The evening is mostly one of cocktails and chatter. In some ways, it’s a lot like an after party, and by that, I mean that people come up to us and talk to us like they’ve known us forever and they’ll see us again next Thursday, when in reality we’ve never met them before and we’ll never see them again.
We are seated at a round table that seats about ten people. I glance around the room and notice a few familiar other musical acts, including a gorgeous up and coming R&B singer with her famous quarterback husband. Jack and I do our best to amuse each other by people watching, but when it comes time for several speeches, though I try to be respectful and pay attention, I am bored out of my skull. The one speech that I’ve actually enjoyed so far is the one made by the R&B singer, whose name I now find out is Shawni. I liked hearing her talk about how music made a difference in her life when she was younger and kept her grounded. I find myself alternating sipping from my water and my cocktail just for something to do, and feeling a total kinship with Chris at the moment. Unfortunately, it all catches up to me by the time the speeches conclude.
I need the bathroom. Bad. I’m about to excuse myself to find one when Eli takes the podium and insists that Turn it Up come up to say a few words. The guys are totally caught off guard and don’t have one prepared, but smile politely as they head up to the front. I smile proudly at my guys as they let Matt do the talking, and he does an amazing job at winging it, talking about how creativity in such things like music can keep a young mind on track.
When they make it back to the table, I cannot put off nature any longer.
After telling Jack I’ll be back in a few, I make my way out of the main partition door and down the hallway that leads to a door with the restroom symbols on it. When I let myself through it, I find myself in something of a lounge with fancy armchairs and end tables. On the left is another door leading to the men’s room and on the right… holy shit. A long-ass line to the ladies. Why?! Night clubs, sporting events, concerts, and apparently fundraisers… Always a line. I fucking hate lines. I turned Disney World into hell on Earth for my parents when Ian and I were little because I hate lines so much. Even if the damn weren’t about to burst, I wouldn’t wait in this line. It’s a huge-ass hotel, there are plenty of other bathrooms and I’m going to find one, even if it takes longer than waiting through this clusterfuck.
I take off in the other direction down the hall and stop when I see the elevator. I’m sure there is another bathroom like the one I just saw in the same place on another floor. I push the down button and hop on when the doors open, hitting the button for the floor below us.
When I step off and turn left, I am delighted to find I was right. Another bathroom lounge, with the same set up and not a soul in sight. The lounge door closes behind me and I head into the ladies. After I’m done and have washed my hands, I take a moment to check my hair. I realize that I left my handbag with Jack so touching up my gloss will have to wait. I turn and open the door that leads to the lounge, but before I can make it to the door that leads to the hallway, it opens… and Eli steps through.
“Oh. Hi,” I greet him, caught off guard a little bit. I wasn’t expecting anyone else to have the same idea I did.
He steps in front of the door, barring my exit. He gives me a cunning smile in return, and turns to flick the lock.
What the hell?
“Hi,” he finally says back, putting his hands in his pockets. He’s regarding me almost affectionately with his head tipped to one side.
“What are you doing?” I question, my eyes on the door lock.
“I wanted to talk to you.”
Feeling every bone in my body go cold, I back away. I frantically search around for another exit, another person… Anything. I even glance up to the corners of the ceiling.
“Oh, there are no cameras in here Kitten,” Eli taunts, ever so casual. He looks relaxed, cool, as if he couldn’t possibly be making me feel uneasy and afraid. “We’re alone.”
I don’t know what to do. I know that if I try to cruise past him and out the door, it will put me close enough to him that he could put his hands on me. But if I stay back, I have no other way out and am at his mercy, allowing him to make me cower here as long as he pleases. As I’m deliberating, his eyes darken, assuming that expression that I hate so much; the one that says you’re mine for me to play with.
And he’s playing with me alright. He’s enjoying this. Neither of us is speaking, but his easy smile doesn’t falter as every bone in my body shakes like an earthquake. I don’t have all night to decide how to handle this. I finally decide to fake it until I make it, as the saying goes. I try my best to calm my mind and will my limbs to stop trembling. I lift my chin to address the douche-canoe in front of me.
“Unlock the door, Eli.” I’m not asking.
“Oh, I will,” he responds jovially, as if he’s a child that just got told to clean his room but he’s too busy playing. “Just as soon as you and I have a little talk, alone, with no interruptions.” Fuck. “Did I detect a hint of jealousy upstairs?”
Is he serious right now?
I look around the room, as if the orchids on the vanities can help me out of this, before answering, “Not even a little bit.” I’m not normally so blunt, but he’s seriously freaking me out. Locking us in a room together makes it seem like his presence is taking up the entire room and forcing itself upon me, making me feel defensive. “In fact, I was just trying to make sure your date is okay. She seems very uncomfortable here.”
“Hilary is just fine, she’s just a little nervous. This isn’t usually her scene. You on the other hand,” he takes one hand out of his pocket to gesture towards my defensive stance, “still seem to be uncomfortable when I’m around. I want to assure you, I’m going to change that. I’m going to do everything to get us to a place where you’re not only relaxed around me, but completely enjoy having me near.”
Ugh. What the fuck does he mean by that? I don’t want an elaboration. I want to get the hell out of here. I keep up my façade of trying to coolly shut him down.
“Well I can assure you that’s not going to happen tonight, so unlock the door so I can leave.”
“Okay, okay,” Eli rolls his eyes and smirks, like we’re debating about baseball teams and not how he’s cornering me like I’m his prey. “Not tonight? Fine,” he shrugs. “But soon. I promise you, you’re not going to keep feeling this way when I’m around. We’re going to get closer and I’m going to make you warm up to me, really nice,” he finishes with a lick of his lips.
I want to throw up, but I have to fight. I can’t let him know how much he’s scaring me.
“Damnit Eli! Open the damn door! This is some kind of entrapment that you’re doing here. You’re threatening me, and I’m going to take this to the CEO, or whoever the hell the head of your agency is.”
“First of all,” Eli prepares to school me, “I’m not threatening you. I don’t think I’ve uttered a single threatening word since I’ve been in here. And you’re not trapped; you can leave any time. The door’s right there. I locked it so that we could have a private conversation without anyone interrupting. That’s all.” He shrugs again as if to emphasize just how harmless his actions are. “Second of all… you just did.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. He runs the agency. Hell, he probably owns it. He is NoLimit PR. I won’t let this defeat me.
“There’s always the police,” I threaten.
“Yeah, sure,” he patronizes. “Go for it, tell them I walked into a communal lounge, saw an opportunity to speak with you and locked the door so we could have a conversation.” He starts taking steps towards me and I back away, knowing it’s useless but unable to stop myself. All that’s waiting for me is a wall. “Because if you tell them I did any more than that,” he continues, getting so close there is roughly only a foot of space between us, enough for me to smell his God-awful cologne, but not enough that I can feel his breath on me, “you’d be lying,” he concludes.
“What are
you talking about? Look at you, look what you’re doing!”
“I’m talking to you. And okay, I’m standing a little close to you, but I haven’t laid a finger on you.” It’s true. His hands are still in his pockets. He leans in just a little closer, and I freak out.
“Get the hell away from me!” I shout, reaching both hands out and giving him a hard shove against his chest. He falters back, but only one step.
“Oh, look at that,” he muses, his casual smile becoming sinister. “I haven’t touched you, but you just put your hands on me. I’ll be sure not to leave that part out when you summon Jacksonville’s finest.”
Fuck. Me. Sideways.
He’s got me. I admit I don’t know enough to be certain if what he’s saying is legit, and I don’t know what to do, or how to respond. I look down and grind my teeth together.
“Why are you doing this?” I finally ask, my voice small and wavering.
“I told you. I want you to feel good with me.” What. The. Fuck? “I like to be friends with my clients and I wouldn’t be a very good friend to the front man of Turn it Up if I didn’t make sure his wife was taken care of, now would I?”
“I have Jack to do that,” and he has no idea just how seriously Jack takes that role.
“I’m not so sure of that. He has a very demanding career.”
“And yet, I am taken care of a million times over,” I say, crossing my arms, trying to dismiss him. I’m sure my slouched shoulders and inability to look up from the floor don’t make me look very convincing.
“I think we can do better,” he pushes, but thankfully, starts backing away, stopping just shy of the door to the lounge. “The Superbowl gig is really something isn’t?” he asks, examining his expensive pointy shoes before looking back up at me. I make no response. “It’d be a shame if that fell through wouldn’t it?” His tone of voice is so odd. He doesn’t sound threatening; more conversational than anything.
A dark shadow just dropped over my world, and I feel like a cold hand just took hold of my heart.
“Are you saying you’ll pull them if I don’t let you get what you want from me?”
“Oh, I don’t think I actually said anything like that at all. Did I?”
Shit. He didn’t.
A look of wonder comes over his face. “You love him so much.” A hint of pity enters his voice, as if he’s talking to someone who has no choice; someone who has already lost. “I know you’ll do anything for him and his career, so I think our little chat should stay between us, baby.”
My head snaps up. “Don’t call me that!” That’s what Jack calls me. Except when he’s being tender, then it’s Sweetheart. No one else gets to call me that. It’s ours.
“Sorry Kitten, but as I was saying, it’d be better for Jack if he didn’t know about this,” he gestures a finger between me and himself, “if you want what’s best for him and that band of his that is.”
I feel disgusting. My entire insides feel dark and cold. I feel covered in Eli’s sliminess from just being in his presence… now that his true nature is showing. I want to shrivel up in a corner.
Taking my stunned silence as a victory, Eli reaches for the door lock and unclicks it before pulling it open. “I’ll see you soon,” he smirks. And then he’s gone.
The breath I didn’t know I’d been holding puffs out of me, and I scramble to replace it. I gasp in big, rapid breaths, trying like hell to calm myself, to regulate my breathing and bring my heartrate down. I go from feeling cold to hot, and I can feel my face flushing. I can’t calm down. My body is making it clear I need to panic. I hold a hand to my sternum, feeling like my heart will jump out of my chest if I don’t. I push off the wall and take four quick, teetering steps towards the door and throw the lock, closing myself in. I slump down on the couch and put my head between my knees, trying to coach myself through some breathing.
He threatened to sabotage Turn it Up. He didn’t say it outright, but he made sure I caught on to his underlying sentiment. Everything he said had a hidden meaning, veiled thin enough for me to understand but not blatant enough to be used against him. For him to be so good at vague threats, he must have had a lot of practice. That thought doesn’t soothe me at all.
My hands rake into my hair as I try to close my mind off to everything except my breathing. I don’t know how many minutes pass before my breathing stabilizes. I realize I’m rocking, trying to sooth myself, and I try to psyche myself up to go back out there and look for Jack. I just can’t bring myself to go find him, knowing Eli is out there milling about.
I stay put, hoping no one else stumbles upon this restroom, having faith that Jack will find me. That self-absorbed, arrogant, chauvinistic, needle-dick asshole said not to tell Jack what just went down.
Fuck that.
JACK
I polish off my second Johnny Walker and ask the server for a tonic water. I didn’t check what time Mayzie left to go to the ladies’ room, but it’s been a while. I glance around the room and over my shoulder to the room’s main entrance.
“You know,” Josh speaks up from my left side, “it’s okay if she’s out of your sight for more than five minutes.” He’s giving me a compassionate smirk, but I glare at him. He holds his hands up in surrender and smiles like a teenager. “I know, I know… I don’t know what it’s like to feel that way about someone, I get it,” he finishes with a roll of his eyes.
One of our other table mates sits down, a woman in a blue dress who I think may be the wife of one of the tycoons that’s bank rolling this thing.
“Excuse me,” I address her, trying to be polite, though I’ve forgotten her name. “Did you happen to see my wife out there anywhere?”
“No, but it was a total mob in the ladies’ and the line was insane.” She rolls her eyes. “I’m sure she’s in there somewhere.”
I wait another five minutes and decide she’s been gone too long. I stand up, surprised to see Josh stand up with me. I give him a questioning look.
“I’ll help you look,” he says before leaning in to quietly mumble, “I could use a break from this crowd anyway.” We take a quick look around the ballroom from where we stand. I spot Eli, schmoozing a group in the corner nearest the room’s entrance. His date is at his side and not looking the least bit like she wants to be here.
“No shit, me too. I say we find her and get the hell out of here.”
Josh and I head in the direction of the restrooms. Eli turns his head and homes in on me as we are about to pass him, and then steps away from the people he’s entertaining.
“Jack, everything alright?” His brows are drawn together in question.
“Fine. Just looking for Mayzie.”
“What, is she missing?” He asks, looking concerned as he glances around the ballroom in confusion.
“Probably just stuck in line for the restroom,” I downplay, shaking my head.
“You good? Do you want help looking?” His eyebrows are raised in question.
“Nah, we’re good. Thanks,” I say, moving forward again before he responds. I don’t want him looking for Mayzie.
Josh and I make it to the restroom lounge and take a quick perusal of the area and walk back out of the door.
“Mayzie goes nuts in lines. I bet she went to look for one somewhere else in the hotel,” I supply once we’re outside the lounge.
Josh shrugs. “I’ll check the floor below, you could take the one above?”
I nod in agreement. “Sounds good. Got your cell?”
“Yeah. I’ll see you in a few minutes.” He presses the down button for the elevator and gets on while I wait for the one going up.
Josh and Mayzie got off to a rough start. Things were repaired very quickly and they have been good ever since, but still, it makes me feel an extra ounce of appreciation for what he’s doing right now.
I check my watch as I step onto the elevator. We’ve been looking for her for ten minutes already, leading me to believe she’s been gone for close to half an hour. I try
to reason with myself that she probably stopped at the bar or something and got chatty with someone, as she’s been known to do. Even so, I ride upstairs, hoping I’ll find my wife.
MAYZIE
I’m still shaking as I sit on the couch, gripping its cream fabric on either side of me. My breath is still coming in shallow, and I’m still feeling rattled, which is why I jump and let out a yelp when someone jerks on the locked door. The action is repeated by someone thumping on it. My heartrate, which was merely tapering down begins to pick up again as I fear Eli might be on the other side of that door.
“Who is it?” I call out in a trembling voice. I have a horrible habit of calling out to see who’s suspiciously banging on a door that I’m behind. I would never survive a horror flick.
“Mayzie?” It sounds like Josh.
“Josh?” I call back.
“Yeah, it’s me. Are you okay in there?”
I jump up and scramble to the door, fumbling with the lock before I get it turned and wrench it open.
Josh gets one look at my face and his hands go to my elbows.
“Mayzie, Jack’s looking for you everywhere. Did something happen?”
My panicky nod is my response as I automatically grip onto his forearms to steady myself. “Where is he?”
“I’ll get him,” he holds onto one of my arms and reaches into his inside jacket pocket for his cell. He holds it up to his ear. “Jack, I’m with her. Eleventh floor. Get down here, something happened.”
I don’t think sixty seconds go by before Jack is in the doorway and pushing past Josh.
“Mayzie… Jesus,” he exclaims, gently putting his hands on my shoulders as he studies my face that has probably lost all color, and my body that is shaking like a leaf. His eyes are wide and a shade lighter than his usual midnight as he searches my face. “Baby, baby what happened?”
I grab on to him, grappling, trying to get my arms around his neck. He leans down and throws both of his around my back, clutching me close. “Baby, talk to me,” he croons gently with his face in my neck. I try to speak but a sob comes out of my throat instead, and I feel my face crumple as tears sting the backs of my eyes. I’m not one to give into my emotions, well, my negative ones, but after Eli scaring the shit out of me, followed by the overwhelming relief of being wrapped up safely in my husband’s arms, I crack. The emotion flooding through me is too much not to. I start crying on his shoulder. Jack stops asking what happened and instead lets me freak out. “You’re with me baby, you’re safe. I’ve got you.”
Still Her (Turn it Up Book 2) Page 8