by Amy Brent
“Promise?”
Faye gave me another arch look, and I bit back a grin of triumph, “Yes, I promise. I’ll think about it.”
*
Faye
All I had done for the past eight hours was think about it. Think about Sam’s proposal. If I could even call it that. It had run through my head a hundred times since that afternoon. Maybe even a thousand. I still couldn’t make sense of the mix of emotions it had caused inside me.
There was worry, anger, humor, warmth, and something else, something crazy and dangerous and reckless that had almost had me saying yes to his asinine question. It really was crazy.
I took a sip of the cocktail in front of me. It was a Manhattan. Simple, timeless, no fuss no muss—just how I liked my life So, what the hell had happened?
I was lost in thought, staring idly into my drink as Sam’s preposterous proposal echoed over and over in my head. It was ridiculous, completely ridiculous. There was no doubt about that at all. So why the hell would a part of me, even a teeny tiny part of me, what to say yes to him?
The whole thing was so absurd, it nearly made me want to throw my head back and laugh. Or cry. I wasn’t quite sure. What the hell had made him go and do such a thing?
But I knew the answer to that question. I mulled it over as I idly stirred the tiny red straw in figure eights in my drink. He wanted to keep me safe. He wanted to throw crazy Penny off the scent by publicizing a fake relationship. When I thought about it logically, it even made sense a little bit. But that didn’t make it any less absurd, or any less of a terrible idea.
What were we supposed to do, go pick out wedding cakes and go on dates until I stopped getting dead birds delivered to my door?
I had no proof anyway. Not that Archer’s ex-girlfriend was behind the threatening messages, or even that she would send any more. I could be worrying about nothing. It was probably nothing.
“Hey! Faye! What are you thinking about so seriously over there? We’re supposed to be celebrating my baby news. You haven’t said a word in the last twenty minutes!”
Startled from my thoughts, I jolted in the stool and looked across the table at Alice. She was giving me questioning look, and I tried to shrug off her question, forcing a grin onto my face and holding up my glass.
“To Alice, and her baby boy. May he be as cute as Connor and as clever as you,” I said in a rush, and Alice grinned, blushing a becoming shade of pink before she held up her glass to clink ours together. Hers was just seltzer water with lime, but she’d been the one to insist we come out to our local haunt, The Bottom Feeder.
It was a dive. There was no other way to put it. But we had been hanging out here for years. The raw brick walls were papered with layers and layers of music posters so thick that in some places the wall was obscured completely.
It was long and narrow and normally loud, but on a Tuesday night it was pretty quiet with just a few regulars dotting the bar and the high round tables that were scattered throughout the space.
“Seriously, though,” Alice said after a moment, and I nearly groaned. I’d been hoping she would forget all about her question. “Is this about your stalker?”
“Stalker? What stalker?” Lori said in as she re-took her high-backed stool across the small table from me.
Lori was dressed in a perfectly tailored designer dress, which should have looked out of place in the dive bar, but somehow she didn’t. She always looked natural no matter what she was wearing, as if she always belonged.
I’d met Lori because of Alice but had liked her right away. She was strong, independent, and ambitious, qualities we all shared.
The other woman’s platinum-blond bob brushed her shoulder as she turned her head to look at me curiously.
Not for the first time, I wondered how Alice had managed to talk me into coming out with them given everything that had been happening. Finally, I just shrugged. I knew neither women were going to let me escape without explaining.
“Last week I got a threat. Someone left it on my car,” I said slowly, careful to keep my voice down even though the music coming from the stereo was loud enough to drown out my words beyond our table. “It was probably just a dumb prank or something.”
“What about the other one?”
“What other one?” Lori asked, taking a bite of her fries. She may have had the fashion sensibilities of a couture designer, but she had the appetite of a teenager.
“The day after Faye got the threating photo on her car, someone put a box with a dead bird in front of her apartment door,” Alice said.
“Holy shit!” Lori’s wide-eyed, aqua gaze flicked from me to Alice and back again. “That sounds more serious than a prank.”
“It is,” Alice said, nodding. “Archer saw the picture the stalker had left. He says it’s his crazy ex-girlfriend, Penny. She’s uber jealous and, you know, crazy. He said she did this to one other girl he dated.”
“Holy shit,” Lori repeated, still looking shocked. Then her face broke into a wide grin. “Wait a minute. You’re dating Archer Calloway?”
“No! The man is a complete pig.” I leaned forward, taking a deep breath for patience before going on. “I went out to dinner with him. It was a business dinner. That’s all,” I added when I saw Lori’s grin start to grow. “He drove me home afterward and that was it. I made it very clear to him that I wasn’t interested in anything. Besides, you know how I feel.”
“Yeah, yeah. No musicians,” Lori said, rolling her eyes. “It’s a shame. You’re really missing out. They can be so much fun.” Lori was a world-renowned photographer who specialized in music photography. She had taken portraits of some of the greatest bands alive, and she seemed to have none of the issues I had. But I knew her heart had never been broken either. She kept that particular organ locked away so tight, I doubted it had ever even been in danger.
“Fun. Right. Well, getting death threats isn’t exactly what I would call fun.”
“Shit. They were death threats?”
“It was implied. It was a photo of me and Archer after our business dinner and they warned me to stay away from him. The ‘or else’ was implied though.”
“So it’s really Archer’s stalker and you just got in the way,” Lori said, taking a drink of her whisky neat. I let out a huff of frustration and nodded.
“Yeah. That about sums it up. But I can’t just stay away from the guy. We’re working together until the end of the recording contract!” Suddenly, all the fear and frantic nerves of the past week came tumbling forward, and there was nothing I could do to stem the flood of words.
“It’s just such shitty timing. Everything was going so great. Moon is finally recording your new album and I was going to finally get my beach house, and then this thing happens with Archer and his ex, which is so stupid I would laugh if it didn’t scare me so much. And then Sam has to go complicating things by—”
I finally heard what I was saying and cut myself off so fast my teeth clicked together, but it was too late. Alice and Lori had heard the last few words, and they both sat forward with nearly the exact same expression of intent.
“What did Sam do?” Alice asked fiercely. She knew something was going on between us, but she’d never pried. “If he said something to hurt you…”
“I’m sure Sam just wants to help,” Lori said at the same time. They had both been friends with Sam since high school, and they both still thought of him as something of a little brother.
I inhaled sharply, looking at them both. There was no escaping them now.
“Sam…proposed to me.”
“What?”
“Holy shit!” That was seriously becoming Lori’s catch phrase of the night, but Alice looked thoughtful instead of surprised. I was still so shocked, I could barely make sense of the whole thing.
“Did he say why?” Alice asked after a moment. Lori was still staring wide-eyed with her jaw open wide.
“He said it was the only way to get the stalker off my back. Publicize t
he engagement and all that. It wouldn’t be hard. You guys have gotten a lot of press since the tour. You’re all famous now.”
“Hardly.” Alice snorted, and I just shook my head. She seemed unable to recognize it, but the tour had really put the band in the spotlight, and now with their impending record release, they were going to cause even more furor in the music world. But I knew it was no use explaining it to her. The only thing she cared about was making music. Everything else was just a waste to her.
“It makes sense,” Alice said after a moment of consideration, nodding her head.
“No, it doesn’t. It’s ridiculous.”
“Actually, it does,” Lori added with a hiccup. “You and Sam go through the whole getting married dog-and-pony show. Put it out there on every magazine.” She grinned, all teeth. “I can even do a photo shoot and write-up for Vibe.” Vibe was the biggest magazine in the music industry. If Lori got an article about them in Vibe, then every other magazine and tabloid would pick up the story too.
Wait a minute. What the hell? Why was I even considering it? I took another sip of my cocktail.
“Then, after it all blows over, just break up. People get divorced all the time,” Lori added with a shrug.
“Be careful, your cynicism is showing,” I said sarcastically, but the other woman just shrugged again.
“Someone is threatening you, Faye. You have to do something about it. I’m assuming the police weren’t able to catch anyone?”
“They said that they can’t do anything until something actually happens to me or he or she is caught in the act, neither of which have happened yet.”
“And it’s not going to either,” Alice said firmly, then paused. “Well, maybe the catching them in the act thing. But nothing is going to happen to you. We’re all here for you. You know that, right? Sam included. He wants to help you, and honestly, it’s a hell of a lot better than living in fear for the next six months.”
“Yeah. It’s a no-brainer,” Lori said, tossing back the rest of her whisky. “Take a few pictures together. Then get on with your life like normal. Easy peasy.”
Easy for them maybe, but there was one thing they didn’t know, one thing that scared me even more than the anonymous threats. I was terrified that in the end, I wouldn’t want to leave Sam. I would end up with another broken heart.
Better a broken heart than hurt, or worse.
After that, the conversation to moved back to Lori and a new assignment the magazine had given her. She was complaining about some asshole lead singer, but I only listened with half an ear. An hour later, I got to my feet and said my good-byes.
“I need to get up early tomorrow. So do you,” I told Alice with a stern look, but I ruined it with a grin. I gave her a quick but fierce hug. “I’m so happy for you, Alice.”
A few more minutes of saying good-bye and then I was outside, hailing a cab and on my way back home. My thoughts kept turning over Sam’s proposal. I couldn’t get it out of my head.
Alice and Lori both seemed to think it was a great solution to my little problem. I snorted to myself. I was probably just blowing the whole thing out of proportion. More than likely, the stalker had already moved on and forgotten all about me.
I walked through the lobby and headed up to the penthouse floor. When the elevator doors opened, I stepped out, then stumbled to a halt and stared wide-eyed. Scrawled across my door in red paint was the word slut, and there was a picture taped up in the middle of it.
It was of me leaving Eureka Records yesterday.
I warned you. Now you’re going to pay.
My fingers trembled as I dialed 911 and quickly explained who I was, where I was, and what had happened.
I didn’t put my cell phone away. Instead, as soon as the call with the 911 operator was over, I dialed the other number I knew by heart.
It rang for a few minutes, and my decision crystallized just as the other line was picked up.
“Hello?”
“Sam? It’s Faye. I…I need you.”
Chapter 8
Sam
I stared at the big red smear across the door to Faye’s apartment, my brows furrowed in worry and panic that had me pounding against it even harder.
Faye opened her front door, and the first thing I saw were the tracks her tears had made down her cheeks. Damn it. She’d been crying. I knew she would hate it if I knew, so I didn’t mention it, but the sight still made my hands clench into fists of rage.
“Thanks for coming so late. I know I shouldn’t have called you but…” She trailed off, shaking her head as if lost.
I hated seeing her like this. I hated seeing her so vulnerable. She was always so strong, so capable. But now, looking at her, I could see the fragile side of her. The side she always hid away from the world. She’d hate me knowing about that too. Well, too bad. That was what she got for calling me in a crisis.
Not that I was complaining. I hated that this was happening to her, but I didn’t want her to call anyone else in the world. I wanted her to turn to me when things got too hard. How else was I going to prove to her that not all musicians were egotistical assholes who would let her down? How else could I prove to her that I was different than her ex?
I looked inside her apartment but there was no sign of the police.
“Did you see her this time? Did you call the cops? Did they catch her?”
Faye took a deep breath before she stepped back enough to let me inside. I followed her in but didn’t sit. I couldn’t. I was still full of anger and a nervous energy that I needed to take out on something, but I made sure to moderate my voice when I spoke again.
“Did they find anything to link it to Penny?”
Faye shook her head.
“I called the police and filed another report, but they didn’t find anyone or anything. I even told them we thought it was Archer’s ex, Penny, and they said they would add her name as a person of interest…in case anything happened to me.” Faye drew in a deep, shaky breath, and when she looked at me, the sadness and confusion in the dark depths of her gaze nearly knocked me off my feet.
“Why is this happening to me? I hate drama. You know I hate drama. I hate messes and this…thing…is making a mess of my life. I like things neat and tidy and well-ordered and—”
“Faye,” I interrupted gently, “that’s not how life works.” I walked over to her, grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her around to face me to stop her nervous pacing. “You don’t always get to decide. Sometimes…sometimes bad things happen. Terrible things. And you have to just pick yourself up and keep going. That’s all you can do. You can’t let her beat you.”
“I know that,” Faye said fiercely, and then ruined it with a sniffle. “It’s just…things were finally going so well.”
“Were they?” The question popped out of my mouth before I could stop it, and I quickly held up my hands in innocence at the arch look Faye shot me.
“Yes, actually. Yes, they were. The band has the contract with Eureka and your album is going to go platinum and then I was going to buy my beach house in Hawaii and…”
“Hawaii, huh?” I asked, bemused and more than a little struck by the idea of Faye in a bikini, her tawny olive skin gleaming against white sandy beaches as the sun beat down on her.
“What? I like the beach.”
“There are beaches here,” I said hoarsely before clearing my throat.
“It’s not the same. And besides, that’s not the point. The point is, things were going great and now…now it all…” Faye huffed out a breath.
I had to bite my tongue from asking about the rest of her life. She worked twenty-four seven and as far as I knew didn’t have a personal life. I was not even sure she knew the definition of a personal life, or if she did anything for fun. Everything she did was calculated for her to always get ahead.
But something told me now wasn’t the right time to bring that up. Maybe it was the fragile look that still gle
amed in her dark gaze. I just gave her a quick hug, backing away before she had time to push me away herself, and gave her a serious look.
“Go pack a bag,” I said gently, nodding toward the room down the hall.
She didn’t move, just crossed her arms and stared me down. “Why?”
“I’m not letting you stay here alone. Not after what happened. I’m taking you back to my place,” I said, but she wasn’t backing down at all. I threw my hands up with a sigh. “You can’t tell me you really want to stay here alone, do you?”
Still, Faye hesitated another moment before finally tossing her head and disappearing into the bedroom. I remembered the room all too well from the one and only time I’d shared it with her.
My body reacted like lighting to the thought, and I tried to shake off the images that rolled through my head like thunder: Faye, warm and welcoming, that sweet husky sound that she made in the back of her throat echoing in my ears as I sank deep inside her body.
Even though it had been over a year, the memories were still crystal clear and just as sharp in my mind, and they arose at the most inconvenient of times. I had to shift my stance as my body tightened painfully and try desperately to get my thoughts back under control.
I cleared my throat roughly as Faye came back a few minutes later with a big brown leather bag thrown over her shoulder. She gave me a wary nod.
“I’m ready.”
I’m not. The thought was a desperate one, and I quickly turned so she was facing my back as I walked out of her apartment and took the elevator down to the parking garage.
We took my truck, with Faye sliding silently into the passenger’s seat, and I was surprised she didn’t protest. It wasn’t like her to give up control in anything. This whole thing really had taken a toll on her.
We were both silent as I drove us back toward my place, and it wasn’t until we walked inside and I dropped my keys in a little fish-shaped bowl near the door that I really looked around. My apartment was a small one-bedroom and certainly not in the poshest of neighborhoods, but it had been a proud moment when I’d been able to afford a place on my own. For a kid who had never had a place of his own, it was a big deal. But now I was seeing it through her eyes.
