Safe for Summer

off the front of her jacket, and reached into her purse for her phone. She pressed a button for speed dial.
‘That isn’t how things are going to work.’ Nathan’s voice was cool but held authority.
‘What?’ Autumn inquired, staring at him for an answer.
‘From now on, you don’t go anywhere without me,’ Nathan told her.
She let out a laugh and put her gloved hand to her mouth. Who did this awfully dressed individual think he was exactly? No one ordered her around. Her mother tried to, but no one else dared tell her what was going to happen next, not even her record company. Well, not all the time.
Nathan smiled back at her.
‘Mother, where did you find this man? He thinks he’s playing Kevin Costner to my Whitney Houston,’ Autumn laughed.
‘Autumn, you need to listen to what he says. He’s a professional.’
‘A professional what exactly? Comedian? Psychopath? A psychopathic comedian?’ Autumn suggested.
‘I apologize, Mr Regan for my daughter’s lack of manners. Despite her career in the public eye, she has yet to fully grasp the responsibility and need for diplomacy. I can only put that down to the fact that she has paparazzi and fans clawing at her every day. Being on show all the time sometimes numbs your ability to remember how things work in the real world.’
‘Apology accepted,’ Nathan replied.
‘Apology accepted? There was no need for an apology, Mother, and you do not do anything on my behalf! No apologizing, no hiring weirdo security guys, no—’
‘Telephoning the tabloids, begging them not to print pictures of you topless and drunk at a nightclub in Italy,’ Nathan concluded.
Autumn’s cheeks blazed, and she felt herself shrink almost right down into her new shoes. No one was supposed to know about that. She tightened up her mouth and bit the inside of her cheek until she was sure it was bleeding. Only then did she breathe. She’d done some very stupid things and that had been one of them. She’d drunk herself into a state, encouraged by a very charming, very good-looking Italian man she had only just met, because she craved the company. He’d listened to her and he’d topped up her glass, on her account obviously, and then he’d encouraged her to dance even though the room was spinning like a fairground ride for her. People didn’t want to know her, they only wanted to be seen with her. Sometimes, when her face ached from smiling, that knowledge hurt.
‘Your phone at home’s been tapped,’ Nathan stated. ‘We have to assume the group knows your itinerary and all your associates. You’re moving out.’
‘Do you think that’s absolutely necessary?’ Alison queried.
‘I never suggest anything that isn’t absolutely necessary,’ he replied.
‘Moving out,’ Autumn said in a whisper.
Her throat tightened as that thought rolled up to her mind. She couldn’t move out of her apartment. She’d only moved in six months ago. It was luxury in brick form. It had four bedrooms, one for her, one for Janey, and two others with floor-to-ceiling wardrobes for her clothes. She had a balcony overlooking the Thames, a sauna in the bathroom, and a cyber dog called Diamante on her sixty-inch plasma. The walls were white, the floor was oak, and in the kitchen, there was a coffee machine that made thirty-five different flavors.
‘Autumn, they know where you live. They know what you do and who you do it with. We need to start minimizing that list,’ Nathan told her.
‘I live with my friend Janey,’ Autumn said through trembling lips.
‘Not anymore,’ Nathan said.
‘Mother.’ Autumn looked to Alison with wide, frightened eyes.
‘I know this isn’t how you want things to be leading up to the most important night of your career, but this isn’t an everyday situation,’ Alison said.
Her words provided no comfort.
‘I’m taking you somewhere safe until the awards,’ Nathan informed. ‘No one’s going to know where you live. It’ll be just you and me.’
‘And me, of course. I’ll know, darling.’ Alison smiled at Autumn.
Autumn watched her change her expression to something resembling consolation.
‘No, you won’t,’ Nathan said, taking a breath and rising from his chair.
Alison looked like he had reached out and burned her with a hot poker.
‘I apologize, Foreign Secretary, for my tone, but we don’t know where the leak is. The more people who know Autumn’s location, the greater the chance of the group finding out,’ Nathan said.
‘Mr Regan, are you suggesting there could be someone on the inside? In my office?’ Alison asked.
‘I’m not suggesting anything. I just like to thin down the possibilities.’
Now he sounded as diplomatic as a well-seasoned politician. Someone brave enough to play her mother at her own game. That was a novelty.
‘My car’s here,’ Autumn announced, noticing the black SUV arriving outside the entrance and the photographers stationed outside repositioning their cameras in anticipation of her exit.
‘I’ve got a car at the back,’ Nathan informed. He took a firm hold of Autumn’s arm.
She had one hand on the door of the hotel entrance, and she could see the paparazzi calling to her. Nathan’s grip on her was vice-like.
‘Autumn…’ Alison began.
‘We need to go.’ Nathan tightened his hold and frog-marched her toward the rear of the building.
‘Mother!’ Autumn shrieked as she was bowled along by both his pace and his determination.
‘I’ll call you this evening,’ Alison called after them. ‘You’ll let me know where you are.’
Nathan called back, ‘I’ll let you have a number.’

Three
‘Where are we going? This isn’t the way to the record company,’ Autumn exclaimed. ‘And why am I in the front? I never travel in the front! It’s safer in the back. Don’t you know anything?’
The car was silver. She hated silver. It reminded her of fish, and she hated fish, all kinds, even caviar. Especially caviar. Horrible black pin-head-sized lumps that got stuck in your teeth. Juan had it all the time, even on bagels. And after he had eaten it, he would kiss her, and she would be left with a mouth tainted with the odor. It made her sick just thinking about