Ransom (Courting Chaos Book 2)

by Heather Young-Nichols

  The car came to a hard stop. I had to blink twice to bring the world around me into focus. Indie still watched me, so I gave her a quick smile and climbed out the car door.

  “Want to join us, Dean?” I asked, coming around to Indie’s side.

  “Thanks. I’ll be fine out here,” the big bald guy answered back. It wasn’t his size alone that made me feel safe—it was everything about him. The way he carried himself. The way his head was “on a swivel,” as I’d heard it called.

  “Don’t waste your time, Bellamy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him eat anything. He lives on air, sunshine, and testosterone,” Indie said with a laugh.

  Dean chuckled as he leaned against the car. He wasn’t coming in with us. Indie reached out and grabbed my hand. “Come on.” She didn’t let go of me until we were at our table and about to sit down. She had to release me then, though; otherwise, I’d have had to sit on her lap.

  Indie kept glancing up from her menu at me and it started to get on my nerves.

  “What?” I asked after we placed our order with the waitress.

  “Nothing,” she said back quickly.

  “Jesus, Indie. You’re watching me like I’m a bomb about to explode. Give it up already.”

  She slowly took a drink of her water, still watching me, and dabbed the napkin over her mouth. If she didn’t spit it out soon, I’d kick her under the table. This was torture.

  “I’m not looking at you like you’re about to explode, but I have some questions.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “I just don’t think you’re going to like them and you seem on edge today.”

  “Indie.” I smiled and shook my head at her. “You’re my best friend. Well, you and Maggie. You can ask me anything.” I raised an eyebrow to challenge her. We’d never had this problem before. We talked topic was off limits. For her to be nervous gave me a sick feeling in my stomach.

  I knew all the details about the first time she’d slept with Cross. She knew about my life with my mom, how ugly it was, and we could talk about anything. I needed to remember that and work up the courage to tell her about Chris. I just felt so stupid to have been sucked in by him that it was hard to say out loud.

  “Indie?”

  “OK,” she said with a sigh. “Something’s going on and I want to know what.”

  I snorted. “You need to be more specific.”

  “How about we start easy. Ransom.”

  Oh, thank god. “Nothing’s going on with Ransom.”

  Indie rolled her eyes at me.

  “Seriously. We’ve hung out a couple of times. Became friends-ish, but his girlfriend is crazy and I don’t need any more crazy in my life.”

  The waitress slid our plates in front of us and the smell of my fluffy buttery pancakes made my stomach clench. I dove in like I hadn’t eaten in a year.

  “Let’s pick this apart one at a time.” She chewed the rest of her toast and washed it down with water. “That girl isn’t his girlfriend.”

  “That’s not what she says.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ve been on tour for a couple of months now and the first I ever saw her was in the parking lot when you did. Now, if she was his girlfriend, I’d have seen her.”

  “True. But… ” I wet my lips because I wasn’t sure I should spill this particular secret. Then again, this was Indie. She’d take it to her grave if I asked her to. “You can’t tell anyone this, Indie. I mean it.” She nodded slowly. “That woman, Hope, she says Ransom’s going to be a dad. In the hallway today she said she wants them to try again. To be a family. For the baby. If that’s not crazy, I don’t know what is.”

  “Holy shit,” she whispered. “Are you sure it’s true?”

  “I mean I didn’t give her a pelvic or anything.”

  Her giggle was contagious. “That’s so fucked-up. Ransom a dad?”

  Yeah, I couldn’t picture it, either, and when I did, there was an extra nagging sadness somewhere in a dark corner of my heart.

  “Onto the next crazy in your life. What crazy? What’s going on?”

  “Just life.”

  “No. You’ve been off for months. I was hoping this tour would be a break for you, but it seems like you’re more on edge than ever. What gives?”

  I sighed, dropped my fork, and pushed the plate away from me. I’d finished half of it, but even if I weren’t already full, this conversation would stomp down any further hunger.

  “OK,” I said with another sigh. “It’s Chris.”

  “Chris?”

  “Yeah, the guy I was seeing that—”

  “Yeah, I know who he is. The asshole. But you broke up with him, right?”

  “Right.” I shifted in my seat. “I did. He just won’t break up with me.”

  Her eyes narrowed on me, but she didn’t say anything at first. Finally, she said, “That’s who’s been calling that you’ve been ignoring?” I nodded. “What’s he been doing?”

  “Uh… ” I shifted again. I figured I should just get it all out there. “At first… just calling. Then he started showing up places insisting we’re still together. He showed up at my job. My house.” I swallowed hard. “I was watching a movie in the living room. No one else was home. I glanced up and he was there. Staring through the window at me.”

  “Bellamy!” Her eyes were wide. Yeah. It sounded bad, saying all that aloud. “He’s a stalker.”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Is that why you came on tour?”

  I bit my lips together. I really didn’t want to answer that. Not because she would judge me for it, but because of the look that would appear on her face.

  “OK,” she said. “We’ll talk to my dad. He’ll know what to do.”

  “I don’t want anyone to know, Indie. I’ll take care of this. It’s just so embarrassing. How did I let that jerk into my life in the first place? Please don’t say anything to anyone.”

  Indie pushed out from the table and I did the same. The idea of talking to Vince was both scary and intriguing. He would know what to do, but I wasn’t his kid. I’d never had a father figure in my life, so using him as one wasn’t something I’d consider. We looped our arms together as we walked back out to Dean.

  “You can’t tell someone’s psycho just by looking at them. And stalkers usually know exactly how to get their greasy paws into your life. He doesn’t know you’re on tour?”

  “No. And I’d like to keep it that way. If he doesn’t know where I am, he can’t show up.”

  Right as I finished those words, something flashed in our faces.

  “Indie Cinderstone, right?” the guy asked as he continued taking pictures.

  Dean stepped between the photographer and us. “Step back,” he said deeply.

  Indie put a small smile on her face and pulled me toward the car as the guy yelled, “I hear your dad and Cross Rhodes hate each other. Care to comment?”

  We slipped into the backseat, Dean into the front, and the car lurched when he put it into drive and hit the gas. I could only imagine what my face looked like. Sure, the guy had startled me, but that wasn’t where my concern was.

  “Indie,” I said as I looked over at her with wide eyes.

  “Sorry. That doesn’t happen too often, but every once in a while, since Cross said my name in an interview, it does.”

  “Indie.”

  “I know.” She pulled me into a side hug. “But maybe it’ll just end up on some random blog.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” I finally said, falling back against the seat. “If it ends up anywhere and Chris sees it… He’ll know where I am.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ransom

  Fucking hell. Leave it to Hope to fuck up my world. When we’d met, Hope had been hot, fun—even funny when she’d wanted to be. It hadn’t been until later that she’d become clingy and cared more about being with “Ransom from Courting Chaos” than being with me. That was when I’d known she’d had to go. We hadn’t been in love. I never could’ve fallen in love with so
meone who cared so much about what I did rather than who I was.

  I stood in Bellamy’s room alone, thinking about last night. A night that hadn’t included sex. A night where we’d spent our time talking and laughing until she’d fallen asleep. Then in only a few moments, Hope had swooped in and ruined it all.

  Something was going on with Bellamy. Something I wanted to know about. Something that kept her from considering the possibility of dating me. And there I was standing in her empty hotel room thinking about shit I shouldn’t have been since she could barely stand to be around me anymore. Not to mention there was a baby that just might be my responsibility.

  My mom was going to kill me. She’d told me to use a condom every single time I had sex about a million times from the age of thirteen. And I did. But nothing was one hundred percent, I supposed.

  Finally, I left Bellamy’s room. As I closed her door, she and Indie walked by. Bellamy didn’t spare me a glance while Indie quickly looked over then returned to eyes forward. I shook my head and crossed the hall to my own room where I scanned the card then pushed through the door. I at least wanted to change before heading to the arena. But the room was empty. And by empty, that meant my overnight bag was gone, too. Fuck. Lawson had done that. He’d had someone sweep the room and put everything back on our buses. I wasn’t in there when they’d shown up, so they’d probably assumed I’d already headed in.

  Well, if I wanted to change clothes, I’d have to go to the arena, where the buses were. Though honestly, at that point, I’d probably just wait until I changed for the show. Wouldn’t be the first time I’d shown up in clothes I’d slept in.

  When I stepped out of the hotel, it was so beautiful that I decided to walk to the arena. Sure, it was possible, maybe even likely, that someone would recognize me along the way. I couldn’t bring myself to care. I wanted to the time to clear my head.

  Two blocks later, I rounded the corner in front of the arena after only being stopped by a fan once on the way. I did actually skip the bus and headed inside to find my band.

  “And where were you last night, young man?” Dixon asked as he slapped me on the back with a smirk on his face as I passed him in the dressing room. “You didn’t come home. Mother and I were worried.”

  “Uh… am I ‘Mother’ in this scenario?” Booker asked.

  “You are,” Dixon said back. “We had a lovely wedding.”

  Cross chuckled from across the room.

  “Fuck you all,” was all I answered.

  “Hey, Obi-Wan Coyote and I are going to grab some food before soundcheck. Wanna come?” Dixon asked.

  “Obi-Wan Coyote?” I asked.

  “Yes. He has the industry knowledge. Been doing it longer. He will guide us.”

  “You’re an idiot,” Cross said with a laugh. “But I’m good.”

  I shook my head because I couldn’t have eaten if I wanted to. Once those two had left and shut the door behind them, I turned to Cross.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Hope,” I said.

  Cross was my best friend. We’d known each other most of our lives. I wouldn’t tell just anyone what was happening in my life, but I would tell Cross. I’d tell my dad, too. I just hadn’t called him yet and nobody would tell my mom until it became necessary.

  He shook his head. “I told you that girl was a stage-four clinger.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” I tried to brush that part off. “I didn’t think she was my soulmate.”

  “What’d she do now? I mean, she already called Bellamy your side piece.” The humor in his voice had me rethinking the whole telling-him thing.

  “Yeah, well, that happened again. Though I can’t be sure Bellamy heard it this time or not.”

  Now he laughed loudly. “You have got to have the worst luck of all of us.” He leaned back against the table and folded his arms over his chest. “So out with it. Why do you look like… well, that?”

  I glanced in the mirror to what he meant and found my clothes wrinkled and my hair a mess. I basically looked like I’d just woken up.

  “Oh. I slept in my clothes.”

  “But not in your room.” It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t answer. “Interesting.” He thumbed his chin like he was contemplating my non-response. “You know if you hurt Bellamy, you and I will have to deal with Indie. You don’t want to deal with Indie.”

  “Why would I hurt Bellamy? When do I hurt anyone? Besides, while yes, I did fall asleep in Bellamy’s room, nothing happened. We were just talking.”

  Cross smirked over at me and pushed off the table. Two steps closer and he said, “Remember in tenth grade when you fell asleep at Hannah Dowel’s house?”

  I had to laugh at that particular memory. Cross knew where all the bodies were buried, figuratively speaking. He could call me on any and all bullshit.

  “Fair point, but this time we really just fell asleep. We’re friends.” I paused, rethinking that statement. “Or probably not even that now.”

  “Hope?”

  “Hope.”

  Cross walked over and dropped onto the couch. I followed.

  “So… ” he said.

  “Yeah.” I took a deep breath. “She says she won’t do a DNA test. Says it’ll hurt the baby.”

  “Is that true?”

  “The fuck if I know,” I said with a shrug. I didn’t know anything about this kind of thing. “And she says she’ll go to the press about how I’m abandoning her and her kid. Or something like that.”

  “Damn.” Silence followed as I could psychically see him think about what the bad press would mean to us. “What’re you going to do?”

  “I have no fucking idea.”

  Again he didn’t say anything but just kept staring. It was irritating.

  “I can’t picture you as a dad,” Cross finally said.

  “Fuck you. I’ll be a fucking fantastic dad. In like ten years.”

  “Yeah, exactly.” He scooted to the edge of the couch and pulled out his phone. After poking at the damn thing for a while, my own phone vibrated in my pocket. “I sent you the contact information for a lawyer. Talk to him. See what you can do. What your options are.”

  “Yeah. Good idea. Thanks,” I said, without looking at the information. The last thing I wanted to do was spend my time on the phone with a lawyer, but I needed to do it.

  “So now let’s talk about Bellamy.”

  “Let’s talk about Indie.”

  Cross laughed and shook his head. “We can talk about Indie if you want. I have nothing to hide. I love the hell out of that girl. What else do you want to know?”

  I snorted. He was trying to call my bluff, but I wouldn’t let it deter me. “What about her dad? How does he look at you guys every day knowing you’re getting your dick wet in his daughter?”

  “That’s a lovely way to phrase it.”

  I shrugged.

  “I’m hoping he doesn’t think about that part of it,” he said.

  “I bet he watches you like a hawk when she goes back to school. He’ll be your babysitter.”

  Cross shook his head but oddly enough didn’t laugh like I thought he would’ve. “He can babysit me in any way he wants. I’d never cheat on Indie.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Neither of us had ever cheated on any girlfriend. I wasn’t sure how our parents had raised us any special way, but when others had been fucking around, thinking they were the man by how many women they slept with, Cross and I had only slept around when we hadn’t had girlfriends.

  “About Bellamy… ”

  “Christ.” I stood, then stalked over to the clothes on the other side of the room and pretended to try to figure out what I was going to wear on stage. I knew he wasn’t going to let it go when he was suddenly beside me pretending to choose his own outfit. I didn’t know why I cared so much about whether Cross knew I was into Bellamy. “Fine. I like her, OK?”

  Cross gasped. “What?” As if he was actually shocked.

  “But it doesn’t matter.”


  “Why not?”

  “We hung out last night. Talked. We fell asleep.” He started to say something, but I cut him off. “Just fell asleep. But I’m pretty sure she overheard Hope losing her shit on me this morning and saying we should try to be a family for the baby. Bellamy was pissed as hell though she tried to pretend she wasn’t. But she for doesn’t even want to be friends let alone anything else.”

  “And you believed her?” he asked. I raised an eyebrow. “I’m just saying. I’ve seen her looking at you. Seems like there’s something that. I could be wrong. I don’t know her that well but still. Seems like there’s something there.”

  “Soundcheck.” Lawson’s voice filled the room without warning. He shut the door without another word.

  “Hey, don’t tell Indie about all of this,” I asked. “At least until I figure out what I’m going to do.”

  “Yeah, of course. But if Bellamy knows, Indie probably knows.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Female best friends are a strange phenomenon, my friend.”

  Fuck it all to hell.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Bellamy

  “We should have some fun tonight,” Indie said once Dean had us away from the photographer. I looked at her like she was crazy. “Bellamy, that picture will probably never surface anywhere. Even if it does, he can’t name you. He doesn’t know who you are. If by chance it does show and say Chris is keeping an eye on my name for clues about where you are, he’d have to figure out where the tour is. That would be easy to do, but he’d have to get there and we’re about to head south, so it’d take some time.” She took a breath the continued. “And if that happens… if all of that happens, we have Dean.”

  Instinctively, my gaze jumped to the rearview mirror, where I locked eyes with Dean for two seconds before he went back to looking out the windshield.

  “Yeah, but I can’t stay on tour with you all forever. Eventually, I have to go back home.”

  “Does your brother know about all this?” she asked back. “And why can’t you stay on tour till I go back to school?”