Stereo

by Trevion Burns

  “Hm…” Adam calmly looked off while nodding his head. Only a moment passed between the two before his entire face transformed into one of pure, naked fury. His hand flew up and clenched Maxim’s thick neck before slamming him back against the wall.

  Maxim’s eyes grew in shock as the air was stolen from him, surprised both by Adam’s strength and his momentum.

  “Don’t fuck with me about this, Max. Don’t fuck with me.” Adam’s eyes went almost primal. “Did you spike her fucking drink? Huh? Did you set her up?” Adam’s grip tightened and he slammed Max’s head back against the wall, much harder this time. “Where the fuck is Shaun? WHERE IS SHE?!”

  Seemingly out of nowhere Yoshi and Noodle came up behind Adam in the hallway and made quiet eye contact with Maxim from over Adam’s shoulder.

  Maxim looked back and forth between the three and tried to swallow, but couldn’t. “She left five minutes ago. That’s all I know.”

  Adam let him enjoy the sensation of not breathing for a little longer before forcefully releasing him. “Yeah I’m sure that’s all you know. You make me sick, dude.” Adam felt Yoshi gently taking both of his arms from behind. “If anything happens to her I swear to god I’ll fucking kill you.”

  “All right,” Yoshi intervened, pushing Adam towards the door. Adam held eye contact with Maxim, wishing he could reach up and knock the smirk right off of his face. Noodle followed behind, throwing Maxim a few of his own venomous looks before following Yoshi and Adam out the door.

  --

  “She’s been stuck to his side the entire night and all of a sudden she disappears and he has ‘no idea’ where she is? The fuck he doesn’t.” Adam threw a frustrated hand in the air as he, Yoshi and Noodle stepped off of the elevator and into the lobby of the hotel. All three of them knew Maxim. Way back in the day they fucked with him, back when they were young and dumb. They were keenly aware of what kind of man he was, which was why Noodle and Yoshi had yet to try to talk Adam down.

  “We’ll find her,” Noodle said, pointing behind him. “I’ll check the bar.”

  “I’ll check outside,” Yoshi said.

  Adam ran his hands through his hair as they all split up and made his way to the front desk of the hotel. A young man behind the desk greeted him with a smile.

  “Good evening, Mr. Brand, how can I help you?”

  Adam tried to smile politely, but couldn’t. “Did you see a tall, skinny black girl walking around down here a few minutes ago?” Adam prayed that Shaun had gotten into a cab and left the building. At least then he could be sure she was okay. What worried him was the idea of her still being in that hotel somewhere. In a different room. With people she didn’t know. “She was wearing a red dress—“

  “Shaun Green?”

  Sometimes Adam forgot that Shaun had quickly become a well-known name herself. “Yes!”

  “She did leave the hotel. Just a few minutes ago.”

  Adam breathed a sigh of relief. “You saw her leave?”

  “I did.”

  “Was she with anyone?”

  “She was alone.” The young man frowned. “But she did seem a bit… Inebriated? We offered to call her a cab but she refused.”

  Adam had heard enough. Just as he was turning to run outside Yoshi called his name from the front door and waved him over.

  Adam broke into a run.

  He followed Yoshi out of the hotel and around the corner to an alleyway.

  There she was. Adam wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry, but as he saw her leaning against the brick wall of the alley, struggling to stand, he couldn’t think of anything but getting to her. He raced to her side and caught her around the waist just as her knees buckled from under her. She’d passed out in his arms.

  “Shaun…” He sank down to the oily pavement with her, cradling her body to his. Her bottom hit the ground with a gentle thump. “Babe.” He stayed kneeling next to her with his head buried in her curls, holding her body as close to his as he could. He could feel her heartbeat and smell the red wine with each breath she took.

  “God damn it babe,” he whispered, jamming his eyes shut. After several moments he looked up at Yoshi, whose face was stricken with concern for Shaun as well.

  “Dude should we take her to the hospital or what?”

  “No.” Adam thought about what she’d said to him, how modeling was the only thing she had left, even if she didn’t love it. No one could know that she was passed out drunk in an alley. It would destroy her image. “No, she’s fine. Can you just pull the car around? I don’t want anyone to see her like this.”

  “I parked valet. You know they’re slow as fuck here.”

  “Can you figure something out, Yosh? Please? I can’t leave her. No one can see her like this.”

  “Okay, okay. I’ll think of something.” Yoshi nodded and hurried off, keys jingling in his pocket. The sound echoed down the alley.

  “Adam.” Shaun sluggishly awoke, barely opening her eyes and looking up at him.

  “Hey drunk,” he said with a small smile. “You know… the girl I met all those months ago would have never found herself passed out in an alley with a dirty white boy as her savior.”

  “You’re not dir--” Shaun hiccupped loudly, took a moment, and then smiled. “You’re not dirty. You smell like soap and… And Adam. Mmmmm…” Her Cheshire smile grew. “You smell so good.”

  “Yeah?” Adam looked towards the end of the alley. Where the hell was Yoshi?

  “You smell like home,” she said, her voice going high with childlike quality.

  Adam suddenly looked down at her.

  “You’re my best friend.”

  His eyebrows creased deeply. “You would never be here if it weren’t for me.”

  She frowned, and then muttered, “what?”

  “You were just some bookworm chasing a dream and now…” He ran a hand down his face when his eyes began to sting. “I’m responsible for this.”

  “What?” she slurred again. “You’re being really silly.”

  “Okay.” He laughed. “That was convincing. Thanks.” With a slow lick of his lips he wondered if he should say the words that were teetering on the edge of his tongue. He knew he should hate her. He should turn a blind eye and walk out of her life for good. He just couldn’t.

  “You know, Shaun--” He looked down at her and was met, once again, with her sleeping face. She was an angel. Even after everything she’d done he was incapable of looking at her and not seeing a complete angel.

  He looked towards the end of the alley again, wondering where Yoshi was, and was shocked at the sight of an older man with a camera making his way across the street. He was squinting down the alley, as if he wanted to be sure that it was indeed Adam Brand and Shaun Green on the floor of an alleyway. Adam cursed to himself. This was it. They would get the shot and Shaun’s career would be destroyed beyond repair. She would really have nothing left.

  Adam cradled her body and kissed the top of her head just as the headlights of an SUV came blaring around the corner of the alley. The truck caddy cornered, blocking any and all entry.

  As the passenger side window slowly came down Adam was expecting Yoshi and stopped cold when he came eye to eye with his father.

  “Pop?” he cried. “What the fuck?”

  “Get in.”

  He hesitated. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  His father looked out of his window where one photographer had multiplied to three, as they often did, and then back to Adam. “You can get in the car and we can drive away or you can stay here and get photographed with a young model who more than likely just got roofied at a party, son. It’s your decision, try to make the right one.”

  Adam hated to admit it but his father was right. He wasn’t going to let Shaun go down like this. With a groan Adam tucked his arms under her body, momentarily alarmed at how thin she was, and lifted her off the ground with ease before racing to the truck. He climbed carefully into the backseat and slammed the d
oor shut just as the vehicle was flanked with paparazzi.

  Thanks to the tinted windows of the truck they narrowly avoided getting photographed as his father’s Expedition sped off into the night.

  --

  Adam and his father sat in a stony silence during the long drive to Shaun's house. He dialed Yoshi’s number on his phone.

  “Yosh. I have her. I’m taking her home. Thanks man.” He hung up and looked down into his lap where Shaun was sleeping peacefully. He was beyond happy that she was okay, but still had to say a faint prayer that she didn’t throw up into his lap. Looking up into the driver seat he caught eyes with his father in the rearview mirror. “Where’s Katie?”

  Patrick Brand sighed heavily. “At a friend’s.”

  “Good,” Adam said. The last thing he wanted to worry about was Katie being at home alone tonight. He looked back down into his lap and savored the sight of Shaun’s long brown body splayed across the backseat. With a moment of hesitation he reached out to the straight black waterfall where a huge head of wild curls usually lived, his fingers stopping just short. A pain so sharp it rendered him motionless shot through him as the familiar feeling washed over him, again. She’d betrayed him deeply, hurt him beyond explanation. Even his father’s betrayal seemed to dim in comparison to the wreckage Shaun had left in her wake. How could a woman so pure do so much damage? His fingers lingered over her hair and, before he could stop himself, he buried them inside the thick strands, stroking them softly.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked suddenly, looking back up at his father.

  “Yoshi called me. Thankfully I was just right up the street. He said you were in trouble.”

  Adam clenched his jaw. Up until the drama with Veronica his father had always been the go to guy for Adam and the band. He was a powerful man who always knew what to do in a crisis and never hesitated when it came to supporting him and the guys. He’d pulled them out of many impossible situations during their career and apparently now was no exception.

  But Adam was still angry at him. “Thank you.” The words tasted like poison. But he meant them.

  “Don’t thank me,” Patrick said. “Just try to forgive me. All right?”

  Another long moment of silence passed before Adam whispered, “all right.”

  --

  Later that night Shaun awoke with a slight headache, but the pain in her head was quickly forgotten when she was met with Adam’s face sleeping next to her. Shock and happiness took hold of her all at once but her smile rapidly fell as the night’s events came back to her.

  The last thing she could remember was stumbling out of The W Hotel. She’d been desperate to get away from Maxim, whose company had been making her more and more uncomfortable as the night went on. When the concierge at the hotel saw her in the lobby and offered her a cab she’d refused, opting to just call Celia to come pick her up. When she realized there were cameras outside she’d tucked away into an alley to call her friend for a ride before everything went black.

  She must have passed out from having too many drinks and Adam had found her. Her heart softened when she realized that he’d saved her.

  “Adam?” she spoke softly, crawling across her bed to get closer to him. He was out cold and, even in his slumber, looked like the weight of the world was on him. She didn’t have the heart to wake him up. He deserved to have some rest.

  She climbed out of the bed and made her way to the bathroom to get cleaned up.

  An hour later Shaun made her way out of the much needed shower, brushed her teeth and made her way back into her living area. She hesitated in the doorway of her bathroom at the sight of Adam sitting on the edge of her bed, hunched over on his knees. His head hung low and he looked deep in thought. So much for him getting a good night’s sleep.

  “Hi,” she whispered.

  His head shot up and he sat tall as he looked over at her in nothing but a white towel and wet curls. His Shaun. He looked away immediately.

  Gingerly, as if he were an unsure animal that would scamper away at the slightest false movement, Shaun made her way towards the bed. She sat down facing him, keeping a safe distance as not to scare him off, and tucked her legs under her. She was careful to keep the towel covering her body. That same night Adam had told her, point blank, that she didn’t mean anything to him. The fact that he’d brought her home and stayed with her until she woke up proved that wrong. Clearly she meant something to him, or he wouldn’t have saved her.

  “What happened tonight Shaun?”

  Shaun looked off and tried to think. “I don’t really know. I had a couple glasses of wine. The last thing I remember was trying to call Celia to come pick me up.”

  “I found you passed out in an alley.” Adam looked at her. “That doesn’t happen after two glasses of wine.”

  “Well, I don’t know—“

  “Someone put something in your drink. You have to be more careful, Shaun. Honestly though. Anything could have happened to you.”

  “But it didn’t. I’m fine. Thanks to you, Adam, I’m fine.”

  Her words seemed to calm him down, but he still broke their eye contact and looked off.

  Shaun’s eyes traveled him, drinking him in. He’d removed the tie and rolled up his sleeves, but he still looked so handsome and dapper. “I thought you hated me.”

  Adam clapped his hands together with a quiet laugh. “Yeah, I thought that too. Look I’m gonna head out. Just…” He looked off for a long while, just softly shaking his head. Without looking at her, he held a hand up. “Just stop fucking with that asshole, all right?”

  Shaun bit her lip and slowly nodded her head.

  “I’m serious. He’s a loser,” Adam reiterated, finally looking her way again. His eyes took in her nearly naked body, her dripping wet curls, her lips… He licked his own before looking away. “I’m gonna go.”

  Shaun nodded again. She wasn’t missing how his words were a direct contradiction to his actions, and she bit her tongue for fear of scaring him off. He kept saying he was going to go but something was keeping him right there. What was it? Her eyes fell to his lips, lingered, and rose back to his eyes. Without even realizing it, Shaun leaned toward him and covered his lips with hers. When the reality of what she was doing filtered into her foggy brain she immediately pulled away. The frown that instantly crept between his eyebrows made her cover her mouth in shock.

  “I’m sorry.” She held both of her hands out in front of her and lost her train of thought as she continued looking into his eyes. She had no idea what had come over her. “That was an extreme invasion. I’m so sorry.”

  Adam took in her words, his chest rising slowly as he let the weight of what had just happened sink in. He looked towards the door. “I’m gonna go…”

  Feeling mortified, Shaun began to stand from the bed to show him out. He clearly didn’t want her anymore and never would. She’d laid herself bare and he was still looking for the nearest exit. She may not have been the worldliest girl ,but she knew how to take a hint.

  “I’ll walk you out.” Her voice trembled as she said the words.

  A soft gasp jumped from her lips when she felt his hand around her waist from behind, stopping her dead in her tracks.

  “Adam?” She turned to him in question and the moment their eyes met he took her arm and pulled her toward him, causing her to stumble between his open legs. He reached for her waist to steady her.

  Feeling his hands digging softly into her waist was to Shaun’s undoing. She couldn’t think one clear thought as she climbed onto his lap, straddling him and burying her fingers into his hair. His scent surrounded her and held her captive. If it wasn’t clear to her back then it certainly was now. She wanted to feel him this way for the rest of her life. Pressing her forehead to his, feeling his nose grazing hers softly and taking in the almost pained gleam in the closed lids of his eyes killed her. The frown on his face only deepened when she cupped both of his cheeks, feeling his breath against her lips and his arms tigh
t around her waist. The internal battle he was fighting was splashed clear across his face and Shaun was willing to do anything to end the war that she’d started inside of him.

  When his eyes slowly opened, she felt like she was looking into her entire world. The resentment still thrived in those deep green pools. His eyes travelled her face, frowning, fighting. Just looking at her threw him into an intense internal unrest, a war of his head and his heart. He jammed his eyes shut and begged for strength, but the urge to be with her overpowered the urge for control. Control didn’t exist when she was this close. He wasn’t sure it ever would. His eyes fell to the towel that was barely staying together on her damp body and he ran his hands slowly up her tiny waist, discovering her shape, every perfect dip and curve. She was utterly beautiful. When he looked back up at her she placed her hands on his cheeks, and his eyes fluttered shut again.

  Shaun ran her thumbs slowly along his jawline, taking in the ever changing mountain of emotion he was shouldering, wishing she could do something to make it go away. She would do anything to make it go away.

  “Adam,” she whispered, waiting for him to open his eyes. When he did they were pooled with moisture, teetering on the edge, threatening to fall at any moment. “Adam, I love you.” When she felt her own eyes begin to fill she leaned in and kissed his lips softly. Feeling his hand come up to cup her cheek she breathed deeply. “Have me, Adam.” She kissed him once more.

  Adam buried his hand in her wild curls and lifted his head, catching her bottom lip between his. A guttural, almost animalistic groan, escaped the moment he tasted her again. Every fiber of his being told him to stop but he couldn’t, he couldn’t stop.

  Holding her waist, he turned them until she was on her back, sliding between her splayed legs and smashing his lips back into hers, feeling her response and the wetness of her tongue meeting his. He could feel himself drowning in her smell, her taste, the feel of her ready, willing and lying below him. She tugged at the bottom of his shirt and he quickly finished the job, pulling it violently over his head before reclaiming her lips as he worked on the knot in her towel.