by Mary Winter
“It was. He snapped a couple of pictures with his cell phone. I planned on sending it to Johnny, the owner of Treble Security. This may tie in with a group he dealt with.” He sent the text.
“A group?”
“I’ll tell you when we’re not in this room. When you’re settled I want to sweep it for bugs just to be on the safe side, but I have to tell you. I don’t want to cast aspersions, but this seems like an inside job.” He tucked his phone back into his pocket. When he turned to Rain, she had a small carry-on bag in her hands.
“I don’t think you’re wrong,” she said and certainly didn’t sound happy about it. “I’ve got what I need. Let’s go. I’m not sure I ever want to see this room again since I knew someone got into it.”
“Who has a key to this room?”
“I do. I don’t let anyone else have one, though housekeeping has been in a few times while I’ve been at the venue practicing. There’s never been anything like this though. And when I leave, I keep everything zipped up. The hotel does laundry for me, but I put it all in the laundry bag and leave it for housekeeping. My costumes are dry cleaned and Dale handles that. I give them to him when I go to the venue and he drops them off and picks them up as well as runs any errands for me.”
Her precautions made sense. From being in the public spotlight she’d want to have privacy in her room. It also made him wonder just how much Scott knew. “Let’s go.”
He opened the door first, checking the hall. It was empty, and he hurried her to his room just down a bit from hers. He opened the room key and stepped inside hoping he hadn’t left any incriminating evidence around. But no, his dirty clothes were in the laundry bag and his suitcase was closed. The bed closest to the window was clean and made, the one he used still a bit rumpled. He’d left the do not disturb sign on his door and it appeared that housekeeping had honored it. “Put your stuff where ever. Don’t worry about me.”
Frankly the idea of being in these close quarters with her did concern him. Not for protection. From the standpoint of the job, it made sense and he’d be able to take care of things easier. Rather, he preferred his own space, especially since being around her brought things to life he hadn’t felt in a very long time. When she came back from the bathroom, she sat down on the bed. “I guess this one is mine.”
“I’d prefer to sleep between you and the door. Who knows your alias that you checked in under?”
“Only I and my manager are supposed to know. Dale and Scott work directly with me, so they don’t have to leave messages for me at the hotel or anything.” She paused for a moment. “Wait. I don’t know if this matters or not, but I gave Scott my key about ten days ago. I forgot part of my costume in the hotel and didn’t realize it until I was getting ready. Do you think it’s possible he made a copy?”
Case thought for a moment. Depending on equipment it wouldn’t take a lot, and if hotel security were lax, they might even make a copy for him. “It’s possible. Right now, tell me what you need. If you need me to go so you can decompress or do your routine, that’s fine. Otherwise I’m going to be on my tablet at the table if that’s fine.”
“That’s no problem.” She grabbed a yoga mat she must have tucked into the carry-on bag. I’m going to do a bit of yoga in the entry way if you don’t mind.”
He stood and flipped the locks. His stomach rumbled, reminding him that he hadn’t eat. And, watching Rain contort and bend her body wouldn’t do his libido any good. “Tell you what. I’ve got my key. I’ll knock like this.” He tapped out a pattern on the table. “Before I come in. I’m going to go find any food. Do you want me to bring you anything?”
“A big chicken salad would be great,” she said.
She was a woman of routines, which perhaps suited her life well, but it also made someone’s job easy if they wanted to hurt her. He nodded and stepped out of the room, lifting his cell phone to his ear and calling Johnny on his way to the elevator.
As soon as Case left, Rain breathed a sigh of relief. How was she going to relax here? The room smelled of his body wash. His toiletries were in the bathroom; his toothbrush by the sink. Everywhere she looked she was reminded of this man and just how sexy he was. She unrolled the yoga mat and changed into a pair of leggings and oversized shirt. She moved closer to the beds, deciding not to be blocking the door if he came in. She worked through her routine, mostly long held stretches to relax her muscles. Sometimes she got so pumped up at her shows that she became tense.
She closed her eyes, imagining the soft ambient music she often played. Instead, she heard a pounding on the door across the hall.
It sounded like it was coming from her door. She glanced through the spy hole on the door, but couldn’t see anything.
The pounding continued. She almost opened the door to look, but then she heard shouting.
“…What do you mean she’s in your room? Are you fucking her?” Scott’s voice was audible.
Rain fought against the tide of anger roaring to life inside her. She started to march for the door, then stopped. Her presence might make things worse and besides, Case had told her to stay here.
“..talk about this somewhere…” Case’s voice rose above Scott’s shouting.
“How dare you tell me what to do?” Scott yelled.
She’d had it. Opening the door, she stepped out, knowing if anyone realized who she was this would be a total tabloid moment and she was pissed at Scott for creating it.
“I’m here,” she snarled, keeping behind the door, her voice low so hopefully no one heard her. “What the hell do you want?”
His gaze swept the tendrils of hair coming lose from her ponytail and her oversized shirt and leggings, her bare feet. “What is going on? Will someone tell me.”
“If you’d stop acting like an ass.” Her gaze collided with Case’s and she saw him try to hide his smile. She glanced at her door, thinking perhaps they ought to talk there, but Case shook his head. By now Scott had probably seen enough to know the room number. This was turning into a mess as far as she was concerned. “Let’s talk downstairs in the conference room. I’ll meet you there in a moment.” With that, she shut the door.
A quick splash of water on her face and redoing her pony tail already made her feel more in control. She put on shoes and socks, deciding her clothing was nice enough that if someone snapped a picture she’d be okay with how she looked. She hated that she needed to think about paparazzi and going down to the business center was probably stupid. Really really stupid if she were trying to maintain some sort of privacy. She sighed and stepped into the now-empty hall.
She made her way to the conference center by herself, thankful Case had thought to get them all some bottles of water from the convenience shop next to the check-in desk. She sat down in the empty chair and glared at her soon-to-be-former head of security across the table. “You know better than to make that kind of racket. What if someone had seen? What if the cops had been called? You know how important it is that I keep my reputation. Roddie will have your head on a stake if he finds out about this.”
“But he won’t, will he?” Scott smiled in that way of his that she’d used to think was charming. Now she just thought of it as creepy. “And what were you doing in his room.”
“I had costumes all over mine. He was giving me a clean place to do my yoga so I wouldn’t have to move anything since I was going to put together next week’s costume changes. You know that’s what I do this time every week.” She caught Case’s approval of her improvisation, as well as something else. A possessive look in his eyes, as if he wondered why Scott had been in her room and seen all her costumes.
Scott grunted.
“What did you want? You never did say. Instead you jumped to stupid conclusions. I’ve told you, I don’t sleep with the people I hire, and you know there’s a reason why I sing the songs I do.” Again that look from Case and she was about to say something about damn male testosterone, because frankly, she’d had enough of it long before this had h
appened.
“I just wanted to apologize. I was going over some things with venue security when that family came up to get your autograph and I didn’t want you to think I ditched the job. I didn’t. I was working.” Scott grabbed, then set down, his water bottle.
“Okay,” she said, not so much because she believed him, but she needed him to think it was a non-issue.
“You’re not upset?”
“That you made a scene. Of course I am. But that you were doing your job and not there. Don’t worry about it. You know I don’t mind those sorts of things. Roddie minds more than I do because then he can’t get his cut of the autographs.” She laughed. “Now if you’re done, you interrupted my yoga.”
“Oh yeah, sorry.” Scott stood and left. Almost too easily, and she wondered why exactly he needed her gone from her room.
Chapter 5
He liked that she thought on her feet. When Scott had appeared and had started yelling, Case had tried to think of a reason why he couldn’t divulge the security issue they were having. Scott’s breath smelled of alcohol just enough to make Case notice. He accompanied her back to his room. As soon as the door closed, he turned. “Did Scott want to sleep with you?”
“Yeah. He did. I told him the ground rules. So far he’d obeyed them.” From her voice, he suspected she had doubts and was wondering if what was happening maybe wasn’t driven from jealousy or something else.
He saw red. That bastard wasn’t good enough for her, didn’t even come half as close to being to her standards. What? Like him? In essence he was a hired gun and she was his boss. That didn’t make for good romantic, or even casual sexual relations. Still, the idea that Scott so much as wanted to lay a hand on her burned him. “He damn well better,” Case growled.
She turned, her eyes widened. Whatever she saw there, changed her. She parted her lips, the tip of her pink tongue coming out to moisten them. Her breath hitched, and her gaze fell to his mouth. “I expect him to,” she said, rather breathlessly. Whether she spoke about Scott or him, Case wasn’t sure, and he was trying his hardest to stick to the rules.
“I don’t like assigning blame or going into these cases with predetermined outcomes, but I have to think Scott’s involved. I don’t want you to fire him.” It killed him to say those words. Frankly, he wanted nothing more than to boot the man out. And he needed to check her hotel room at the first opportunity. That entire conversation had happened far too quickly.
“I’ll trust your instincts on that. I’ve never liked the guy, but he’s good friends with Roddie.” She frowned and her voice grew quiet.
Case stepped closer. “You don’t like your manager?”
She shook her head, and in her eyes he read hints and glimpses of a past that perhaps had not gone well for her. “Not really. But he’s good. And he listens to me. Mostly. He’s better than some.” With the sigh that punctuated her sentence, her words told him far more than he wanted to know. “He’s pushing me to change my image. Says that it’ll drive the male fans away. Except, I think they like what I do because they think that they can be the man to change me.” She turned to face him.
“What if a man didn’t want to change you?”
She gasped, her lips parted. Heat flashed between them and tightened his groin. This shouldn’t be happening. If Johnny found out one of his agents wanted to kiss a client—then again, he and Harley had become a permanent couple. Normally he went for what he wanted, and right now he wanted Rain.
She took the answer out of his control because she leaned forward and kissed him. The quickest brush of lips flared into something hotter, something more as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. She leaned against him, her soft curves molding to his body and making him want with the red hot fire of need.
He suspected she intended to kiss him and pull away but once their lips touched, something ignited between them. She cupped the back of his head to pull him closer, then opened her mouth to invite him deeper. He took the invitation, teasing, nibbling on her lower lip, then soothing it with his tongue until he tasted her completely.
She gave a soft sigh of need and want that had him instantly hard. It’d be easy, too easy really, to turn and walk her backwards to the bed, then lay her down and make love to her until they both were satisfied. He couldn’t. As much as it hurt, he pulled back and slowly released her.
“Rain,” he said.
“I know,” she replied, sounding as disgusted as he felt. “And after Scott accused us of doing just that. I had to know. I had to know if it was going to be as good between us as I imagined it would be.”
He smiled, not wanting to hide the male pride filling his body. “And was it?”
“Oh yeah,” she replied. “And now I have to lay in that bed by the window tonight and try to sleep knowing just how good we could make each other feel. Sometimes this job sucks.”
“Couple of weeks, right? Then this residency will be over.” Sure that probably meant his job would be done and he’d go back to…whatever…maybe fishing some more. He’d docked his boat in a marina and stowed his gear in his truck, knowing there wouldn’t be any of that while he was protecting her. His phone buzzed. He glanced at it. Johnny. “I got to take this,” he said. “Hey. What you got for me?”
“My checks came back on everyone associated with Rain. It looks like Scott has quite a bit of gambling debts and a drinking problem. While I didn’t see anything concrete, it’s possible he got mixed up with the False Music people. Certainly he’s someone to watch. Also, I think you should know, there were allegations of her manager being sexually inappropriate with her when she was younger. Again, not something that ties him to the group, but it sure seems like there could be opportunities there. I’ll keep looking.”
“Thanks,” he replied, not happy that his hunches were panning out. He ended the call and tucked his phone in the pocket.
“Who was that?” she asked.
“Some checks on your people came back. Nothing that’s a flashing red light yet,” he replied. “Though there were some problematic things in both your manager and Scott’s background.”
Rain sat down on the bed. “I know. And I’m trying to give them both a second chance.”
“I respect that,” he said, then grabbed his tablet, thinking he needed to do a little digging of his own.
The snick of the key in the lock wouldn’t have been something to awaken him, except Case was already awake. He’d been laying on his back, staring at the ceiling, listening to Rain’s deep breathing as she slept and tried to think about the pieces of this puzzle. The security latch was on the door; it wouldn’t be opening. Still someone was out there. He slid the covers back and stood, careful not to make any noise that would alert Rain. He didn’t want whoever was on the other side to think that they’d been awakened.
He padded barefoot and silently across the carpet, keeping low so not even a shadow would flash behind the peep hole. The knob turned. Just a little, just enough for whoever was on the other side to confirm that they’d opened the door. How the hell had someone gotten a key to his room? He hadn’t checked in under an alias. At the time he’d been on vacation. The hotel certainly would be getting an earful from him for security.
Case rose just enough to look through the peep hole. A man he didn’t recognize stood there, hood drawn forward to shield his face. He was smaller in statue than Scott, and the fact that it wasn’t the body guard actually relieved Case. He situated his foot just behind the door, just enough so if it opened, it’d hit his foot, and not the security bar.
The man straightened. Case memorized the features he could, round face, not gaunt, but not fat either, ragged cut brown hair falling over the man’s forehead. Not the people who were behind the venue, either. A perfectly ordinary face. The man turned and left, tucking the key card in his pocket.
Case’s heart hammered. Now what? Race after the man and tackle him, demand to know everything. In the movies he’d shoot a tracker out the door, some kind of RFI
D chip to cling to the man’s sweatshirt. No, he’d demand to go down and see security footage in the morning. Whoever this guy was, Case’s gut told him he wasn’t high up in the food chain. Let them think they’d done something good. He’d catch them in the end.
He turned and glanced back toward the bed, Rain still slept. He grabbed his tablet and lay down, quickly writing a report, then rolled over. He thought he wouldn’t sleep, but the next thing he knew the alarm went off.
The manager wasn’t that helpful and neither were the owner. Either the man had showed a fake ID that he was Case Trenton to get another key or the clerk on duty had believed some story about locking his wallet in the room. They didn’t take photos of people when they checked in, and it seemed the new key had been issued at eleven pm. The camera footage showed the man, a better picture of his face, and the hotel manager was only too happy to make a copy when he realized just who Case worked for. Apparently Treble Security did a lot of work in Branson and he wanted to stay on the agency’s good side. Case sent the data to Johnny, then when Rain went to the venue to practice, he had a long talk with the head of security. He didn’t give away that there were issues, but asked that anything out of the ordinary be brought to him. Satisfied, he’d done what he could, he settled in to guard his charge. Scott was nowhere in sight.
A text came when Rain was in her dressing room getting ready for that night’s performance. I’m informed that you’ve taken over work there. I know I suggested you, but I expected you to work with my people. Case didn’t need to see the number to know that it had come from Rain’s manager.
I’m doing my job. If your people have an issue with that they can come to me. He knew only Scott had a problem. Dale had commented he appreciated what he was doing and that he thought things ran more smoothly since he’d arrived.
You can be replaced.
An empty threat and they both knew it. Rain has the final say on all personnel decisions. I’ll leave it up to her. He didn’t add not to bother her, that she was getting ready for a show. Roddie would know that by looking at the clock and it wasn’t his place to say such things.