CELEBRITY STATUS (The Kate Huntington mystery series #4) by Kassandra Lamb

immediately refused.
                “I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist, or I won’t be able to work with you anymore.” Cherise started to interrupt but Kate held up her hand. “Please hear me out. I have good reasons for asking for this. I need to be able to tell Skip anything I think may be relevant to keeping you, and himself, safe. And it’s just really weird for us at home now. He can talk about what’s going on, but I have to monitor every syllable.”
                Cherise waved her hand in dismissal of the latter reason as she asked, “So why exactly would you need to talk to him about our sessions in order to help keep me safe?”
                “Let me give you an example,” Kate said. “If I can tell Skip the exact words you just practiced saying to yourself to calm down, then if he sees you starting to freak out in a tense moment, he can repeat those words to you. They’ll be much more powerful than anything else he might think of to say, because they directly refute the negative things you tend to say to yourself when you’re scared.”
                “Okay,” Cherise said. “I’ll sign a waiver, but only for you to tell him things that would help keep me safe.”
                Kate walked to her file cabinet and got out two blank waivers, thinking about how she would word the reason for the waiver to give herself as much leeway as possible. Once she had filled in the names on the appropriate lines, and “to enhance Canfield and Hernandez’s ability to investigate and protect against threats” on the reason line, she handed that form to Cherise along with a pen.
                “I also need a waiver to discuss relevant information with Rob Franklin,” Kate said.
                “Why would you need that? You don’t even know the guy,” Cherise said.
                “Actually Rob and I are good friends. That’s how Skip knows him, and knows that he’s one of the best lawyers in this area. And again, I would only tell him things that would help him do his job,” Kate said, adding to herself, or things he needs to know to stay safe.
                Cherise reluctantly signed the second waiver.
                Kate waited until the client was completely out the door before allowing herself a sigh of relief.
    * * *
                Over dinner that evening, Kate said, “I got a release from you-know-who today so after little ears are settled down, I have some things to tell you.” Skip just nodded and went back to listening to his children’s rather disjointed accounts of their day.
                When he came downstairs after story time and tuck-in, Kate took his hand and led him into the living room. “First of all,” she said, turning sideways on the sofa to face him, “Cherise tends to be narcissistic.”
                “If that’s psychobabble for self-centered, I’d already figured that out.” Skip let out a small chuckle.
                “Think self-centered on steroids. It’s not that narcissists don’t have any empathy. They’re just so self-absorbed that they don’t think about others’ needs or feelings. If she’s presented with an option that will keep her safe but might jeopardize others, she won’t give it a second thought. She’ll take that option. Say the stalker has a gun and opens fire on all of you. She might jump into her limo and order the driver to take off before any of you could get in the car.”
                “Duly noted. Her driver Friday night will be one of my men,” Skip said.
                “I can also imagine her shoving one of your people toward a knife-wielding attacker, to save herself. Although she probably wouldn’t do that to you. She likes you. And she’s likely to give you a hard time about anything that doesn’t make immediate sense to her.”