There was still no sign of Roger by the time the set was over. It had gone well and the stage was cleared afterward. Medusa was now back to its regular music and I could hear some of the buzzing and thumping in the background as my close-knit group of friends sat in Cade’s office. The entire concert had lasted two hours and had brought a significant amount of people to the bar, which translated to a successful night of business for Cade. I told Allison to either keep the money she had made on the door sales or give it over to him in full.
One decision I had now firmly made, was that I was okay with maybe doing a few concerts per year but I would rather spend my time with Holden. I figured I could do something the way Rose had done and emerge from time to time, but otherwise live my life on my own terms. I didn’t need the fame to be happy. I was more than satisfied just singing to him for a lifetime.
Everyone seemed to be far more relaxed now that it was over. They had talked briefly about Roger, but had decided to meet again after the wedding to see where they stood in terms of an action plan.
I received praise from all of them on an uneventful but engaging night. I’m not sure what they expected. Perhaps some crazy Julia move?
Probably. Maybe I had lost my claws.
I turned to Holden who was sitting on one of the leather couches with me. “So, when are we going back to the mountains?”
He eyed me. “Sometime soon, why?”
I looked at him innocently. “Oh, no reason.”
“No grenades, no incendiary devices, no guns—”
I rolled my eyes. “You know, I do know how to shoot a gun. My dad taught me. I’m quite good at it. I can outshoot him in target practice.”
He looked unimpressed. “Right.”
I turned away and pouted. “Don’t be an ass.”
“We’ll see. Put away the claws.”
He would give in eventually. Score one for the home team.
There was an alarm that started blaring through the room and a recorded announcement came over the speakers. “Please exit the building in an orderly fashion.”
Holden looked up at Aiden. “What the hell?”
One of the security people ran in through the door. “There’s a fire in the kitchen, spreading fast. We need to evacuate.”
Aiden had Liv in his arms and moved quickly to exit the room.
Holden turned and kissed me on the forehead. “I’m sending you out the back. There’s a car waiting and a driver. Just go and I’ll meet you back at the hotel.”
“Holden—”
He took me by the hip and started moving me toward the door. I saw Allie and several other people exit the room. Logan’s date stormed off. He had a hold on Kate’s arm and was rushing her through the door.
Cade came in looking around. “Holden I need you to look at this. Something doesn’t look right in there. Fire Department is on the way.”
Holden’s face slipped into his work mask and he nodded. When we stepped into the hall, he shoved me in the opposite direction that everyone else had fled. I smelled smoke and saw some wispy evidence of it coming into the hallway.
“Out Julia! Down the hallway.”
I turned in the direction he wanted me to go, only looking back once to see him following Cade with his gun drawn.
I opened the door and found one of Holden’s goons waiting on me. The door slammed behind me as I made my way to the BMW that he was motioning me toward.
A sound behind me, made me jump, and then scream. It was gun blast so close to me that I could smell the acrid bitterness of the lingering discharge from the weapon firing.
I turned around and found Roger leering at me.
He grabbed me by the arm and shook me. “Are you going to sing for me now Julia? I bet you will when you’re chained to a wall in my basement getting whipped and fucked like the bitch you are. Your husband is as good as dead too. And if you even think about screaming I’ll kill your sister just because she was lousy in bed.”
My entire body locked up and I couldn’t breathe. My mind went blank with fear and I started shaking as he started dragging me down the alley.
Chapter Twenty-One
The alley was dark and littered with trash. He was walking with the air of confidence and menace as he gripped my arm tightly. My heels were making it hard to keep up with his longer strides. I stumbled several times and he jerked me back to his side.
I was trying to take slow breaths as a panic attack came over me. Memories of that dark night on the beach with Julia’s ex-boyfriend came flooding back. Dark eyes, menacing grin as he bent over me with a knife. The blood trickling down my face. Feeling hopeless and alone before I passed out.
I started struggling against Roger’s firm grip, trying to run. Trying to escape and hide. I couldn’t breath and felt myself overcome with the adrenaline running through my tense body. I could only see the memories of that night, the smell of the rain, the feel of if pelting my body, his face leering, over and over again.
Roger stopped, grabbed hold of both my arms and shook me again.
“Stop struggling! You invited me here and you’ve gotten your wish!”
“Why?” I cried as I felt a tear slide down my face.
He laughed. “Because I want your voice for myself. You belong with me. You know why I’m here. All those looks you gave me. They meant something. You tortured me with that body for the last year. Pouting at me, looking at me. You sang to me when you were performing. It was always for me. You know it’s true!”
I shook my head. “No, you were with my sister!”
“From the moment I saw you, I knew. Your sister was just a means to an end. We were destined to be together Julia. I sent you flowers after that show in the park. You looked right at me and told me you loved me.”
“I was just singing Roger. I didn’t see you!”
His face turned red with anger. “Bullshit, you looked in my eyes. You knew! You knew I was your biggest fan. I wrote to you and showed you all the things I wanted. All you had to do was answer.”
“No. No,” I kept repeating.
“Yes! You act like the last year didn’t happen. You know you wanted me! I did everything for you and you turned your back on me. I even got you into a producer’s party. If you had just shown me some love and wrapped those lips around me, you could have had everything!”
He shook me violently and slammed me against a wall. My head bounced and made contact. I blinked a few times trying desperately to ignore the pain.
He forced his mouth on to mine. He tasted like alcohol and nicotine. I struggled against him, turning my head and started gagging.
He flashed his ugly smile at me. “You’re going to learn to love it. I’ll bring you to heel.”
“No Roger, just let me go!” I pleaded. “I don’t love you. You have things all wrong. Just let me go and we can talk to someone.”
“You’re never getting away from me again. I’m your biggest fan.”
My arms felt numb from his unrelenting hold. I felt weak and useless under the constant flood of memories that assaulted my mind and Roger’s words. I couldn’t ever remember a time when I had encouraged him. Not once had I looked at him any differently than I would have anyone else back then. Especially because he was my sister’s boyfriend. His face was contorted and I kept seeing Brandon’s face instead of Roger’s menacing one.
I stopped struggling and hung limp in his arms. Hopelessness overwhelmed me and I felt tears stream down my face. I couldn’t get away, couldn’t find a safe place to curl up and block this out. I couldn’t think clearly and felt adrift in my panic.
There was a sound behind Roger in the alley. He looked back and swung me in front of him. My body was compliant out of fear and exhaustion. He stuck a gun to my head.
“Not one step closer or I’ll shoot her. She’s mine!”
Holden’s voice was severe and woke me from my daze. “You’re going to let her go NOW!”
When I looked up I could see him partially standing behind
a dumpster. His face was a mask of pure deadliness. He looked possessed by some force that drove him to kill Roger.
I blinked at him. I barely recognized the man before me.
“Holden,” I whispered.
Roger squeezed my arm painfully and I cried out. “Oh!”
I saw a flicker of the man I loved in Holden’s eyes, then his face hardened, and became violently angry.
“You’re a dead man Roger,” he hissed. “No matter where you are in the world I will hunt you down. Let my wife go.”
Enraged, Roger answered, “She’s been with me longer than she has with you! She flirts with me, she looks at me when she’s singing and she wants me. She’s not your wife! You’ve confused her or coerced her into thinking she should be with you.”
“No,” I said.
Roger tapped me on the head with the butt of his gun. “All you had to do was leave him. That woman has his kid and all you had to do was walk out of that hospital. He lies to you Julia. He’s a fraud. He only wants you to make money. Don’t you see that? I’ve never lied to you. I always asked about you and if you needed something. I always cared about what you were doing and how I could help. I can give you everything.”
My eyes glazed over trying to process. He sounded like he believed the garbage coming out of his mouth.
Holden’s eyes blazed briefly into mine and then back to Roger. “Don’t listen Julia. You know I don’t lie to you.”
I could hear sirens in the background as they passed by the dark alley. The smell of rotting trash was pungent. My senses seemed to be coming back to me slowly the more Holden spoke.
“Roger, you assclown, get a clue. She’s never going to love you, even if you forced her. All those little love letters of yours didn’t work. You want to talk about lying? How about that actress you were stalking three years ago? She didn’t like those sick flowers of yours either did she?”
Roger took the gun from my head and pointed it at Holden “Don’t you talk about her. She didn’t know what was good for her. She falsely reported all of that. I was setup. That was settled privately.”
“Apparently not that privately if I know about it. Let her go Roger.”
Suddenly, Roger’s arm jerked and I heard the deafening blast of his gun firing at Holden.
It must have been a lucky shot because it hit Holden in the right shoulder and he his gun dropped. I could see pain flash across his face. He let out a roar and charged at Roger.
I screamed, horrified at the thought of Holden being injured. Roger aimed his gun again and I struggled against him causing his next shot to hit Holden in the leg. He went down hard on his knees.
My instincts came crashing back to me like a tidal wave and my body finally didn’t feel weak. Adrenaline kicked in. The past year had been full of depression and dealing with my own fears. My dad, in an effort to prevent a repeat of the previous year, had strong armed me into taking a self-defense class. I had gone for two months and quit, thinking it was bogus and not worth my time. How could any one person defend against people like Brandon and Roger?
I saw Holden on the ground, rage coursing over his face.
My left hand shot out from Roger’s grip and grabbed hold of the wrist he was holding the gun in. My right arm circled his bicep, I dropped into a crouch that brought my hips up and leveraged his weight to throw him over onto the ground. His gun dropped and skittered across the pavement.
I ran toward it and was tripped up in my heels. Going down hard on my knees, I started crawling to reach it.
When I looked back, I saw Holden lunge for Roger, just as Roger slipped a knife out of his boot. Holden punched him in the jaw but Roger got the upper hand by plunging his knife into Holden’s right bicep near the bullet wound. Roger threw all of his weight into Holden, knocking him on the ground. His head hit the pavement and he didn’t move. Roger retrieved the knife from Holden’s bicep.
My hand found Roger’s gun, I palmed it and sat up pointing it at the psycho.
He raised up above Holden, wielding the knife above his head with a deranged look on his face.
I aimed for his chest and pulled the trigger. Either from adrenaline or fear, my aim was off and hit Roger in the arm. His arm flew back and he dropped the knife. He turned his head toward me, fury written on his face. I pulled again and he jerked back from the impact to his chest. I pulled again and hit him in the head. He dropped over to the side of Holden and didn’t move again.
My legs were shaking when I stood up and I dropped the gun. I slowly made my way to Holden and sank down to look over him.
I heard shouting down the alley and the sound of multiple people running. I ran my hand over Holden’s face. He was breathing deeply, which I hoped meant that he was just knocked out and nothing more serious. His arm was bleeding profusely from both wounds. I pressed my hands to them trying to stop the flow.
Cade’s voice came to me from behind and I was lifted up and back, away from Holden. Multiple people started leaning over him as I watched. The sound of sirens were getting closer. Cade lifted me up in his arms and started walking away from the scene.
“Julia, we need to talk about your anger issues,” he laughed. The deep timber of his voice was pleasant.
“Holden?” I asked, fearful of his answer.
“That man has nine lives,” he said looking down at me. “Did he ever tell you about the scuffle we got into once where I accidentally shot him?”
I burst out into tears.
* * *
The next morning, we were back in the hospital again and I was leaning over Holden, kissing him on his lips. He hadn’t woken up yet, but the doctors assured me that he would soon.
Aiden walked in. “Everything is taken care of. You gave your statement to the police officer that was in here right?”
I looked back at him. He looked like he needed a shower and some sleep. I probably didn’t look any better.
After the shooting, Cade had taken me back to the office at the club. The fire had been deliberately set according to their analysis of the scene. Holden had found gas cans discarded in a closet after the fire department had put out the kitchen blaze. Their investigator had agreed. When Holden hadn’t gotten a check-in from the man he had assigned to deliver me to the hotel, he had backtracked to the alley to find his man dead.
The best Cade could figure, was that Holden had headed down the alleyway, possibly hearing Roger yell at me. Instead of calling it in, he had left to follow the noise. Cade had heard the shots from Roger’s attack on Holden in the back hallway. Then he had come running after getting backup.
Four witnesses clearly saw me defending Holden from a defensive position. I repeated what Cade had told me to say to the officers when they interviewed me. Between the eye witnesses, Aiden’s heavy influence and Brock’s loaded evidence of Roger’s threats, any charges that might come out of it, were likely to disappear.
It was good to have friends.
Aiden cleared his throat.
“Yeah, I told them what Cade told me to.”
“Good. Don’t worry about any of it.”
“I’m sorry you had to cancel your wedding. Liv must be upset at me.”
“Nah, we rescheduled for tomorrow. We only had about fifty people that said they couldn’t make it tomorrow.”
“How many people are staying?”
He blew out a big breath. “Oh, three-hundred or so. It’s a small wedding.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Small?”
He shrugged. “There were about five-hundred we could have invited but we decided not to invite all of my business partners overseas.”
“No wonder Liv was losing her mind when you took her to Brock’s dungeon.”
There was a knock at the door and Brock walked in looking like he stepped out of a GQ magazine. “I do not have a dungeon.”
I smiled, “Brock, you’ve left your computer. Will you survive? Getting withdrawal symptoms yet?”
He gave me a smirk that was likely practiced
and intended to look mischievous. “I came to hang with my girls.”
Aiden growled. “Stay away from the girls. Liv and Julia specifically.”
Brock’s eyes slid to me like he had no intention whatsoever of following that order. “Of course, boss. I just meant that we could have some friendly, platonic conversation over some cake.”
I chuckled. Brock was a mess.
Trouble, trouble, trouble.
Holden shifted beside me and mumbled. I turned around to look at him and his eyes came fully open to look at everyone. His left hand weakly grabbed the controller and tossed it in the general direction of Brock’s face.
Brock’s smile widened and he gave two thumbs up. “Love you too buddy. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure Julia gets in a dance at the wedding.”
Holden croaked, “Get out, fucker.”
Brock wiggled his eyebrows at me.
I sighed. “Cut it out Brock. Stop trying to piss him off.”
He winked. “Bet he’ll get better real fast if he thinks I’m going to kidnap you into a closet and show you some tricks.”
Holden tried to sit up and was reaching for the tray beside the bed. I put a hand over his arm to stop him from throwing it.
I lifted my eyebrow up at Brock. “I’m sure you’re aware that Holden has several tricks up his sleeve and a large one in his pants. Unfortunately, someone who sits behind a computer all day jacking off to satellite feeds and stock reports, doesn’t interest me in the least.”
Aiden whistled. Holden sat back and smiled.
Brock looked unrepentant. “Be still my heart. She’s mean. I like it!”
Aiden growled at Brock. “Brock go find something useful to do.”
He scratched his chin. “I’ll go find Kate.”
“NO!” all three of us said at the same time.
He smiled and exited the room.
Aiden shook his head. “If I didn’t know him so well, I would think he was serious. The man is a dedicated flirt.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I don’t know him that well and can see that. Half the female guests at your wedding reception are going to be fair game.”
Holden coughed. “Yeah and the other half are over seventy.”
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