by Thomas, C. M
“I have to agree with Zane on that; maybe we can hold off on all the live interviews.” I looked over at Liam. That was surprising. Kylie looked at Caleb and Cole.
“You two agree with them?” Cole nodded, and Caleb looked like he couldn’t care less about this. His focus was on his phone.
“Okay, guys. We will talk with Tristan about it. We have a meeting with him in an hour, so let’s get some food on the way to his office.” Kylie smiled back at me at the same time her phone rang.
“Anna, are you okay?” The same moment Kylie said her name, I could feel my cock stir in my jeans. What the hell is happening to me? I’m not some horny teenager who can’t get laid. I’m a rock star, and still, just when someone mentions her name, my body comes to life. I look over at Kylie, who is now looking really worried.
“Okay, Dax, but give me a call the moment the doctor leaves.” Doctor? What the hell? I didn’t think it was something that serious. I could see Kylie’s eyes getting shinier while she listened to Dax and not Anna.
“Does she want me to come back? I can come back to her before we have to go to the meeting with Tristan.” The moment she said this, I looked over her shoulder and saw Marco in the rearview mirror. He looked worriedly back at Kylie. I give him a nod to let him know that no matter what, we were going back to the hotel now. He smiled back at me and kept driving—hopefully, back to the hotel.
“Call me if she changes her mind.” Kylie put her phone back in her purse and looked up at us. I think we were all staring at her right now. Marco was the first to talk.
“Are we going back to the hotel or not, sweetheart?” Kylie turned her head and looked in the rearview mirror to lock eyes with Marco.
“No, she doesn’t want me to come back, so just go to Tristan’s office now, and we can hope he is ready before time.” She looked back at us. “If it’s okay with you guys, can we skip lunch until after the meeting?” Now I’m getting pissed.
“Of course, Ky. Are you sure you don’t want to go back to the hotel? We can just reschedule the damn meeting with Tristan.” My voice was harsh, but come on, her sister was sick, and just by looking at Kylie I could see she was worried. It didn’t have anything to do with the fact that I was concerned about Anna too. At least that was what I was trying to tell myself.
“No, we go to the meeting today. Anna was very clear about me not coming back to the hotel, so let’s just get this done and then I can go back to her.” I looked over at Cole, and he gave me a small smile. We all knew that when Kylie talked like this, there was no point arguing with her. Looking back at Kylie, who was now just sitting looking at her hands, I had to know what was wrong with Anna, but before I got the chance to ask, Caleb asked her.
“What’s happened to her, Kylie?” Kylie looked up from her hands.
“Dax said Anna had called him to ask if he would come with some food for her. And of course, he ordered some room service, but when room service knocked on the door, no one opened… So, they called Dax, and he went to Anna’s room and unlocked the door.” Oh, right, Dax had keycards to all our hotel rooms in case of emergency. Kylie continued, “When he got into the room, Anna was sitting in the middle of the room, on the floor.” What the hell was she doing sitting on the floor? Kylie now got tears in her eyes. I moved closer to her and put my arm around her shoulder and gave her a side hug, waiting for her to keep talking.
“She wasn’t even looking up when he walked into the room, she just stared out into the air, not making eye contact when he talked to her. When she finally did talk, she just said that she couldn’t breathe and that every time she tried to stand, her legs just collapsed under her.” Kylie let out a small sob and hugged me hard.
I looked over at the others, and they gave me a nod. I was not the only one who didn’t care about that meeting. Cole looked up and talked to Marco.
“We’re going back to the hotel now, and then I will call Tristan to let him know what has happened and then he can come to us if that meeting is so important.” I couldn’t agree more. I could feel Kylie was about to argue this decision.
“No, Kylie. Don’t even think about it. We’re going back now. No point in you arguing with us. You work for us, remember?” I smiled at her. She let go of me and gave me a small smile. She knew that when I used her whole name, I was dead serious. We were good friends, and I was always the one she came to if she needed to talk about something private. Normally, she didn’t want to talk about her private life, but when she came to me, she was an open book. But right now, I was not her friend, but her boss.
“So that you know, out of Anna and me, I’m not the one who normally gets her way,” she said with a smile on her face.
“Then I will just tell your sister that even though she doesn’t work for us, we still make the decisions.” Kylie let out a small laugh and sat back in her seat.
The way back to the hotel seemed to take forever, and in the meantime, I couldn’t keep from why Anna joined her sister on our tour. This behavior and the symptoms Kylie described before did seem like the time when one of Cole’s classmates got panic attacks.
I remembered the time when we were on some trip during senior year in high school, our classmate totally panicked when she couldn’t get out from the small room our teacher had all of us stay in. She had a hard time breathing, she couldn’t stand up, so she collapsed to the floor, and no one could get eye contact with her. I shivered remembering this; it was one of the most horrifying situations I had ever been in. I remembered how our classmate was removed from her home months later when one of our teachers found out that her father was abusing her, and kept her locked up in a small room. And now, to think that Anna was having the same symptoms… I just couldn’t think of that.
The moment we arrived at the hotel, we all got out of the car quickly and Kylie ran through the lobby to the elevator. Marco was right behind her. I tried to keep up, but Cole grabbed my arm.
“Are you thinking the same thing I am?” he asked when I turned around to face him.
“Yeah. It can’t be, though, right?” My voice didn’t come out as strong as normal.
“I don’t know. The way Kylie described it, it really sounds like it’s the same.” Cole let out a sigh. “I will call Tristan now, and hopefully he will understand.” Knowing Tristan, he wouldn’t. He was an ass. He had done a lot for us, and for that I was grateful. But over the last couple of months, he kept coming up with stupid ideas. I’d started thinking it was time for us to look for a new manager. Not that I’d talked to the guys about it. I would wait until our break from the tour this summer.
Cole walked over to the elevator. I was right behind him. I had to see if she was okay. But at the same time, who was I to just walk into her room? We had only just met this morning.
When we came up to our floor, Cole walked straight to his room to call Tristan. I walked in the opposite direction down to Anna’s room. When I looked up, I saw Kylie and Marco standing outside Anna’s room. Kylie was crying against Marco’s chest.
“Why are you standing out here?” I asked when I walked up to them. Marco looked up.
“She doesn’t want us inside. She is mad that we came back.” What the hell?
“Can’t you just get Dax to open the door? He has a keycard to all our rooms,” I said. Kylie looked up from Marco’s chest.
“Dax is inside with her and the doctor. He won’t open the door.” I didn’t know what to do, so I did the one thing I knew I was perfect at: yelling!
Chapter 5:
Anna
“How are you feeling now, Anna?” I looked up at the doctor who had been checking me. I lay on the bed, looking at the two men who were both staring at me.
“I’m okay. My head still feels like it’s going to explode, but I can breathe normally now.” I looked over at Dax; he was not comfortable that I didn’t want Kylie to come in here. I couldn’t even remember how he got into
my room in the first place, but I was happy he was here because I felt like I could breathe again.
“You do look a lot better than when I found you. Your face has a more normal color again.” Dax looked relieved. His shoulders were more relaxed now. Just when I was about to thank the doctor for coming, I heard loud banging on the door and then Zane yelling.
“Dax, you work for me, open the damn door now!!” Dax looked over at me.
“Let me open the door; he will keep yelling until I do.” Dax actually looked like he just wanted to keep the door locked, but I had a feeling that he was right: Zane would keep banging and yelling until they got in. I had this impression that he was a very impatient man. At least, when he wanted something. And right now, he wanted Dax to open the door.
“Fine, but tell them to keep their voices down. My head hurts so bad.”
The doctor and Dax walked to the door. Before opening it, the doctor turned to me and said, “Call me if the pain gets worse, or if you get any chest pains you call 911.” I looked over at them both.
“I will, and thanks for coming.” Dax opened the door just a little. I couldn’t hear what he said to the people on the other side, but I hoped they would do as he said. Moments later, Kylie ran into the room and almost jumped on the bed to hug me.
“Are you okay? I was so worried about you.” I could see that she had been crying. Her eyes were all red. Marco and Zane walked into the room, and Dax closed the door behind them. The moment my eyes locked with Zane, my whole body came to life. It was a strange feeling, overwhelming, and for some strange reason, I felt complete when he was near me. I just wanted everyone but him to leave the room, but I couldn’t give in to this lust I felt when he was near. It had to be just lust, right? Remembering that Kylie had asked me a question, I looked at her.
“I’m fine. I don’t know what happened, but I’m fine now. My head just hurts like hell,” I said with a calm, low voice.
“Next time, I stay with you. Don’t lock me out of the room.”
“As I said to Dax when he talked to you on the phone, you didn’t have to come back.” Before Kylie got to say anything, Zane spoke.
“Yes, we did. Kylie was worried about you, so we came back. And as I told Kylie, she works for us, and when we say we go back, we go back!” He sent me a smile, but at the same time his voice sent a clear message: don’t argue with me. “I will just go see if Cole has gotten hold of Tristan. Kylie, I will text you if he wants to have the meeting here at the hotel.” Zane turned around and walked out of the room before any of us had time to say anything. The moment he left the room, I had this strange feeling that I’d lost something. Like that feeling of being complete was gone. He was missing. This is crazy. I just met the man today!
“I will just leave you with your sister now. I hope you’re feeling better soon, Anna,” Dax said as he started to walk over to the door.
“Thanks for helping me today. I hope it was a one-time thing.” Dax nodded, and before leaving, he turned to talk to Marco.
“Come by my room when you’re done here, okay?” Marco gave him a small nod before Dax left the room. Two down, two to go. But I knew it wouldn’t be that easy to get Kylie to leave.
“Anna, what is really going on? This is not normal; you’re never sick.” Kylie got out of the bed and stood beside it with her arms crossed over her chest. Should I come clean now? No, I couldn’t tell her the real reason I was here. She would just worry about me even more then. And there was no point in her worrying. She couldn’t do anything about it anyways.
“I don’t know. I haven’t been feeling well for some time. I just think I’m stressed out.” It was true, maybe not the whole truth, but it was true that I’d been feeling stressed lately.
“Is that why you quit your job?” Marco asked.
“It’s not the only reason, but yes. I just feel like I haven’t had a break in forever. I’m sure that some time to relax is all I need.” I sent them both a smile and hoped that they believed me. Maybe I was also trying to convince myself. It was just stress, right? That was why my body was acting like this, stress over the whole situation with “D.”
“Get some rest. I will go and see if Cole has talked to Tristan. I will come back in an hour to check on you.” She pointed her finger at me, just like when we were kids and she wanted me to know that she was serious.
“Fine, you do that. But if I’m asleep and you wake me, I will kill you.” I winked at her.
“Nice to know that you haven’t lost your sense of humor, Anna.” Kylie smiled as she and Marco walked out of my room. Finally, alone. I slipped under the covers and tried to get some sleep.
What felt like five minutes later, I heard a small knock on my door. I looked at the clock on the nightstand. I’d been sleeping for three hours. Slowly, I walked over to the door. When I opened it, I saw the last person I was expecting.
“Hi, are you feeling better?” Zane gave me a small smile.
“Hi, yeah. I’ve been sleeping for the last three hours, and it has helped.” Why was I so nervous around him? He was just a man, maybe not a man like the men I normally talked to or dated, but still, he was just a man. I opened the door more, inviting him in. He shook his head no.
“I don’t have time to come in. I just wanted to make sure you were alright.”
“Oh. Thanks for checking up on me, but I’m fine.” I felt really nervous, and just when I was about to close the door, I heard my sister.
“Zane, what are you doing here?” Zane turned and looked down the hall at Kylie.
“Just checking to make sure your sister is okay. Don’t get the claws out.” He turned and smiled at me before he walked away from the door. Then Kylie appeared in front of me.
“Did he bother you?” I turned to walk to the bed to sit down.
“No, he really just wanted to make sure I was okay.” Kylie came in and sat on one of the chairs across the room.
“I just don’t want you to get hurt. Zane is not like the guys you normally date.” Whoa, she’s fast.
“Hold on. I have only just met him; it’s not like we are getting married.” I grinned at her. She was so overprotective sometimes.
“I know, sorry. It’s been a long day.” Her eyes were bloodshot, and she really looked tired. “We just had the meeting with Tristan, the band’s manager, and he is a pain in the ass.”
“Hope everything worked out okay?” I asked, and Kylie sighed.
“It’s fine, he just wants the band to keep doing some stuff they won’t do, and now it’s my job to convince them. Even though I don’t agree with him, Tristan is their manager.” I was glad it was not me who had to convince four men to do something they didn’t want to do.
“How about we order some room service and rent a movie?” I asked her. Kylie looked at me, smiling.
“Great idea. I will just go to our room to let Marco know that he has the night off.”
“If you already have plans, that’s okay—”
She interrupted me before I finished the sentence. “Stop! I want to spend time with you. Marco will understand. I will be back in a moment. Order whatever you like.” She walked out the door. I went over to the phone to get the menu from room service. I was looking forward to a night alone with Kylie, just like when we both still lived at home with Mom and Dad.
Chapter 6:
Zane
“You have a minute?” I asked Dax when he opened the door to his room.
“Sure, come in.” He motioned for me to come in. I walked around him and into his room. It was like a small office. I went to the desk and sat down on one of the chairs. Dax walked around the desk and sat down on his chair.
Dax’s room was much like mine and the other band members’ rooms. Ours were bigger than the rest of the rooms on this floor. We had a living room with a desk, a small dining table, and a couch area. Then there was the big bedroom with
a nice big king-size bed. And a big bathroom. Our rooms were small apartments.
“Everything okay? Did the meeting with Tristan end badly?” Dax asked. He must have thought that the meeting we had with Tristan this afternoon after we got back to the hotel ended as badly as the last one. Where I maybe yelled a little too much and threatened to fire Tristan’s ass if he didn’t listen to us.
“Nah, meeting with Tristan went fine. He just doesn’t understand why we don’t want to do live interviews all the time.” I took a deep breath before I continued. “I wanted to know what really happened to Anna. I went to her room after the meeting with Tristan, and she looks terrified. Did she tell you anything?” Dax looked at me with raised eyebrows like I just told him I was gay or something. I knew I was behaving out of character, because this was not the first time someone had looked at me like that today.
“She called me and asked if I would get her a sandwich. I told her I would order one from room service. Then I thought everything was fine until the guy from the reception called me to let me know that she didn’t open the door when room service came with her food. Naturally, I walked into her room and opened the door. The sight that met me, I don’t think I have seen that before.” He wiped his hands on his jeans and continued.
“She was just sitting in the middle of the room on the floor, looking out the window. When I talked to her, she didn’t even acknowledge that I was there. I walked to stand in front of her, but still she kept looking at the same spot. I don’t think she even blinked.”
I took a deep breath. This was hurting my heart. I didn’t know why, but I wanted to protect this girl—woman—with all I had.
Dax continued, “That’s when I noticed that she wasn’t breathing normally. She was hyperventilating. I sat down beside her and started talking to her again. Finally, she looked at me, but there was just emptiness in her eyes. She told me she couldn’t breathe, and when she tried to stand, her legs just collapsed under her. I got up and scooped her up from the floor and carried her over to the bed. I could feel her body tense, like she thought I was going to hurt her.” He let out a deep breath. Before he had a chance to continue, I interrupted him.
