by Cari Quinn
“Remind me about that no-more-bourbon clause,” I moaned.
“It wasn’t bourbon that put you on your ass.”
I frowned at the male voice. Who was in my room? I took a deep breath and tried to move. Worst hotel room ever. The bed sucked.
I peeled my eyes open. Way too much bourbon. I tried to sit up, but a firm hand held me down. Beige walls, white curtains, and mint vinyl chairs were in my line of sight.
Definitely not hotel. Hospital?
“How are you feeling, sweetheart?”
“Mom?” I turned my head and winced. She stood over me, her blue eyes bloodshot and makeup free. “Oh, my head.” I lifted my hand, but found an IV attached to my arm. “What the hell?”
I tried to blink away the fuzzy edges, but my head had been replaced with Wyatt’s kick drum.
“Can you turn down the lights?”
“Sure, baby.” My mother reached above the bed and pulled on a string. The overhead light went out. “Better?”
“Yeah.” I looked around. My father was pacing at the end of my bed. “Wow, what’s with the long faces?”
“What do you remember?” Noah asked.
I swiveled toward his voice slowly. Nausea swam up and I had to close my eyes and breathe. When I opened my eyes, he was still there. His arms were crossed and his shoulders stiff. No dimples this time around, just his work face.
That wasn’t good.
I frowned. Everything was jumbled. I tried to swallow, but my tongue felt like it was two sizes too big and made of sand. “Can I have a drink?” Why the hell was my throat on fire?
Worst flu ever?
My mother held a cup with a straw to my lips. I took a sip, but had to lay back down when the nausea rolled over me again. I was pretty sure I got hit by our tour bus, then the driver backed up and went for another joy ride.
I used my other hand to wipe my eyes. It was as if an impermeable film was over them. Finally I noticed the other people in the room.
Hunter and Kenny were clustered together at the edge of the privacy curtain. She was still in her wedding dress, for God’s sake. Hunter’s bowtie dangled on either side of his unbuttoned collar.
Wyatt, Owen, and Bats were along the wall looking worried. Bats gnawed on his thumbnail, his eyes deeply shadowed. Zach sat in a chair beside Bats, his knee bouncing.
“Hi, guys.”
That’s all it took. All of them came forward and surrounded my bed, talking at the same time.
I held up my untethered hand. “Guys.”
Hunter clamped a hand on Noah’s shoulder. “We don’t know what we would’ve done if Noah hadn’t been there.”
“And we’re not going to find out.”
I sighed at my dad’s terse voice. “Let’s talk about this.”
“What’s to talk about?” My dad stopped pacing and gripped the bottom of my hospital bed. “Some…person tried to drug you and do God knows what to you.”
Bits and pieces started to fill in. “I think there was something in a water bottle.” I closed my eyes and tried to shuffle the flashes of memory together. “She was dressed like one of the waitstaff.”
“Just take it slow,” Noah said.
“Right.” I swallowed down the nerves that jumped in my belly. “I thought it was the bourbon at first. I’d had more than my share with everyone toasting. Then there was champagne…” I trailed off.
I sounded like a lush, but I knew they wouldn’t judge me. If anyone was a lightweight on the drinking scene, it was me. I could hold my own, but I didn’t need booze to have fun.
Not to mention I got a little too mouthy when I had too much to drink.
“Your blood alcohol wasn’t terrible, but they found ketamine in your system.”
My eyes flew open at Noah’s words. “What?”
Noah nodded. “We’re keeping it in house right now, but we really need to bring the cops into this.”
I ran my middle fingernail across my forehead lightly. We dealt with overzealous fans more often than I really wanted to let on with my parents in the room.
It was just part of being famous. And since the surge in our band profile, it was only getting worse. We didn’t closet ourselves away like some artists in the industry.
We didn’t have an entourage of bodyguards with us.
We had Patrick. And he was usually enough.
But ever since our Tonight Show appearance, and subsequent appearances on a handful of daytime talk shows, there was definitely a bit more of a security issue at play.
We handled it.
We added extra security when necessary, but this felt different.
I didn’t like the ribbon of fear that was trapped in my chest. I really didn’t want to worry my parents, but it wasn’t like they were going to leave the room while we had a band meeting.
Hmm.
Maybe. I opened my mouth to try it, but my dad’s face was mutinous and my mother was shredding a tissue.
I dropped my head back on the pillow. There was a frustrating level of details that I couldn’t quite capture. Like her face.
All I could picture was my own face.
But that wasn’t right.
I crossed my arms and the IV pulled. I growled. “Do I really need this?”
“Yes,” everyone said together.
“Who made you all doctors?” I groused.
Noah moved up to the head of my bed, across from my mother. “Look. This is what I do, okay? And this is way more than your run-of-the-mill fan. This woman went out of her way to get a drug that would scramble your memory. That’s concerning.”
I glanced away from Noah to my father, who had resumed pacing. So not helping my situation. “Can’t any kid on a college campus get this stuff though?”
“It’s not quite as easy as you’d think.”
“This is LA, Noah,” Bats said quietly.
Noah sighed. “All right, I’ll concede that this is definitely an easier town to get it in, but I still don’t like it. We need to make a report to the cops. We need to have this sort of thing on the record.”
“Even if I can’t even tell you her name? Or what she looks like?”
“Yes.”
I crossed my free arm over my middle. “All right. They aren’t going to do anything.”
“I know.”
“What the hell?” Hunter sputtered.
Noah held up a hand. “You know better than anyone that stalking cases are hard to prove.”
“This isn’t just stalking. This bitch— Sorry, Mrs. Keystone.”
My mom gave Hunter a tight smile. “It’s quite all right, Hunter. I’ve heard worse.”
His lips flattened into a thin line. “This girl got through security, which was top shelf, I might add.”
Noah nodded. “The hotel has a good staff. They deal with a lot of celebrities. I also vetted the waitstaff list through my own databases at Roth Defense.”
“She was dressed like a waitress, but didn’t have one of those little gold name pins.” I gestured to my chest.
“That’s good.” Noah pulled a notebook out of his pocket and scribbled into it.
At least I remembered that. “And she was wearing my shoes.”
Noah’s eyebrow spiked.
I rolled my eyes. “Not my shoes, but ones that I wear a lot.” I shrugged. “It’s not like I’m Gwen Stefani or anything. People don’t copy my look—”
“Sure they do,” Kennedy said. She came up alongside Hunter and linked her fingers with his. “That stuff is my job, and I know for sure there are message boards dedicated to your style, Keys.”
“Really?” I was honestly shocked. I didn’t exactly have a style. Well, unless you wanted to call British punk rock with an LA flair a style. Sort of.
“Yeah. When I was researching you guys as a client, I dug around a bit. There’s a Reddit with everything from the T-shirts you wear to the colors of your Converse sneakers.”
I rubbed at the goose bumps that suddenly flared on my arm. “Wow.”
> Noah nodded. “We live in a digital age that makes stalking pretty easy.”
My dad growled.
I gave Noah a look, but he ignored me and kept on talking. Actually, to be honest, this was probably the most I’d ever seen Noah’s lips flap in all the years I’d known him.
Noah rattled on about all the scary things that made my mother’s eyes shrink farther into her sockets, for freaking shit’s sake. I didn’t want them to hear this.
I liked keeping my life separate from theirs. Sure, sometimes I felt a little lonely at family functions, but at least they didn’t worry about me. Now, I’d have my mom crawling up my butt and my dad losing his freaking mind.
“Enough,” I finally said.
Noah patted my arm. “I know it’s a lot. It might be a situational thing. There are a million different stalkers active in this region alone. They don’t call it Hollyweird for nothing, Keys.”
Hope flared. I tried to beat back the uneasiness. Honestly I did. But the creepy way I couldn’t remember the girl’s face was really messing with my head.
I wanted to keep the details to myself. Each one was more damning than the last. But it wasn’t fair to my family, and it surely wasn’t fair to my band.
And dammit, it scared me.
I didn’t like being scared. I loved my fans. I loved reaching out to soothe a fan who was excited to meet me. I wanted to be able to still hug a stranger.
I gritted my teeth.
No one was going to take that away from me, dammit.
“She was dressed like me.” I swallowed and gestured to my hair. “How I wore my hair even just a few weeks ago. The same strips of purple. The same way I wear my long layers. If I had to actually say it, she probably had the same base color for my hair before I added the temporary dyes.”
Noah started scribbling again. “So, she had the same shoes and look?”
I fisted my fingers. “Even the same crystals I wear on stage.”
“Jesus, Keys,” Bats said, and broke through Hunter and his brother to get to me. He pressed his forehead to mine, his huge hand curling around the back of my neck.
I patted his cheek. “I’m fine.”
Reed Mason was the most volatile of all of us. From anger to love, and all the emotions in between. We fought as much as we loved in this band.
Not romantic love.
They honestly were my brothers. I’d never felt the need to get my Stevie-Nicks-and-Lindsey-Buckingham style love story on. The guys were hard enough to deal with as brothers without getting a dick involved.
Besides, I knew way too much about them and their habits. I’d kill all of them inside of a month if I dated any one of them.
After ten years, that was so off the table that it was dust in the far corners of our history.
It didn’t stop my eyes from prickling with tears as Bats brushed a kiss over my temple before he rushed out of the room.
I sighed. “I’ll stick close to Patrick.”
“That’s not enough,” my father said.
“Dad.”
“No. If Mr. Jordan is right about the police’s lack of help in this situation then I’m hiring you a bodyguard.”
“Over my dead body.” I winced. Okay, so that wasn’t the best choice of words in this particular instance. “Dad. Patrick is amazing—”
“Where was he when this happened?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but couldn’t. I remembered seeing Patrick at the reception.
“I was seeing to an issue with another fan who crashed the party.”
I craned my neck to see Patrick hovering just outside the room. Was he guarding my door?
This was way out of control.
He came inside and stood beside Noah. His usually clean-shaven jaw was shadowed with auburn stubble. Patrick had been with us since the beginning. We’d never needed more than him unless it was a special occasion.
He clasped his hands in front of his belt, his fingers clenched. “Three people had been at the wedding off our no-fly list.”
“This girl?” I asked hopefully.
He gave a curt shake of his head. “Two of Hunter’s and one of Owen’s.”
My father’s eyes went arctic and his dark blond brows snapped even lower. “You have a list of these people?”
“Aww hell,” I muttered.
This so wasn’t going to end well.
5
Keys
“Out!”
I nearly slumped against the crinkly POS pillow when a nurse bustled into the room.
“Visitation is long over, and we’re keeping Ms. Keystone for the night just to be safe. You can return in the morning for visiting hours, but she needs her rest.”
My dad started blustering, but my mother caught his hand. “Isaac,” she said in her quiet way.
He immediately went into protective mode. For once it wasn’t aimed in my direction. He gathered my mom into him and pressed a kiss to her temple. “I’m sorry, Mere.” He looked over her head at Patrick, then at Noah. “I want a protective detail hired. Money isn’t an option.”
I closed my eyes. I knew he was worried, but the idea of someone following me around at all times was even more daunting than having an active stalker. I was used to people getting fixated on me. I was the only female in our band. There were just as many male fans, thanks to Hunter’s growly singing style and our heavy guitars that were tempered only slightly by my keyboards.
We were definitely in the hard rock category, and brought the rougher element to our shows sometimes. We’d made it through the crazy shift in music in the 2000s, and had come out even better as we were firmly heading to the other side of another decade.
But this was different.
This wasn’t just a guy who thought I was an easy lay.
This wasn’t a guy at all.
And somehow that made it all the more incredible to me.
Was this woman just fixated on my public persona? Or had she been trying to drag me off to her creepy basement to keep like a pet?
There was absolutely no reason for her to try to drug me.
The fact that I couldn’t remember everything that had happened was even more frustrating. I just wanted my life back.
I wanted to go on tour, and play music for my fans.
I didn’t want this.
But what exactly could I say? So I said nothing, and tried not to snarl and seethe at the people who loved me best. Wyatt and Owen came forward and gave me quick kisses on the cheek.
“I’ll be back tomorrow,” Owen said. His Irish was thick, worry etched in every word. He twisted his fingers with mine. The familiar scars webbing across his fingers made my eyes prickle.
I should be with my friends, celebrating at the wedding. At most parties, we usually ended up jamming on our acoustics to the drunken fight songs that Owen loved to pull out.
I shouldn’t be in this freaking bed. I shouldn’t be worrying my parents.
I shouldn’t have any of these problems, dammit.
Kennedy came forward with Hunter behind her. “Get better, okay?”
“I’ll be fine. The doctors are just being a pain in the ass.” The nurse made a humming sound, but I ignored her. “I want you guys to go on your honeymoon.”
Hunter shook his head. “Hell no.”
“There’s nothing you can do. Noah will be here until we figure out what to do. Heck, maybe I can hire him.” I spared him a glance. He was speaking with Patrick in hushed tones. Probably figuring out some sort of schedule to babysit me on the overnight.
“I already asked him to handle this,” Hunter said.
“Hunter—”
He moved around Kennedy and sat on the edge of my bed. “If I could get him out of his contract, he’d be hired right now.”
Disappointment hit me harder than I thought it would. I didn’t want to break in someone else. Noah might be a pain when it came to his rules, but at least I understood him. I knew him and was comfortable with him.
I didn�
�t want some stranger hovering around me at all times of the day.
“I understand. He’s always in high demand.” I knew he wasn’t just a bodyguard from the stories Hunter had told me. Noah was always going overseas or into some strange town in the middle of nowhere. I didn’t exactly know what he did, but I knew there was a lot more danger involved than a babysitting detail like mine.
Patrick walked to the middle of my room. “I’ll be right outside, all right?”
I sighed. It just wasn’t worth arguing about. At least not tonight. I smiled. “Thanks.”
He nodded and left.
My mother came up beside my bed and smoothed my hair back.
Hunter smiled at my mom then stood.
Noah came up beside them both. “I’m going to check in with a buddy of mine. He’s just finishing up a long-term job, so I’m going to see if he’s interested.”
Hunter frowned. “Who?”
“Quinn.”
Hunter’s eyebrows shot up. “Alexander?”
Noah nodded. “He’s one of the best I know in this business.”
“For Keys, though?”
I looked between the two men. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Nothing,” Hunter said quickly.
My mom’s hand came down on my shoulder. “All I care about is that he’s good at his job. Does he work with you, Noah?”
He nodded. “He works for Roth with me. He only does long-term assignments. People don’t ever want to give him up.”
“So, why is this job ending?” I asked.
“Because the client is moving overseas. Q likes to stay stateside. Believe me, the ambassador tried to get Quinn to relocate with him.”
Ambassador? I didn’t want to be impressed, but really? How could I not be?
“If he can protect a diplomat, he can protect my daughter,” my father said firmly.
“Dad, I don’t think he’s going to want to take on my job after he’s done something so important.”
“You’re important,” my mother said briskly.
If I rolled my eyes any harder, they would actually land on the floor. “You know what I mean.”
“If Quinn isn’t available, I have two others I can use, but he’s my first choice. He’s my best friend and I trust him with my life. Seems good enough for you, blondie.”