Rock Star

by Kathi Goldwyn

  “Callie? Callie I’m so sorry, I can’t even...” As his words trailed off, I could see all the pain hiding inside. He had carried this for us, but it wasn’t his fault.

  “Sean, you got to forgive yourself. How would you have known? None of us knew she wasn’t right in the head. Look, Gaby’s fine.” I gave him a small smile, the only one I could muster. Though I knew it wasn’t on him, it sure would have felt good to blame someone, anyone. Tenny fooled us all. That bitch didn’t deserve another moment’s thought. But I felt wrecked, and she did that.

  “Just let me know if there’s anything I can do for you or him. Anything.” Sean grimaced, but I noticed his shoulders finally sagged. Maybe it was relief that it was over or maybe it was because I didn’t hold a grudge against him. We were all relieved.

  “I will, right now I'm going to fix some food. You hungry? You want to eat with us?” I offered, knowing that none of us had eaten since this all started to go south hours ago.

  Sean gave me a head nod, so I added, “Come back in thirty, and I'll have it together.”

  I walked back to the bedroom and changed Gaby’s diaper. First, I gave him a bath, and wrapped him in a towel. I found some of his clean clothes in my room. I had dragged all his stuff Tenny had taken back here. I dressed Gaby, “Okay, baby boy, time for some food.” I went to the kitchen and made him a bottle then put a pot of water onto boil. I planned to make some pasta and sauce for everyone. As I pulled out all the ingredients for meat sauce, Hunter joined me.

  “Babe, can I help?” I turned to him and finally broke. My tears started to fall, and I just couldn’t stop. I was wracked with sobs. I took hold of Hunter like I’d never let him go. Relief coursed through me as I cried. I held onto his shoulders for a long time. Finally, all that was left was a hiccup. Hunter put his finger under my chin lifting my eyes to his.

  “It’s going to be alright, babe. We’ll recover. Gaby looks fine, look at him guzzle down that bottle. He’s adorable, isn’t he?” Hunter chuckled, standing next to me. He turned to the stove and helped me get the sauce going with burger and sausages. The intoxicating smell of onion and garlic soon wafted through the bus, the aromas of bubbling sauce, heavenly. My stomach rumbled. We hadn’t eaten the entire day, I was running on empty.

  “After we eat, we have an appointment with Doctor Heinz. He says he’ll see him right away cuz of what happened. Then we’ll get Lip to take us to your parents' house. We’ll figure out how to tell them. I want to talk about the tour, baby.” Hunter finally sounded like his normal self. I relaxed for the first time in what felt like forever. Tenny was gone, locked up and she couldn't hurt us anymore. He was right, of course, we needed to talk about what came next. But the thought of facing Mama with the news made my heart shrink.

  “It feels like we’ve been distracted for too long. How many shows did we miss? Are they mad at me? What are we doing?” I felt overwhelmed suddenly, trying to get a grasp on what was happening to my career. “Did I fuck up bad? Can we make it up to them? What did they say?” I worried my lip with my teeth, biting a bit too hard, I licked the spot where my teeth dug in and tried hard not to stress out so much.

  “No one is mad at you or us, baby. I rescheduled for the end of the tour, so we’ll be out longer coming back through. But it’s cool. I got it all handled. I just want to know if you think you can concentrate on music after..well..after everything.” Hunter coughed into his hand, searching my eyes.

  “Let’s drop Gaby, first. I’m fine as long as everything is good at home. I’ll be so ready to take the stage again. I need the music, Hunter. I need to sing.” He looked so relieved it made me giggle. I grabbed him around the neck and kissed his roughened cheek. He hadn’t shaved today, and the bristles rubbed at my lips.

  “Honey, it’s going to be alright, everything’s cool now! Let’s celebrate the return of our little guy with everyone.” I looked around the bus at all my good friends, Ted and Marko had just come in and were sitting at the table. Lip was up front, and Sean stood next to him. “Soups On!” I yelled out and we all lined up to pile our plates high with pasta. We were starving from going through so much stress. I opened some wine, and everyone lifted their glass in the air. I looked over at Hunter and gave him a nod. He raised his glass and said,

  “Here’s to Callie and the Turtledoves and our dude, Gaby, here! We made it through everything cuz we had all of you.” He turned to the guys and moved his arm up even higher. “Here’s to all of you!” We threw back the wine, the booze hitting us hard. I felt a little dizzy. I twirled the pasta on my fork and took a big bite.

  Everyone else dug right into their pasta, moaning over how delicious it was.

  Hunter was known for his awesome meat sauce. We were family, all of us together.

  “Live strong, family!” I yelled. I felt so lucky to have all these men surrounding me. Love was pouring all around me. It felt refreshing to celebrate for a change. My mind had gone down those dark alley ways when we didn’t know where Gaby was. I had totally lost my mind when my baby brother vanished. He could have gotten hurt----or worse, he could have died in the arms of an enemy.

  But now-----now it was time to grab everyone up in my arms. This was my family.

  Family Strong!

  Chapter 61

  Hunter

  Lip drove all night long after we got the clean bill of health for Gaby. He had gotten through everything with flying colors, and I was so proud of him for being such a tough, strong little soldier. Callie hovered close to him every minute. I didn’t think she would ever want to let him go. I worried what it was going to do to her when we drove away leaving G behind. We were all going to miss him terribly.

  Life for us had gotten off track, that’s for fuck sure. I hated going through such an emotional storm and I knew the best way for all of us to recover was to get back to the business of music, back to touching people's lives with words and notes that filtered through the air. Soaking in lyrics that meant the world to us, would give us a boost. Once Callie took the stage, life would be magical again. We could all use with a bit of extraordinary.

  Lip pulled up in front of Callies parents' house, slowly dragging the bus over to the side of the road, wheels scrunching leaves on the pavement. The air smelled so sweet as we disembarked. We took the stairs down to the ground---everyone wanted to see Keri and Bob now that things had settled down. This goodbye was going to be difficult, and we each wanted to have a private moment to say farewell to little Gaby.

  He was on our bed right now, sitting up giggling as Callie tickled his tummy. “I’m gonna miss you, G. We’re all gonna miss you.” She said and dipped down to playfully bite his belly. He squealed with laughter as Callie looked up, her eyes sparkled on this sunny day. “I have a song boiling up, I got to get it down on paper. It’s about everything we’ve been through. I can’t wait to work on the music with the Doves.” She took a deep breath and pinched Gaby just enough to get another peel of laughter out of him.

  “I know what you mean. I can’t wait to get to our next stop and watch you take the stage again. It feels like it’s been forever since I saw you take a bow.” I kissed the top of her head. This was the woman I wanted to marry. She was so talented, and I just knew we were meant to be. I needed to stay focused on the business of making her a star. I had to concentrate on becoming the manager I knew she deserved.

  “Are you going to be okay, baby? Leaving Gaby, I mean. I worry...” I didn’t finish, Callie cut me off,

  “Yes, of course. I’ll miss him but he’ll be where he belongs.” I smiled and thought, that was my sensible woman. I couldn’t agree more. We still had miles to go and so many more shows to perform to demonstrate that she was the real deal. My plan was to come home victorious and go straight back into the studio. Once the album was completed, it would definitely hit the charts. ‘Rock Star’ was going to be a top ten hit. I could feel it in my gut, and I was never wrong. We’d be back on the road so quick it would make our heads spin. In a good way.
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br />   With each song the they wrote, the more my confidence soared. I had handled all the business side of the delays, and everyone was extremely supportive of the Doves. It amazed me how the music community had rallied to champion us in our hour of need. The texts and emails had flooded in, making us feel the profound love of everyone. Texts popped up like We’re thinking of you and Let us know if you need anything,

  Our friends and music contacts had gone out of their way to send their support to our little songstress. Flowers and cards of encouragement poured in. Fans sent emails from our website, spreading their love and devotion. They touched us on a deep level.

  Life couldn’t get much better than it was right now.

  All my lifelong fantasies were coming true. I was living the dream. I was in love, and though we'd had some terrible stumbles, Callie was quick to recover. She was so ready to hit it again. She gave me a shy smile and dragged her hand up my leg.

  “We have some catching up to do,” Callie said seductively, and stood to wrap her arms around my neck. I was swoony taking her lips with mine. I kissed her with everything in me, with all the passion a man could have for his woman. She was mine. End of.

  “I think we could use some alone time. I want to get you naked and worship your beautiful body.” I whispered, my heart clutched tightly. Just thinking of Callie’s naked body got me going and my cock stiffened inside my pants. I pushed it down to find a more comfortable position for my hard dick and Callie smiled, grabbing it tightly.

  “Oh, I can’t wait,” Callie murmured.

  “Now, stop that babe, we have to go say hi to your parents. I don’t want to have a boner when I see them again.” We both laughed and thankfully my dick started to deflate. Time for all that later.

  Once the bus was parked to the side, we marched out like we were one unit of foot soldiers. Callies’ dad came out of the house, wearing grey sweats. He looked thrilled to see us. “Gaby!” he yelled full of that Hines enthusiasm that I fell in love with.

  Steve, their homecare helper, pushed Keri outside in her wheelchair. She was still unable to walk, something that wasn’t going to resolve itself. But her broad, happy smile sparkled as Callie placed Gaby gently on her lap, right where he belonged. I heard Keri crying, “Oh my baby, I missed you so much. Mama loves you.” She wrapped her arms tightly around her baby, holding him as close as possible to her heart.

  Steve wheeled her further outside as she held on tight to Gaby, she was so overwhelmed with emotion at seeing him again. Tars slid down her face like a silent waterfall and her radiant smile reached from ear to ear.

  Bob ran towards us, “Callie honey, thank you so much!” He yelled, as he wrapped his arms around both his wife and baby. He silently wept in his wife’s neck. I couldn’t imagine what they had been through and the scene before me about broke my ever-loving heart. Lord, all these heavy emotions were about to wreck me. We still had to tell them about Tenny, and that thought alone made my heart stutter. I wasn’t sure how we were going to get through that conversation, but I was overjoyed to celebrate with them right now.

  “How long can you stay?” Callie’s mom looked wistfully from me, to her, and back to me with eyebrow raised high into her scalp. Man, I didn’t want to tell her the truth, that we didn’t have a lot of time. I could tell they wanted more than we had to give.

  “I’m sorry Keri, we can only stay for about an hour, right Lip?” hoping to deflect any harsh feelings she might have off of me. Lip could handle it, that was for fuck sure.

  We trooped into the new family home. They had closed on that house and Bob had handled the move from his hospital bed. He strapped Gaby into his baby seat and started to feed him. I guessed Steve had helped with the festivities. There was a ton of food laid out on the counter. They were ready for us with a feast. As we grabbed a seat at the table, Bob took the head, Keri rolled her chair to his left. I looked around as we all sat down.

  “So, tell us what’s been going on? Tell us about how Callie’s been doing?” We all just kind of stared at him, frozen in our thoughts of kidnapping and fear that had ravaged our souls. Shit. this was going to be harder than I thought. Callie spoke up first.

  “Mama, Daddy we have things to tell you.” Then she laid out the whole, long story of what happened. She told them all about Tenny and how she tried to steal Gaby. By the end, both parents were falling apart, crying into their beers.

  “Oh My God!” Keri was horrified, it sounded like she couldn’t come to grips with what had happened. “Are you okay, sweetie? I can’t imagine what you all went through...” she trembled, crying as she looked from one of us to the other. Tears stained her cheeks. Thank goodness the worst was over, but now they had to grapple with the aftermath of these fucked up events.

  “I can’t believe we were in the dark about all of this. Callie why didn’t you call us? What the hell?” Bob demanded. I could feel his fuming anger simmering just below the surface. I was worried he was on the verge of blowing up.

  “Daddy, between all the stress, working with the FBI throughout the day, I had to keep my focus on helping them. You understand, yes?” Callie did her best to explain the harrowing day we spent at the gas station, working with the team.

  “The FBI? You had the FBI’s help? Holy hell, Callie,” Her dad seemed on the verge of falling apart. He was clearly surprised by our revelations, and after about exploding, tried his best to calm down.

  “Yes. Their Serial Mind Division came out to help. We spent the entire day with them. There was so much going on. Granted, I thought to call but then the phone rang, and I just couldn’t find the time.” Callie tried her best to lay it out.

  “What the fuck? You’re telling me Gaby got kidnapped and you failed to call us?” Bob looked like he could spit bullets. His face was filled with rage, I just didn’t know what to say. “We should have been notified, damnit.” He was grappling with this news. He was enraged.

  “Daddy, I know it’s F’d up, believe me. But there was just no time.” Callie looked at her father, beseeching him for understanding. We had worried about what they would think but I never imagined he’d be so furious.

  “Okay, honey, okay. I get it.” Bob finally calmed down. I think he felt side swiped with the information, and it took him a few to understand the situation. It looked like he was finally trying to accept what had happened to his baby boy. It would take some time to fully understand the whole complicated mess.

  Keri was so wrapped up in hugging and kissing Gaby, she wasn’t paying attention while all this was going on.

  I was relieved to get Gaby home where he belonged.

  It was time to hit the road.

  Time to create music again.

  We waved from the bus, and as we left her family behind, Callie turned to me.

  “Now, where was I?” She giggled and grabbed me to her, smiling as our mouths crushed together for a kiss filled with passion.

  Oh yes, now where were we?

  Chapter 62

  Callie

  I gripped Hunter's neck and started removing his clothes. I wanted this sexy man naked. I tucked my nose into his neck and lost all my senses. I unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it off his broad shoulders revealing rippling muscles. His gorgeous skin beckoned me. I salivated, dreaming of his hips bouncing against mine striking my hip bones again and again. I sucked on his chest, my tongue trailing down further as my fingers deftly worked the metal buttons, sliding down the denim over his hips, biting his inner thighs just enough to get a groan. “Oh, Callie. Again.”

  He ripped my clothes right off, tearing buttons and shoving my pants off with his feet. He acted like a crazed animal grasping at my body. He moaned, “I’m losing control.” We were naked, strumming each other like I strummed my guitar, and nothing was going to stop us.

  Looking deeply into my eyes, he softly murmured, “Baby, you are so beautiful.” Then he kissed a pathway down my body stopping to kiss each breast while dragging his hands over my ass. His hands roamed my body, ma
king me squirm all over. I wanted this delicious man, I wanted him to lean his muscled body over me and push inside slowly. I moaned loudly while raking my fingernails down his entire back marking him. I wanted to pierce his skin so tomorrow our lovemaking would linger.

  “Hunter, oh that feels so good.” I sighed as he parted my thighs and slid his tongue over my hard clit. I arched into him while he continued his attack. I moaned, “Oh babe, yes just like that.”

  “You’re so sexy, baby.” Hunter groaned into my sensitive skin, his hands travelling up and down the length of my body.

  He pulled back and slammed two fingers inside me. He started pumping in and out and went back to suck on me some more. “You’re so hot, I can’t get enough of you.” he moaned as he continued his attack. He knew all my buttons to push so it didn’t take me long before I was screaming his name, as I came all over his face.

  “Baby, you are the strongest woman I’ve ever known.” Hunter did his best to put into words how he felt, strengthening our pact of love. “And the most talented.” he added with a chuckle. “You inspire me.”

  “That was amazing.” I purred, as Hunter fell back on the bed and took me lovingly in his arms.

  “I love you.” he whispered, as he snuggled me into his side, laying my head on his shoulder.

  As my breathing evened out, I mumbled, “I love you.” taking a big gulp of air, I added, “you're incredible.”

  “Maybe now things can settle down, we can concentrate on the Doves and music. What do you say? Ready for all that?” Hunter squeezed me tightly. I thought he was concerned about the tour, about how we would change gears again and commit to performing.

  “Oh, I’m right as rain.” We both chuckled at my Tombstone reference. Doc Holliday was such a badass.

  “Listen babe, I’ve been thinking. I had an idea that I wanted to consider. What if we cut a live CD while we perform our shows? I could hire a studio to come in and record a live version of ‘Rock Star’ for radio. If we like what we hear, maybe we could cut all twelve songs like that.” Hunter looked at me and added, “What do you think?” That was the thing I loved about Hunter’s management style. He never made unilateral decisions without discussing options. I appreciated that. He trusted me to make smart decisions just as much as I trusted him. “I’d have to do some studio work, but the bones of the CD would be there.”