Unsteady Rhythm (House of Archer Book 2)

by Raine Thomas

  “What strikes your fancy?” Keith asked, releasing her and reaching for a plate.

  After loading up the plate with some fresh fruit, a couple of muffins, and a scoop of some kind of frittata, Keith sent Sydney with it out to the seating area so he could get them both some more coffee. Lily went with her, carrying a plate of her own.

  Keith’s gaze remained focused on Sydney’s sexy swaying hips until she was out of his line of sight. Archer grinned at him from where he stood at a nearby counter waiting for one of the catering staff to make a chai latte for Lily. Ignoring his friend, Keith turned his attention back to pouring coffee into two cups and adding creamer.

  He smelled Nikki’s perfume before he saw her. She sauntered up to the counter where he was standing and reached for an empty coffee cup.

  “Fancy meeting you here,” she said with a smile.

  He lifted a chin in greeting as he tore open a couple of sugar packets. If she could be civil, so could he.

  He saw Archer glance at them, his gaze holding a silent question. Keith sent an equally silent answer that everything was fine.

  “Ready for this next leg?” Nikki asked as she filled her coffee cup and reached for the half-n-half.

  “Sure,” he said.

  He sampled the coffee he had just doctored and opened up another sugar packet. Sydney liked hers light and sweet.

  Beside him, Nikki sipped her own coffee and watched him. “Geez. Since when have you wanted to put yourself into a diabetic coma?”

  He gave her a bland stare as he stirred Sydney’s coffee.

  “Whatever,” she said with a shrug. “Anyway, it’s going to feel weird touring with Suddenly Something now.”

  Keith had no idea why she was still talking to him. Cordial was one thing. Chatty and chummy was entirely another. He shrugged as he put lids on the cups.

  “I guess I’ll still catch your performances and band parties, though, seeing as I’m with Mal.”

  He didn’t see any reason to reply to the obvious statement. He slid a couple of sleeves onto the two coffee cups and then, as an afterthought, grabbed a few extra napkins before turning to head out to the seating area.

  “Are you really fucking Little Miss Perfect?”

  The question was loud enough to draw the attention of Archer and a few nearby businesspeople helping themselves to refreshments. Keith stopped walking and turned, pinning Nikki with a look that had her swallowing visibly. He took a few steps to close the distance between them.

  “Call her that again,” he said in a low voice, “and I’ll see to it you don’t spend another minute on this tour.”

  She gave him a defiant look. “You can’t do that.”

  “Hey, Arch,” he said more loudly, his gaze still on Nikki.

  “Yeah?” Archer replied, walking over with Lily’s tea.

  “Fine,” Nikki blurted before Keith could make his point. She turned and stalked back out to the seating area with a muttered, “Asshole” trailing in her wake.

  “I don’t think she likes you anymore,” Archer observed.

  “Yeah,” Keith said, starting towards the seating area. “I’m all broken up about it.”

  Archer fell into step beside him. They headed towards the seating area that Lily and Sydney had claimed on the other side of the section where Nikki sat. Both males saw the stormy look in Nikki’s eyes as she watched them walk past.

  “You know, if Nikki were to get her talons into Sydney, it wouldn’t be pretty,” Archer commented.

  The words produced such a fierce sense of protectiveness in Keith that he almost stopped walking. The intensity of the feeling caught him off-guard, but there was no use denying it.

  Had he just set Nikki’s sights on Sydney? In a physical fight, he’d give the edge to Sydney. She was in far better physical shape than Nikki.

  But as he looked at Sydney now, the lights making her soft blonde hair seem to glow around her beautiful face, he knew that wasn’t Archer’s point. Sydney wasn’t equipped to deal with someone like Nikki. Despite everything he and Sydney had done together the night before, she looked just as pure and disingenuous as always.

  Her halo was still intact...thank God.

  Nikki, on the other hand, was a scrapper, someone who did whatever she needed to in order to get what she wanted. She could be vindictive and manipulative, especially if anyone stood in the way of her goals. She wouldn’t hesitate to rip someone like Sydney to pieces and then light the pieces on fire.

  There’s no way that’s going happen, he thought, returning Nikki’s stare until she looked away.

  If she even considered going after Sydney, she’d have to get through him to do it.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  On the flight, Archer read through the script he had brought along. It was a larger part than he typically took on these days but he had really connected with the character when he had been presented with the role. Even with the numerous lines he’d have to memorize, he felt confident he could nail it.

  About twenty minutes after takeoff, Lily nudged him. He marked his place and glanced over at her. She lifted a chin to direct his attention back over his shoulder and across the aisle.

  He obliged, looking over to see Keith reclined beside Sydney, both of them fast asleep. Keith had lifted the armrest between their seats. He currently held Sydney’s hand on his thigh, something that made Archer’s eyebrow lift. Sydney’s head was pillowed on Keith’s shoulder.

  “Do you think he realizes it yet?” Lily asked.

  He turned back to her. “Realizes what?”

  “That he’s in love with her.”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  She grinned. “Happy you’re not the only sucker around here now?”

  “Hey, Bubbles fell first.”

  “Ah. Good point.” She looked again at Keith and Sydney. “He’s not going to have a clue where to go from here. You’ll have to help him.”

  “Help him how?”

  “Give him some tips on things to do to show Sydney how he feels.”

  He gave her a dubious look. “You want me to help Keith do what?”

  Pushing her glasses up on the bridge of her nose, she said, “You don’t have to be obvious about it. Just drop some hints, like when you’re ordering me the plumeria for my green room—which I love, by the way—maybe ask him if Sydney has a favorite flower. Oh...she’s a classic pink roses gal, since I doubt he’ll know that. Or maybe suggest that he pick up a book she’d enjoy so she has something to do while the band is busy. She really enjoys mysteries and dramatic fiction. Or maybe—”

  She looked so serious that he just had to lean down and interrupt her with a kiss. He only intended for it to be a brief brush of his lips against hers. She foiled that by leaning into him and deepening the kiss. Before he knew it, his tongue was stroking hers again and again.

  He broke away from her succulent mouth before things got out of hand. He was pleased to see that her violet eyes weren’t quite focused and she was having as much difficulty as he was catching her breath.

  “What was I saying?” she asked after a moment.

  “Well, let’s see. I think you thought I somehow switched genders and I’d start offering Keith relationship advice...but that can’t be right.”

  Her lips twitched. “I didn’t say advice, exactly.”

  He gave her a look that had her rolling her eyes.

  “Fine,” she huffed, touching her laptop to wake up the screen. “But when things don’t pan out between them, don’t say I didn’t try to warn you.”

  She went back to reading through the band’s fan e-mail. Considering her words and her uncanny way of reading situations, Archer glanced again at Keith and Sydney. Even just the slight intimacy he saw between them now was more than he’d seen Keith exhibit with females in the past, even with Nikki. Lily was right that Keith was swimming out of his depth.

  He supposed he could possibly give him some tips. Maybe. If the situation happened to arise.

  A sof
t gasp had him looking back at Lily. She was staring at her laptop with wide eyes, drawing his gaze there.

  “What the hell?” he said, reaching over and tilting the screen so he could see it better.

  The photo on the screen had been edited. It was one of him and Lily at the movie premiere. Lily’s image had been doctored so that the handles of two knives protruded from her eyes. Blood seeped down her face and covered her upper body.

  Even though he knew it was fake, it had been edited well enough that it sent a chill up his spine.

  “Who sent this?” he demanded.

  “I don’t know,” Lily said, not arguing when he took the laptop from her and set it on top of the script on his tray table. “It was a new message that just came through.”

  Archer did a screen capture in case the image somehow went away. He took a photo of the screen with his cell phone for good measure. He then scrolled up within the e-mail so he could see the message and sender’s information.

  The sender’s name was Mark D. Chapman. It rang a distant bell but Archer couldn’t immediately place it.

  “Have you ever received e-mails from this guy before?” he asked.

  “I don’t think so.”

  He scanned the message that had accompanied the image and felt the chill spread to his heart. It read, Lily, I’m a huge fan of The Void and I won’t let anyone screw things up for them. Watch your step. I won’t hesitate to take you out of the picture.

  Jesus, he thought. Was this guy for real?

  “I’m sure it’s just someone trying to get attention,” Lily said.

  She sounded far from certain. Seeing her bring a hand to her stomach, he reached over to take it. He wasn’t about to add to any fear or stress she was feeling.

  “I’m sure you’re right,” he said firmly. “These kinds of weirdos surface from time to time. We have people who can investigate it. I’ll go tell Christopher about it now so he can get the wheels turning. It’s not a big deal.”

  He had never been so grateful for his acting abilities when she gave him a relieved smile. “Okay.”

  “Just move on from that e-mail for now,” he said, closing the e-mail with the image that would give him nightmares for a month.

  She accepted her laptop back from him. “Thanks.”

  “No problem.”

  He placed his script in the pocket of the seat in front of him and removed his seatbelt so he could stand up. Nearly everyone else in first class was asleep. His gaze fell on Christopher two rows back. His manager, never one to waste time sleeping, glanced up from his tablet and saw him. Archer urged him to get up and join him with a brief jerk of his head.

  Thirty seconds later, he and Christopher stood with Trey and Barney in the aisle by the first row of the plane. They were asked if everything was all right by one of the flight attendants, who promptly left them alone when Archer smiled and said they just needed a minute.

  “What’s up?” Christopher asked.

  “First,” Archer replied, “don’t look at Lily when I tell you this, and please do your best not to look too worried.”

  That had Christopher blinking several times. “Well now I’m already worried. What’s wrong?”

  Archer told them about the e-mail and the photo. He was glad to see that all of the men seemed to take the threat seriously.

  “You said this is someone Lily has never heard from before?” Christopher asked, typing something into his phone.

  “Yeah. I’m hoping you can get someone to trace the account since it was sent to the band’s fan e-mail. His name is Mark D. Chapman.”

  Christopher stopped typing. “Mark D. Chapman?” he repeated. “As in Mark David Chapman?”

  “Maybe, yeah. Why?”

  “Archer, Mark David Chapman is the man who stalked and killed John Lennon.”

  Archer was glad that his back was currently to Lily. He wasn’t sure even his acting skills could have masked his appalled reaction to that news. Fear for Lily surged through him.

  “Christopher,” he said, “I don’t care what it takes. I want you to find the person who sent that e-mail and I want him stopped.”

  “Of course,” Christopher said, sounding as concerned as Archer. “I’ll have answers as soon as possible.”

  “Don’t worry, Mr. Archer,” Trey added. “We won’t let anything happen to Miss Lily.”

  Archer supposed he should feel grateful for their words, but he didn’t. Even though the threat could have come from anywhere in the world and it had been rather vague, it somehow didn’t feel like he was doing enough in response to it.

  He had thought he’d be prepared for the additional attention he and the band would gain through the tour and the show. He had known that not all of the attention would be positive or welcome. But it had never occurred to him the negative attention might get focused on Lily.

  He was only now realizing that he had put a target on the woman he loved.

  * * *

  “Oh, good...you brought it,” Lily said later that night when she saw the dress Sydney pulled out of one of the garment bags hanging in their green room.

  “Aria insisted this time,” Sydney confirmed, draping the midnight blue lace over the back of the room’s sofa.

  Lily shared a smile with Aria as Sydney pulled her top over her head. They were all in the midst of changing after that evening’s concert. They had been told ahead of time the after-party that evening would be more formal, having been planned by one of Salt Lake City’s top event planners who happened to be a diehard Void fan.

  “It looks stunning on you,” Aria said to Sydney from where she stood shimmying into a sleek gold column. “You’re letting me style your hair, too.”

  There was no room for argument in her tone. Sydney just shrugged as she kicked off her jeans.

  Stripped down to her underwear, Lily opened the last garment bag in the room. Her brow wrinkled in confusion when she saw the dress it contained.

  “Oh, no,” she said, pulling the boldly colored dress out so she could see it more clearly. “This isn’t mine.”

  She wasn’t sure how this kind of mix-up could have occurred. All of her non-casual clothes had been carefully packed and transported with Dane’s things. There had been a number of garment bags from her shopping spree but she was sure this one hadn’t been among them. She had set out a different gown for Barney to bring to the venue that evening.

  Aria glanced at the dress as she walked over to the vanity and began sorting through her makeup. “Yes it is. It’s one of the dresses we bought in L.A.”

  Lily studied the dress, trying to place it. The sapphire blue bodice consisted of little more than delicate straps and two triangles of fabric plunging all the way to the wide band at the dress’s waistline. The flowing skirt below the band was a swirling floral pattern of the same sapphire blue mixed with emerald green and hints of shimmering silver. A pair of strappy silver heels rested in the bottom of the bag.

  “I would never have tried this on,” Lily insisted. “There’s no fabric to this.”

  “It’s the Valentino I told you would be perfect for you,” Aria argued as she applied her eyeshadow. “You refused to try it on but I pressed you to get it anyway.”

  Lily made a face as she tried and failed to remember that exact conversation. It did, however, sound like something she and Aria would have said during the stressful shopping trip. She supposed she didn’t have much choice now. It was the only dress available.

  “I can’t wear a bra with this,” she said as she removed the gown from the hanger.

  “Nope,” Aria agreed.

  Lily had serious doubts that she was going to leave the room in the dress. Half of her body would be exposed, for heaven’s sake. She put it on over her bra first to see if it even fit. She wasn’t sure whether to be thrilled or dismayed when it fit perfectly.

  “Oh, wow,” Sydney said reverently as she stepped into her own dress. “Lily, that’s just breathtaking.”

  Unwilling to take h
er friend’s word for it, Lily walked over to the full-length mirror set up in a corner of the room. The skirts felt light and airy as she moved, feathering out behind her with each step. She could hardly believe that the dress was the right length, less than an inch from the floor without her heels on. Off-the-rack gowns almost never fit her without hemming. When she spotted herself in the mirror, she did a double-take.

  “Ditch the bra,” Aria instructed from behind her.

  Lily reached up and unfastened the bra, pulling the straps over her arms and discarding it. Although the bodice did, indeed, leave most of her upper body bare, it fell in a tasteful and flattering way that made her feel elegant and beautiful. The style of the gown celebrated her slim build. She loved how the plunging neckline highlighted her bow and arrow necklace, which she only rarely took off.

  “We’ll be putting your hair up tonight to show off your earrings and necklace,” Aria told her, taking Lily’s hair and gathering it into a tumble of loose curls reminiscent of a Roman goddess. “I’ve got a silver strand we can weave into it. Sydney, we’re going with pinup waves for you.”

  Paired with the vintage lace dress Sydney was now wearing, the pinup waves would be the perfect touch. Lily knew Keith wouldn’t be able to take his eyes off of her.

  Of course, it would hardly take the dress to catch his attention, Lily thought. Keith had been staring at Sydney every time they were together that day after what had obviously been a significant night together. Lily had been caught up in band activities since the plane landed, so she hadn’t been able to get Sydney alone to talk about it. Judging by the blissful look Sydney had worn since that morning though, things had gone well.

  Lily got started on her own makeup while Aria worked on Sydney’s hair. They only had thirty minutes to finish getting ready before Barney escorted them to the after-party. The band was already there participating in interviews with the press.

  A knock at the door had Lily exchanging glances with her friends and calling out, “Is that you, Barney?”