Ransom

by Rachel Schurig

  Girlfriend. I frown at the thought. I wish I could say that Daisy is my girlfriend. But I don’t even have any idea where she is.

  I’ve come full circle. I spent the beginning of the tour missing her and wondering where she was. And it’s looking more and more as though I’ll spend the end of it still wondering, though the missing part has gone from a feeble ache to an incessant, pounding, sharp pain.

  I know she’s with Levi. He texted Lennon right away when he got her out of the hotel, telling him that they were taking off. We didn’t hear from him again until two days later. Two days of unanswered texts and calls. Daisy’s cell phone went straight to voicemail. By the time I finally heard from him, I was a panicked mess. I was dealing with the lawyers and trying to figure out if I’d be able to finish the tour before my court date in Ohio, but all I could think about was Daisy. This obsession and my inability to focus on repairing the band’s image had done little to appease my brothers or father.

  When Levi called, he apologized and explained that he took her up to his parents’ cabin in Michigan, where there was no cell phone service.

  I was shocked. “What the hell do you mean you took her to Michigan?”

  “She was freaking out, man. She wanted to go somewhere off the grid. It was the first place I thought of.”

  I wondered if that was guilt I heard in his voice. “I want to talk to her.”

  “She doesn’t want to talk, Dalt. I’m sorry.”

  “What the hell, Levi?”

  “Dude, what do you want me to do? She’s having a rough time.”

  “That’s why I need to talk to her. Fuck it. I’m coming up there.”

  “Daltrey, your father will kill you. You can’t leave again. It’s not fair.”

  I felt so torn. I knew there were people counting on me, lots of people: the venues we were booked in, our crew, family and friends, fans, even some important, very rich executives who had just spent a considerable amount of money to get me out of jail. I wanted more than anything just to go get Daisy, but Levi was right. It wouldn’t be fair.

  “Why the hell did you have to take her so far away?” I muttered. “Couldn’t you have just found a hotel to hide out in?”

  “Yeah, that would have been brilliant. We definitely should have stayed in the New York area, the media capital of the world.”

  I realized that I must have imagined the guilt in his tone. If anything, he sounded pissed now.

  “Do you have something you need to say to me, man?” I asked.

  “I just think it’s ridiculous that you’re criticizing how I handled things when you were the one who got her into this mess. And you were gone. I was the one who was there to clean up your mistake, Daltrey.”

  I gaped at the phone. Levi had always been one of my closest allies. I had never heard him so angry. “Levi—”

  He interrupted. “I’ll call you in a few days. She’s safe, okay? She sits on the beach all day, and she reads or watches movies. This is good for her, Daltrey. I wouldn’t have brought her here if it wasn’t.”

  “Well, thank you for that,” I said, feeling chastised.

  He hung up without saying goodbye. Since then, he had texted a few times to give me updates. She was still okay. She wasn’t ready to talk or leave.

  “Daltrey!” My dad’s voice is sharp, and my head snaps up in surprise. I had totally gotten lost in my thoughts, not paying attention at all. “Unbelievable,” he says, narrowing his eyes. “Did you hear a word I said?”

  “I have some things on my mind,” I snap, tired of the way he’s been talking to me.

  “You would think that you would care a little more about this stuff, considering the situation.”

  “You mean considering it’s all my fault? I get it, Dad. I messed up. You’re all pissed. Fine. I’ve been doing everything you asked me to since I got out, even though this isn’t where I want to be. I’m still showing up every day.”

  “You could at least listen—”

  “What’s the point? Do I have any say in the schedule? Of course I don’t. So I will be at every one of the stupid interviews and appearances you schedule. Forgive me if my mind wanders while you go over the orders.”

  My dad stands, anger radiating off him. Not for the first time in the last few days, I think he might actually punch me.

  But Dan gets up and puts a hand on Dad’s shoulder. “Actually, I think we’re done here, Will. Let’s step out so the boys can start their practice.”

  I almost wish Dan hadn’t stepped in. Dad should just take a swing at me and get it over with. But he allows Dan to lead him out of the rehearsal space, and my brothers start setting up their instruments.

  “Hey,” Lennon says, coming over to me. “Just give him time. He’ll get over it.”

  “Yeah. Like you guys are getting over it.”

  “No one’s kicked your ass yet, have they? I think we’re all being pretty understanding, considering.”

  I deflate, the anger replaced by worry for Daisy.

  Lennon reads my expression. “Still haven’t heard from her?”

  I shake my head.

  “She’s okay, man. She just needed to get away from all this for a while. And judging by the fucking paparazzi I had to fight my way through to get in here, she was probably right.”

  “I’m not saying she should be here. I just feel like I should be with her. It shouldn’t be Levi keeping her safe right now. It should be me.”

  “But aren’t you glad she has Levi? Wouldn’t it be worse if she was alone?”

  I haven’t really thought of it like that. Instead, I’ve been pretty busy resenting Levi for being with her while I can’t be. But then… “He sounded weird, Lennon. The last time I talked to him. I can’t… I can’t put my finger on it.”

  “Dude, come on. You can trust Levi. He does everything for us. He was probably just mad because he had to leave the glamour of all this.” Lennon gestures around the stark rehearsal space, rolling his eyes.

  “Yeah. Maybe.”

  “If the two of you are finished chatting, I’d like to get started,” Cash calls out.

  “Don’t worry about him,” Lennon mutters. “He’s just pissed because you’re stealing some of his bad-boy rep. He can’t compete with going to jail. I bet he’s losing out on tons of tail over it.”

  I laugh for the first time in days and go to join the band. As I pick up my guitar, I realize I feel slightly better knowing that Lennon at least seems to have forgiven me. The other boys will come around. Besides, there’s only a week left of the tour. Maybe what my brothers and I all need is some time apart.

  And maybe I’ll finally be able to get Daisy to talk to me again.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Daisy

  “I was thinking barbeque for dinner tonight,” Levi says, coming to sit next to me on the back deck. He places a cup of coffee in front of me.

  I smile at him. “Thanks. And barbeque sounds fine.” I direct my attention back out to the lake. I think I hear him sigh, but he doesn’t say anything. “Okay, I’m ready,” I say. “Give it to me.”

  “There was no mention of you on People.com or Instyle,” he says. “TMZ has some pictures of Daltrey going into rehearsal with a blurb about the situation, but nothing new. There’s some Twitter gossip, and a few things on the band’s ConnectMe page, but it’s definitely decreasing. All in all, not too bad.”

  I release the air from my lungs. This was our new routine. Levi would go into town in the morning, so he could get a cell phone connection. He would then check the gossip sites and report back. He said it made me a masochist, but I assured him that in my unfortunate experience, it was better to know than to imagine.

  The first few days were the worst. There were stories on nearly every major news site, both celebrity centered and not. Levi tried to convince me that the stories were actually fairly positive. Reporters had found a lot of the garbage that had been written about me in high school. They were portraying me as a cyber-bully v
ictim—no argument here—and Daltrey as my righteous defender. As far as we could tell, no one had the pictures. Yet.

  “Thanks, Levi,” I say, reaching for my coffee.

  “It was nice, you know. Being in town. There are cute little shops and stuff. Restaurants. Maybe we could spend some time there this afternoon.”

  I snort over the paper rim of my cup. Levi has been trying to get me to go into town since we got here, thinking it will be good for me to get out. Every day is the same, him thinking of some new “plus” and presenting it to me as casually as he can.

  He laughs. “I’m not fooling you, huh?”

  “You can never fool me, Levi. You’re just not a natural actor.”

  He places a hand over his heart. “You’ve shattered my dreams.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry. I had no idea you’ve been dreaming of stardom all this time.”

  The laughter falls from his face. “Actually, I think I may have had my fill of being close to celebrities.”

  I gape at him. “What are you talking about? You love working for Ransom.”

  “I don’t know. I might be over it.”

  I shake my head. “I can’t believe that. This was just a blip, Levi. One weird week that got out of control.” I clear my throat, knowing I need to say the thing I’ve been trying to say all week. “You should really get back to work. I can’t keep you away from your job like this. I’ll be okay on my own.”

  He shakes his head. “Nope. Out of the question. I’m not leaving you.”

  I glance at his phone lying on the table. Since there’s no reception out here, he called my dad and Paige on one of his first trips into town. I’ve been surprised to find that I’m actually dying to talk to my dad, though he’s never been the one I turn to for emotional support. But the desire is not strong enough that I want to risk going into town myself.

  “I could go down and stay at my dad’s,” I say, though it’s pretty much the last thing in the world I want to do. I would be too close to home there—my old home, the place where the world fell apart around me. The very thought makes me shudder.

  “You should see your face right now,” Levi says, smiling sadly. “As soon as you said you could go to your dad’s, you looked like you were about to be sick.”

  I stick out my tongue at him. “I did not.”

  “Uh huh. Okay.”

  “I mean it, Levi. You should be working. You put so much into that tour. It sucks that you’re missing the end just because of me.” I debate whether or not I should ask him if Daltrey expressly told him to stay here with me. We don’t bring Dalt’s name up very often. I think Levi can tell how much it hurts me to think about him. Levi told me when Dalt got out of jail—part of his daily media round-up—and mentioned that he had spoken to him. That was the extent of our Daltrey-related conversation. I was too afraid to ask if Daltrey was angry at me for taking off the way I had.

  “It’s the thing you always wanted to do,” I say softly, looking out at the water again. “Working on a tour like this.”

  “Things change, Daisy.”

  I look over to see him staring at me, an unreadable expression in his eyes. “Like what? You don’t like working in the music industry anymore?”

  He waves a hand dismissively. “No, of course not. I just… I’m pissed, okay? I’m pissed at him for what he did.”

  I widen my eyes in surprise. “You’re mad? At Daltrey?”

  “Of course I am! He totally screwed you over, Daisy, in case you haven’t noticed.”

  I gape at him. “What? No he didn’t. He messed up, but he was just trying to help—”

  “He was trying to help himself. He was mad, and he thought beating up Justin would make him feel better. That’s all that was about. He wasn’t thinking about you at all.”

  “Levi—”

  “No, it pisses me off. He didn’t consider how you would feel that day he disappeared. And he sure as hell didn’t consider what it would do to you if the media got a hold of your story.” He gestures angrily at his phone. “He just assumed I would take care of it. Good old Levi does whatever one of those guys asks.”

  The venom in his voice is horrible. Does he really resent being here that much?

  He catches sight of my face and quickly shakes his head. “No, Daisy. I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “You could have said no,” I say, struggling not to cry, “when he told you to take me out of there.”

  “No, Daisy.” He reaches across the table and takes my hand. “He didn’t tell me to do anything with you. I mean, I figured he’d be glad I was looking out for you, but he didn’t like, instruct me or anything. I left with you because I wanted to.”

  Something about the way he’s looking at me makes me feel strange, but then his normal, no-worries expression returns.

  “It just makes me mad that he does stuff like this. Like all the times he asked me to check on you because he was too busy with the band. I was happy to do it. Hell, I would have done it even if he hadn’t asked. But why didn’t he ever take the time to do it himself? And all his bitching about missing you last year. Why didn’t he man up and just go find you?”

  “Levi…” I don’t like this conversation or having these things about Daltrey thrown in my face. Tears tickle the corners of my eyes.

  Levi stares out at the waves. “The day you told me what happened, the last thing I wanted to do was walk away from you. I would have never gotten on a plane, no matter how much I might have wanted to beat the crap out of that slime ball myself.”

  This is sounding a little overwhelming. Levi and I have been friends for a long time, but I’m not completely sure this is friend-level intensity.

  “If you were my… well, I wouldn’t have left you if I was him.” He looks over at me and seems to realize what he’s saying. His face falls a little. “I just think it’s shitty that he left.”

  “Levi…” My stomach is churning. “Are we… are we okay?”

  His smile returns, but it seems muted. “Of course we are. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be ragging on him. I just…” He takes a deep breath and looks right into my eyes. “You deserve better.”

  I have no idea how to respond to that or how to feel about the look in his eyes right now. Before I can figure it out, I hear the crunching of gravel. A car is pulling up into the driveway.

  My first thought is that some reporter has found us. I freeze in my seat. This place is supposed to be safe, the perfect hiding spot. They can’t take it away.

  Levi is up on his feet before I can even react. He pulls open the screen door and rushes into the cabin. A moment later, I hear voices from the front of the house.

  “Daisy?”

  That’s not a reporter.

  “Dad?”

  He comes striding out the back door, Levi following. He spots me sitting on the deck, and his face seems to crumple, a combination of relief and anger washing over it. “There you are.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I could ask you the same question. We need to talk.”

  Levi is standing behind him, looking awkward. I wonder if he tried to stop my dad from coming back here. I wouldn’t put it past him with this protective streak he’s displaying lately.

  “Let’s go for a walk,” I say.

  I stand up and Dad comes over, Levi on his heels.

  “It’s okay, Levi,” I say quickly.

  He looks as though he doesn’t want to leave us, but then he nods and sits in his chair. I look up at my dad. He’s staring at my face as if he can’t believe I’m really there. It’s strange. He usually avoids eye contact.

  “Come on,” I say, starting across the lawn to the beach.

  We walk in silence for a few minutes. It’s a beautiful day, the sun glinting off the blue water of Lake Huron. Dad is dressed in jean shorts and a T-shirt, and I notice how young he looks. I try to remember the last time I saw him in anything but a suit and can’t.

  “I’m very angry at you, Daisy,” he fi
nally says, but his tone is neutral. “You have no idea what this week has been like for me.”

  I want to laugh. What it’s been like for him? “Were you embarrassed, Dad? Having my name in the papers? Were people talking about me around town again? God, that must have sucked for you.”

  He grabs my elbow, pulling me around to face him so fast my head spins. “A year ago, I find out that my daughter is being bullied so badly she can barely go to school.” His voice is very low and controlled, as if he’s afraid to give it any leeway. “Which I had to find out from a guidance counselor, by the way. A few weeks after that, I find her in the bathroom with her… her wrists…” He lets go of my arm and turns his head. “You have no idea, no idea what that was like. After your mother…”

  “Dad.” I don’t what to say to him. Of course, I knew that my suicide attempt affected him. He’s clearly worried about me, doing everything in his power to keep me alive and in school, sparing no expense. But I’ve never seen him get emotional about it. I always perceived his feelings as being more stress focused. It was his job to keep me safe, but he would rather not have to deal with me one on one.

  “I’m sorry,” I say softly. “Of course I know that was hard for you.”

  He releases a huge breath and plops down on the sand, pulling his knees up toward his chest. It strikes me that I sit that way too when I’m upset. After a moment, I join him.

  “I should have told you about your mom ages ago. I can’t help but wonder, if you wouldn’t have found out during such a vulnerable time… I was never good at the feeling stuff, Daisy.” He’s still not looking at me. “When I met your mother, it was the first time that I… that I ever really experienced that.”

  “What?”

  He’s quiet for a moment. “Love. Kisses and hugs. Touching. When I was growing up, we just didn’t do that in our house. When I met her…” He trails off, his eyes on the water. A small smile comes to his lips. “She burst into my life like lightning—bright and loud and a little bit scary, unlike anything I had ever known before. I was captivated by her, I couldn’t get enough. She taught me about loving someone, about showing that love.” The smile fades. “Then she was gone, and I was left with you, a beautiful little girl with that same ability to flash through my life. But I was scared. What was the point of all that feeling if it made you so vulnerable to pain?”