With gloves firmly in place, I pick up the envelope once again and open it up. I carefully slide the letter out and as I’m unfolding it, something falls to the floor. Ray leans over to grab it.
“No, don’t. You might ruin the evidence if there’s prints on it.”
I examine the photo after I pick it up off the floor. It’s a picture of Ray and Cross singing their duet from the opening night of the tour. They’re both smiling at each other, the picture of a perfect celebrity couple. Upon further inspection I can see the differences in how Cross looks at me. There’s warmth and longing in them when he’s looking at me and in the picture all I can see is him looking at a friend, no longing or interest. Damn, I shouldn’t be comparing the two at a time like this.
I take a deep breath, getting angrier by the second. It doesn’t diminish as I open the letter the rest of the way and read the note.
Will he be a problem? There also seems to be a poem below it that doesn’t make sense to me.
I’ll love your soul, I’ll understand, I’ll keep your heart safe in these hands…
“Alright, now he’s getting disgruntled. I think he wrote you a poem.” I state turning around. Cross and Marcus have joined us in the room and walk over towards me, asking me to hold the letter open for them.
“Stalker’s not happy you have a boyfriend.” Chantel states as Ray reads the letter over my shoulder.
“That’s not a poem, those are…those are my lyrics. How is he getting to my notebook?” She whispers with tears in her eyes.
“It’s possible he took pictures of it from before. Anything’s possible.” Cross states. “The only time he’d have to get in here is when we’ve been at shows, but Colby hasn’t reported seeing anyone in here.”
“When did he have a chance to slip this in your purse?” I question looking at all of my friends. Nobody should have been close enough to shove this in her pocket book.
Ray tells us it wasn’t in there before they left the hotel because she went through the bag to make sure she had her wallet and phone. Someone had to get close enough to place it in there and I’m wracking my mind on who it could be.
“Could it be an inside job?” I question.
“One of us?” Marcus scoffs. “I like her and all, even rubbed one out to her music videos a time or two, but I wouldn’t stalk her.”
“Shut the fuck up Marcus. She means someone involved on the tour.” Sky rolls her eyes. “I was with her the whole time, nobody got close enough. The only thing that stands out to me is when she was trying on clothes at this one store. High end place, we had the whole dressing room to ourselves. Her bag was off to the side on a table with food that the staff set up for us. For the most part, it was out of my view. There’s something to be said about shopping with a celebrity…”
“Focus.” I demand then place the contents from the stalker into a plastic bag Chantel hands to me. “Can you try to run prints on this?”
“Of course, I’m excited we’re getting some action.” She leaves the room eager to start in on the letter.
Ray’s sitting on her bed with her head in her hands. I walk over and sit next to her, pulling her close to me.
“It may seem awful now, but this is a good thing. Your relationship with Cross is drawing him out. When people act off their emotions they mess up. He’ll eventually screw up and we’ll find him.” I assure her.
“I hope so. I’m so happy you’re here.”
“Me too Ray, me too.”
Chapter 19
Cross
“Iosefa, this way.”
“Ray-Ann, what’s it like to be dating the infamous Iosefa Cross?”
“Sefa, will Tribe be making a comeback?”
“Ray-Ann, is it true you’ve been shopping for wedding dresses?”
We walk quickly through the throng of paparazzi, Ray-Ann tucked under my arm. Security hold the doors open for us and once we pass the threshold, I breathe a sigh of relief.
“You still don’t like it huh?” Ray-Ann questions, giving my waist a small squeeze.
“What gave it away,” I laugh holding her close and burying my head in her neck. The crazy thing is, I have to bend down so much to do it, it feels completely unnatural, but it seems to be a crowd-pleaser. I’ve lost count of how many shots of us in this very pose have made it into the media.
We don’t seem to fit at all… and yet when it’s me and her identical twin, it feels like the most natural move in the world. Glancing over my shoulder, I see Sydney in her crazy wig giving out orders as if she’s been doing this all her life and I realize it has nothing to do with the height difference and everything to do with the girl.
“This is really hard on her,” Ray whispers, guilt creeping into her tone.
“It’s hard on all of us sweetheart, but she wouldn’t have it any other way and you know it.”
“Yeah, I know. There has been a lot of sacrifices made.”
It strikes me that this is a strange way to look at it but when I’m just about to pursue it further, duty calls.
“Oh my god, Sefa! Ray-Ann! Please, please, please tell me you’re feeling good and fancy doing a double performance?”
Randy practically bowls us over in his haste and I have to release Ray to steady him. Ray rocks back on her feet, a shaky giggle emitting from her. “My goodness Randy! What’s going on?”
The older man runs his hands through his hair anxiously. “The entire crew from Breaking Even has gone down with food poisoning, something about a midnight run to a shady looking food van. I can’t even right now… and then, my god, those foolish Marsh Brothers only decided that going to a skate park today was a good idea. Somebody should have warned them, they aren’t teenagers anymore. One has a broken leg and the other a fractured wrist.”
“And that leaves you two sets down,” I finish for him, already thinking up ways to get out of it.
“Yes,” he exclaims, a frantic set to his shoulders. “I know it’s a lot to ask, but it would mean just this one show. I’m in a bind here and people have paid good money for this concert… what do you say?”
Hell fucking no, is what I want to say but Ray is already nodding her head and I know I don’t have any choice. Instead, I find myself being ushered earlier than expected towards wardrobe and any chance I had of scoping out the other bands goes out the window. We had all agreed that it had to be an inside job, especially now that Chantel had managed to get a hold of the security tapes from the high end store the ladies had been in and seen for herself that no one went anywhere near Ray-Ann’s purse.
The thought left a sour taste in my mouth but we all agreed it narrowed the suspect pool down tremendously. We had been compiling as much data as possible about all the crew members, focusing on those that Ray regularly came into contact with without much success. There just wasn’t anyone that seemed to fit the profile in any way. If I didn’t know better, I would swear this whole thing was a hoax.
I step through the door to what would be my dressing room for tonight and pause. Something feels off, I can’t put my finger on what, but my senses are on alert. We didn’t have a chance to check both rooms, and as always Ray’s came first. I set about methodically searching the room, nearly jumping out of my skin when Sydney popped her head around the door.
“Hey, all clear. She’s in makeup right now with Chantel,” she says quietly, closing the door behind her and leaning back against it.
“Yeah ok,” I mumble, finishing the search but still feeling off.
“Cross?”
My head whips around and her frown deepens. “You ok? You seem on edge?”
I glance around me again and lift my hand grabbing the back of my neck. “I don’t know Syd, the room is clear, but I just have this vibe…”
She flicks the bolt across the door and moves into my space. “We’re all on edge after that note yesterday, you need to relax.”
“Yeah maybe,” I agree, not really feeling it.
She quirks her head to the side
and purses her lips. “Do I have to force you to relax?”
My eyes are still scanning the room, certain I’m missing something when she catches me off guard and sends me crashing to the lush sofa.
“What the hell?” I groan, temporarily winded from the move.
And then she’s there, kneeling in between my thighs and gazing up at me with sultry eyes. She deftly drops the zipper to my jeans and it’s only when cool air hits my flesh that I finally get on the same page as her. She pulls my cock from its confines, offers a little pout that junior isn’t ready to play and then seems to take it as a personal challenge to make him. Her tongue darts out, licking up the underside of my dick, paying attention to the thick vein winding its way down the length. I shudder as she envelopes the spongy head in her hot mouth, lightly suckling the flesh and then baring her teeth.
I thread my fingers into her locks, dislodging the wig and yanking it off her head. She moans as I take a fistful of her real hair, loving the way the blue-black strands wind around my fingers. With my other hand I grasp the base of my shaft, pulling it away from her mouth. Her eyes narrow but she wanted me to play. So now I am.
“Open Blue,” I whisper, tapping at her full, bottom lip with the head of my cock. She smiles wryly, as if she isn’t going to play this game after all but then she surprises me. Slowly, she parts her lips, dips her tongue out and waits. Her eyes darken and it’s the sexiest thing I have ever seen in my goddamn life.
“Fuck my mouth Sefa,” she moans, leaning closer and blowing hotly across my dick. I’m seconds away from plunging into her mouth, holding her head tight and face fucking her into next week when something catches my eye on the other side of the room. It takes me a second to work out what it is, but then I’m up and off the sofa. Syd faceplants into the cushion but unlike most women in this situation, she doesn’t yell and curse me. She knows better than anyone, that work comes first and if I’m turning her away, the only fucking thing it can be is the case.
This time I manage to tuck myself away as I carefully walk to the other side of the room. The dressing table is littered with makeup and hair products. It also has a shelf above the mirror with mannequin heads used to store the various wigs and hats a tour of this size needs to haul about. I wouldn’t have given it a second thought, but the head in the middle is made to stand out.
Its long, wavy blond hair is unique in its own way. As is the tiara sitting on the top.
And that tiara has been missing from Ray-Ann’s wardrobe since the second day of the tour.
“Fucking hell, how did that get there?” Syd muses, already reaching for her phone and taking photos of the scene.
I reach into my bag and grab a glove and some evidence bags just in case. I would love for this to be a coincidence but there’s no such thing in our line of work. With one hand, I turn the head around and Syd snarls behind me.
“Call the others,” I growl, pulling the head down and glaring at it.
Where the eyes would be, two large black X’s have been written, drops of cosmetic blood dripping down the face from the corners. There in marker, written across the forehead were the words that sealed the deal.
Don’t CROSS me boy… stop SEEing her… or she’ll stop SEEing…
Chapter 20
Sydney
What if?
I play this game a lot when I’m lying in bed at night on the cusp of sleep. What if I never left a life full of glitz and glamour? What if I never met my best friends and formed FT Investigations? Would the mayor still be running a sex trafficking ring?
Would my path have ever crossed the big lug that seems to take up most of my thoughts lately?
After the tiara incident a few days ago there hasn’t been much action. There’s been a note here and there, but never breaching our inner circle. They’re always left in a hotel room before we have a chance to case it, or in a waiting limo that we haven’t used yet. Other than that, we’re keeping Ray locked up tighter than Alcatraz, taking every precaution to keep her safe.
The notes are much of the same. Warning Ray and Cross to part, threatening them similarly in every one. For someone that’s gone through all the hassle of following someone, they sure lack originality. That tiara though, I’ll give them that.
We have no leads as to who planted it in Cross’s dressing room and what’s worse, there were no cameras in the backstage area. Who the fuck doesn’t have cameras about when celebrities are coming and going all the time? It blew my mind, but I’m pretty sure the earful the manager received from me had him installing equipment before I shut the door to his office. I can be terrifying when I want to be. I did grow up in this lifestyle.
Cross and Ray continue to lay it on thick for the media every chance they get. I’d be lying if I said it got easier because it hasn’t. What does help are stolen moments with him being us, just us. Our whole relationship has formed under these crazy circumstances. We haven’t been able to do anything that new couples get to do. Dates, what are those? Meeting the parents, we’re traveling too much to get to that. If we’re even there. We have yet to define the relationship, but Cross has been getting freer with tossing around the my woman card. I secretly love it but give him shit about it every time. What can I say, it’s who I am.
I shift on my bed to face where my sister’s been quietly sleeping next to me. We’ve been bunking up together so Chantel can take the second bed. They’ve both been passed out for a while now, but I can’t seem to dose off.
Quietly, I slip out of bed and slide on my sandals before grabbing a sweatshirt. We’re at the tail end of the tour and we’ve hit the east coast in late fall. The weather’s been unpredictable from stop to stop and I’m not chancing freezing my ass off on my walk. Once I’m outside, I walk around the paths of the hotel for a while before taking up residence on a bench. It’s actually not too cold tonight, just right for a sweatshirt. My phone rings and when I pull it out of the pouch of my hoodie, a nervous zing shoots through my system.
“Hey, what’s up Colby? You do know I could have been sleeping right?” I laugh.
“Yeah, but I saw you leave the lobby earlier. I was coming up from the gym.”
“Gotcha. What’s going on?”
“I have the info you asked me about. After talking to my contact in Texas, it’s confirmed that Lyle Jeffers is still behind bars, he’s just been transferred to New York.”
I breathe out a sigh of relief. Since my sister asked for my help, it was in the back of my mind that the guy who kidnapped us when we were sixteen could have been released. He’s in jail because of us, so it’s not farfetched to believe he’d want to get his revenge.
A few days ago, I was checking up on him as I do from time to time, and found out he wasn’t in the San Antonio state prison anymore. Just because he’s in prison doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the means to pull this stalking business off and the fact that he seemed to vanish without the correct paperwork put me on red alert.
“Thanks Colby. I appreciate it.”
“No problem. Listen, I read up on what happened. Have you told anyone about this?”
I close my eyes and cringe. I was hoping Colby would do me a favor without nosing around. Once a PI always a PI. I can’t fault him, I would have done the same.
“It was a long time ago.”
“If you think it could be him it’s important to throw him on the table as a possible suspect. You can’t argue with that.”
“I can’t.” I agree. “I’ll talk to everyone about him tomorrow, ok?”
“Yup. I’ll talk to you in the morning.” Then Colby hangs up the phone.
Shit. Telling everyone about what happened to us terrifies me, and that’s if they haven’t investigated it themselves. If Marcus got the hankering to Google me or Ray, that’s one of the first things that come up. It was front page news for quite some time.
Warmth hits my left side and as the person’s smell envelops me, I know immediately who it is without looking. I lie my head on Cross’s shoul
der, immediately calming as his arm slinks around my shoulder.
“Can’t sleep?” He questions.
“Nope. Too much up here.” I point to my head.
“Who were you just talking to?”
Shit. “Colby. Did you hear everything?”
“Yeah. Why don’t you tell me what was a long time ago?”
I groan. “Listen, I’ll tell everyone in the morning. I only want to tell the story once.”
“But I’m not everyone.”
He’s right. Cross has the right to know and hear the story before everyone else. This is the scary part about relationships for me. Sharing pieces of myself I’m not sure I’m ready to give yet.
“When me and Ray were sixteen we were kidnapped by a man named Lyle Jeffers.” I dive into the rest of the story and Cross sits there and holds me as I’m swept up in the emotions of that day eight years ago. He’s nothing but supportive and knows exactly when to calm me down and console me.
“I called Colby because I thought maybe he got out of prison and nobody notified us.”
“He went to prison that long for kidnapping you two?”
“Not just for that. They found out that he was connected with a murder in another state too. He got convicted as an accomplice. Him taking us and having weapons found in his car didn’t do him any favors.”
“That’s fucked up.”
I nod my head in agreement. “And the reason why I walked away from the spotlight. Me and Ray had the potential to be the next big country duo. We were already playing everywhere and about to start our first tour. After, I ruined everything and disappointed Ray and my parents. It took Ray years to get back to where we were and I beat myself up over that every day.”
“I don’t blame you.”
“I was a coward.” I wipe a stray tear from my eye. “The fact that this still bothers me so much proves it. Whoever is doing this to Ray won’t win. I won’t let them. She deserves every ounce of fame she’s struggled to get back. Nobody will come between her and her dreams again. It’s almost like my way of making it up to her for failing her.”
Deception (A Stalker Novel Book 2) Page 9
