She laughs and doesn’t shut up. “I have seen her with men before, but I have never seen her like she is with you.” She gets up and walks around the table, grabbing the two coffee cups. “I’ve seen her cranky, and I’ve seen her bitchy, but I’ve never seen her sex deprived, and the last time she was with someone was over a year ago.” I grit my teeth. “Oh, don’t pretend you were a virgin before her.”
“Cori, I can’t do it. If I do it, it will go against everything I stand for,” I say softly.
“Sometimes, the risk is worth it,” she says and walks out, leaving me alone. I finish the coffee and then walk up the stairs, seeing that her door is closed as is Cori’s. I walk back into my room and close my own door. Getting into the shower, I wonder the whole time how far I can take this. How much more before I snap. I close my eyes and focus on the finish line. But I wonder if, when we get to the finish line, she’ll still be there waiting for me.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kellie
“Atlanta, you were wonderful,” I say into the mic after my second encore. Walking to the middle of the stage, I take a final bow before I turn around and run off the stage. After handing off my mic and my earpieces, I jog down the stairs and find Cori and Brian waiting. I look over at him and want to jump into his arms. It’s been a week since he last kissed or hugged me. And if I’m honest, I’m dying inside, but I’m standing my ground. I want him to take it to the next level, and I want to do it with him. Climbing into bed at night without him is hell, tossing and turning all night is horrible, and I haven’t slept through the night since he last held me in his arms. It’s ridiculous. I’ve been without him my whole life and after only one month with him, I already yearn for him.
We are almost to the bus when I see a man walk from the side. I think it’s the driver, but his stance is different, and he isn’t wearing the jacket that he usually wears. I look over at him and see him scurrying off. “Brian, that guy over there,” I say, pointing at the guy who is now running away. “I think he came from the bus.”
He ushers me into the bus, and we see the inside is trashed. The pillows are sliced in half, and it looks like red paint is all over the walls.
Why are you hiding from me? is painted on the white curtains.
Brian grabs me around my waist, and my feet don’t even touch the ground when he gets off the bus. We are walking around the bus to, I don’t know where, and I see two guys coming toward us. I start to shake in his arms. He has enough time to look up but not enough time to stop the two guys from running up to me and asking me for my autograph. I look at them and see that they are maybe twenty, and they are both wearing my tour merchandise. One guy is screeching my name while the other one goes on and on about how much he loves me. My heart pounds in my chest as I try to overcome the fear that if I stay here long enough, the man might come back and get me. I look around almost violently while I scan the back of the venue.
“Not now, guys,” Brian says, pushing them away, and they plead with him to just get a picture. I can’t say anything. Nothing comes out of my mouth.
Cori goes to them and tells them that she will send them huge fan bags if they just let me go, so I can leave.
Brian reaches into his pocket and presses a button, and we are running to the car. He puts me in and looks over at Cori, who just nods and runs off. He gets in the car and takes off to where the guy came from. “Son of a bitch.” He punches the steering wheel and then takes out his phone, the ringing coming from the Bluetooth.
“Hello,” Hunter mumbles.
“I want all the video surveillance from tonight’s venue watched,” he says, his voice tight. “Someone trashed her bus.”
“Where are you?” he asks, and I hear rustling in the background. “I’m putting you on speaker.”
“I’m going to take her to the plane I had on standby,” he says, and I don’t know what to say. My hands are shaking. “He’s getting desperate.”
“He’s bound to fuck up sooner or later,” Hunter says. “I’m going to get the team up and have that surveillance checked.”
“I’ll be in the air in the next twenty minutes. I need you to call the pilot on standby and tell him we are on our way.”
“Copy that,” he says, and then the phone disconnects.
“Brian,” I whisper, and he just shakes his head, “he’s not going to stop until he gets me.” Putting my hand on my stomach, I say, “I think I’m going to be sick.” He pulls the car over, and I open my door and step out into the dark night. “I don’t think I can breathe,” I say to him, holding my chest. “He is going to get me.” I start to shake now; my body shakes as if I’m standing in the middle of Antarctica with no clothes on and I’m freezing. The lump in my throat is becoming so big I’m having trouble swallowing. The writing on the wall is all I can see.
He grabs my shoulders. “I swear on my life he will never, ever get you.” He takes me in his arms, and I let go of the sob I was holding back. My legs give out, but he has me in his arms. “Baby, we have to go,” he says softly. “We have to get on that plane.” I nod. “You are not going to let him win. You hear me?” he says, and all I can do is just nod my head. I try to make the tears stop, but they don’t. He puts me in the car, and we take off, arriving at the airplane, and I see that Cori is there waiting.
I step out of the car, and Brian is already walking around to grab my hand, and we walk up the stairs. “Is everything taken care of?” he asks Cori, and she just nods her head.
“I found the driver inside, and he said that someone went to him and told him to meet us inside,” she says. The stairs of the plane come in, and just like that, we are taking off. “The bus is on lockdown.”
I don’t listen to anything they say. I just look out the window, and I wonder why this is happening. We land about an hour later, and when we get off, I don’t even ask where we are. We get to the house, and he takes me in. Cori stays with me that night while he gets on the phone with the guys and they go over the footage. When I walk down in the morning, he’s still sitting at the computer. Cups of coffee scatter the table, and he looks like he hasn’t slept at all. “You need to sleep,” I tell him, and he just shakes his head.
“This guy is a fucking ghost. We can’t find shit on him,” he tells me. “Then the camera cuts out, so he must know someone who works there.”
“Brian,” I tell him, “you need to sleep, baby.” He looks up at me. “If you don’t sleep, you can’t take care of me.” I try to turn it around on him, knowing if it’s about keeping me safe, he’ll do it. “We aren’t leaving this house for the next four days. You can go sleep.”
He gets up and kisses my neck and then goes to the bedroom and lies down. When I walk upstairs, I find him sleeping on top of the bed with his clothes on.
For the next four days, all he does is go over the footage. The concert that night isn’t my best, and I end up scanning the crowd for the man, but he isn’t there.