Suddenly I was shivering with shock and couldn’t get warm. Gibson dressed me in a t-shirt of his and lay down behind me and wrapped his arms around me. “I got you, darlin’, I just want you checked out. The doctor will be here soon.” Just after he said it, there was a knock on the door and Gibson pulled away from me. Wrapping a bath robe around him he went and answered the door.
After checking on me, Dr. Grant decided I had contracted food poisoning. A shot of anti- sickness medication made me feel less nauseous and he also left us some sachets of mineral salts to add to water and took a swab from my mouth for culture. The bathroom was being cleaned while the doctor was with me. There was a brief discussion about intravenous fluids, but Gibson was quick to tell the doc he’d support me to drink more and by the time the doctor left I was feeling less shocked and more able to settle to sleep.
Gibson’s low voice woke me and I heard him say, “I’m not leaving her.” Sitting up, I pushed myself back against the headboard and saw he was on the phone. “How are you feeling, darlin’?” Really I shouldn’t have sat up because I was feeling nauseous again. “Not great.”
Gibson frowned in concern. “I’m just talking to Johnny, I’m staying here with you. They’ll just have to cancel the gig.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Gibson, I have food poisoning. I’m not dying.” Gibson looked worried, a deep crease forming between his brow.
Gibson sat on the bed and touched my cheek, “You’re sick. I’m not leaving you here and going to work.”
“And I am not allowing you to disappoint 30,000 people because of a touch of food poisoning. Just because you have the luxury of working for yourself, Gibson, doesn’t mean you can’t consider the bigger picture. I’m fine. Well I feel pretty crappy really, but I’ll live. Go. Do your job, see Toby and have fun. I’m happy to stay here with Emma. I’m a big girl and as touched as I am by your caring ways, to be honest, you’ll just be in the way today.”
Seeing the look of rejection Gibson gave me almost made me change my mind, so I spoke in a softer tone. “Gibson, you have no idea what your gesture means to me, but really…I’m tired…worn out from vomiting, I’m no company today. I just want to sleep. Please, it’s only one day and I’m fine.”
Staring at me for a few minutes, I could see the conflict on his face that was playing out inside his head. Eventually he huffed a heavy breath and nodded. “Okay, but Emma comes here and stays with you.”
Gibson called Johnny back and told him he’d be ready to leave in a few minutes. When he bent down to kiss my cheek I realized he had showered and gotten ready to leave while I had been passed out. Taking my hand and squeezing it he said, “I’ll be home as soon as the gig finishes.” I shook my head no at him, because the whole reason we had traveled during the night was so that he got to catch up and spend time with Toby.
“No. I don’t want that. Spend time with Toby, please have fun, you never get to see him and the last time you did, I got in the way of that. You work so hard, Gibson. Take the time with your friend then come home, I’ll still be here.”
My cell rang just as I was finishing talking and Emma’s ID flashed on the screen. Swiping the screen, I answered and Gibson stood waiting to hear what was going on. Emma had been sick in the night as well, so as Gibson hadn’t eaten any of the Chinese food and we had, we were able to narrow down what the cause of my sickness was. Emma said she had been feeling delicate but was just about to head up to our suite in a couple of minutes. I tried to make my voice sound lighter and said I was feeling a bit better for Gibson’s benefit.
Gibson’s face visibly relaxed when I told him that Emma was coming to the room so he kissed me again and said that he’d call me later. I told him not to in case I was asleep, just to enjoy his time with Toby and not make too much noise when he came home. Gibson gave me a half smile, swiped his wallet and phone from the room dresser and blew me another kiss. “Keep that bed warm and get well quickly, my dick’s getting cold out here all by itself.”
As soon as the door latch clicked I flopped back heavily against the deep pile of the soft pillows, sighing deeply. I wasn’t feeling well at all but my great act had convinced Gibson to do what I knew he had to.
Soft tapping on the door signaled the arrival of Emma, so I slipped gingerly out of bed and pulled on the bathrobe that Gibson had discarded on the chair during the night when he got back into bed. Checking my face in the mirror, I had a slightly pale yellowish tint to my skin, so I pinched my cheeks and tucked my hair behind my ears before opening the door.
Paralyzed, my heart stopped beating in my chest. Kace’s face met mine and before I could think, his hand quickly gripped my forearm, like a vice and he yanked me so hard that I came right off of my feet. He placed some kind of acidic-smelling cloth over my mouth and nose, I struggled but in my weakened state was no match for him and my muffled screams went unheard.
Kace grappled with me until his arm was wrapped around my waist and he was applying pressure like he was squeezing the life out of me. My senses became dimmer with every passing second and my lungs were constricting tightly as I fought for air, but with each deep gasp I was overcome with fumes until I slipped into blackness.
CHAPTER 18 - JOB TO DO
Gibson
Leaving Chloe sucked. This is one of those times I wished I was just any ordinary John Doe with an ordinary job and could throw a sick day from work to stay home and take care of her. Then again, I’d probably still have to go anyway. At least she was in the capable hands of Emma. We landed on our feet with her, she has fitted in so well and yesterday she had Chloe’s back from the moment she stepped in the room. I was relieved that Chloe seemed to like her.
Once Johnny was behind the wheel and we were heading to the gig, he filled me in on the plan so far, for drawing Kace out. Every time Johnny spoke about him he was kinda cagey and I knew he was worried that I’d do something deadly to him when I finally set eyes on the piece-of-shit-for-a-man. Trust me, the thought had crossed my mind on more than one occasion and I wanted more than anything to make him suffer the way he had made Chloe suffer, but being smarter than the average bear, I’d be more inventive about getting my pound of flesh.
“Promise I won’t lay a finger on him, Johnny. When I flush him out I’m thinking more in terms of making him a social leper and publicly humiliating him in a, you’ll-never-get-work-in-this-industry-again type of punishment. I don’t want instant gratification because it would take a lot of effort to get that from someone like him after what he did to Chloe. No, I want that fucker to suffer for the rest of his life for what he did to my girl.”
Johnny turned and grinned at me, his eyes flashing wide in surprise. “Damn, Gib. Remind me never to piss you off, because you know me so well you’d cut my dick off and feed it to me, huh?”
Snickering at Johnny, I shook my head and chuckled because the most important thing to him, apart from looking after me, was getting laid. Maybe that was the reason we’d got on so well. With that thought a flash of a memory came to me. A brief visual flash of Ruby’s face and I’m sure she was being fucked hard. Nothing conclusive, but her head tilted upward, face flushed like she was in ecstasy. Her eyes were filled with lust and they were staring straight at me. I must have stopped laughing abruptly, because Johnny’s head snapped around in my direction and then back at the road.
“What is it? What’s wrong? Gib, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.
“Shaking my head again, there was no way I wanted to say what I had just seen out loud. That would make it real. I’d bagged Ruby and she was so cool about it around Chloe, that I was now questioning the quality of their friendship, because she had been encouraging Chloe’s relationship with me. Did Chloe know already? Had they compared notes? If Chloe didn’t know, did Ruby have ulterior motives for not saying anything to me?
“Fuck!” My heart was thumping with the shock of my revelation. Chloe wasn’t the only one feeling sick. Maybe Toby was right. Maybe when Chloe knew the truth, she’d tu
rn and walk away because at the end of the day, she wanted a normal life—free from drama and she’d never get that with me. After what happened yesterday with Erica, I had felt certain that Chloe was gone when she left the room, but she came back. Now the percentage had risen on the possibility of her deserting me if I came clean with Chloe about Ruby.
Johnny sighed heavily and swung into the back lot of the concert venue. “Spill.”
Breathing deeply, I held it in. I lifted my hands and swept them nervously through my hair. Exhaling in an agonizingly slow controlled way, I turned to look Johnny square in the eye. Johnny’s face registered a dark, worried response before he spoke, “Oh, boy. This is a biggie Gib, huh?”
Barely nodding, I struggled to find the words that used to fall out of my mouth like I was asking for a glass of water. “I fucked her, J.”
Johnny stared confused by my change of subject because when we had been laughing prior to that we’d been talking about Kace. “Ruby…I knew I’d seen her before. I fucked her back in the day.”
Johnny’s initial response was mute, but his face displayed his dismay. At first I thought he was disappointed in me until he started to appease me. “Okay, that’s a major fuck-up, but Chloe knows what you were like. It’s Ruby she’s going to be more disappointed with, acting all supportive and being her best friend an’ all. She’ll be hurt Gib, but she’ll be more hurt with Ruby than you.”
Something told me that it wouldn’t be that easy. Chloe already had trust issues and I had been doing well on that score, but this was now a huge elephant in the room for me, and I was going to have to shove its ass out sooner or later.
For the first time in my life, I wasn’t looking forward to spending time with Toby. The last thing I wanted to do was get involved in one of Gamete and M3rCy’s parties, because they were wild. It was different before I had Chloe. Now though, it felt like I was missing an arm when she wasn’t with me. It was one thing to have private feelings and another to maintain a public image so if people knew we were in the same place at the same time, you could bet your ass the media were on it.
Rehearsals went well, considering my mind was elsewhere and I was itching to ring Chloe, but she’d asked me not to and I almost asked Johnny to ring Emma to check up on her that way, but Chloe was right, I needed to focus on my job and let her rest.
Up on stage I relied on the crowd to lift my mood. Performing never got old. Seeing the pleasure on all of the loyal fans’ faces was always a pick-me-up. I performed a double acoustic session because that kind of moment is the unplugged, intimate moment when I get to truly connect with every single one of those people that have paid their hard earned money to keep me doing what I do.
Without a doubt, I have the utmost respect for all of them and during the first session it came to my mind that Chloe was correct in her assessment of my responsibility to them in the anonymous partnership we shared, and today was the first time I’d ever attempted to put anything else first.
My reward for the two ten minute injections of raw music was an eruption of rapturous cheers and whistles, along with a deafening roar of appreciation. The connection in the huge dark space filled to capacity was almost palpable. If nothing else, I hoped that each one of them took that away from our performance. It made my heart so full I could hardly expand my lungs to breathe.
Toby had been playing across town and had biked over to get to the venue for the encore. At the end of the last song, when I walked off the stage he jumped out from nowhere onto my back and practically frightened the shit out of myself and Johnny. “Fuck, Gib, your man here is getting old…I could have stuck a knife in you.”
Jerry stepped forward and commented. “No chance of that Toby, I saw you getting all unnecessary in the pants department when I searched you before. It’s second nature for Johnny and me to do something your guys don’t. Everyone gets searched apart from Chloe.
“Gib doesn’t like it but we got his back make no mistake on that score. You only got to do that because I let it happen.”
Smirking at Toby’s surprised face, I started chuckling, “See Toby, it pays to employ sexual deviants. They’ll do anything to cop a feel.” Johnny gave Toby a salacious smirk and tweaked his nipple and Toby yelped and held his nipple snickering before thrusting his chest at him saying, “Fuck that was hot, do it again.” Johnny gave him a dark stare and Jerry, Toby and I cracked up with laughter.
Toby had arranged a visit to a local nightclub where he knew two guys who managed it and although I was reluctant to go, once we got together I knew it had been far too long since we just hung out together and had some fun. Len was on form and already sizing up which lucky women would give his dick an ‘airing’ and Simon picked up a piece of ass before we even reached the VIP area. Drinks flew like an open faucet and it wasn’t long before I was behaving as stupidly as the rest of them. Or they were behaving as stupidly as me. Whatever.
Several drinking games later, and Matt and Jeff from Toby’s band had collected a group of girls who were all out on a bachelorette party. They were also pretty drunk and couldn’t believe their luck to be invited to party with us. Actually, they were really funny girls. I had to kiss the bride- to-be and normally I’d have been all over that, but I was determined that it would be appropriate, but Len more than made up for my deficit and Toby wasn’t holding back either.
Around 2.00am, I started to go downhill. We’d been drinking for a couple of hours and I was ‘well oiled’. Drinking games at a party were always a bad idea if you were on your own. Jerry was there but leaving me to my own judgment, so there was no one giving me the hint that I was reaching my limit for making sensible decisions.
Things went from bad to worse, because I got up and started dancing and the girls were all over me with their hands brushing against my junk every chance they got. I guess I was wired from the gig and not being able to get laid or go to sleep and with the alcohol I’d consumed, I was feeling pretty frisky. So the dancing became a bit raunchier than I’d have liked.
Toby came over and bumped my shoulder grinning and shouted in my ear. “Damn. There’s my buddy! I wondered for a while what the fuck you had done with him.”
Len slapped the back of my shoulder and leaned in to talk to me after Toby had slung his arm over the shoulders of a petite brunette with hair down to her ass and a skirt that almost disappeared under it. Pulling her flush against him, they danced very closely with his hand clasping hers close to both of their chests in a very intimate way.
“Remember Chloe, dude.”
Inside my head, I knew what I was doing and argued with myself that I was not crossing any lines in regards to my love for Chloe. I was just a guy in a band who was letting go with his best buddies after a long week at work.
Dancing made me thirsty and drink made me want to dance. After another couple of hours I was almost blind drunk. I hadn’t eaten much and had used up what was left of my energy on the dancefloor, so I flopped down heavily on the leather padded seating to watch the others for a while.
As soon as I sat down there were three girls all over me. One girl with awful dyed-blonde hair and black roots tried to straddle me, shoving her huge tits at me and grabbing my face in her hands in her effort to kiss me. I was fending her off when Jerry dragged her away from me and told them all that I didn’t want their attention, before he moved them away from me with his body and his hands out at each side, backing them up and out of the three sided area the sofas made.
That was when I realized I wasn’t focusing particularly well and the room began to swim. Lying back, I closed my eyes and I must have passed out, but when I came to I was aware of a warm body snuggled up next to me. For a moment I thought it was Chloe, and pulled her closely into my side. Jerry tugged at me and when I opened my eyes he was shaking the girl to move her away from me and I sat up with a start.
“Enough, Gib. You’re digging a hole here, let’s get you home before you do something you’ll be sorry for tomorrow.” I stared at him confus
ed and trying to cobble my thoughts together; as drunk as I was, I’d been here many times in the past and when Jerry interjected at these times, there was a warning that I was about to fuck up in some way. He always registered with me more than Johnny in these circumstances. So even inebriated, I knew that I had to do whatever he said.
All the guys in the band were annoyed that I was going home, but Jerry reminded them that Chloe was sick and that I should have been home with her already. That seemed to appease them all. Toby and I hugged tightly and he was a bit emotional, but that could have been because he had drunk too much, but we never knew when we’d see each other again.
Stupid of me to drink so much when my body wasn’t used to it anymore, but Jerry was a star, getting me safely into the car. Sliding behind the wheel he pressed the automatic ignition to start the car just as buzzing sounds came from his phone in his pocket. Jerry quickly pulled it out and stared at it. When I saw the dark angry look on his face I became worried. “What?”
Jerry’s jaw ticked and he turned the screen to me saying, “Trouble boss. Of course I’ll back you, but with Chloe’s issues, I think you might have some trouble convincing her about this one.” The picture was of me and the random girl cuddling cozily on the sofa in the nightclub. She was smiling sexily and looking up at me, and in the picture I seemed to be looking down at her, except for the actual fact that I was asleep.
Nothing like shock for sobering up. Pushing my legs into the foot well of the car, I sat up straight in the seat feeling sick to my stomach and dropped Jerry’s phone down the side of the seat and it rolled under so that I couldn’t reach it.
“Fuck, Jerry. Get me home. I have some explaining to do, but I also have the fact that it is an innocent picture on my side. Where the fuck where you? Jesus, this is a real cluster fuck, and just when everything was falling into place with Chloe.”
Trusting Gibson (Last Score Book 2) Page 16