, apparently, was also very real in a completely different direction. Several nearby homes had been rented or bought by adult-video crews, and production lights in second-floor windows were not unusual here.

Mia arrived that night, listened to Nolan’s explanation, and stood in the kitchen with a face caught between horror and exhaustion.

"Stay away from those people," she said. "Nolan, that includes you. Charlize, that definitely includes you."

"Yes, Aunt Mia," Charlize said immediately.

Mia had already asked Lisa about her. Lisa had explained Nolan’s little manager project, though Mia still looked as if she was not sure whether to admire the ambition or fear the pattern.

Charlize had changed in the month she had lived near Nolan. Better food had put color back into her face. Her hair looked healthier. Nolan had taken her shopping more than once, and almost everything she wore now had come from his money or Lisa’s card.

He gave her food, shelter, school arrangements, auditions, clothes, and spending money.

The return on investment, as a business matter, was still poor.

As a person, though, Charlize had begun looking at him differently. Nolan saw it in the way she waited for his decisions, in the way her resistance softened before he finished speaking, in the way gratitude and hunger mixed into something more dangerous than simple dependence.

She had never had a clean relationship with safety. Her mother had shot her father in front of her when Charlize was still a teenager. Nolan did not need a psychology degree to know that attention, protection, and control could twist together in her head.

So he tested it.

"Clean the living room again."

Charlize hesitated. "We cleaned it yesterday."

"Do it again."

"Okay."

"And the downstairs bathroom."

Her mouth tightened, but she still nodded.

Mia looked up sharply. "Nolan."

He raised both hands. "I was not actually going to make her scrub the toilet."

"Good."

He had not meant to. The answer told him enough.

Charlize was becoming too willing to obey him. Useful, yes. Dangerous, definitely.

...

"I wonder when Katherine is coming back," Mia said later.

"Next week," Nolan said. "After the Utah game."

The Normans’ next major opponent was Wasatch Ridge High School in Salt Lake City, a private-school powerhouse on the regional showcase circuit. The Rams were treated as a Utah title favorite, loaded with regional talent, and sat fourth in the Pacific-region odds for a national bowl berth.

California football was stronger overall, but Wasatch Ridge had a real program, real tradition, and a home field everyone described the same way.

Hostile.

That night, Nolan called Katherine.

"Let me guess," she said. "The San Fernando Valley Video Empire?"

"You make one questionable real-estate decision and suddenly nobody trusts you."

She laughed. They talked for a while, Nolan telling her about the neighbors and Katherine accusing him of choosing the house for the view.

"Are you still in your dorm?" he asked.

"Yes. Elizabeth wants dinner. I should go."

Katherine was usually the one who kept the call alive until both of them were half asleep.

Tonight, she hung up first.

Nolan stared at the phone, enjoying the unexpected silence.

Then he looked toward the hall.

’Should I go find Charlize?’

A knock came before he moved.

Charlize opened the door and stepped in wearing a sheer black dress with a decorative choker at her throat. Moonlight caught the earrings she had chosen, and her smile made it obvious she had not arrived by accident.

She was nineteen, adult, sober, and fully aware of what she was asking for.

"You wanted this one, right?" she said.

Nolan’s eyes moved over the dress. "I did."

"Then stop looking like you have to negotiate."

Compared with Penny, Charlize was different. Penny often turned surrender into a private game. Charlize came forward on her own, almost frighteningly direct once she made up her mind.

She rose on her toes and smiled at him.

Then the doorbell rang downstairs.

Nolan froze.

Voices drifted up a moment later.

Katherine.

Mia.

Charlize blinked. "What do we do?"

Nolan grabbed her hand and moved fast.

"In the closet."

"What?"

"Quiet. I mean it."

There was no time to get her out of the room. He slid her into the walk-in closet, made sure she had space to breathe and stand without hurting herself, and shut the door just before Katherine’s footsteps reached the hall.

Katherine opened Nolan’s door and stared.

He was standing in the middle of the room, very obviously caught in a private moment he had not finished explaining.

"What are you doing?"

Mia appeared behind her, saw enough, and immediately turned away.

Katherine shut the bedroom door and locked it.

"Entertaining myself," Nolan said, nodding toward the window. "You saw the neighborhood."

Katherine looked outside, then back at him. "So while I am gone, you have been suffering."

"Terribly."

She crossed the room and put her arms around his shoulders. Nolan kissed her before she could glance toward the closet, then eased her away from that side of the room.

For a moment, the danger passed.

Then Katherine pulled back and turned on the light.

"You have not unpacked."

"I can do it."

"You never do it right."

She lifted an armful of clothes from the floor and walked toward the closet.

Nolan’s heart almost stopped.

Katherine opened the door.

The main space looked empty. Charlize had pressed herself into the narrow side recess, hidden behind the door angle and hanging shadows.

"See?" Katherine said. "A mess."

"Leave it," Nolan said, moving in behind her. "You came all this way. You should rest."

"I wanted to surprise you."

"You did."

Katherine turned, read his face the wrong way, and smiled.

A month apart had built too much heat for caution to survive long. She kissed him first, and Nolan used the moment to draw her away from the closet completely.

Inside, Charlize stood motionless, listening.

Katherine’s back eventually pressed against the closet door. Her hand caught the handle without meaning to.

From the other side, Charlize held the door steady and did not make a sound.

The night stretched on.

Only after dawn, when Katherine finally went downstairs, did Charlize slip out of the closet, stiff and furious-eyed. Nolan opened one eye and pointed toward the hall.

Go.

She left without a word.

Only then did Nolan let out the breath he had been holding since midnight.

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