Falling Angel

by Carmen Richter

  “Don’t bring her into this! At least I own my nerdiness. You’re still in denial.”

  “I’m a rock star. I’m too cool to be a nerd,” I quipped.

  He chuckled. “Don’t let your head get too big, babe. It won’t fit through the door.”

  “It fits through the door just fine, thank you very much,” I informed him as I walked out of my dressing room for sound check. “So, how’s my sweet girl, Penny?”

  Penny was Taylor’s baby sister, and through a series of absolutely awful circumstances, Taylor and his fiancé, Alex, had ended up taking her in. She was two years old and the light of his life. And the most adorable kid in the whole world.

  “She’s good. Growing up so fast. And misses her Auntie D. She still adores the elephant stuffie you gave her. Insists on calling it Affie.”

  I choked on a sob. I hated that I missed so much of my friends’ lives. And I hated that I was missing watching my adopted niece grow up. I really needed to talk to Hugh about getting some down time after this tour.

  “Aww! Tell her to stop growing, damn it! I don’t see her enough as it is,” I said, unable to stop my voice from breaking. “Is she there?”

  “Sorry. Alex is giving her a bath right now. Though it’s more likely the other way around. I swear, that girl gets more water out of the tub than in it.”

  I chuckled weakly. “It’s okay. I’ll talk to her tomorrow. Maybe I can FaceTime with you and see her for a minute.”

  “Yeah, for sure. If you call early enough, you can catch Alex before he leaves for work, too,” he told me.

  “I’ll set my alarm just for him,” I promised. “I haven’t talked to him in forever. Anyway, I’ve got to get going, babe. I need to get to the sound check.”

  I felt a pair of arms hug my shoulders, and given that one of them was way harder than normal, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that it was Samantha and the hard arm was her casted arm. I turned around for a real hug and kissed her cheek.

  “Hey, T, Sam’s here. Want to say hi to her in your sexy British accent before I let you go?” I teased.

  Samantha giggled; she loved Taylor’s accent. I did too, but after being friends with him for so long, I only really noticed it when he said certain words.

  “I have a sexy British accent? Sure, put her on,” he laughed.

  I put the call on speakerphone. “Okay, T, you’re on speaker.”

  “All right, love? How’s tricks? Bloody hell, bollocks, and all that. There. British enough for you?” Taylor said, laying his accent on extra thick.

  I laughed so hard I started crying, and Samantha’s giggles turned into full-blown laughter too.

  “Yep,” she said when she could talk again. “Too bad you’re not straight. Otherwise I’d make you fall in love with my awesome Boston accent. Pahk the cah in the yahd.”

  He laughed. “Sorry, love. Maybe if you were a bloke, you’d have a fighting chance.”

  She mock sighed. “All the good ones, I’m telling you. Either taken, gay, or fictional characters.”

  “T’s gay and taken. Double whammy,” I giggled. “Anyway, I’ll talk to you tomorrow, T. Give Alex and Penny hugs for me.”

  “Will do,” he promised. “Love you, D.”

  “Love you too.”

  I hung up and noticed that I’d gotten a text while I was talking to Taylor, so I checked it.

  Hugh: You okay, doll? How’s the tour? Haven’t heard from you in a while.

  I sighed and slid my phone into my jeans pocket. He should have known how the tour was going, because Josh was supposed to be keeping in touch with him.

  Then I turned to Samantha, who, besides my friends from college, was one of my closest friends.

  “How’s the arm holding up, babe?” I asked.

  “It’s okay,” she sighed, tucking a lock of her long brown hair behind her ear with her good hand. “Still kind of hurts, but I can live with it. It’s more annoying than anything, since it’s casted at this awkward angle. Makes washing my hair a bitch.”

  “I can imagine. At least they gave you a waterproof cast,” I said optimistically.

  “No joke. I can’t even imagine if I couldn’t take a shower! Especially with all the dancing we do during the show.”

  “Right?” I agreed. “Anyway, ready for sound check?”

  “Born ready. Let’s do it.”

  We started to walk toward the stage, and we passed Ezra doing his first sweep.

  “Hey, Ezra,” I said with a smile.

  “Hi, ladies,” he said with a nod.

  “See you in a couple of hours,” I told him.

  He just nodded again, and I shook my head. He was a nice guy, and we did talk sometimes, but when he was in the middle of doing his job, I knew better than to try to have a conversation with him.

  “Okay, if you’re not going to say it, I am. That man is H-O-T, hot,” Samantha giggled when he was out of earshot.

  “Don’t I know it?” I groaned. “He’s also my security guard.”

  “So? Doesn’t mean you can’t mix business with pleasure.”

  “Yeah, no thanks. What happens when it doesn’t work out and I still have to see him every day?”

  “Okay, first of all, hi. I’m Sam Reynolds, the girl who’s eaten your pussy more than once, yet still somehow manages to stay friends with you and do her job in your band just fine.”

  I doubled over laughing. She was insane. But she also wasn’t wrong. She and I were friends first, with very occasional benefits. And we had a mutual understanding that if one of us ended up in a relationship, it would stop.

  “And second of all, who says it’s not going to work out? What if it turns out to be something amazing?”

  “Right,” I scoffed. “Because my Prince Charming’s going to turn out to be a sexy-as-sin security guard I literally just met a week and a half ago.”

  “Why can’t he be? I know you’ve been screwed over more times than you can count. By that girl in high school, by your boyfriend in college, and then by Blaine Bates.”

  “Ugh! Can we not talk about Blaine?” I groaned. “Eight months later and I still haven’t gotten over that. And I had to go to his damn movie premiere last month. Fly back in from freaking Belfast for one day just to make nice with him after he left me for his co-star. All because I recorded that duet with Mikey Ecosta for the end credits.”

  “We’re not talking about Blaine. We’re talking about the new man candy who’s working for us now. And have you gotten a load of Garth, too? Hello, gorgeous!” She fanned herself. “I think you should give one of them a shot.”

  “They’re all yours, babe,” I chuckled as we got to the stage. “I’m good over here keeping things friendly, but professional.”

  “Hey, Daph, we’re sending someone over to the Panera down the street for dinner. Want anything?” Samantha asked just as Ezra and I were getting back to my dressing room from the meet and greet.

  “Actually, yeah. I’d kill for a Bacon Turkey Bravo with an apple and a green tea,” I told her. “Thanks. And hang tight for a minute. I’ll get a hold of Josh before you go so he can call ahead and put it on my card.”

  “You sure?” she questioned.

  “When do I not pay for everyone when I’m in on the order?” I reminded her.

  “You pay for it half the time when you’re not ordering something too. You realize we all love you anyway, right?”

  “I know. I just like to be able to do stuff like this for you guys. You all do so much for me, and this is a way I can say thank you for being so awesome,” I insisted.

  “Wow. A woman in the entertainment industry who actually eats real food?” Ezra teased.

  “You do realize I’ll burn most of the calories dancing tonight, right?” I raised an eyebrow at him.

  “That’s not a bad thing. I’m impressed,” he said. “I expected you to be one of those girls who orders a salad and then takes like three bites and claims to be full. I don’t think I’ve actually seen you eat a
t all this week.”

  “Because I’m so tiny? I got blessed with a fast metabolism. Doesn’t mean I don’t like to eat. You’ve just been busy working when I have breaks. Speaking of, do you and your guys want in on dinner? Like I said, it’s on me.”

  After Ezra radioed his team and got their orders, I called Josh and had him call ahead for the whole crew and give them the card number. It was always hilarious when they questioned that it was really me and then I had to talk to the person on the other end of the phone. Most of the time, it turned out to be a fan who just wanted to say they got to talk to me on the phone. And that was what happened this time. Not that I minded.

  “Sam, come hang out in my dressing room while I’m doing my makeup. We’ve barely gotten ten minutes together since you came back to work,” I said once I got off the phone with Josh and the restaurant.

  “It’s still so weird to me that you do your own makeup. Even after four years,” she remarked as we walked in.

  “I hate people sticking shit in my eyes. If someone’s going to be applying stuff like mascara and eyeliner to my face, it’s going to be me,” I reminded her, and then I froze in my tracks as my heart started to race and my breathing accelerated.

  Sitting on my vanity was a Victoria’s Secret bag with a card leaning against it. And I knew for a fact that my friends would never have bought me anything from there, even as a joke.

  My stalker was still out there, even after I’d fired half of my crew, including my old security team. I’d put all of those people out of jobs for nothing.

  I rushed back to my door, and Ezra was already a good fifty feet away.

  “Ezra!” I called.

  He turned around.

  “Come back here for a second,” I told him.

  He jogged back, and I asked him to come into the room. I didn’t want to do this in front of everyone, but I needed answers.

  “Can you ask your team where this came from?” I asked. “Please?”

  He sighed. “I’m going to guess that one’s not from your friends.”

  “Nope,” I agreed. “Definitely not.”

  This time, when he radioed to his team, no one had any idea where it had come from. No one had seen it get dropped off, which told me that someone had made sure to do it while they were all doing a sweep. And that meant that whoever it was had to know when they did their sweeps. Which narrowed it down to…pretty much anyone on this crew.

  “I hate to be the person who asks this, but are you going to open it, Daph?” Samantha said in a small voice.

  I took a deep breath. Part of me didn’t want to open it. But I knew I needed to. So I clenched my fist to stop the slight tremors and then opened the card.

  Here’s a reward for being such a good girl. I know you’ll look so sexy when you put this on for me. I can’t wait to see you in it soon, when we’re finally together like we’re supposed to be.

  I felt bile rise in my throat and I swallowed it back down as I pulled the contents from the gift bag. As I expected, it was lingerie. And, actually, if it hadn’t been creepily delivered to me, it might have been something I would have picked out. It was a gray, lacy thong with a matching bra and teddy. But the creepiest part about all of this was that it was my exact size, and with my small frame and bigger boobs, the chances of that being a lucky guess were slim to none. Had someone snuck into my hotel room and gotten my bra size?

  The bile rose again, and this time there was no stopping it.

  “Oh, my God. Oh, my God,” I gasped, quickly grabbing the trash can from next to my vanity so I could puke into it.

  Samantha rubbed my back and handed me a bottle of water from the mini fridge in the room. I gratefully accepted it and took a few drinks to get the taste out of my mouth. I put everything into the Victoria’s Secret bag and started to throw it out.

  “Wait,” Ezra said. “We might need that for evidence. And I swear to God, I’m not just saying that because it’s lingerie.”

  I never would have thought I would actually be able to manage a laugh at a time like this, but Ezra proved me wrong. I chuckled as I handed him the gift bag.

  “If you want, you can have any future gifts or messages delivered to my team so we can vet them first,” he offered. “We’ll let you know about everything that comes through, but that way, if you do get any more deliveries like this one, we’ll know about it first. And we’ll be able to tell you who delivered it.”

  I nodded. “Thanks. I’ll take you up on that. I’ll let Josh know.”

  “I’m going to go put this somewhere safe,” he told me. “Are you going to be okay, Daph?”

  “I’ll stay with her,” Samantha promised.

  “Good.” Ezra sounded relieved. He grabbed a piece of paper and a pen off my vanity and scribbled on it for a second. “That’s my personal cell. If you need anything, you can call or text. It’s on twenty-four-seven in case there’s an emergency with Ari.”

  I took the paper and pulled out my phone, putting the number in my contacts. And now I had an excuse to take a picture of him. For his contact profile. Which meant that my friends could now ogle to their hearts’ content.

  “Smile,” I said, holding my phone up and making sure I zoomed the camera out to get a full body shot. “I need a picture for your contact info in my phone.”

  He snorted, but let me take the picture. Then I texted him.

  Me: Guess who? :-P

  “You’re one of the few people who has my personal cell number now. You should feel special,” I teased.

  “Wow. I’m honored.” He smirked. “I’ll see you ladies before the show.”

  After he left, shutting the door behind him again, I sank down onto the couch in the dressing room. I had a couple of hours before showtime, and I needed to unwind after that disturbing gift and note.

  But before I did that, I needed to make sure I told Josh about having all gifts and messages from fans go through the security team before they made it to me. I pulled up my text thread with Josh and sent him a message.

  Me: Please make sure any gifts or messages from fans go to the security team before they come to my room from now on.

  Josh: Why?

  Me: Because I just got another anonymous gift and note. This time it was lingerie in my exact right size and the person was telling me they couldn’t wait to see me wear it. Creeped me out. I had Ezra ask his team where it came from, and no one knew, because it came while they were doing their sweep. He offered to have everything go through his team first in case someone tries to send something that could hurt me.

  Josh: Got it. I’ll get the word out. Sorry that happened.

  Me: Life of a rock star, right?

  Josh: You know it.

  I sighed and put my phone down on the arm of the sofa. I wished Josh and Hugh would put themselves in my shoes instead of blowing this off. I understood that this happened to celebrities from time to time. They’d get fans who were obsessed with them and did stuff like this, and most of the time, it was harmless.

  But what if it wasn’t this time? This didn’t seem like someone who had a harmless obsession. If it was harmless, how could they have gotten my lingerie size?

  Samantha sat down next to me and wrapped her arms around me, kissing my cheek. I half-smiled as I slid an arm around her. This was why I loved her so much. Because she always knew how to calm me down. She knew when I needed to talk things out, but she also knew when there were no words for a situation and I just needed someone to be there with me.

  Right now was the latter. I had no idea what to say.

  What was this person’s plan? Were they going to kidnap me? Try to kill me? My mind was racing with possibilities, each thought more disturbing than the last.

  I needed to make it stop. I’d never be able to get on that stage tonight like this. I wouldn’t be able to make my vocal cords work to sing a single song.

  “What can I do, Daph?” Samantha murmured. “How can I help you?”

  I turned to look at her. And
, just like that, I knew how to quiet the thoughts swirling around in my head at a million miles an hour.

  “Make it stop. I need to forget,” I sniffled. “Help me forget, Sam.”

  “You sure, babe?” she asked, putting her hand on my face and looking me right in the eye.

  I nodded. And that was all the invitation she needed. She crashed her lips to mine and sat back on the couch, pulling me over to straddle her.

  “Ezra,” Josh called, sounding frustrated, as I was walking back from dropping Daphne’s unwelcome gift in the car we’d be taking back to the hotel tonight.

  “Josh,” I replied.

  I wasn’t entirely sure what this guy’s issue with me was, but he didn’t seem to like me much. He didn’t have a problem with anyone else on the team. Just me. From day one, since Daphne’s asshole ex had shown up at her meet and greet and I’d handled the situation and offered to call the police for her. Maybe he felt like I was encroaching on his territory or something, but I was there when that happened; he wasn’t.

  “I just got a text from Daphne asking me to have any gifts go through your team first. You realize that’s not in your job description, right?”

  “I do realize that. But it’s something we’ve done before for other clients. It’s still in our wheelhouse.”

  “Well, I handle vetting all of her gifts personally,” he scoffed.

  “And you thought lingerie accompanied by a message telling her that the person couldn’t wait to see her wear it for them when they were finally together was an appropriate gift to deliver to her?” I challenged.

  “It was completely harmless.”

  “Physically, maybe. But it scared her so much that she threw up,” I told him.

  “She needs to grow a thicker skin, then,” he said, like a petulant toddler.

  “She shouldn’t have to have a thicker skin,” I insisted. “Because gifts like that should never even make it to her. Maybe this person is harmless, and maybe they’re not. If they are harmless, it’s not like us vetting the gifts is going to hurt anything. If this continues, we’ll be able to assess the threat and involve law enforcement if it becomes necessary. And since Daphne is the one employing all of us, I think you should honor her wishes.”